Shikoku Tour

The post below was written last night. We made it this morning at 4:30 a.m. to the ferry and are currently on our way to Kyushu!!! 

The drive for many of our travels to date have included incorporating multi-day hikes. We love them because it means multiple days are booked, we get to be active and we see amazing scenery. Shikoku turned out to be our parallel for a multi-day trek but nestled into our bike trip. There were no big sights to see. We primarily went to towns we had never heard of or planned on visiting and the vistas were amazing every single day. Something else of note is that Shikoku,  although one of Japan's four main islands, is much less populated and therefore has a much different pace than the main island of Honshu. 

I will break it down in terms of days to try to cover some of the details. 

Day 1: Tokushima to Izari

We arrived on Shikoku and stayed in the port town of Tokushima to allow an early start the next morning. We headed out to catch route 26 along the Eastern coast. We made our way up a pretty sizable climb to a campsite we had searched out. It was closed. We set up anyways and hiked down to our own private beach for the afternoon and cooked dinner while the tide came in.

Day 2: Izari to Toyo

The weather didn't quite cooperate on this day with mostly overcast skies and rain threatening all day. The good news was that we had already arranged our accomodation for the night in our first "warm shower", the biker's equivalent to couch surfers. After a day of tough climbs but great costals views, we descended into tiny surfing villages dotting the route. We watched a few surfers catch waves at a point break and then finished the ride to arrive in Toyo before the skies opened up and the rain fell for hours. We were greeted by Tomoya, an organic tomato farmer who at first came across very shy and skirted away to finish his work day. He announced that dinner would be at 7 p.m. and we were pleasantly surprised when it featured Mahi Mahi caught that day by a local fisherman. It was delicious. Tomoya opened up and we shared the Shochu, a liqueur, we had brought him to say thank you. He then generously shared a few others from his collection, one made from sweet potato, another from rye and a favourite made from sesame. The evening was spent sharing stories and learning more about Japanese culture from a local. Overall a huge highlight. 

Day 3: Toyo to Kochi

When we left Toyo the goal was to get as close to Kochi as possible, it was was about 120km away. The bike conditions agreed with us as we biked along a flat coastline right next to the sea and had taken a huge dent out of the distance when we reached the southernmost point of Shikoku at Muroto point. We decided to push on as it was a really fun day of riding. The last 10km we hit wind, lots of wind, and ended up arriving at our campsite after dark but we had made it all the way to Kochi! We camped at an actual campsite with other tents but it was strange because it was clearly a city park with no camp administration or fees. There was a cute little gazebo beside the water where we cooked dinner and chatted with another traveller from Switzerland.

Day 4: Iya Valley and Kochi

We left our tent set up and rode our bikes to the train station where we caught a train to Oboke in the Iya valley. This area was said to be a big highlight in Shikoku but since we took the coastal route it meant we would miss it as it was centrally located. So, we took the train to check it out. After a short boat tour in the Oboke gorge we took a local bus to see the vine bridge famous to the area called Kazurabashi. We arrived back in Kochi around 4 p.m. and were debating what to do when we started walking around and really loved the vibe in Kochi. We checked out the castle grounds, wandered the market and stumbled across the coolest place for dinner, Hirome Ichiba. Essentially, a big hall with food vendors around the perimeter. We ended up grabbing a few things including katsuo-tataki, lightly seared bonito fish. It was clearly popular with the locals and a really fun atmosphere with long shared tables. 

Day 5: Kochi to Shimanto Area

A huge highlight day! We biked all day up high getting incredible coastal views from above. The weather was perfect with clear skies. The water was turquoise and bright blues with inlet and bays one after another. The waves crashing on the coast of beaches and huge black rocks with lush greenery lining the shores. All day we couldn't help but continue to stop and stare in awe.

We once again had a campsite to ourselves that night.  It was once again clearly a campsite with bathrooms and a gazebo as well as cooking facilities but no administration so no fees.

We cooked tuna we got at the grocery store and drank red wine under the gazebo as the rain came down all night.

Day 6: Shimanto-Gawa

The Shimanto-Gawa, or Shimanto River, is well known as it is a huge river and apparently the only "non-dammed" river in Japan. We biked along route 381 to follow the river for some inland scenery. We had a great lunch break at a roadside stop with an incredible view overlooking the river. We finished the day at a rocky campsite on the river's edge, once again a free campsite.  Before going to bed we layed out in our sleeping bags under the stars huddles in our sleeping bags looking up at a clear sky.

Day 7: Shimanto area to Uwajima 

A shorter bike day to get to Uwajima where we spent the day resetting. We grabbed a hotel near the train station and enjoyed a shower, got our laundry done, stocked up on food for the next few days and planned the remaining days on our bikes. 

Day 8: Uwajima to Yawatahama

This is where we are right now,  sitting in yet another gazebo in a park that was marked as a campsite but most certainly is not. We are going to stay here because the first ferry tomorrow leaves at 5:40 a.m. and is only 4 km from here. We also have not come across any internet today to look for another option. Plus the gazebo overlooks the sea and the sunset is sure to be beautiful tonight.

In order to get here we rode along route 378 back on the coast in and out of little fishing villages all day. Another amazing biking day!