Hello! Daisaku here.
As I mentioned in my last post about packing the SKALR Supersomething, this summer, as usual, we went touring again!
The crew was the same three of us as on last year's Hokkaido tour.
So, this year's plan was to start at Izumo Taisha and ride to the finish in Nagoya.
We planned on 3 nights and 4 days, riding around 100km a day, with some rinko (bike-bagged train travel) mixed in, and flew FDA from Nagoya's prefectural airport to Izumo.
For various reasons, we ended up finishing in Maizuru and taking the train back to Nagoya with our bikes bagged, but the Sea of Japan side of the San'in region was easy riding overall and felt really bicycle-friendly.
The only truly tough part was the heat — enough that I'd love to ride it again in early spring or early autumn.
Now, let me introduce the trip!!
Flying West, Then Riding East and East Again from Izumo Taisha…
This was our fifth or sixth time flying with our bikes.
Everyone packed with practiced hands, checked in their bikes and boarded the plane.
Every time, this might be the most exciting moment of all.
After about an hour in the air, we arrived in Shimane. The thought "we're riding back from here over four days…" crossed my mind, but I decided that was a buzzkill and put it out of my head.
San'in and the Sea of Japan Side: Kind to Bikes
From the airport to Izumo Taisha, we took the train.
You might be thinking, "You're not even riding?!" — but the train to Izumo-taisha-mae Station runs as a cycle train, and for just ¥350 on top of the fare, you can bring your bike on as is.
Japan has so few cycle trains to begin with.
Our stance is "if you can ride one, ride it," so we jumped at the chance.
Inside, the doors in the middle of the carriage had been removed and replaced with a space to park bikes, complete with straps to secure them. (The photo shows a different spot, but there was a proper bike area further in.)
I'd love to see this spread all over the country.
During the hour or so we rode along, an announcement came over the speakers that the local high school basketball team riding in the next car was heading to the national championships. It was a moment that felt so very local, and it deepened the feeling that "we've come somewhere different from usual."
We prayed for a safe tour, and since we'd come all this way, we looked around every part we could. After a lunch of Izumo soba, our tour finally got underway.
Riding matters, but you've got to enjoy the places you visit, too.
A Cycling Road and Coastal Route from Shimane to the Tottori Sand Dunes
Once you cross from Shimane into Tottori, arrow markings for the "Tottori Uminami Road" appear on the road. (I forgot to take a photo of the sign 🙇)
Just follow them, and you can ride the 100km or so to the Tottori Sand Dunes without getting lost or constantly checking the map.
The side roads off that cycling road were fantastic, too, with views of sea, rice fields and wind turbines that you'd never see in Aichi.
The road runs between the sea and the mountains, but there are fewer hills than you'd think, and you can ride along happily, gazing out at the calm summer Sea of Japan.
By the way, the sea was absolutely gorgeous. If this had been the last day and we'd had time to spare, I'd have spent three hours lost in thought on the beach.
The Tottori Dunes and Night Sky Were Incredible!
There were plenty of highlights over the four days, but the ones that left the strongest impression were the Tottori Sand Dunes and the sky full of stars that appeared when we rode through the night.
Worn out by the heat, we somehow made it to the Tottori Sand Dunes in the evening.
There we found cool, pleasant sand, a slightly damp, chilly breeze slipping through our clothes, and an orange sunset glowing beyond the horizon.
In complete contrast to everything we'd ridden through, the only sounds were the wind and the waves. Floored by that contrast, the three of us couldn't move for nearly an hour after the sun went down, just sitting there lost in thought.
After that, to pull off another overnight ride like the one we did in Hokkaido, we had dinner, went to a public bath, took a nap, and set off again.
I'd say it was about 30 minutes out of town.
The streetlights and houses disappeared, and when we tried switching off all our lights, it was so pitch black in front of us we lost our sense of balance.
Instead, above our heads, a sky full of stars appeared.
There were so many stars that it made total sense why Tottori calls itself the "Star-Catching Prefecture" — I think we could even see the Milky Way with the naked eye.
In the photo, you can see a galaxy. Probably the Andromeda Galaxy. (I'm no expert, so if I've got it wrong, please tell me in the shop! Ha)
We'd never planned to see this night sky — unexpected moments like this are the real joy of touring.
Speaking of the unexpected, on the second night we stumbled onto a local summer festival in a shopping street we passed through. You don't often come across festivals, so we were lucky.
Thinking back, when I first got hooked on bikes, I'd deliberately take roads near home I didn't usually use, and for some reason the scenery I saw there stuck in my head. Wanting to witness that moment again, I'd get back on my bike.
From there my range grew, and now I ride across prefectures and through the night, my heart racing at unknown roads and whatever I might find along them.
At its root, maybe what I'm doing hasn't changed much since then.
On the Road, Companions; in Life, Kindness.
We were pushing on toward the finish, but there were so many places we wanted to stop and linger along the way that we fell well behind our original schedule. Ha.
At Kinosaki Onsen we wanted to take our time hopping between the hot springs,
and at Amanohashidate we wanted to ride the cable car up to see the famous view, and ride along the sandbar itself too.
On the sandbar, pine trees line both sides, and the middle is top-notch gravel. Riding it knowing that sediment carried by ocean currents built up over 2,200 years to form this shape gave me a different kind of awe than seeing it from outside.
After leaving Amanohashidate, the food at a set-meal restaurant we stopped at in Maizuru was absolutely delicious (and the portions were huge), and the atmosphere at a public bath that's a registered tangible cultural property was wonderful too.
Finishing the route was one of our goals, but the real joy of touring is the experiences and encounters you can only have in that particular place.
The things you tend to miss when you're chasing the clock are often what matter more.
This time, after talking it over, we decided to put those first rather than finishing, and in the end we took the train back to Nagoya from Maizuru via Tsuruga with our bikes bagged.
Being able to change plans flexibly along the way is another great thing about bikes, I think.
At the end, rocking along on the train, I scrolled through my camera roll and got lost in memories of those four days that flew by.
Planning our own schedule and route, actually riding it, talking things over as things happen along the way, and moving on to the next place.
Including the things that don't go to plan, the process of making the trip ourselves is what's so fun, and those moments of discovering new scenery and new roads are an absolute joy.
Maybe that's why I love touring.
Why not pick a destination yourself, plot a route, and actually go ride it?
After all, RIDEALIVE is coming up in November.
See you!