Weekend away in Chichibu 秩父で週末を

Day 1

Route: Temples around Chichibu 
Bicycle:  46 km

Train: 80 km 

Average speed: 14  km/h
Total ascent: 503 m 

Riding time: 3:10 h
Weather: Sunny, blue skies and no longer that hot, 24 C

Finally it has become cool enough to enjoy the outside. Per the weather forecast the entire weekend is supposed to be very sunny but not too hot. So I decided to do a weekend away in Chichibu. Not my first time in Chichibu but first time at some of the temples.

Around Chichibu there is a famous pilgrimage of 34 kannon temples. A whole bunch of them are all packed together in the village before then petering out into the countryside. 

I got up early, cycled to Ikebukuro and took a very flashy train:

In some of my previous visits to Chichibu I had already visited several of the temples, so for this weekend I planned to travel to the ones a bit further afield (but did also repeat a few known temples. 

I stayed in Chichibu itself in a somewhat strange hotel. It must have been the dormitory of a company. The rooms were like 1K (1 room with kitchen) apartments and there was a dinning room. I had taken the room with breakfast, something I don’t do very often as Japanese breakfast is mostly lost on me, so I was very surprised that there was tiramisu at breakfast (among many other things) and it was exceptionally good. But that belongs to Day 2. Day 1 ended in an onsen not too far from the hotel along a river. Nice, somewhat older super sento.

Day2

Route: Temples around Chichibu and back to Tokyo.
Bicycle:  78 km

Train: km 

Average speed: 15.8 km/h
Total ascent: 691 m 

Riding time: 4:09 h 48
Weather: Sunny, blue skies and a bit hotter than necessary, but cyclable, 25C

Blabla 

Vgyftyy