The Real Story of Amaterasu, Takachiho Gorge

Today I went to one of the most famous and ancient shrines in all of Japan and found they had the story dead WRONG. Japan Guide Extract Takachiho Shrine (高千穂神社, Takachiho Jinja) The town of Takachiho is the site of one of the most important and well known legends of Japanese mythology. In the story, …

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Bonus Map 1: Kaimondake (Mini Mount Fuji), Kagoshima

I had read all about this mountain and was extremely keen to climb it. Probably just 3 minutes in, I was already completely drenched in sweat, mostly due to the start being extremely humid and somewhat like a rainforest. The rest of the hike was mostly scrambling over slippery, mossy rocks. So I didn't really …

Cape Sata (佐多岬) – Mission Complete (任務を成し遂げる)

Cape Sata (佐多岬, Sata Misaki) is the southernmost point of the mainland of Japan and my main objective. With overwhelming joy, I can say after 8hours of solid riding, +2,000m of elevation (1,300m of which was in the final 30kms) and a completed Halo audiobook, I managed to roll into Cape Misaki blaring my motivation …

Kirishima Region, Miyazaki

No, this post is not about 'the Ghibli guy'. So after Takachiho, I made my way towards the Kirishima Mountain range for a hike. After a buffet and 2 days of 120+ km riding (with over 3,000m total elevation) I was more than pleased when people stopped me on the side of the road and …

Typhoon 20, Kumamoto

I decided to trek it back 20-odd kms to Kumamoto to the closest internet cafe to wait out the incoming Typhoon (20). The ride back was mostly downhill but I knew I would have to come back through Aso area so it did take some serious deliberation. I pumped in my usual banana and honey …

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 …

Mount Fuji 0-3776m

I live my life a quarter mile at a time. So considering this was only 9 and a bit quarter miles of elevation, this was a damn long day. Most people start hiking up mount Fuji from one of the '5th stations' which is basically the farthest point you can drive a car to. But …

Sakata, Yamagata

Once again another overcast and cloudy day in Japan as we decided to make our way to the famous jellyfish (海月 - クラゲ) aquarium Kamo Aquarium (加茂水族館), which all the Niigata people had been telling us is amazing. I'm (Ross) not usually one for museums, zoos, etc, but I don't mind myself a good aquarium …

To Yamagata

As if balancing out the last few amazing days, overnight the heavens opened up and let down an absolute downpour of rain. When we finally crawled out of the tent concerned at how harsh the rain was getting, our gear and bikes were in small ponds and we were also about to be swallowed up. …

Niigata

After 2 monster days we deserved a rest day of doing laundry and shopping for DBH cards. We strolled around Bandai Bridge but didn’t find any Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards unfortunately. Ross had organised to meet up with some Niigata locals, which he found through a Meetup event in Tokyo (Chihiro + 1) and through …