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.
399 km from Togitsu to Togitsu, about 7 h 28 of riding. On the way it passes Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte, Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine, Sakitsu Village in Amakusa and back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Shitsu Village in Sotome is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.
From the sea, Hashima looks like a battleship: a small rocky island off Nagasaki surrounded by high concrete walls, crowded with tall, empty apartment blocks. The Japanese call it Gunkanjima, battleship island, and it is the most famous ruin of Japan's industrial age. Mitsubishi mined coal here from undersea seams from the late nineteenth century, and as the mine grew the island was extended with land reclaimed from the sea and built up with concrete housing, schools, a hospital and shops. At its peak it was one of the most densely populated places on Earth. When the mine closed in 1974, everyone left within weeks, and the island has been slowly crumbling ever since.
Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine. Next is Sakitsu Village in Amakusa.
A small Gothic church with a spire stands right at the water's edge in Sakitsu, a fishing village tucked into an inlet on the southern coast of Amakusa's Shimoshima island. It looks almost Breton, a surprise in rural Kyushu, and the story behind it is one of the most moving in Japanese history. When Christianity was banned in the early seventeenth century, the people of Sakitsu kept their faith in secret for over two centuries, disguising prayers and objects as Buddhist or Shinto practice, and using things from their own fishing life, such as abalone shells whose inner patterns recalled holy images, as objects of devotion.
Read the complete Sakitsu Village in Amakusa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sakitsu Village in Amakusa, about halfway. Next is back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte comes up about 369 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shitsu Village in Sotome.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Shitsu Village in Sotome write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shitsu Village in Sotome closes the day.
Shitsu Village in Sotome → Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte → Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine → Sakitsu Village in Amakusa is 143 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sakitsu Village in Amakusa → back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine is 143 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine → back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte → Shitsu Village in Sotome is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.