Why this ride
The stops in between: Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg, Villages on Kuroshima Island and back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island and Villages on Kuroshima Island · 798 km
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 798 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 13 h 46
- 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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
Nozaki is a long, steep island in the Goto archipelago, off the western coast of Kyushu, and almost nobody lives there now. In the nineteenth century, Christians who had kept their faith secretly for over two hundred years of persecution under the Tokugawa shogunate settled on the island, farming its steep slopes alongside the community that served a Shinto shrine. When the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, they built a church, and the brick church of Nokubi, completed in 1908, still stands on a hill above the sea. The island and its abandoned villages are a piece of the World Heritage property for Hidden Christian sites in the Nagasaki region.
Read the complete Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island is where the day begins. Next is Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg.
2. Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg
Far west of the Japanese mainland, the Goto Islands trail out into the East China Sea in a scatter of volcanic hills, cliffs and quiet harbours, and on them stand some of the most moving small churches in Asia. The Hidden Christian Sites of the Nagasaki Region belong to the same World Heritage listing as Oura Cathedral, but this corner of it feels very different. Here the faith was kept alive in remote farming and fishing villages, to which Christian families moved in the late eighteenth century, partly because the authorities of the Goto domain wanted settlers to open up poor land.
Read the complete Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg comes up about 161 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villages on Kuroshima Island.
3. Villages on Kuroshima Island
For more than two centuries after Christianity was banned in Japan in the early seventeenth century, small communities of believers kept their faith in secret, disguising prayers as Buddhist chants and images of the Virgin Mary as Buddhist figures. Kuroshima, a small island off the coast of Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture, was one of the places where these hidden Christians lived and farmed, and when the ban was lifted in the 1870s they emerged openly. Their villages are part of the UNESCO listing of Hidden Christian sites in the Nagasaki region, listed in 2018.
Read the complete Villages on Kuroshima Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 399 km into the recorded legs you reach Villages on Kuroshima Island. Next is back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg.
4. back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg, late in the day. Next is Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island.
5. Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island to Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg
Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island → Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg is 161 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg to Villages on Kuroshima Island
Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg → Villages on Kuroshima Island is 238 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Villages on Kuroshima Island to back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg
Villages on Kuroshima Island → back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg is 238 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg to Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island
back through Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Reg → Remains of Villages on Nozaki Island is 161 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.