This blog is about travelling through Japan on a bicycle. Initially on a foldable bicycle (Brompton) and more recently mostly by road bike (Spezialized)... but also by train, ferry, plane, bus or any other transport, if sea, weather, mountains or the like come between me and my desire to ride.
I have tried to summarise information that could be potentially helpful also for other bicycle travellers through Japan, such as list of bicycle roads, helpful web pages etc.

Thursday, 5 January 2023

NY2023 D6 Kyoto - Ohara

Route: Kyoto - Ohara and back
Bicycle: 50 km
Average Speed: 16.2 km/h
Total Ascent: 472 m
Riding Time: 3:06 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, and a few rain drops in the hills, 5 C


In principle today I wanted to avoid the mountains, but surprisingly I did more vertical ascent than yesterday... which kind of sounds surprising. 

After the cold and rainy experience yesterday, I took it easy this morning, getting up late (after all I am on vacation) and then deciding on a rather random route not too far from Kyoto. I just looked at google maps, marked a few temples that looked somewhat promising and planned a route. 

As I started so late, I didn’t make it to all my spots, but I had a great and very varied day, with more than sufficient “temples” 

  • A cat temple
  • A temple dedicated to pickles
  • An actual Buddhist temple up in the hills above Kyoto
  • An onsen temple

The cat temple is actually called so in Japanese ニャンニャン寺 (NjanNjanJi), the sound that cats make in Japanese. It’s an old Japanese house dedicated to everything cat:

Per google maps it seemed that they also had a restaurant, but no. At this point I was a bit hungry, so another look at google maps and saw that there was a Kyoto delicatesse restaurant a bit further up the hill. It turned out to be a pickles factory with restaurant and shop. 

With every lunch, there was a free pickles buffet... and I have to admit these pickles were good. I am not a total fan of pickles, but these were extremely fresh and tasty. 

From there it wasn't too far to the only actual temple of the day, Sanzen-in ab ancient buddhist temple with a nice garden, that seems to be very famous (for its azaleas)... and seems to get a lot of visitors, except today. But there were parking lots all over the village.



From there it was a fast and easy ride back to Kyoto, passing by briefly by my accommodation to pick  up some clothes, and then off to another super sento in the center of Kyoto. 

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