Road to Laputa, Kumamoto

I’ve come to learn: if it’s not hard to get to, it’s not worth seeing.

That is definitely true for the Road to Laputa. The name again comes from the similarity to a Ghibli movie: Castle in the Sky, Laputa (Japanese: 天空の城ラピュタ)

https://goo.gl/maps/sMzzhqvjDZy

A touch ride up like 1,300m or so and I finally made it and it was beautiful. Although it is permanently damaged from the 2016 earthquake like Kumamoto castle, that just added to the scenery as there were no other idiots up there. The scariest part were the Typhoon 19 winds trying to push me off the top.

 

Probably one of the most amazing views I have ever scene (ha!).

I ended up taking a stroll down and having a closer look at the damaged roads.

 

 

With the typhoon incoming and sun outgoing I could go forward or back to safety. I wonder which one I chose?

Forward of course! Into this amazing purple sunset.

A random dude saw me fang it into this viewpoint and just looked at me and started laughing. ‘風やばい！大丈夫か?’ – The wind is insane, are you okay? ‘全然大丈夫よ。楽しんでる’ – No problems mate, I’m enjoying this.

I fanged it down the hill with the wind blowing me sideways and almost off my bike. Down the bottom it was a lot more pleasant, but then it started to sprinkle. I found a Michi no Eki kind of thing, and this one happened to have like an abandoned hut. So I had a shower with the garden hose nearby and set up my tent in the hut. One of the best sleeps I’ve had thus far.

 

This is what it looks like kind of from the bottom.

So I was on that rim up the top back there

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