Hagi to Kurashiki

The Akiyoshidai karst plateau

We were up and out by 7:30 to another glorious day though it was a little windy as we cycled out of Hagi particularly when crossing the long bridges.  It was tedious riding uphill along a main road.  We passed a little rest stop with statues of samurai and other famous local people.  Emerging from a tunnel, the scenery was a little more interesting with the cloud still low on the hillsides.  Finally we turned off the main road and took some lovely back streets along a river passing through little hamlets. 

This was followed by a steady 3.5 km climb up another main road and we were relieved to finally reach the top.  At the 20 kilometre mark we had to make a decision on our route as we had booked a Shinkansen departing Shin-Yamaguchi at 3:49pm and we had to allow enough time to dismantle the bikes.  As it was only 9:30 we were confident we could take the longer and more scenic route through the national park. 

It was lovely to be off the main road and we soon passed another rest area where we stopped for morning tea and enjoyed the autumn colours and the sounds of people playing croquet on the other side of the trees.  This was followed by more climbing until we were up on the plateau with full views of the karst with limestone outcrops scattered across the grasslands.  The limestone was born as a coral reef some 350 million years ago.  At an altitude of about 300 metres, it is the largest karst landform in Japan. It was a stunning area to cycle through with views on all sides and hardly any cars.

All too soon we were descending down to the township with its famous cave.  Concerned that we may not have enough time to make the train, we decided not to explore the cave and found the cycle trail through to Yamaguchi.  This took us along the river and past more rice fields and we only passed one local cyclist. We stopped for another quick snack and continued till we reached the main road and a convenience store for lunch.  There was nowhere to sit so we perched on the railings in the sun and watched all the people eating lunch in their cars.   

The path continued along the main road for a while, before separating to run parallel along the other side of the river.  We arrived at the station around 2pm though had to find our way to the other entrance and the bike setting facility.  It was a struggle to get my bike into its Rinko bag - even harder than the last time, and Simon deflated the back tyre to provide valuable extra millimetres.  We stocked up on some snacks for the train and moved out gear up to the platform to watch some of the express Shinkansen shoot past before our all stops Kodama train arrived.  We manoeuvred out bikes into the oversize baggage areas and settled into our reserved seats for the two hour trip to Shin-Kurashiki. 

We arrived at Shin-Kurashiki on time, as usual, and proceeded to get the bikes off the train and find somewhere to make them up. As we came through the ticket gate we were met with piano music, not just music playing over the speakers but a man playing a piano in the middle of the concourse.

It was dark by the time we had made up our bikes and soon after leaving the station we were on unlit back roads.  It was a relief to reach to lights of Kurashiki and we stuck to the footpaths to avoid the peak hour traffic, grateful that you can legally ride on the paths in Japan. It was after 7:30pm by the time we checked into our room and we decided to change and head out to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  I don’t seem to be having a good track record with my restaurant choices as this one was also closed and as we looked for an alternative we spotted a large supermarket.  Armed with half price sushi and beer, we returned to our room for dinner, before heading up for a bath.