SW - D4 Kiyotsu Gorge

Route: Tsunan - Kiyotsu Gorge & back

Bicycle: 51 km

Riding time: 3:12 h

Average speed: 15,9 km/h

Total ascent: 881 m

Weather: Cloudy, later some sun, no rain, perfect weather for cycling, 15 C

Today was a perfect cycling day: not too hot, no rain and a nice destination with some intermediate stops as well. The first at stop was this: 

Entering inside it becomes very serene and adult…

Only to throw your high art feeling back to the ground with this playground installed inside the artwork:

While making my way uphill I came through the small village of Kuramata, small, but well equipped (police, school, post office). I took advantage of the post office and sent my mother her birthday card. For 70 yen, I got a card, the postage to Germany and a free package of handkerchiefs as a present. And hours later when I was having a very light lunch outside of the gorge, I was approached by a Japanese lady who asked me if I had sent a postcard from Kuramata post office earlier today. It turns out, her sister works there and I had forgotten to write my address on the card. As they had asked me in the post office where I was going and they had a sister there, they safely found me in the middle of the Japanese countryside and I got to give my address to the post office lady by phone. So now the birthday wishes should be safely on their way. 

From the post office I continued my way up the lush green valley. Lucky for me there was a road on both sides of the valley, one with some considerable traffic (specially lorries) and the other one very quiet. That's the one I took. 

The gorge has a tunnel exclusively for sightseeing. When I first heard about this tunnel I was wondering where it was actually leading, as there didn't seem to be a street beyond the tunnel, and yes, this tunnel was only constructed for sightseeing of the gorge and has several outlooks. It was constructed maybe in the 70's or so and a few years ago was in need of reform and instead of just reforming it, someone had the great idea to hire a renown architect to redesign the tunnel, and this is the result:

At the very end of the tunnel is the biggest outlook in front of which the architect put a shallow water basin in which the tunnel and landscape reflect. 

The views from the tunnel are obviously also nice, that's what this tunnel was originally built for, but nowadays, the architecture is even more impressive. 

At the exit/entrance of the tunnel is a small building with a coffeeshop and a footbath on the 2nd floor. Also by a famous architect.

Riding back down the valley I made a brief detour on the "wrong" side of the valley, the one with the many lorries, but quickly made it back over again to the quiet side and up to an other art work, a snake slithering through the hills.

From there on it was nearly all downhill, making just a stop to admire this art work, which is probably the one I like most in the Echigo-Tsumari region. Very serene:

Already quite close to my ryokan, I made a last small detour to see the cliffs on the Shinano river: