CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Togitsu it runs 211 km to Togitsu; allow about 4 h 45 of riding. The stops in between: Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte, Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine, Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc and Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.
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 21 km in. 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.
43 km in you reach Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine. Next is Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc, 21 km on.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc, about halfway. 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.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine sits at 85 km, about halfway. Next is back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc, 21 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc comes up 106 km in. Next is back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine.
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.
128 km in you reach back through Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine. 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, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 170 km.
Shitsu Village in Sotome → Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte → Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Takashima Coal Mine → Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc → Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine → back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Doc → Back to Shitsu Village in Sotome is 24 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 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.