Gifu - possible routes

Some possible routes for Gifu, specially more in the Takayama area, are here

And others, that are much closer to Nagoya instead are here. 

Parking in the office

Soon I will return to the Netherlands, but without my black brompton... which will wait for me under my office desk in Tokyo:

NPC November ride - 11月のライド

Bicycle: 42.8 km

Route: Shinbashi - Shibuya - Kichijoji - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 3:30 h 

Total ascent:  206 m 

Average speed: 10.8 km/h

Weather: Dark... probably cloudy  11 C

Today was, at least for me, the last NPC of this year, and the first I announced on Meet-up. After relatively low turn out in some of the previous rides, this one had a "record" attendance. Including 1 person who joined from meet-up and a friend that an ex-colleague of mine brought along. 

Also the ride was a bit special, because it did NOT go to the centre of Tokyo and it did NOT use major roads, but small back streets. When we were riding them, it felt that we were turning a lot, so I was very surprised to see in the garmin recording, that we were actually riding in a nearly perfect line. I was also surprised that there was such a apparently straight back road, because I always used the Kanda river to get to Kichijoji, so it was nice to see that there are other means as well.

Once arrived in Kichijoji we officially ended the ride... which traditionally means, a good part of us go out for dinner.

Which we did... and afterwards road back to town. This time on Inokashira doori (a large road but at midnight with little traffic). 

The way I had plotted this time from Shinbashi to Shibuya was also quite convenient and mainly on smaller streets. 

Himeji round trip - worst and good cycling road

Bicycle: 68.8 km
Train: 150 km

Route: Kakogawa - Himeji - Kasai - Kakogawa

Total riding time: 4:39 h 

Total ascent: 232 m

Average speed: 14.8 km/h

Weather: Some sun, some clouds, 17 C

After the perfect day on the bicycle yesterday I had great expectations for today, but unfortunately they did not become true.

I had seen on this webpage that there is as very long cycling road along the coast into Himeji. Plus another one inland from Kakogawa. So I planned a round trip Kakogawa - Himeji - Kasai- Kagogawa.

However the cycling road into Himeji is probably the worst cycling road in Japan. It is right below the Shinkansen tracks, through industrial installations, some houses, but no nice landscape at all.

Plus it was in the eternal shadow. I got bored of this pretty quickly and tried (not very hard though) to find an alternative. I wasn't very successful. Yes, the small street on the other side of the Shinkansen tracks was at least in the sun, and also had only light traffic. But it was equally boring.

Probably there would have been much nicer paths somewhere through the fields. But it was generally an area full of transport: Shinkansen, local trains and highway. No place for a nice cycling road.

Also Himeji except the castle seems to be only one more Japanese city. But well, the castles looks really nice and huge:

I hadn't planned to visit the castle, just to take some pictures and get going to hopefully see some better landscape. But I was feeling quite down, after this ugly ride and even when riding out off Himeji, while on small roads, it was through the typical suburbs of Japanese cities. What did I do? I decided that feeling low was due to lack of calories and got some noodles in a chain restaurant.

At this point I was considering to completely change my plan, ride back to Himeji, visit the castle and ride back by train. But after the noodles I felt more energetic, and continued on. Very annoyingly since lunch the internet on my phone doesn't work. How dependent we have become...

The ride from there on was through nice, but well, kind of standard Japanese landscape. I didn't even run into a nice or interesting temple.

I came by a really small train station, which doubled as a local art gallery:

In Kasai I cut the ride a little bit short, and there the only highlight of today started. A cycling road which was actually nicer than many others in Japan.

To have cycling roads along rivers is very common in Japan, but this one, probably because the river was quite small, was better than normal. It even went around a lake with a winding shore.

The cycling road quite close to Kakogawa joins the bigger river cycling road and arrives all the way to the coast.

I had seen in the morning in the train, when my internet did still work, that there was one onsen about 4 km from Kakogawa station and an other one very close to the station. I had decided against the one close to the station as the other one seemed much better. Well I should not have changed my mind. It was incredibly hot! When I entered the washing area it was so hot, that I found it even hard to breath.

I took a quick, nearly cold shower, rushed to the very small rotenburo area and had a bit of a bath there. Well I got clean, but I am not sure if I feel rested. 

Thanks to my internet connection issue with the phone, I couldn't uselessly spend my time surfing the internet while travelling back... so I wrote this blog post. Speaking of train, reminds me of this picture I took in the morning about noisy salmons:

urusai うるさい means noisy
mon モン can mean a lot of things, among them person
　saamon サーモン means salmon
うるサーモン  thus is a concatenation of all 3 of them. Resulting in really noisy and annoying salmons. 

So overall NOT the perfect day in the saddle. However the cycling road inland was nice and if you are in the area definitely nice to do. Although today I did not meet a lot of fellow cyclists. Much in contrast to yesterday. And now I understand. The area between Sanda and Ikeda was definitely very nice, even though there was not a single meter of cycling road. So next time I am in Osaka I will continue discovering that area and probably just one day go by train to Himeji and visit the castle. For a second time, after my previous visit, now 24 years ago.

Perfect ride (downhill) through the mountains behind Osaka

Bicycle: 56.1 km
Train: 70 km

Route: Hirono - Nakayamadera

Total riding time: 3:43 h 

Total ascent: 402 m

Average speed: 15.1 km/h

Weather: Sunny and warm for being November, 18 C

A few days ago, at an onsen in Osaka I picked up a map with cycling suggestions around Osaka. See #6 from this map. Looking at the map the ride seemed a bit long, but not too hilly... However when I opened the strava map (see the QR code on the map), it turned out that it was actually quite hilly, but I also realized, that I could do only half of the ride and start from the top... So that's what I did.

I started in Hirono, a small station in the country side behind Osaka, where the station master, once he had checked my tickets went on to continue cleaning the station.

The landscape was nice right from the beginning, just a few meters behind the train station...

... and got even nicer as soon as I was at a lake closeby. 

Generally it is still to early for koyo, but every now and then there is an isolated tree already in full colours.

And well, it was still warm enough to ride in short sleeves (and obviously sandals). So the trees are excused.

Occasionally I met a few other, much more serious cyclists, who were probably aiming for the mountains around me, but even for me this landscape was totally doable... thanks to my wise decision to start from the top. 

I did a rather small detour in an even more remote valley, which was really nice. This picture here is right in front of the restaurant where I had lunch: 

Although this is in the middle of mountains, it was actually a place specialized in sushi including fugu! But I had tonkatsu.

When I left, it was already close to 14:00 so there was no time to explore more of this nice valley and I headed back to the main "street". Not before taking a few more pictures.

Also along, what I call main street, there were some really nice places. Only sometimes the street had a bit too much traffic, but I could normally evade it, e.g. by riding on the side walk and it was never as heavy as last weekend coming down from Iga Ueno to the plain of Nara.

Kaki fruits are currently ripe and glitter in the sun:

This dramatic cliff looks more romantic in the picture than in reality, as it is taken from a bridge with a rather busy road.

A little bit further downstream however komoot had picked this small road along the river, which was just perfect. A long stretch of winding road with minimal traffic (I guess someone built for the cars a faster road somewhere on the hills), but perfect for us cyclists. And nicely sloping down.

Getting closer to Osaka, obviously at some point the city starts again, with highways, bridges etc, but as it was a Japanese river there was still for some time a cycling road alongside.

I had looked for an onsen, and had found one relatively close to Ikeda (which was my first idea where to end the ride), but while riding to the starting point in train, I noticed on Google maps an onsen close to Nakayamadera station, which seemed to be closer, so less riding after the bath). I checked out more information about it, and decided for it. And this was a perfect decision. It was a super-sento, but one dedicated to rotenburo. I think there was only one (large) inside pool. All others were outside. I think 8 outside, if I remember correctly. 3 of them with very special onsen water, that is full of iron and according to the description and the other patrons very similar to the onsen water in - not very far - Arima onsen. Which is a famous onsen place. 

Above the reception desk they have these huge inflated statues: 

Definitely a perfect day in the saddle.

A long weekend between Shiga & Mie - Day 3 Iga Ueno to Kasagi 伊賀上野から笠置へ

Bicycle: 31 km
Train: 80 km

Route: Iga Ueno - Kasagi

Total riding time: 2:23 h 

Total ascent: 296 m

Average speed: 13 km/h

Weather: Some sun, some clouds and colder than I thought, 15 C

Today was the last day of my trip into the deep countryside between Shiga, Mie and (surprisingly) Kyoto prefecture. I started the day with a small round through Iga Ueno, back through some streets I had already passed yesterday night, just to take a few more pictures of the city. 

But the highlight of today was the Ninja museum in Iga Ueno. Very differnt to the ninja park yesterday, which was probably a lot of fun for kids (probably much more than the Iga Ueno museum) as they could DO a lot of Ninja-like activities. But for an adult the museum today was better. Some explanations in an old "ninja house" (I think the building is actually new, and just has been built with an array of typical ninja traps. Plus a small museum, that is half in English and explains the tools and techniques used. 

But the highlight definitely was the ninja show, in a small open air theater. With some real weapons and funny presenters. No pictures allowed during the show, and that was good, otherwise one would have seen mainly hands with cameras rather than the show. Only one picture at the end was allowed.

The museum is in a bigger park, which also houses this round memorial building for Basho...

... and obviously, the castle of Ueno. 

The castle isn't an original, but apparently built in a more traditional way than others. However I did not visit it, as I thought my experience with the ninja was good enough for the day, and I wanted to get started with my ride. On the way back to my hotel, where I had left my luggage I bought some omiyage at this very old shop:

But then it was time to get started with the ride. After Saturday, where it was quite warm (I even used, very briefly, my fan on Saturday), today it was rather cold and a bit windy. Not too much but still. At a certain point I thought that putting on my cycling cap might be a good idea, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my luggage... and coming now back to Osaka, I discovered why... I had left it here. Well, it wasn't too cold and getting riding I became warmer. 

At Shimagahara (see river landscape above) I was faced with a difficult decision. To onsen or not to onsen. It was too early in the ride to an onsen... but on the other hand, there was a big onsen right on my way. How could I ignore it. So after a lot of thinking forward and backward, I entered. Well, it was okay. Nice, but unfortunately no views from the onsen and no nature inside it either. So it was okay as an onsen, but for such a nice environment, it could have been better. Definitely the one yesterday was much nicer. 

I did stay probably around 1h and then continued on, as I knew I had to get to my train back to Osaka before 17:00 when it gets dark. However frankly, that wouldn't have been a problem, as even Shimagahara has a train station that links to Osaka...

The first part of the ride down towards the Nara valley was on very small and nice country roads. A bit of an up and down, but definitely nice.

And through a lot of small villages, where time seems to stand still.

However in retrospect, I should have taken the train already in Okawara. Until there I could come on small country roads, but from there down to Kamo, there is only one road, which gets some traffic (including lorries) and isn't very wide either. So it was not very comfortable riding it down. X

When I called it a day however in Kasagi, I was lucky enough that the next train was coming in only about 10 min, which then in Kamo connected to a direct train back to Osaka... where I went to my second onsen of the day. 

Overall a very nice region of Japan, with small villages. But a bit hilly... so to consider for shorter rides. 

A long weekend between Shiga & Mie - Day 2 Koka to Iga Ueno 甲賀から伊賀上野へ

Bicycle: 32 km

Route: Koka - Iga Ueno

Total riding time: 2:33 h 

Total ascent: 256 m

Average speed: 13 km/h

Weather: Cloudy but no rain, 16 C

Today I didn't need to get up early, as the Ninja Museum was really close to my hotel and only opened at 10:00. (However I suspect that it actually opened at 9:00, as there were already quite a number of people, when I arrived at about 10:10).

I had read somewhere on the internet that this Ninja village is a bit run down... well, I wouldn't say so, but I think it is simply not the perfect place for a solitary adult traveller. It seemed to be great fun for all the families with children, who could experience a lot of "ninja activities", like crossing a pond on two stones:

The kids did fall into the water relatively often, but while it aroused a squeal from the onlookers, including the parents, none of the parents seemed to be overly concerned.

Many kids (and a few adults) went around the park dressed as ninja... although I doubt that there were rosa ninjas in the past.

For us adults there was less to do. There was a small museum, all in Japanese and a ninja house, with a guided tour through the different traps and escape routes, like this one below the hearth:

Again today's tour was planned using komoot. Generally komoot selected very nice small country roads, however twice, they brought me to a dead end or near deadend. Once it was really a dead end, but fortunately it was still very close to the bigger road from where I had turned so I could easily ride back the few hundered meters. The other time I was already in this nice very, very rural landscape, when the road first became unpaved (but still cyclable) and then there was a gate on the road. It was open though... So after some consideration I did ride through it and was able to continue one. I even came to a small (and short tunnel), which I passed, just to emerge at the back side of the next small village and not to find an other gate. Which was really relieving.

When I planned the route yesterday, I had seen that close to a temple there was a soba restaurant. So that's where I had lunch in an old farmhouse:

This was about the only place (together with the onsen, see below) to have lunch today on my ride through the countryside between Shiga and Mie prefecture. It is simply a very rural area, with only a few small villages. Too small to house anything like a restaurant.

At a certain point I came by these nicely manured trees, which were "guarded" by a group of elderly men resting before getting up to play an other round of something golf like. I really only wanted to take a picture of the nicely formed trees, but the elderly men were convinced that I was interested in some of their kaki fruits. So now I have 5 fresh kaki picked from a tree. (Note that fruit picking somehow is very popular among tourists - Asian tourists? - to Japan). I remember picking strawberries as a child occasionally... and frankly buying fresh ones picked by someone else and just eating them is more enjoyable for me.

My second goal of the day was an onsen I had found on the map. I wouldn't have chosen an onsen midway through the ride, but the pictures just looked too good. http://www.moku-moku.com/farm/onsen.html and yes, it was a very nice onsen. With 3 pools outside, one with quite lukewarm (well, for Japanese standards), greenish onsen water, and other one much warmer (but not too hot) that had apples swimming in it (which gave a very nice smell) and a third one at approximately the same temperature, but without apples or anything else. And all this in very nice nature.

Actually I was very much surprised by the amount of people going towards this onsen. There were 3 big parking lots, and surprisingly there were a lot of people on their way (or back from) it. Even several busses passed me on the last km to the onsen. However, it turned out that not everyone wanted to soak. Around the onsen, there was a big vegetable & fruit shopping market, some food stands and a big BBQ area. In the onsen from a co-bather I learned that in the BBQ area one can make ones own sausages and then grill them. Making them starting from the ingredients and filling them into the casing. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I did relax a lot in the onsen, but I got out of the water soon enough to still get to Iga Ueno in time before sunset. But not soon enough to do any sightseeing today. So tomorrow castle and more Ninja activities (museum?) in Iga Ueno before riding then down towards Nara (or maybe Kizu, which is in the same direction) and then at some point in a train back to Osaka for an other (short) week of work.

Although I had already taken a bath today, I went to a sento in the evening. The official excuse was obviously that I had poured some more sweat after the onsen... but the less official one, was that I wanted to see this sento which claims to be like in Showa area. And well, specially from outside and in the looker room it is really an old sento.

The actual bathing area was reformed some time (maybe in the 1970's or so) and doesn't look very old any more. But still, it was worth a soak.

A long weekend between Shiga & Mie - Day 1 Omi Hachiman to Koka 近江八幡から甲賀

Bicycle: 53.7 km

Train:  91 km

Route: Osaka - Omi Hachiman - Koka

Total riding time: 3:34 h 

Total ascent:  231 m (plus main stairs at Azuchi castle) 

Average speed: 15 km/h

Weather: Sunny, nicely warm in the day, cold at night

For this long weekend (Monday is Culture Day), I have decided to make a loop from Shiga prefecture through Mie to Nara prefecture. More specifically from Omi Hachiman to Koka, Iga-Ueno, and time permitting down to Nara. I planned this route on komoot and it would seem it is working quite well, except one section of the road, which well, wasn't even single track, but was NO track... which wasn't nice as it had cost me quite some energy to get to that dead end (see km 28 - 33) and it was getting dark by then. 

Today on Day 1, it was Omi Hachiman (yep, yet again) to Koka. Although I got up early today, and made it for the 9:04 train from Shin Osaka to Omi Hachiman, finally it got dark WAY too early... but well, after some difficulties, see below, I did make it to my (very ugly and dirty) hotel in Koka. But let's start this orderly.

I was in Omi Hachiman already last week and there two elderly ladies talked me into buying the entrance ticket for an art exhibition that is scatter through town. As they had been successful this was also the reason why even on my second visit to Omi Hachiman (after one in 2017) I still hadn't made it to the channel quarters of Omi Hachiman. 

So today the third attempt. And finally I made it! I headed straight from the train station to the (very small) area of Omi Hachiman with the channels:

And then up the hill behind it with a rope way to a temple on top (the temple wasn't anything special) but with really nice views over Lake Biwa as well as some smaller lakes in the area.

While riding up, I chatted with an elderly Japanese (from nearby Hikone) and later on he insisted to take my picture. Also when I was down the hill again, an other, equally elderly man, this time a kind of local guide, volunteered himself very eagerly to take my picture. Thus Susanne in all different situations. Generally in front of a really nice view. 

Down again, I rode a little bit into the old town area and found the 5th exhibition spot, which was in a very old Japanese house. The art again was, well, questionable, but the local volunteers who man those museums are all very nice. The one today insisted to speak in English, although he only knew a few words. Replying in Japanese did not deter him. 

The strange white heap is art (very thinly cut paper), everything around is the stables of the old house. When I was in the exhibition, I didn't make the association, but now looking at the picture, the white heap looks very much like the salt piles (盛り塩）that one can see sometime in front of restaurants. 

My next destination was Azuchi castle... or better to say the ruins thereof. I had passed those (and not visited them) already 2 years ago, so today was the day to visit them. They are connected to Omi Hachiman by a nice cycling lane (at least partially).

Here a map I found in the middle of nowhere for this cycling lane. However there were also several other ones I came across more inland. Will need to do some more investigations into cycling in Shiga!

Azuchi castle has only a very short history, from start of construction (1576) to it's destruction (1582). Just 6 years!!! And well, what mainly remains of it, are STAIRS:

And yet an other nice view over Lake Biwa:

Half way up, I had green tea and a traditional sweet in this nice tea house in a temple... however this was insufficient for my hunger... so once I had finished with the castle, I went to the nearest conbini and got some lunch (and came back to the castle to eat at it's feet).

This however left me departing the region at around 16:00... way too late to get while there was still light outside to Koka, which was an other 40 km away... 

The ride through the countryside towards Koka was very enjoyable as long as there was light. Nice, small country lanes. Ideal for bicycle riding. 

However right when it started to get dark I came to a point, where my plan foresaw continuing on a really small road through the countryside, instead of a much bigger road. I considered my options then... and decided to give the small road a chance. It would have been fine, if the road actually had gone through. About 1 km in, the asphalt gave room to gravel (which was okay)... but 2.5 km in... the path disappeared. Totally. Looking at google maps (satellite view) now, it seems that there isn't any path at all, but komoot has a path there. Not even marked as single track... So well, there wasn't anything else to do as to ride as quickly as possible back to civilization as it was getting darker and darker. Back at the main road, I considered again. Giving up, and riding to the next train station to do a laborious train ride? Or getting on in the dark on a normal road, without any plan on my garmin. I choose to go on, and actually it was okay. It was dark, and in some places I needed to go a bit slow to check the street conditions (as I was mostly riding on a side walk rather than the street, just for added safety), but specially once I was down in the valley of Koka I found a really perfect street. Small through villages, with a bit of traffic (so not feeling completely isolated), but no through traffic. Which brought me nearly until my hotel for the night. 

The learning for tomorrow is definitely to get going earlier so to be latest around 16:00 in Iga Ueno. Before it get's dark. Riding in the dark is okay... but just defeats the purpose of getting to know the landscape... But at least, I can come back to Koka once again in the future, to enjoy the landscape, I haven't seen today... and probably is quite nice. 

In principle here in Koka there are two Ninja related attractions, but unless I get up very early tomorrow morning, I think I will go only to the Ninja park, which is very close to the hotel (but only opens at 10:00). If I get up earlier, I could go back a bit to a Ninja house, visit that first (or only) and then the ninja park... Let's see tomorrow.