An interesting day with a better last half — stress wise — heavy traffic with trucks galore , narrow multi lane freeways and a particularly nasty tunnel made the first half a bit testy , after about 50 kms I started to enjoy more rural country with less tight squeeze points . The mirror has been useful. 

Kyushu and Honshu are separated by a narrow strait  that has a constant stream of shipping moving thru , not unlike the Dardanelles in Turkey. Japanese engineers must just love tunnels , there is a vehicle tunnel a bridge and a pedestrian tunnel . Took me a wee while to actually find the later. Had to enter a building and use a lift to drop down to the tunnel entrance . 700 metres , had to walk it and a surprising number of older Japanese folk seemed to be power walking it. 

   Was a long day in the saddle , getting lost a little at times in the laberinyth of highways heading north . Started to eventually get on some more quiet rural roads ( a relative term)  interested scenery with beautiful houses and gardens in some places. Vegetative  growth is rampant and uncontrolled often , but the gardens attached to these homes are testament to careful training and control . A sample pic  

    
 Nearly 10 hours on the road — only 119 kms but hard fought , a decent climb a gentle reminder of what will come 😉 

    
 Have another hostel tonight very close to these pics. Was the historic site of the first large scale steel iron works for the creation of heavy naval ships that were built here. A fishing centre now.