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.

Saturday, 7 January 2023

NY2023 D7 Kyoto - Otsu - Uji - Kyoto

Route: Kyoto - Otsu - Uji - Kyoto
Bicycle: 63 km
Average Speed: 17.3 km/h
Total Ascent: 380 m
Riding Time: 3:39 h
Weather: Cloudy, rainy from Uji onwards, 3 C

After a 1 day hiatus yesterday (the first working day in 2023, that I spent in Osaka office, so that I could extend my stay in Kansai a bit further), today back on the bike. The weather a few days ago didn't look very promissing for today, yesterday evening it looked a bit better... so I actually had planned a quite ambitious ride for today... but then today in the morning it again looked like it would be raining in the afternoon... and sure it did... while I was still on the bike. But it wasn't a too strong rain and by the time it started raining, I was already in Uji, so already back in civilization. 

Actually today's ride I kind of copied from someone I met 5 years ago, while cycling through Japan, when I headed down from Omi Hachiman to Uji. Since then I am following him on Strava. Normally he makes very long rides or rides with a lot of climbing, but a few days ago I saw him making a ride from Kyoto to Otsu and then down to Uji, so I kind of copied that for today. 

The first stop was on lake Biwa which lay in the mist of the cold day.

When riding into town, I remembered that there was a German Brauhaus in a German half timbered house. Last time I had just bought a conbini lunch when I spotted this restaurant, so I decided to go there today... but it was closed as the building is under complete renovation. That's how it looked like in 2017:


So I just had a nuts bar and then continued on my way along the Kizugawa, which flows out of the Biwa lake. Down a very nice valley, with a very gentle slope and not too much traffic. Somewhere midway through hunger set it in, but I didn't need to wait until Uji, but found a small village along the way where 2 middle aged women had a small restaurant in their living room, where I had fried chicken with tartar sauce, i.e. Chicken Nanban


Continuing down the river I came to Uji, took a picture on the bridge, went to the toilet and then continued in the starting (light) rain back to Kyoto. 

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