To Nagato

I took shinkansen from Hiroshima to Asa. Then I took bus to Nagatoshi.

When I boarded the bus, it was full of students! There were no other people than me and these students, lowkey the bus was like a school bus. Looks like they were going to school in another town.

This bus runs as a replacement service for the JR Mine line, which was suspended due to the typhoon. Fortunately, the typhoon reached its peak in Hiroshima right at the time I moved to another region. By the time I arrived at Nagato, the rain had mostly stopped, giving me nice weather for the afternoon cycling (hopefully).

Squid sashimi & yuzukichi drink

I had lunch near Senza kitchen. It looks like Senza kitchen is really the kitchen of Nagato: there are a lot of restaurants serving local delicacies.

I had a squid sashimi set meal. It is a very generous portion for the price of 2500 yen.

Tastewise, the sashimi is very good! The chewy texture of the squid mixed with wasabi soy sauce is great. The fried squid is decent, it is a bit limp, there can be crunchier fried squid.

I also bought a yuzukichi drink from the same restaurant. It is similar to lemonade, but with a much stronger bitterness and sourness, though the tastes do not linger but disappear after the sip.

Omi island

I rented a bike from Yukute and cycled towards the eastern tip of Omi island, and backwards.

The view is actually so breath-taking! Unfortunately, it was raining, so I was struggling with adjusting my bag with my raincoat for a nice cycling video. In the end, I came back drenched in rain water. The weather forecast in the morning actually said it would not rain in the afternoon in Nagato :) Well, ig in case of a typhoon, it is not reliable.

Riding on my bike! I strapped my camera to the bag and secured it to my chest, and managed to record a few interesting footage of my cycling.

The route actually has very crazy long stretches of continuous uphill. I had to take intermittent breaks to catch my breath.

A fishing village with boats docked at the bay!

When I came back, the counter aunty was very concerned abt me catching a cold :) Very nice people, so I had to use Google translate to get what they were trying to say. I myself actually was worried I would catch a cold also. She was also asking about my recording and thought I was a Youtuber, LOL.

Overall, the view is nice, the uphill cycling can be a bit of an extreme cardio workout. It would have been much more enjoyable if it did not rain :(

Treating myself to a pudding ice cream nearby! The cafe actually has very nice outdoor seats outlooking to the sea, but unfortunately it was raining.

Yakitori

I had yakitori near Nagatoshi station for dinner.

Some of the more expensive skewers are very good! The one with quail eggs and mushrooms (top right) are just exceptional. The pork and beef are just normal, nothing much to expect. The squid ears (bottom) are so crunchy and tasty! It was so good that I ordered it again. The soup rice was a bit unexpected, in the provided image it looks dry. The seaweed and salmon tastes great with the soup, but rice just does not go with soup.

The skewers were so good that I ordered the squid ears again, and another bacon wrapped around sausage. The skewers are also very reasonably priced.

Motonosumi shrine

A very beautiful shrine, and the reason why I wanted to be here. This time, I did not strap my camera to my chest, I was more concerned about reaching the shrine and back on time.

A very beautiful seashore view. The first half of the ride towards the shrine was relatively flat.

Caught some rice fields on the side!

Yesterday’s cycling was only an appetizer. Today’s cycling is even crazier: there are longer continuous stretches of uphill. The online page says that this route is supposed to have less uphill than Omi island though …

At some point, I could not take anymore uphill, so I got down and pushed the bike upwards. Oh man, I was not ready for this. The hiking and cycling routes in Singapore are really just a walk in the park, those are in no way proper preparation for the hiking and cycling in Japan. Oh I wished I had rented an electric bike instead! Don’t be like me and rent a hybrid bike, the electric bike would have helped so much with the uphills.

I first reached Senjojiki view point. It is said to be a scenic view point.

But it was so foggy! I could not see anything beyond 50 meters. Well, the weather condition required for a good cycling day is very strict: not raining and not foggy.

I bought ice cream at a coffee shop nearby. It is amazing that at this height, there is still a coffee shop. I could not prevent myself from taking a bite before realizing that I should take a photo :) Ice cream against the foggy backdrop. At this point I doubted if the shrine had a clear view.

The hike from this view point to the shrine was relatively easy: it was downhill most of the way. The breeze was so cool!

Definitely worth the effort! The shrine is so beautiful with the backdrop of the sea. And it was not foggy. There were a few other visitors at the time I was there.

On the way back, I decided to pass by the rice fields view. Not because I wanted another checkpoint, but because I remembered the way to the shrine was an exhilarating downhill, so going back the same way means a sisyphean uphill.

It is so beautiful! This is not the rice fields btw. The rice fields are … meh, not that spectacular.

At this point, I realized that I could not bear even a small inclination anymore. So I figured out something.

Strapping my bag to the bike! This greatly offloaded a heavy weight. However, my leg still could not make it for the uphills.

After a while, I realized that leaning forward makes the uphill climbs so much easier. Oh my foolish self, did I realize it too late? Idk, the cycling routes in Singapore are just too easy that I did not have to learn this trick.

Ended up arriving back quite late. The sacrifices I made just to see this shrine:

• Paid the fee for renting the bike full day because I arrived back past the 4-hour mark by half an hour.
• Skipped lunch because I wanted to catch the bus out of Nagato early to arrive at Fukuoka for dinner.
• Ended up catching a taxi from the bike-renting facility to hotel to pick up my luggage because there was no public transport at noon time :( The staff was very nice in helping me book a taxi, because neither Uber nor Go was available.

It’s okay, small hiccups like this are unavoidable on a long trip.

Concluding words

Nagato has two beautiful places to see: Omi island and Motonosumi shrine. The weather did not allow me to see the full beauty of these two places. I would definitely recommend this place if you have time. Do note that transport in this city does not run at noon and after 7pm. Do estimate your cycling abilities properly, rent an electric bike if possible. Due to my poor decision making, I missed out the fugu fish, or a good seafood donburi :) Do try them out too if you have time.