Epic Kyushu Cycle Tour | Takachiho Gorge & Aso Volcano | Cycling Japan Ep. 1

Epic Kyushu Cycle Tour | Takachiho Gorge & Aso Volcano | Cycling Japan Ep. 1

we haven’t ridden our bikes in like seven days now a few things have changed in the meantime one we’re in Japan [Music] two we’ve gone shopping for new clothes eric debut your new shirt boom looks just like the old one it was time for a new one on my bike you’ll notice you won’t notice I have a lot less weight because yesterday I shipped home a very large box of things we were not using wait say that again it’s still pretty heavy thank you for saying that first day riding in Japan woo time to ride out of the big city all right off we go and we’re there [Applause] snack time i’m having banana egg sandwich bread and a smile hey guys this egg smells like butt and just like that we are out of the city we made it to Japan the third and longest stop of our tour we don’t have an established route here instead the map looks like a scatter plot of places to go and things to see we’re starting in Fukuoka the home of Tonkatu Ramen come along as we connect the dots across Kyushu the southernmost of Japan’s main islands we are back on the left side of the road we haven’t been on the left side since New Zealand but so far it’s like riding a bike riding on the road in Japan it’s like peaceful and easy i love this i love this as well but people drive slowly and politely carefully like I’m human and we are 33 miles in and it is lunchtime pepsi Cola in a burger come to mama well it is a special taste that uses a lot of ingredients allowing you to experience multi-layer deliciousness and there nine out of 10 just out here going for a bike ride with the CEO of Backcountry Bruises business cash that’s a good joke you liked my joke that means a lot first climb of Japan supposed to be pretty mellow 500 m 10K you can tell that Eric grew up in Texas by how much he loves tunnels beautiful we made it to the top of the hill and our reward is a tunnel japan day two headed to Nagasaki today that’s it that’s it you’re still videoing me thanks for hosting us Jesse were you supposed to do all of it at once probably not it’s 11:00 on a Thursday and there is just like a steady stream of traffic 11:00 rush hour out of Sashibo right now we might have a little special treat coming up it’s a little Dutch town in the middle of Japan is it a town or a theme park well it seems like a theme park uh we just looked at tickets and they’re like $50 each so we’re probably not going in it was built in 1992 to commemorate the rich long and rich history between Japan and the Netherlands and in the Netherlands you’re transported into a world of windmills and tulips lifesized replicas of Dutch buildings and breathtaking illuminations we have to read this to you because we’re probably not going in i’d rather just go to the Netherlands than see our duchies yeah it would almost be cheaper we’re still deliberating if we’re going to go in we never do stuff like this we just get our miles in and then sleep we’ll put that $100 towards flights to the Netherlands how’s it going it’s hot there’s a lot of traffic on this bridge it’s really pretty [Music] 47 kilometers to Nagasaki oh this is amazing there’s so much traffic yeah the heavier trucks today yeah so far Japan best bread by far we’re not comparing it to other countries we’re not comparing it to other places but We’re not comparing it we’re not comparing it really good bread though really good bread we don’t always listen to music when we ride but on the days where the legs are feeling a little heavy like today a little bit of music is a huge pickme up and lately been listening to Doze which is a rock band out of Fukuoka that we saw in Taiwan a delicious lunch kona’s coffee recommended by none other than Jesse Dan whose idea was this it’s the hypo center of the atomic blast we seem to be doing a lot of stairs lately there’s a few more still going up good exercise this is the most stairs we’ve ever done it’s like the Joe fun of Japan at least a lady told me I was strong it looks like these are the last of the steps really matter okay there’s a special dish uh that Nagasaki is known for turkish rice it’s a pork cutlet rice and noodles i think it’s called Turkish rice isn’t it day three of Japan starting with stairs we’re headed out of Nagasaki this morning headed to Kumamoto we’ve got some riding and then a ferry and a little more riding into town tomorrow we’re staying put to wait out a storm tunnel it’s time for a Lawson’s breakfast lawson’s breakfast i got an egg baguette croissant let’s check it out okay it looks interesting good it’s very thin that’s an interesting flavor it’s like horseradish eric just said he’s heard the yogurt doesn’t stick to the lid you have egg on your face you do have on your face no I don’t just making a quick stop at the Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium [Music] successful penguin mission penguins are the best love penguins we’ll always go out of my way for penguins even though this was not out of my way so half a kilometer those are so cool we just stopped and had a really good lunch and the woman that uh served us was so sweet and she kept stopping by our table and she’d re refill our water and then she would talk to us in Japanese and then like look for a response and we only know like three words of Japanese we never knew what to say she was really really nice we’re on our way to find um some buried home from the 1991 eruption of Mount [Applause] Anen just give you a little before and after [Music] there’s one got it we’re off the ferry we saw some dolphins made it to Kumamoto but it is now raining we have about 15k to the hotel so see how wet we get we caught up to these two cyclists and rode the rest of the day chatting away no footage but we made some great friends the next day we explored Kumamoto with them in the rain [Music] we have accidentally stumbled upon a Taiwanese street fair in Japan so cool it’s like a blast from the past from 3 weeks ago thank you yes this looks amazing if we don’t end up here at the end of a day something is wrong with us today must be feeling well oh same we are just storing our bikes outside this hotel on a busy road worries Eric a little bit they’re still there here’s our route for the day let’s go we’re making our way out of Kumamoto this morning got about 85k to Tokcoho Gorge where we should have a campsite if we can get there early enough to check in that’s going to be the challenge today do all our miles in climbing before 5 it’s like 15 minutes the drivers in Japan are incredibly patient no honking no revving engines just wait and when they get enough space they’ll pass slowly i’m not usually one to drip sweat from my helmet today I am it is so hot so far we’ve been along pretty busy roads but this road is truly silent it’s just us and the birds out here right now and the squeaking of our bikes so far Eric’s tires are holding yes we just crushed like 2,000 ft up this mountain and luckily for us there are vending machines everywhere in Japan so I don’t know why but this has been my coffee of choice lately 180 let’s go these vending machines keep their drinks ice cold eric was wondering why it wouldn’t dispense his Coke but it’s cuz he put Korean money in it i put a Korean hundred in this is fun we just finished up lunch at this little cafeteria at a rest stop it was really good um and I fixed my second mechanical of the day which was a tiny rock that got stuck in my pedal and wouldn’t hold on to my cleat oh do I smell yeah we’re starting to hit all the tunnels now so I’ve put on the reflective vest and turned on the the rear flashing light for safety riding the sidewalk in this tunnel but it’s very tight we’ve got one hour to get to the campsite and check in we just hit 5,000 ft on the day we’re so close to camp my sisters are going to love all this heavy breathing they always tell me I put in videos i don’t know why we’re still climbing i would like to be done climbing oh no okay at least it’s so beautiful though wow yes i think we made it there is no one else here the campground host told us that it will rain tomorrow which I think he meant overnight so he told us to put the tent under the shelter perfect spot eric’s feeling bad because the reservation that he made was actually for a different campsite and this campsite um may not even be open and running the host unlocked buildings for us and no one else is here but he was understanding and obviously is letting us stay here instead of way over there somewhere i like my hair like this okay testing testing checking on the hair check on the hair so it is 6:20 p.m we made it to camp that was a ordeal we got the tent set up we’re showered and now we’re headed back down the hill into town for a little bit of cultural exchange uh it’s not really going to be an exchange it’s going to be one way just receiving a little cultural absorption and then we’re going to maybe get to see Takuchio Gorge lit up at night and then we’ve got a long walk back to camp back up this hill we’ve come into the one place in the whole country that’s cash only and all I have is a little bit of change wait wait you have 9 with a pocket full of change we managed to buy a couple smoothies a little thing of bread some ham and cheese and made a sandwich for like six bucks.50 American yeah in a parking lot this is probably frowned upon mhm [Music] we currently have Takiho Falls all to ourselves it’s all lit up at night and we’re back what is today Court day six day six of Japan so we’re going to head to Mount Oso today hopefully the skies break a little bit and we get some good views today I’ll be trying the Fammy Chicky pancake sandwich it’s a viral sensation it’s really good the bikes are definitely starting to show some signs of wear nothing major yet but uh lots of little things oh that’s I got tiramisu a tiramisu latte coffee coffee this is the best thing ever is that on my nose starting our climb towards Oso you really couldn’t ask for a better road with a better surface and better grade than this to climb up to a volcano this is really cool what’s that or a better wife or couldn’t ask for a better wife i guess it shouldn’t really be a surprise but it’s pretty sulfurous up here it really smells exactly like my egg sandwich I had for breakfast high five if the question is am I going to film every tunnel in Japan the answer is yes obviously and there’s a lot of tunnels in Japan can we climb up volcanoes every day no it’d be cool though they just waved us on from the pay station so I guess if you come humanpowered it’s free the top of the mountain baby that feels good top of the volcano we climbed a volcano okay sick job we did it we biked a volcano there she goes so many people just walking around out by the lakes okie dokie let’s go down a big hill this is so cool usa we just met the world’s nicest hostel hotel host and he gave us so many gifts he gave us some also corn tea and then a chocolate pie and uh this other mystery gift snacks walking to dinner with a view bomb this is our little home for the night riding up over Mount Oso today was so incredible we’re barely a week into our Japan trip and I’m pretty sure that’s going to be a highlight it was so good i would do it again tomorrow hi good morning good morning we are headed out on day seven day seven we had a really nice day last night in Oso hosted by Yoshi he had so many gifts for us and he made coffee for us this morning he was a really nice vibrant enthusiastic guy and I really enjoyed talking to him he does seem to really enjoy what he does i’m really excited about this look how fluffy it is look how fluffy it is it’s cake for breakfast cake for breakfast tastes like cake it’s good fluffy the clouds broke this morning and you can see the mountain and how green it is look at this view and here we go up the caldera i’ve heard about this route 11 and it’s supposed to be really beautiful riding [Music] i’ve never really seen this before but all these trees are carved into characters and shapes and animals we’ve been riding pretty hard the last two days and I definitely feel that today and it’s really really hot the sun is really beating down i’m living for all the shady spots and ice cold drinks and ice cream cones hey we made it to the top that wasn’t so bad i don’t know what I was worried about back to back volcanoes it’s pretty cool time for more cold drinks and more ice cream down the hill to Yuan our host last night Yoshi recommended we stop here and go for a little walk it smells so good under those You’re looking at Kuju Volcano look at this i mean it does smell like I just shoved my face in a bowl of egg salad but it is beautiful we just found a little roadside vegetable stand got some snap peas and tomatoes it was good timing cuz I was getting real hungry that’s what we needed delicious snap peas sugar peas snow peas snow peas snap peas peas peas yep huh looks like a big climb to get out of there it is tomorrow highway 11 from Aso to Yufuan five stars 10 out of 10 incredible bike ride love it love it i have to video it cuz it’s healthy it’s healthy to do pizza night good morning it is day eight we’ve got a real short day we’re just headed from Eufuin to Beepu like 13 miles a little bit of climbing here in the morning but big storm rolling in this afternoon so we’re trying to beat as much of it as we can i will check in again once we’re properly soaked i’m getting rained on but I do not care this is blowing my mind right now this is incredible wow unbelievable we’re not soaked yet we’re getting closer here’s a drink update we’re soaked we’re pretty wet this is the part where you wonder if you could even get wetter hey Eric how’s it going look at this well we made it into Peru but we were freezing cold so we stopped at an onen got a bath we were cold and wet on the ride so we went to an onen and then we got dry and warm and now we’re getting cold and wet again because otherwise we would be stranded at the onen our home for the afternoon we’re at it again b and two chicken slammies the same day don’t say that on camera that’s embarrassing now act like you’re being boiled we’re headed to the ferry terminal we’re wrapping up tushu yep and headed to Shikoku [Music] i [Music] don’t know

After nearly two months of riding our bikes, we have made it to our final and longest stop of the tour: Japan. For Japan, we have no route, but we do have a goal: see as much as we can for the next 53 days. Here we go, connecting the dots across Japan.

Biking Taiwan. WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/Tvtkox3MgWg?si=QpKaW56M8eDVaxeU
Biking Korea. WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/YAoXXpHWR4s?si=gy7popF9rQvgNCv8

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Next episode: Monday, June 9 (USA)

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Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/backcountrybruises/

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Our gear:

@CannondaleBicycles71 Topstone 105
@trekbikes Checkpoint
@GoPro Hero 9 Black
@rei Junction Top Tube Bag
@ORTLIEBwaterproof Black Roller Classics Panniers
@ORTLIEBwaterproof Red Roller City Panniers
@ORTLIEBwaterproof Handlebar Pack QRs
@sweetprotectionTV Outrider Mips Helmet
@SeatoSummitGear Ether Light XT Sleeping Pad
@TheMotherofComfort Big Agnes Q-core SLC Sleeping Pad
@marmotpro Phase 20 Sleeping Bags
@NITECOREWORLDWIDE NU25 360 Lumen Triple Output Headlamps
@rei Sahara Shade Hoodie
@patagonia Women’s Landfarer Bike Shorts
@woollyclothing9096 Wool boxer shorts

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