CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Nagasaki it runs 96 km to Nagasaki; allow about 2 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine, Shitsu Village in Sotome and Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte. The line favours views over speed.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shitsu Village in Sotome.
Sotome is a stretch of rugged coast north of Nagasaki, where steep hills drop into the East China Sea, and the village of Shitsu clings to its slopes. During the centuries when Christianity was banned in Japan, the farmers and fishermen of this remote area kept their faith in secret, passing down prayers and rituals from generation to generation, hiding their devotion behind Buddhist and Shinto practices. When the ban was lifted in 1873, many of them returned to the Catholic Church. The Shitsu church, built in 1882 under the direction of the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz, stands on a hill above the sea, a simple white building with a low profile designed to resist the strong winds. De Rotz was more than a priest: he taught the villagers to make bread, pasta and textiles, built a clinic and a workshop, and his legacy is still honoured locally. The village and church are part of the UNESCO listing of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.
Read the complete Shitsu Village in Sotome write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Shitsu Village in Sotome. Next is back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine, late in the day. Next is Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte. That is the ride.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte → Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine → Shitsu Village in Sotome is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shitsu Village in Sotome → Back to Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.