Did I mention that this road is hilly? It bears repeating. Unless you're a serious power cyclist, you'd be well advised to leave EARLY in the morning from Nago and travel as light as possisble if you want to get all the way around the loop and back to Nago before dark: these hills will eat up lots and lots of time.

Much of the interior appears to be forest preserve, and one can see why: it's a lovely area. Not being a botanist, I don't know enough about the differences with the main Japanese isles... but while the coasts don't look that much different from, say, the Nichinan Kaigan in southeastern Kyushu, the interior definitely seems more tropical, with many more ferns.