SW - D2 Echigo Tsumari Triennial

Route: Echigo Yuzawa - Muikamachi - Tokamachi - Tsunan

Bicycle: 36 km

Train: 37 km

Riding time: 2:28h

Average speed: 13,5 km/h

Total ascent: 380 m

Weather: Sunny, too hot (as often before a typhoon) and very windy, 33C

After arriving in the dark yesterday evening at my accommodation, when I got up today I found that I had been sleeping at the valley station of the local ski lift. 

The ski towns in Japan, at least in this valley are very retro without wanting to be so. Just stuck somewhere in the 1970/80 never renovated again. With some hotels now abandoned and the others not too well kept. I went twice in winter to ski with my former colleagues quite closeby (Iwappara) and the most impressive where the chairlifts. Just a seat and nothing else. No protective bat to avoid you falling down tens of meters and certainly no wind protection or heating as lately has become quite normal in the Alps. All this however in a landscaped blessed with abundance of snow, very much to the contrast to the Alps. 

The streets are also prepared for the snow and have small warm water outlets build in to keep the roads ice free. 

Today however no snow but instead heat. A lot of heat. Although I started at 7:00, the temperature was already up to 29C. Luckily however my way through the valley  to the train station was all a gentle downhill. 

I didn’t want to target any specific train as I didn’t want to feel compelled to rush plus I don’t really know yet how long it takes me to pack up my bike. Decently much longer than with the brompton. But when I arrived at the station I had comfortable time to pack everything, get a drink and board the train.

The train brought me through what seemed to be very high mountains (one station was even totally underground) and over to Tokamachi, one of the main towns of the Echigo - Tsumari Art Triennial. I had been here back in 2015, then by car, and really liked the laidback atmosphere, the landscape and how that modern art somehow coexisted with landscape and people. At the station I picked up my “stamp rally ticket book” screwed my bicycle back together and set of. I had planned a tour around Tokamachi to the main art attractions and then through the valley to Tsunan where I will be staying for the next 4 days. But… the heat! 

Anyway I did set out to my first goal and on the way even achieved my 4th QOM … by cycling & pushing up the bike and resting repeatedly in the shade. 13:38 min for 0,75 km! And still QOM ☺️. Thanks to the fact of being the first woman on Strava to even attempt that climb. Surprisingly. It’s not such a remote place and with the artwork at the top I would have expected a few more cyclists to go that way, but either Strava is much less popular in Japan or cycling is even less popular for women in Japan as it already was in the Netherlands. (Yes, everyone cycles in an utilitarian way in NL, but for Sport it’s still a 10:1 ratio more or less. At least that’s what I counted on cool days in the winter). 

On the top of the hill I stocked up on fluids and hiked up the last hundreds of meters through some art with to the first major art work. An entire building used as hotel at night and an art work during the day:

The main attraction of this building is its movable roof:

After that I needed my first longer break in the club house of a low key golf club and got my first ice cream of the day. There I decided to cut my visit short and add in a museum instead of more outdoor and more cycling. Which was a wise decision seeing how hot the day has become. I did continue a little bit though as I thought there was an other cluster of artwork nicht to gar from where I was and all downhill. Well it wasn’t all downhill and I only found one artwork. Then I remembered that I had seen the others a few years ago and that they had involved a bit of hiking around in a field. So no. Not today. I did see some other artwork though, like this “exploded” parking lot.

Cycling back I want only cycling in the heat but also against the strong typhoon winds:

At some point I actually only wanted to rest in the shade of a building, but that building happened to be a sober restaurant. After not too much thought I decided to stop here and have lunch. It must have been a pretty famous restaurant in the area, as there was a queue and a big parking lot. But I finally got my very special so ba dish: 

Special and filling. And finally I restarted my ride back into the city and to its modern art museum. For a town like Tokamachi, which seems to be pretty much stuck in the past and getting older and more outdated by the day, this modern art museum was a real beacon of light. And for me specially the inner yard with its water filled pool was a nice place to rest cool down before entering into the museum.

They were a few interesting art pieces inside as well. For example this installation which gracefully danced every now and then…

Or this installation of a heavy liquid flowing down and leaving impressions in the pool below. 

There was also a very interesting model train ride in the dark. A very simple idea: A small model train equipped with a small, strong light, riding around in a dark room through which some other objects are placed so the work of art is actually the shadows along the walls. A very meditative place. Also the swarm of clock insects was quite nice:

There wasn’t anything else interesting in the vicinity so I took another long rest in the shades of the inner yard before heading to the train station, packing up the bicycle yet again, and boarding local train to my accommodation in Tsunan, where I will be staying for the next 4 days.

BTW, the museum had an onsen, but even the train station here in Tsunan has an onsen. Neither of which I visited, as I have my own onsen including rotenburo in my ryokan accommodation.