Night Train “Sunrise Express”

As I posted, I went to Okayama and Kagawa pref as ride trip. From Kagawa to Tokyo, I took a reservation for “Sunrise Seto”, which is one of the last normal sleeper train in Japan. There are many special decorated sleeper trains in Japan, but those are luxury train with very expensive price like “Seven Stars Kyushu“. “Sunrise Express” has two lines, one is this “Sunrise Seto”, another is “Sunrise Izumo”, which is from Tokyo to Izumo.  

The reason at this time to get on the train was “possible to bring road bike to single room like below. It’s famous for rider.

Caution: some other type of room may be difficult to bring it. Please be careful to book the room time if you want to bring road bike to the train. 

Train fee for the single room from Takamatsu to Tokyo was mostly 23,000 JPY, including room fee. It’s quite reasonable as hotel and transport fee. 

It’s very popular train in Japan as limited regular night train,  so not easy to book a reservation for Sunrise Express(both Seto and Izumo). But this time, it was lucky,  only retune trip (from Takamatsu to Tokyo) was available, even if I tried to get ticket just before 3 days.

There is no shop for food and no cafeteria car. Only small drink vending machine is there. So if you will get on the train, highly recommended to buy drink and food in advance. 

 

Setouchi Art Festival

This was second time in my life to visit Naoshima in Kagawa prefecture. It is located in center of Seto Inland Sea “Setonaikai”. Also Setouchi Art Festival 2022 has been holding around the area. There are many displayed objects in islands. 

I brought my load bike and ride in the island from Kurashiki, Okayama-pref. It was a bit cold, but still nice weather to ride around the area. I posted many photos on Instagram like above.

Kanazawa

It might be 2nd time to go to Kanazawa in my life. 1st time was private trip when I was 21 years old. But completely forgot where I visited in that time and atmosphere of the town. And this time is for biz trip, so there is no time to visit anywhere in daytime. After finished work in the bi trip, dropped by one of the famous spot. It seems be late to come to there. Lively time might be day time. Hope I can visit again to the historical town.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Shun-ichi Takeishi (@tkisnet)

[Ride] Round the islands in Miyako&Tarama

Riding by Roadbike in island is exciting and enjoyable with atmosphere which is quite far from daily urban life. This time, I tried to make Round The Islands(RTI) in Miyako and Tarama, Okinawa Pref. Here is a place in Okinawa perf. It’s located in west side of Okinawa near Taiwan Island. I have visited to more west side island “Ishigaki” and “Yonaguni” in past. Then this Time I chose those islands because of no visits so far. There are direct flights from Tokyo(Haneda) to Miyako-islands and two round trip flights a day between Miyako and Tarama by Japan Airlines Group.

 

Miyako Island is very famous for triathlon in summer. Because of covid 19, not hold the event in 2020 and 2021. According to taxi driver, they are planning to hold it in 2022 finally. I don’t have any intention to participate it because my body basic power is not enough to accomplish the toughness sport event. But this this, referring the Roadbike course to make my ride.

https://www.visitokinawa.jp/destinations/miyako-region/miyako

Ride in Miayko island

Originally I supposed that I can ride all in a day. But after landed to Miyako Airport, I realised that winter winds in Miyako is very strong and mostly no time to stop the winds. So I changed my riding plan by divided it to two days. After reached to Hotel in Kurumi Island, 3 hours was remained before sunset, then tried to ride from Kurumi island to “Shimoji” and Irabu island. And 2nd day was started from Irabu Bridge to Ikema island and rest of Miyako island. Especially to go up to north side in entire route, ahead winds from north was so strong and can’t make good speed as usual… and even if under sunlight, wind on the big three bridges were very strong and it’s hard to ride straightly. So rather than enjoying sightsee from bridges, I was so afraid and scare to across the bridges….. if you want to across the bridge without scared, highly recommended to come to Miayko in Summer season. 

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Ride in Tarama island

Tarama island is very famous for clean, beautiful blue ocean and diving. It seems that total population in the island is around 1,200 people. Flight time from Miyao was only 20 mins. Another way to visit this island from Miyako is car ferry which has one round trip a day. It takes mostly 2 hours to Tarama Island. There is a few restaurant and shops for visiter. Island itself is not so big, so it’s just 1 hour to make round the island. I stayed only a few hours between 1st and 2nd flights in a day. if you have enough time, better to stay a few days to enjoy atmosphere. but there are not many place to visit, so enjoying slow time is main purpose to stay in here.

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Fully enjoyed 2.5 days rides in those islands in Dec 2021. Hope I can visit more other islands in Okinawa near future. 

[Ride] Setouchi Shimanami Kaido

After 5th wave of Covid19 in Japan, Finally I visited to Setouchi Shimanani Kaido(しまなみ海道) which is located in Seto Inland Sea. Shinanami Kaido is made by 7 bridges with 6 islands and connecting between Hirosima Pref and Ehime Pref.

Why I wanted to visit to here is it’s very famous for cyclist. There are many specialised road for bicycle, and can across bridges same as cars. And view from bridges or from islands to see Seto island sea is awesome, everyone should visit the area. 

Here is entire route i rode in 2 days.

If you straightforwardly ride from Imabari to Onomichi, distance will be 60-70km. So with road bike, it may take around 3 hours. But there are many spot to stop and also there are some route to go around to see nice view, and can do short hill climb as well. So I felt at least secure 2days to enjoy this route. And in my trip, I stayed Oshima Island because wanted to see twilight view from Mt.Kiro, and as 2nd day, went throught remaining route to go to Onomichi in Hiroshima Pref.

Instead of each detail explanation, let me show nice photos in this trip.

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