👟 Weekly Summary

Monday - Day 65 - Hiroshima to Kuga (60.18 km)

We had a disappointing Toyoko Inn breakfast before we made our way down the Peace Boulevard as we left Hiroshima. The trees were in full autumn colour, and we made our way past different memorials and statues as we left the city.

Mostly, we were along main roads all day, and we plodded along, eventually making it to a village where various rocks outside buildings and in parks were painted as various animals. We then came across a street filled with Pokémon statues, so it seems like there had been an effort here to make the place feel special.

The end of the day was tough; we had to go along a busy road with no pavement in the dark, complete with a long tunnel, which had just enough pavement for me to run on, albeit while bashing my arm on the grimy wall. Joy had no such luck.

We were both stressed the whole way through the tunnel, and our hearts were still going when we made it down the hill and towards our little box for the night. Another shipping-container hotel, but we quite like them.

Tuesday - Day 66 - Kuga to Fukugawa (43.00 km)

We left our box hotel late, and didn't actually start our day until 10.30. We weren't in any rush today, with only around a marathon to do. The slow start was compounded by not having confirmation of our campsite booking, but by lunchtime, that was sorted.

The first part of the day took us through rice fields and small villages as we made our way towards the first climb. The day ticked by gently until we arrived at a convenience store shortly before a downpour. We knew today would be rainy, but this was the first time on the journey with hail. I rushed out of the store to get the bike covered, and it didn't take long outside for me to feel properly cold.

We then sat inside and had lunch. The weather didn't last long, though, and it was clearing back up by the time we left. We'd get another two or three bursts of rain through the afternoon, but no more hail.

The highlight of our day was the campsite. We had the place to ourselves, and could light a proper campfire, heat a drum full of water for a hot wash, and sit and relax for the evening. We feel really lucky to be visiting here, and it's perhaps my favourite campsite so far this journey.

Wednesday - Day 67 - Fukugawa to Sanyoonoda (64.61 km)

We took a relaxed approach to leaving camp this morning. It was such a nice morning and place to be. The first part of our day was in the countryside, starting with a river. It was a beautiful start, somewhat spoilt by the household rubbish that had been dumped here and there. Japan, generally, is a cleaner country than many, but it isn't perfect, and unfortunately, there is still plenty of litter to be found.

It wasn't long before we stopped at 7-Eleven for breakfast, which started the frustrating process of finding a hotel for the night - we'd keep checking for cancellations all day, never to get one, meaning in the end we would pay £91 for an apartment, our most expensive night yet.

Next up came three hills in succession, although none of them were terrible climbs. The light through the trees was wonderful; somehow, we keep arriving at places at the right time.

The middle of the day was through towns, which allowed us to make up some distance before the final three hills of the day.

The top of the first hill wasn't much fun as I'd only had a zero-calorie drink at our last convenience store. I was underfueled and felt generally awful. I had to sit down for a minute while Joy handed me snacks to help me recover. It didn't take long for the sugar to work, and we were back up and running, trying to get as far as possible before the sun set.

The penultimate hill was then our least favourite hill of the day so far, with its false summits, right up until the last hill, which was worse due to being in the dark, with traffic and no pavement. Still, we got it over and done with before heading to a supermarket to pick up some food before making our way to the campsite.

Thursday - Day 68 - Sanyoonoda to Shimonoseki (35.38 km)

We'd aimed to be up and out of the tent before people started appearing in the park, but Japanese people are up so early, and we heard the first footsteps go past before 6. By the time we finished packing up the tent, quite a few walkers had passed, and one group had stopped to chat, with one man particularly keen to find out more about what we were doing, while his friends tried to get him to carry on with his walk. Another guy, out with his dog, stopped and followed us on Instagram. He sent us a couple of nice photos he took of us two. This park seemed to have the friendliest Japanese we've met so far. Not that people here aren't friendly usually, just that they rarely come up and start conversations.

We set off from our misty lake campsite to get breakfast at Lawson and tackle a couple of hills and one last tunnel before we finished our run across Honshu. Soon we were going through rice fields again, before we followed the coast into town, and next to the tunnel we'll take to Kyushu tomorrow.

We've now done another island. It's cool, and we enjoyed the moment, but only for that moment. There's still a long way to go, and there's so much we need to get done, so we carried on with our day. We're both a bit excited about what the next island will hold, but we're also too tired.

Friday - Day 69 - Shimonoseki to Kanda (37.51 km)

We only had a short day, so we had a lazy morning and enjoyed our expensive accommodation. It was a little chilly for sitting on the balcony and watching the sea, so cups of tea remained indoors.

Our first job of the day was to head through the tunnel connecting Honshu with Kyushu. It was really simple, just walk up to the building, hit the down button on the lift, and get in. Then we walked across. I was tempted to run across, but Joy had to wheel her bike, so together we made our way across to our third and final island of the trip.

It felt good to be starting Kyushu, and something felt a little bit different from the previous days. We knew we were somewhere else, but could never quite place what had changed. We kept going through the day, plodding rather than making any great dash for it. While my legs are generally feeling okay, I've felt out of energy for a while now, and that feeling has continued into today, despite the short day yesterday.

Not being in a rush to reach our campsite today came back to bite us. We pitched our tent in the dark, having not found the administration building along the way. There was a shut building nearby, but I had no idea whether that was the right one. Regardless, we pitched our tent up as the sole occupants of the campsite and settled in for the night.

Just after 9pm, someone came to our tent and asked us to move. They explained that it was a paid campsite, and we were not registered to use it. It seemed there was no way he could register us, and registering and paying in the morning was unacceptable. As we shivered away and after we packed up, he took us around the corner to a car park, where we could camp on the grass, provided we were away before dawn.

It seemed crazy we couldn't stay where we were, and leave before dawn, or have any way to pay to stay, but that's how it was. We pitched our tent about 200 m from its previous location, and the man came and brought us some warm drinks to apologise for moving us. We felt a bit sorry for him, as he was obviously conflicted about having to move us. Sometimes systems are just set up stupidly, and this was one of them. We settled into our not-so-hidden wild-camp and headed straight to sleep, to make sure we were up early and didn't get the young fellow into any trouble.

Saturday - Day 70 - Kanda to Usa (57.92 km)

True to our word, we were up and out before dawn. It was another cold morning, made worse by being out in the dark. Soon we were lucky enough to enjoy the morning colours as we crossed a river, and watched the sun rise over a small hill as we wandered past frost-covered rice fields.

We made our way to a 7-Eleven for some hot drinks to warm our hands. We continued past Tsuiki Airbase, where we lingered for a while to see what the crowds were gathering for. It appeared that tomorrow would be an airshow, and today practices were going on. We were too early to wait an hour for the practice event, but we did get to see some jets take off before we carried on.

It stayed quite cold in the shade for a while through the morning, but felt quite hot in the sun. After a slow start, I picked up the pace through more towns. It was all straightforward until about 45 km, when I began to slow.

We stopped to pick up a load of convenience store food before heading out into the country and uphill towards our campsite for the night. After yesterday's disruption, I was keen to get there before 5 and make sure we found the registration building.

The scenery changed as we made our way uphill, and it was a welcome change to be on quiet roads, surrounded by hills and autumn leaves.

We arrived at the campsite shortly after 4.30pm, and the man behind the desk was amused at the thought of me running the length of Japan and had a good laugh at Joy's bike. We managed to get the tent up in the light, for the first time in forever, and settled in for a cold night's sleep.

Sunday - Day 71 - Usa to Beppu (34.02 km)

We woke up to a fairly solid tent. Frost had settled on it, and the temperature was holding at 1ºC. The cold kept me up at times, and I stayed wrapped up as long as possible. My sleeping bag has a comfort rating of 8ºC with a lower limit of 3, so I'm hoping we don't see some sub-zero drops in our last week.

We didn't start running until 9, with a check-in time of 3pm, which gave us plenty of time to get the miles in, even with the hills. Our first stop was a Lawson for some hot drinks and breakfast before

The uphill went smoothly enough. Joy could cycle a lot of it, and we shared the rest of the pushing duties. We made our way around some fantastic countryside and had to stop to remind ourselves how pretty it was. It's all too easy to dismiss it as similar to what we've seen before - we've been spoiled by rivers, mountains and autumn colours.

The cold morning turned into a hot day, with both of us catching the sun a bit. The temperature felt particularly drastic as it was 20ºC, and we were pushing a bike uphill.

Soon enough, we were heading down the other side of the hill and along the coast into Beppu, ahead of tomorrow's rest day. We stopped at a fast-food chain called Joyfull for dinner, hit Don Quixote for snacks (and to be overwhelmed by 5 jingles at once, absolutely everything packed in at random, and it being full of people) before heading home to start recovering.

☀️ Photo from the Road

📺 In Case You Missed It…

We’re finally catching up with our YouTube Shorts, for those of you not watching the “live” updates on Instagram

🚀 Next Up

There’s some really cold weather heading towards Japan. We’re expecting more nights around 0-2ºC and days where the temperature doesn’t hit double digits. We’ll make a lot of decisions about the distance for the week as we go, but we’re expecting to mix up some low- and high-mileage days.

🏁 Finish Line

As always, here are the donation links for the charities we’re supporting - Animal Refuge Kansai and Mirai No Mori - and thank you for reading and for all your support.

Thank you for reading and for all your support.

Take it easy,

Phill