November 16, 2024
Day 52: Ashiya to Fukuoka
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We did it! We rode from Chitose, Hokkaido, to Fukuoka, Kyushu! Almost 3000 kilometers, a whole bunch of climbing, a lot of traffic, some questionable routing decisions. A lot of fantastic people, some rain, some cold, a ton of beauty, a ton of food. Hundreds of konbini, scores of michi no eki, countless birds, some monkeys, a few wild boar, and one fox. Make that two foxes -- the other one's my riding partner.
Nineteen days camping, six days in guesthouses, three days in minshuku, three days with hosts. A lot of mosquito bites. A bit of sunburn. A lot of bike tattoos. No flat tires! No major mechanical issues!
We've had our fun riding almost every day. Now it's time to get to work. We will look for bike boxes tomorrow, and if successful, we'll start the packing process. On Monday, we'll pick up our camping gear from the post office and finish packing. Tuesday we need to figure out how to get to the airport, where we will probably spend a lot of time waiting around just to check in for our 6:30pm flight.
Enough celebrating. Let's recap today's ride.
We started off with some great bike trails along the beach. It went by very quickly. I'll let the pictures tell the story.
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At the end of the beach bike path, we reached our last michi no eki of the tour. It was bustling with locals. The indoor market there is the largest we've ever seen. We bought some snacks and took a proper break. We even found a refrigerator magnet that mimics the michi no eki stickers that we saw plastered all over that one car back near Matsumoto. That'll make a great souvenir.
We finally turned inland, and while it started nice and rural, it became urban very quickly, and stayed that way until the end.
Rather than take an afternoon break, we pushed through until reaching our hotel. They let us check in a few minutes early, so we did our usual post-riding routine and then set out for the big city via commuter train.
First stop was dinner, which we had at a very nice little shop that had both green curry and donkatsu on the menu, so that worked for us and our diverse tastes.
Next it was down the street to Don Quijote, advertised as a quirky discount shop. It wasn't very quirky and it wasn't very discounted. But boy, was it packed!
One thing about Fukuoka, and really, Kyushu in general, is that there are a lot of Korean tourists here. It seems that they really like Don Quixote.
Our final stop before hopping on the train again was Canal City Hakata, a huge shopping mall with an array of fountains as its centerpiece. They synchronize the jets and lights to music. It's entertaining for about ten minutes. The shops are mostly just shops you'd find at any mall worldwide. But hey, we want to know what makes Fukuoka tick, and shopping is certainly a big attraction.
It feels strange to be in a big city after completely skipping Tokyo, and hardly giving Osaka the time of day. I'm sure that by the end of tomorrow, I'll be completely used to it. Then it'll be time to leave. I'm sure that cities like this are the big draw for a lot of people, but personally I prefer nature, the countryside, and the smaller cities. We've seen a lot of all three on this trip. That makes me very happy.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 2,970 km (1,844 miles)
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4 days ago
4 days ago
I don't think we would've had half as much fun without your advice and borrowing ideas from your journal. Thanks again!
4 days ago