Trip 2 - Day 5 - Kurokawa Onsen to Aoshima

Lucas and I woke to the sound of the burbling river in our comfortable room in Kurokawa Onsen and quickly collected all our gear before heading down for a wonderful Japanese breakfast. As always the service was impeccable and comfortable without ever feeling oppressive. Somehow your hosts have catered for your every whim before you even knew about it yourself.

Our amazing traditional breakfast.

Our bellies full, we jumped on the bikes to go meet Richard at Takachiho Gorge, a good hour and a half away south. As we were waved goodbye by the bowing and smiling staff of the hotel, it was raining every so slightly. As soon as we cleared the Kurokawa valley however, it cleared right up and soon the sun broke through hot and strong. Yet again we had temperatures over 30 degrees today - that's 4 days in a row now!

Lucas and I motored our way south down route 40, which turned out to be a very nice road indeed. Winding its way through new forests, small farming villages, and rice paddies being prepared for the new summer planting, it had some really nice sections that had us laying waste to the ubiquitous 50 km/h speed limit.

By 10:15 we had arrived at Takachihiko and met Richard's new friends from the Aso Rider's House. We took a quick look at the gorge which was nice, and had a laugh at all the dudes trying to row their girlfriends around in boats.

Takachio Gorge with many boating couples.

Pretty soon we said our goodbyes and sped south. Our route for the day was meticulously planned using a bunch of recommended roads from Warren Mallet's Motorcycle Paradise blog. I'm not going to bore you with the route numbers (truth is I can't remember them :P) but we strung together as many as we could of Warren's best recommendations that were heading on our general direction. They were absolute gems one and all.

Our planned route for the day. Ambitious if you don't count the speeding.

At one stage we stopped for a drinks break in a one horse town somewhere before route 22. The owner of the local general store was very friendly and so excited by our arrival that she peppered us with questions for many minutes. Three australians on motorcycles were quite the local event.

Called the 'friendly shop'. No idea what the town was though

After drinks we burned down route 22, which wound it's way along the Umaru River. Descending into a deep forested valley, the road gave us many wide sweeping turns as well as some tighter single lane action. An amazing ride from beginning to end, and reminiscent of some we had enjoyed very recently in Shikoku. Basically, putting road and river together is the recipe for a great motorcycle route, and Japan is a country full of them.

Riding through deeply forested valleys beside green rivers.

Coming out of the Umaru valley, we spied a small restaurant and decided to stop for lunch. The local woman and her husband were also very friendly, and I ended up with a tonkatsu that our hostess assured me was real mountain pig (wild boar) and a local delicacy. I'll take her word for that, but it was pretty damn good I must say.

Wild Boar Tonkatsu. Mmm

Hunger sated, we continued along our merry way towards our ultimate goal - the seaside town of Aoshima sitting on the east coast of Kyushu. To get there we had to cross the urban madness of Miyazaki and sitting at the endless traffic lights was no fun at all in the 34 degree heat. Ultimately, we made it; arriving around 5pm melted and dripping into our jocks. Our digs are a hostel right on the sea-side that also has an onsen attached. Very new and clean.

Our digs for the night

We were so hot when we arrived that it took us quite a long time to get going with the chores we needed to do. Our room was hot as a motherfucker and needed the aircon to come up to speed, so in the meantime we bought drinks, walked around and did a bit of washing. Lucas walked around in just his long pants, scaring many of the locals. When he decided to take a nap on the sea-wall I had to take a snap of him and his audience.

Lucas scaring the natives

We also met another local while we wandered around waiting for our washing cycle to finish. This dude was playing his shamisen at the sea-side and Lucas got him playing requests. A really nice guy he was (I cant remember his name, let's call him Bob). Bob was from OIkinawa and gave us a great local recommendation for dinner.

Bob and his Shamisen

With our washing finished we headed out to dinner based on Bob's recommendation. We got there just in time for last orders (phew). It was a seafood place with a great japanese selection, and while I settled on Ebi Tempura, I was eyeing off Richard's nigiri platter with envy.

Huge Ebi (prawns) for dinner with a cold beer.

Replete and exhausted, we have finally retired to the hostel for the night! More adrenalin-filled japanese adventures await us on the morrow!