Egami Village on Naru Island and Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Egami Village on Naru Island

   Egami is a small Catholic church on Naru Island in the Goto archipelago, off western Kyushu, and its story is one of the most remarkable in the history of Japanese Christianity. After missionaries arrived in the sixteenth century, the shogunate banned the faith and for about two and a half centuries persecuted believers. Some communities went underground, hiding their rosaries and their prayers in the guise of Buddhist or Shinto customs, and became known as the Hidden Christians. In the Goto islands, families who had fled from Nagasaki in the late eighteenth century cleared poor land and kept their faith quietly, and when the ban was lifted in the 1870s they came into the open.

   Read the complete Egami Village on Naru Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Egami Village on Naru Island is where the day begins. Next is Villages on Kuroshima Island.

2. 2. Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

   Nagasaki's harbour is a long, narrow inlet surrounded by steep hills, and on its western shore the Mitsubishi shipyard has been building ships since the late nineteenth century. The yard was one of the engines of Japan's rapid industrialisation in the Meiji era, when the country transformed itself from a feudal society into an industrial power in a few decades. Several of its historic structures are part of the UNESCO listing of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, inscribed in 2015. The Former Pattern Shop, a red-brick building from 1898 where wooden patterns were made for casting metal parts, now houses a museum of the yard's history. The Giant Cantilever Crane, installed in 1909 and made in Scotland, is still in working order, and it dominates the waterfront. The yard built many famous ships, including the battleship Musashi, one of the largest warships ever constructed.

   Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 303 km into the recorded legs you reach Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte. Next is back through Villages on Kuroshima Island.

3. 3. Back to Egami Village on Naru Island

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Egami Village on Naru Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villages on Kuroshima Island, late in the day. Next is Egami Village on Naru Island.

4. 4. Egami Village on Naru Island

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Egami Village on Naru Island write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Egami Village on Naru Island. That is the ride.