Why this ride
A 347 km round trip from Honmachi - roughly 6 h 17 in the saddle. The stops in between: Remains of Hara Castle, Oura Cathedral, Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine and Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Misumi West Port and Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 347 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 17
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Misumi West Port → Remains of Hara Castle
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 25 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 70 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Misumi West Port
At the tip of the Uto Peninsula in Kumamoto, where the land narrows towards the islands of Amakusa, there is a small Meiji-era harbour that looks almost unchanged since it was finished in 1887. Misumi West Port was designed by the Dutch engineer Rouwenhorst Mulder as part of Japan's rapid modernisation after it opened to the West, and its long stone quays, drainage channels and carefully fitted granite blocks were built by Japanese stonemasons using their traditional skills. For a while it was a busy export port for coal from the Miike mines across the bay, but when the railway reached another harbour its importance faded, which is precisely why it survived. It is now part of the World Heritage site of Japan's Meiji industrial revolution.
Read the complete Misumi West Port write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Misumi West Port is where the day begins. Next is Remains of Hara Castle.
2. Remains of Hara Castle
On a headland overlooking the Ariake Sea, at the southern tip of the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki prefecture, the grassy ruins of Hara Castle mark the scene of one of the darkest episodes in Japanese history. In the winter of 1637 to 1638, thousands of peasants, many of them Christians, rose up against heavy taxation and religious persecution, and took refuge in the abandoned castle under the leadership of a charismatic teenager, Amakusa Shirō. The shogunate besieged the castle for months with a huge army, and when it finally fell, almost all the defenders, including women and children, were killed.
Read the complete Remains of Hara Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Remains of Hara Castle comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oura Cathedral.
3. Oura Cathedral
Nagasaki is a city of steep hills around a deep harbour, and on one of those slopes above the old foreign settlement stands a small white Gothic church that is, in its quiet way, one of the most important in Japan. Oura Cathedral was built in the early 1860s by French missionaries, who had been allowed to serve the foreign community in the treaty port after Japan's long seclusion, and it was dedicated to the twenty-six Christians who were executed on a hill in Nagasaki in 1597. The church faces the site of that martyrdom, and it is the oldest surviving Gothic-style church in the country.
Read the complete Oura Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach Oura Cathedral. Next is Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine.
4. Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine
Out in the sea off Nagasaki, a low island called Takashima was the place where modern Japan dug its first Western-style coal shaft. In 1868, in the very year of the Meiji Restoration, the Scottish merchant Thomas Glover went into partnership with the Saga domain to sink a shaft here using steam-powered machinery from Britain. The mine later passed to Mitsubishi and became one of the pillars of the company's rise, fuelling steamships, factories and the rapid industrialisation of the country. Takashima is now part of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, listed by UNESCO in 2015.
Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine, about halfway. Next is Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc, 29 km on.
5. Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc
Nagasaki spills down its hills towards the harbour in a way that makes every drive feel like a lesson in gravity, and the Mitsubishi shipyard sits right at the water's edge, a wall of cranes and dry docks that has shaped the city for a century and a half. The Number Three Dry Dock, finished in the early twentieth century, is one of the pieces of Japan's Meiji-era industrial heritage that were added to the World Heritage list in 2015. It is stone-lined, deep and surprisingly beautiful, like a rectangular canyon cut for ships. Mitsubishi took over the yard in the 1880s, and from here came warships and liners that helped turn a closed, feudal country into an industrial power in a startlingly short time.
Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc sits at 114 km, about halfway. Next is back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine.
6. back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine comes up about 192 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Oura Cathedral.
7. back through Oura Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oura Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 209 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Oura Cathedral. Next is back through Remains of Hara Castle.
8. back through Remains of Hara Castle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Remains of Hara Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Remains of Hara Castle, late in the day. Next is Misumi West Port.
9. Misumi West Port
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Misumi West Port write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 347 km.
Leg by leg
Misumi West Port to Remains of Hara Castle
Misumi West Port → Remains of Hara Castle is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Remains of Hara Castle to Oura Cathedral
Remains of Hara Castle → Oura Cathedral is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oura Cathedral to Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine
Oura Cathedral → Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine to Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine → Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc to back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc → back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine to back through Oura Cathedral
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine → back through Oura Cathedral is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oura Cathedral to back through Remains of Hara Castle
back through Oura Cathedral → back through Remains of Hara Castle is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Remains of Hara Castle to Misumi West Port
back through Remains of Hara Castle → Misumi West Port is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.