Epic Kyushu Cycle Tour | Takachiho Gorge & Aso Volcano | Cycling Japan Ep. 1

We haven't ridden our bikes in like seven days now. A few things have changed in the meantime. One, we're in Japan. Two, we've gone shopping for new clothes. Eric, debut your new shirt. Looks just like the old one. It was time for a new one. On my bike, you'll notice, you won't notice, I have a lot less weight because yesterday I shipped home a very large box of things we were not using. Wait, say that again. It's still pretty heavy. Thank you for saying that. First day riding in Japan. Time to ride out of the big city. All right, off we go. And we're there. Snack time. And a smile. This egg smells like butt. Just like that, we are out of the city. We made it to Japan, the third and longest stop of our tour. We don't have an established route here. Instead, the map looks like a scatterplot of places to go and things to see. We're starting in Fukuoka, the home of Tonkatsu Ramen. Come along as we connect the dots across Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands. We are back on the left side of the road. We haven't been on the left side since New Zealand, but so far it's like riding a bike. Riding on the road in Japan, it's like peaceful and easy. I love this as well. But people drive slowly and politely, carefully, like I'm human. And we are 33 miles in and it is lunchtime. Pepsi Cola and a burger. Coming to mama. Well, it is a special taste that uses a lot of ingredients, allowing you to experience multi-layered deliciousness. And there? Nine out of ten. Just out here going for a bike ride with the CEO of Backcountry Bruises. Business cash. You like my joke? That means a lot. First climb of Japan. It's supposed to be pretty mellow. 500 meters, 10k. You can tell that Eric grew up in Texas by how much he loves tunnels. Beautiful. We made it to the top of the hill. And our reward is a tunnel. Japan, day two. Headed to Nagasaki today. That's it. Are you still videoing me? Thanks for hosting us, Jesse. Were you supposed to do all of it at once? Probably not. It's 11 o'clock on a Thursday and there's just like a steady stream of traffic. 11 o'clock rush hour. Sasebo right now. We might have a little special treat coming up. It's a little Dutch town in the middle of Japan. Well, it seems like a theme park. We just looked at tickets and they're like $50 each. So we're probably not going in. It was built in 1992 to commemorate the rich. Long and rich history. Between Japan and the Netherlands. Japan and the Netherlands. You're transported into a world of windmills and tulips. Life-size replicas of Dutch buildings and breathtaking illuminations. We have to read this to you because we're probably not going in. I'd rather just go to the Netherlands and see our Dutchies. Yeah, it would almost be cheaper. We're still deliberating if we're gonna go in. We never do stuff like this. We just get our miles in and then sleep. We'll put that $100 towards flights to the Netherlands. How's it going? It's hot. There's a lot of traffic on this bridge. It's really pretty. 47 kilometers to Nagasaki. Oh, it's amazing. There's so much traffic. Just today. Yeah. So far, Japan, best bread by far. We're not comparing it to other countries. We're not comparing it to other places, but... We're not comparing it. Really good bread, though. Really good bread. We don't always listen to music when we ride, but on the days where the legs are feeling a little heavy, like today, a little bit of music is a huge pick-me-up. And lately, I've been listening to Doze, which is a rock band out of Fukuoka that we saw in Taiwan. A delicious lunch. Kona's coffee, recommended by none other than Jesse. Dare-san. It's the hypocenter of the atomic blast. We seem to be doing a lot of stairs lately. There's a few more. Still going up. Yeah, good exercise. This is the most stairs we've ever done. It's like the Joe Fun of Japan. At least that lady told me I was strong. It looks like these are the last of the steps. Okay, there is a special dish at Nagasaki. It's Turkish rice. It's a pork cutlet, rice, and noodles. I think it's called Turkish rice, isn't it? Day three of Japan. Starting with stairs. We're headed out of Nagasaki this morning. Headed to Kumamoto. We've got some riding and then a ferry, and a little more riding into town. Tomorrow we're staying put to wait out a storm. It's time for Lawson's breakfast. I got an egg baguette croissant. Let's check it out. Okay, it looks interesting. Good, it's very thin. It has an interesting flavor. It's like horseradish. Eric just said he's heard the yogurt doesn't stick to the lid. You have egg on your face. No, I don't. Just making a quick stop at the Nagasaki penguin aquarium. Successful penguin mission. Penguins are the best. Love penguins. Will always go out of my way for penguins, even though this was not out of my way. Half a kilometer. They're so cool. We just stopped and had a really good lunch. And the woman that served us was so sweet. And she kept stopping by our table and she'd refill our water. And then she would talk to us in Japanese and then like look for a response. And we only know like three words of Japanese. She never knew what to say, but she was really, really nice. We're on our way to find some buried homes from the 1991 eruption of Mount Ansan. Just give you a little before and after. We're off the ferry. We saw some dolphins. Made it to Kumamoto. But it is now raining. We have about 15k to the hotel. So see how wet we get. We caught up to these two cyclists and rode the rest of the day chatting away. No footage, but we made some great friends. The next day we explored Kumamoto with them in the rain. We have accidentally stumbled upon a Taiwanese street fair in Japan. So cool. It's like a blast from the past from three weeks ago. Thank you. Yes, this looks amazing. If we don't end up here at the end of a day, something is wrong with us. Today must be feeling well. Oh, same. We're just storing our bikes outside this hotel on the busy road. Worries Eric a little bit. They're still there. Here's our route for the day. Let's go. We're making our way out of Kumamoto this morning. We've got about 85k to Tokuchiho Gorge, where we should have a campsite if we can get there early enough to check in. That's gonna be the challenge today. Do all our miles and climbing before five. The drivers in Japan are incredibly patient. No honking, no revving engines. Just wait. When they get enough space, they'll pass slowly. I'm not usually one to drip sweat from my helmet. Today I am. It is so hot. So far, we've been along pretty busy roads, but this road is truly silent. It's just us and the birds out here right now and the squeaking of our bikes. So far, Eric's tires are holding. Yes, we just crushed like 2,000 feet up this mountain. And luckily for us, there are vending machines everywhere in Japan. So I don't know why, but this has been my coffee of choice lately. Let's go. These vending machines keep their drinks ice cold. Eric was wondering why it wouldn't dispense his Coke, but it's because he put Korean money in it. I put a Korean hundred in. This is fun. We just finished up lunch at this little cafeteria at a rest stop. It was really good. And I fixed my second mechanical of the day, which was a tiny rock that got stuck in my pedal and wouldn't hold onto my cleat. Do I smell? Yeah. We're starting to hit all the tunnels now. So I've put on the reflective vest and turned on the rear flashing light for safety. Riding the sidewalk in this tunnel, but it's very tight. We've got one hour to get to the campsite and check in. We just hit 5,000 feet on the day. We're so close to camp. My sisters are going to love all this heavy breathing. They always tell me. I put in videos. I don't know why we're still climbing. I would like to be done climbing. Oh, no? Okay. At least it's so beautiful though. Wow. Yes, I think we made it. There's no one else here. The campground host told us that it will rain tomorrow, which I think he meant overnight. So he told us to put the tent under the shelter. Perfect spot. Eric's feeling bad because the reservation that he made was actually for a different campsite. And this campsite may not even be open and running. The host unlocked buildings for us and no one else is here. But he was understanding and obviously is letting us stay here instead of way over there somewhere. I like my hair like this. Okay, testing. Testing. Checking on the hair. Check on the hair. So it is 6 20 p.m. We made it to camp. That was a ordeal. We got the tent set up. We're showered. And now we're headed back down the hill into town for a little bit of cultural exchange. It's not really going to be an exchange. It's going to be a one-way, just receiving. A little cultural absorption. And then we're going to maybe get to see Takachiyo Gorge lit up at night. And then we've got a long walk back to camp. Back up this hill. We've come into the one place in the whole country that's cash only. And all I have is a little bit of change. With a pocket full of change, we managed to buy a couple smoothies, a little thing of bread, some ham and cheese, and made a sandwich for like $6.50 American. Yeah, in a parking lot. This is probably frowned upon. And we have Takachiyo Falls all to ourselves. It's all lit up at night. And we're back. What is today, Court? Day six of Japan. So we're going to head to Mount Aso today. Hopefully the skies break a little bit and we get some good views. Today I'll be trying the famichiki pancake sandwich. It's a viral sensation. It's really good. The bikes are definitely starting to show some signs of wear. Nothing major yet, but lots of little things. I got tiramisu, a tiramisu latte. Coffee, coffee. This is the best thing ever. Is it on my nose? Yeah. Starting our climb towards Aso. You really couldn't ask for a better road. With a better surface and better grade than this to climb up to a volcano. This is really cool. What's that? Or couldn't ask for a better wife. I guess it shouldn't really be a surprise, but it's pretty sulfurous up here. It really smells exactly like my egg sandwich I had for breakfast. If the question is, am I going to film every tunnel in Japan? The answer is yes, obviously. And there's a lot of tunnels in Japan. Can we climb up volcanoes every day? It'd be cool though. They just waved us on from the pay station, so I guess if you come human powered, it's free. Top of the mountain, baby. Yeah, it feels good. Top of the volcano. We climbed a volcano. Okay, good job. We did it. There she goes. So many people just walking around out by the lakes. Let's go down a big hill. We just met the world's nicest hostel hotel host. And he gave us so many gifts. He gave us some also corn tea and then a chocolate pie and this other mystery gift. Snacks. Walking to dinner with a view. Bomb. This is our little home for the night. Riding up over Mount Aso today was so incredible. We're barely a week into our Japan trip and I'm pretty sure that's going to be a highlight. It was so good. I would do it again tomorrow. Good morning. We are headed out on day seven. We had a really nice day last night in Aso hosted by Yoshi. He had so many gifts for us and he made coffee for us this morning. He's a really nice, vibrant, enthusiastic guy and I really enjoyed talking to him. He does seem to really enjoy what he does. I'm really excited about this. Look how fluffy it is. It's cake for breakfast. Cake for breakfast. It's like cake. It's good. Fluffy. The clouds broke this morning and you can see the mountain and how green it is. Look at this view. And here we go up the caldera. I've heard about this route 11 and it's supposed to be really beautiful riding. I've never really seen this before but all these trees are carved into characters and shapes and animals. We've been riding pretty hard the last two days and I definitely feel that today and it's really, really hot. The sun is really beating down. I'm living for all the shady spots and ice cold drinks and ice cream cones. Hey, we made it to the top. That wasn't so bad. I don't know what I was worried about. Back-to-back volcanoes. It's pretty cool. Time for more cold drinks and more ice cream. Down the hill to Yupuin. Our host last night, Yoshi, recommended we stop here and go for a little walk. It smells so good under those. You're looking at Kuju volcano. Look at this. I mean it does smell like I just shoved my face in a bowl of egg salad but it is beautiful. We just found a little roadside vegetable stand. Got some snap peas and tomatoes. It was good timing because I was getting real hungry. That's what we needed. Snap peas? Sugar peas? Snow peas? Snap peas. Peas. Huh, looks like a big climb to get out of there. It is. Tomorrow. Highway 11 from Aso to Yupuin. Five stars. 10 out of 10. Incredible bike ride. Love it. Healthy. Pizza night. Good morning. It is day eight. We've got a real short day. We're just headed from Yupuin to Beppu. 13 miles. A little bit of climbing here in the morning but big storm rolling in this afternoon so we're trying to beat as much of it as we can. I will check in again once we're properly soaked. I'm getting rained on but I do not care. This is blowing my mind right now. This is incredible. Wow. Unbelievable. We're not soaked yet. We're getting closer. Update. We're soaked. We're pretty wet. This is the part where you wonder if you could even get wetter. Hey Eric, how's it going? What? Look at this. So we made it into Beppu but we were freezing cold so we stopped at an onsen, got a bath. We were cold and wet on the ride so we went to an onsen and then we got dry and warm and now we're getting cold and wet again because otherwise we would be stranded at the onsen. Our home for the afternoon. We're at it again. Wow. And? Two chicken slammies the same day? Don't say that on camera. That's embarrassing. Looks like you're being boiled. We're headed to the ferry terminal. Yep, headed to Shikoku.