Okutama PLUS ride

Route: home - Ome - Okutama - Otsuki
Bicycle: 118 km
Train: 75 km
Average Speed: 17.7 km/h
Total Ascent: 1098 m
Riding Time: 6:32
Weather: Sunny and not yet too hot, 21 C

This ride was "advertised" on Meetup as "easy going"... but who says that one cannot make an easy going ride into something interesting. As the meeting time in Ome station was relatively late I decided to make an early start instead and head out to Ome by bike, adding about an other 50 km to the ride before the "easy going" part even started. At Ome station I met Daniel, the Meetup organizer who I know from a few previous rides, but apparently it was the first one where I came by road bike and he was rather surprised by the change of "scenery". 

Apart from the organizer there was one more participant, a Spaniard on a mountain bike. So we set of on the river side up to Okutama. Daniel know an underground fish ladder which we visited.

However no fish there... apparently not climbing season. Shortly after we went to a smug restaurant, that could have easily been in Meguro... but was on the shores of this small river serving their local speciality: (overpriced) meat loafs. But the setting was nice. 

There we consulted our maps and both I and the Spaniard knew that there was a small road up to Okutama lake instead of the slightly bigger one that has a lot of tunnels and convinced Daniel to try for that one. Which is a nice, albeit slow road up. Mostly in the shade. Sometimes with a few hikers and some gravel... but all manageable by road bike. It even has some nice small bridges. Only 2 people at any  time are allowed on it.

This is the same area, where I cycled many years ago (2016?) with a colleague of Matteo on the exact day they lost their satellite. 

We didn't lose our way and instead made it up to Lake Okutama. Which per the Meetup description was going to be our goal before heading down again to Ome station. But the day was nice and we just had made it up here, so Daniel suggested to instead cycle on and go to Otsuki over the mountains. The Spaniard couldn't join us because he had come by car and needed to go back to Ome station... but after some thinking I decided to join Daniel instead. 

Not too far from the peak (but unbeknown to me) I had a low point and clearly needed some carbs... but hey,  there was a small coffeeshop. Which turned out to mainly sell coffee... and little else, but they had a small cookie filled with An and  fresh cheese which  turned out to be everything I needed. A little rest, something sugary to drink and some small cookies. And off we went up and up, until the tunnel that would bring us through the top and then down a rather gentle slope to Otsuki. 

Up and up to Kazahari pass

Route: Musashi Itsukaichi - Kazahari pass - Okutama - home

Bicycle: 125 km

Train: 45 km

Average Speed: 18.2 km/h

Total Ascent: 1319 m

Riding Time: 6:51 h

Weather: Sunny and an agreeable temperature, 20 C

Last year October I had come to the lower slopes of this mountain with my friends, when we cycled from Tokyo to Hinohara. And now that I start to like cycling in the mountains I decided to come back again to attempt the full climb. As always before going, I planned my ride with Komoot and looked at the profile. A long, long climb, but it didn't seem to be too crazy steep... and I knew that if it was going to be too tiring I could turn any place and just roll back again the mountain, back to a train station. But finally that was not necessary and actually I enjoyed the ride up quite a lot. Slowly, and with breaks but essentially riding up all the way (just a very short part I pushed the bike, but that was away from the main street on a crazy steep climb on rugged roads in a village). 

This road is well travelled by cyclists, motorcyclists and also some cars, but not too many and no trucks. Which also means that there are enough vending machines along the road to replenish water resources and several restaurants as well. When I passed the onsen where last time we relaxed and then returned it was still too early for lunch, so went on, and some time later I passed through a small onsen village and had lunch at a ryokan. They had very nice looking wild vegetable tempura. 

I often order tempura... but actually often find that it is too fatty... and this was no exception. Plus it was way too much. But definitely looked very nice. 

After that, back on the bike and up, up it went. While cycling up and taking a rest in the shade along the road, I met a German cyclist with whom I have cycled twice. She is crazy fast and crazy long ranging rides. She was already on her way back, having cycled from Shibuya to Ome, Okutama, over the mountain and was now on her way back down to Musashi Itsukaichi and then back to Shibuya all by bike and still had plans for the afternoon. After a 200+ km ride. What energy!

The pass itself was actually a bit disappointing... no view.

But not that much later I got to this very nice view point. The crazy thing is that that lake down there, is mighty old Okutama lake! A lake to which you need to climb up and up... and there it was, down in the valley! Very satisfying view. I guess I am starting to get it why there are famous climbs with famous views. Probably this one isn't really famous, but for me this view was really rewarding. 

Then downhill, along the lake, further downhill to Okutama station, further downhill to Ome and I continued on. At that point I made a wrong decision giving to Komoot the decision how to ride back home, which resulted in a long stretch on a very busy road, which in hindsight I could have avoided in probably 2 different ways (Tamagawa cycling road or smaller but not too small roads in the same area). Anyway, I made it back down to Tokyo, linked up close to Lake Tama with the cycling road that goes all the way straight into Kichijoji and then from there back home. Long ride... but from that picture above all downhill!

GW2023 D7 Exploring around Biwako

Route: Kyoto - Biwako
Bicycle: 59 km
Train: 20 km
Average Speed: 14.5 km/h 
Total Ascent: 584 m
Riding Time: 4:04 h
Weather: Cloudy and at the end a few light rain drops, 23 C

Also this last day of this years Golden Week was a great day out. Actually this week was much better than anticipated. Originally it seemed that only Monday and Tuesday weather would be good and rain on all other days… but finally there were only a few rain drops on Monday and today (just a few, and only for maybe about 30 min). The first real rain day is going to be tomorrow (which actually is today, as I often do not manage to write all the posts in the evening of the ride… and am writing now on Sunday on the train back from Kyoto to Tokyo a lot of the posts). 

I started in Kyoto from my hotel, over to Yamashina and over to Otsu, passing through the same passes as yesterday. In principle my plan was to travel on from there through the mountains around Uji, see some tea planatations, down to Uji and back to Kyoto. But when I was up at Biwako I didn’t feel I had that much energy, and thus changed plan. 

I had a break along the lake, close to this restaurant from Wuerzburg. It was closed for renovations a few months ago… and today I was there simply too early for lunch… so I didn’t go this time either… but definitely on my “to do” list for the future.

While sitting here I saw on the other shore of the lake this strange, white, mountain shaped building. I had come across it years ago on my Tour of Japan ride, but hadn’t taken any pictures. So I decided to head there and explore. 

It’s a huge, modern building that integrates well into the landscape. Looking like a mountain from one perspective and from the other it is transparent. However the building itself houses some kind of new religious sect. Whatever they may believe, clearly their leader believes that the money of the followers are better spent by the cult rather than by the people who earned that money. It is also called “research institute” which for a sect obviously is totally misleading. But anyway, I passed, shot some pictures and still kind of like the building. It is not the only religiously funded building in the neighbourhood either. Miho Museum (where I had initially planned to go yesterday) is also funded by some strange sect, that also extracted a lot of money from their believers. Plus there are other religious buildings throughout Japan that are clearly funded by a lot of money extorted from believers. Not too surprised that someone got angry at these kind of churches and shot Abe-san, believing he had some connection with one of those sects. 

I still hadn’t a clear target for the day, but now thought to maybe just make a round along the smaller part of Lake Biwa. However a bit further along, I sat down looking onto Hiei-san on the other shore and explored on Google maps what is around there. I actually discovered that there are 2 ropeways going up to Hiei-san, which surprised me, as we went many years ago by bus. While browsing through google maps I also noticed some temples at the foot of the mountain, and decided to replan my ride towards there. And this was a great decision. 

I passed over Biwa-O-Hashi towards Katada, and passed through the fishing village of Katada. Which turned out to be a relatively intact, old village with a lot of temples and shrines. Definitely a place to visit again. I stumbled across a temple on the shore with a ticket booth and a parking lot, so I thought, well, I am here… so let’s see what this is about:

From there my way took me land inwards and up the lower slopes of Hiei-san through a rural area and up into a forest traversed by a very small and winding road. Very nice to ride indeed. Not to steep. Just nice. At the highest point of that road there was a remote temple with absolutely no one around. I took a quick look… but then went on, as there was an other temple on my list. 

Saikyo-ji. Again something found on google maps, and what a find! 

I arrived around 16:00 and thought that maybe it is already too late, but anyway went to ask at the ticket booth and it turned out I had a full hour left before they were going to close. 

This is a sprawling temple complex, which somehow seems to love colourful pinwheels. The only other place I remember seeing that many pinwheels was an other temple: Osorezan in Aomori. 

Even some of their zen gardens were full of these pinwheels. 

Definitely a nice spot and probably one to revisit in November with the red foliage, as the path up to the temple was lined with maple trees.

This put to a conclusion my Golden Week 2023. Tomorrow heading back by train to Tokyo and then off for a few days to Vietnam on a business trip. It was again a perfect Golden Week, with weather much better than expected. I was also happy with my hotel choice in Kyoto. Kyoto U-Bell hotel in Jujo. Not necessarily a place I would recommend to other travellers, but for me with the bike it was a good spot. In-house sento (which I used every day, except the one when I went to the super sento… which wasn’t the best), close to the subway station (I came back by train more often than not and did not reassemble the bike at Kyoto station to ride the last meters. It would have been doable… but with the hotel so close and often taking a train out the next morning again, it made more sense to leave the bike all packed up.), a relatively big room and I could even open the window a little bit. And all this for a good price. About 8,000 yen per night. I had booked it I think back in February… while in Kyoto for an other long weekend. I knew GW was coming up, but didn’t have any specific plan yet, so I thought that I could as well reserve a room in Kyoto and if I got some other idea later… could still cancel it at no cost. But I didn’t have any other idea (nor did I really think about it too much, once the hotel in Kyoto was booked), so that’s what I did. And it was good. Already a lot of time  in Kyoto recently. But there is still more to explore. It is a convenient location, relatively fast to ride out of the city, but if starting / ending by train, also a major train station with a lot of connections. 

While I have done trips from A to B to C with all the luggage on board, it is also very nice to ride a light bicycle without all the added weight. And have a stable base and be able every day to decide where to go, depending on weather, strength … So yes, definitely enjoyed it.

One thing a lot of people are always afraid about are the CROWDS of GW. Well, it all depends where you go, but frankly even today (I.e. Sunday, D8) taking the train back (on one of the most crowded days in the calendar) things were smooth. Yes, I had reserved my last row seat weeks ago… but I managed to change it on Friday to an earlier train, as the weather on Sunday was looking really, really rainy (and did deliver on this promise). And actually there were still available seats to be booked on most trains (just not with the luggage area). So all cool. No need to fuss about GW. 

GW2023 D6 O-Mikoshi in Nagara

Route: Kyoto - Nagara - Otsu and back
Bicycle: 33 km
Carrying o-Mikoshi: 6.8 km

Riding Time: 2:35 h

Carrying Time: 1:54 h
Average Speed: 12.6 km/h
Total Ascent: 500 m
Weather: some clouds, some sun, warm, but bearable,  23 C

Originally my plan was to cycle to Miho museum (a fabulous place where I went with the Brompton a few years ago), but I got a late start and wasn’t feeling full of energy, but still I got started. At the basis of the climb up over the hills from Yamashina to Otsu, I saw a road advise that the road would be closed between 13:00 and 14:00 o’clock due to a matsuri in the village below. So I decided to have a look. What I didn’t expect that I’d be enlisted to be a carrier of the smaller women o-mikoshi. But hey, I hadn’t any specific plan for the day, so carrying an o-mikoshi through the streets of Nagara was a good plan.  

… and was a lot of fun. I had wanted to participate in a matsuri a few years ago in Higashi Kitazawa (where I was living) after seeing it as a spectator, but the weekend it was scheduled we were away, so never got round doing it. But will look into it again, maybe this year! 

On the way we stopped a few times, got food and drinks from the neighbours, rested a bit and then went on our way with the o-mikoshi. 

After about 2.5 hours we were back at the shrine, had a last religious ceremony and then a group pictures with all participants and the mikoshi’s in the background.

There were 3 mikoshi’s in total: The main, big one; a smaller one for the women (we were only 7, 6 carrying it, and one carrying the feet to put the mikoshi to rest), and another small one for the children. 

Plus a wagon full of flowers, a young priest on a horse, a fable lion… and a lot of local people. 

GW2023 D5 Exploring gardens around Kyoto

Route: Kyoto to Uji and back
Bicycle: 54 km
Walking in parks and temples/shrines: 5.4 km
Total Riding time: 4:12 h
Average Speed: 12.9 km/h
Total Ascent: 339 m
Weather: surprisingly sunny and quite hot… but still just about bearable, 25 C

After the long ride around Lake Biwa yesterday, today I needed a much more relaxing day. So I looked in the internet for suggestions of gardens with hydrangea and/or azalea / rhododendron which are currently in flower (at least I saw already a bunch back at lake Biwa but also in the mountains between Kyoto and Takashima. And I found 4 potentially interesting places:

• Jonan-gu shrine

• Manpuku temple

• Mimuroto temple 

• Keihanna Commemorative Park

I only made it to the first 3 of these places, but each of them (!) was a real discovery. It was really amazing. I have been in Kyoto and around Kyoto quite frequently, or so I thought. So I wasn’t expecting to be able to discover in one ride 3 totally new places and each of them absolutely enchanting.

I started with Jonan-gu, quite close to my hotel and in what from even a few meters away seems to be a quite industrial, heavily traffic ridden neighbourhood you would not want to visit… but as so often in Japan the most beautiful places can be in the least beautiful neighbourhoods. 

Jonan-gu itself, i.e. the shrine is a pretty normal shrine… but it has a huge garden around. Actually it isn’t one garden, but a array of different gardens of different Japanese garden design from different centuries. Like a exhibition of garden design. Gardens focussed on cherry and plum blossoms, garden focused on water, a rock garden, … I forgot how many different Japanese gardens, but probably somewhere around 8 - 10! 

There wasn’t too much blooming right now, except the water lilies… which was a bit surprising as I had seen both wisteria as well as azaleas in full bloom back at Lake Biwa a few days ago. But even so the garden was exceptional. No idea why this place isn’t one of the “must visit places in Kyoto”… but no complaining here… was nice to have a garden with just a few other (mostly local) tourists. I even bought a tenugi for my wall in Tokyo. 

And as said… the surroundings themselves were rather dreadful:

After this first great visit, I got back into the saddle and started cycling towards Uji on a reasonably planned route. My next stop was Manpuku-ji. A temple with a distinctive Chinese influence. 

I took my time visiting this temple, as it was getting hotter and hotter… and the temple is rather large, with a lot of buildings. But in the temple one could find some respite. Once done visiting, I went to a temple nearby that was making publicity to have ‘temple noodles”… and yes, they had ramen with mountain vegetables, in a space where in the back room Buddha was worshipped, while in the front people where having their ramen. 

I probably spent the hottest ours of the day here… before continuing on to Mimuroto temple, famous for its hill covered in blooming azaleas. 

I had comfortably time here to visit everything before the garden was going to close. But clearly I had not enough time to cycle to the much further afield 4th sightseeing spot of the day. So I replanned my route (now very easy with Komoot and my wahoo, that allows for uploading a newly planned route on the go, something my garmin was not able to do), cycled through central Uji and on to the Kizugawa in the South with its cycling path. I made brief stop at this famous submersible bridge, walked halfway across and then continued along the river back to Kyoto and my hotel. 

The only disappointment of the day was the onsen at the end of it. I had searched for super sento’s in Kyoto and Fushimi Chikara-no-yu had come up… but it was a rather outdated supersento. And what killed it for me was the inability to choose the water temperature for the shower. But hey, one disappointment in a day of 3 major discoveries isn’t bad at all. 

GW2023 D4 Biwaichi (nearly)

Route: Around Biwalake from Katata to Karasaki

Bicycle: 161 km

Train: 50 km

Average Speed: 20.9 km/h

Riding Time: 7:42 h 

Total Ascent: 287 m

Weather: Sunny and getting warm, 17 C (on average… but definitely felt a lot warmer around the mid of the day)

After the Yogoko-ichi yesterday with my colleague, today I did attempt the famous Biwa-ichi. The day was nearly perfect for this. No wind, no chance of rain, just a little bit too hot in the early afternoon for my liking. But just about tolerable. 

I got up at 5:30, which sounds worse than it is… seeing that at that time the sun is already out and about and took a train from Kyoto station that arrived shortly before 7:00 at Katata station. As suggested by the rental cycle shop in Maibara yesterday, I just planned on doing the Biwa-ichi from Biwa-o-Hashi instead of the full Biwa-ichi, both to safe a few kilometres and make this attempt actually doable for me and also to safe myself from the relentless and stop and go traffic close to Otsu.

I generally stayed on the cycle path for “slow cyclists”, simply because it is a separate cycle path rather than the need to cycle on the street and need to fight for space with cars and lorries. The surface isn’t totally ideal and some of the bumps do get into your hands and back, but I still prefer that over close passing lorries. 

The first 50 km from Katata to around Maibara passed quickly. I had cycled that area already multiple times in previous rides, and it is a nice cycling area. I had my obligatory stop at the solitary tree on the shore:

Not really sure if one can call this tree SOLITARY… it hardly ever is alone, but always well accompanied by cyclists, motorists and car drivers eager to get a shot of it with their chosen mode of transportation. 

The second 50 km were a lot more tiring and I needed a lot more stops, maybe every 15 km or so… But they were also in the most beautiful part of the Lake Biwa, with a lot of nature, a small street along the shore and small, traditional villages. 

I did enjoy it, and definitely want to come back, maybe just for a ride from Maibara to Takashima, to really enjoy that area at a leisurely pace and maybe with a bit less heat. 

The good thing about riding around Lake Biwa, is that there is a train line on both sides of the lake, so one is never too far away from salvation through JR, if that should become necessary. Very good for long, exhausting rides, to have the option to give up and find a train station in proximity. I think that allows me ultimately to ride further as the safety net is always there. 

Someone wanted to have a golden temple to live in… so painted their garden wall in gold (or so it seemed to me)

I remembered from a ride I had done from Kyoto through Takashima to Ogoto onsen, that the road after Takashima was quite narrow, but either the road works had advanced, or the car traffic was simply much slower than when I was here back in January, today it felt okay. Even got the shot of the solitary (and this one really IS solitary) torii in the water:

But the best picture of the ride, I think I took here, somewhere between Shiga and Horai station:

This picture will definitely make it into this years family calendar. 

All the time I was riding I had in the back of my mind, to eventually try the full Biwa-ichi (if I had enough energy), or to get in my second ever 100 mile (I.e. 160 km) ride completed. The full Biwa-ichi was out of discussion after the very tiring second 50 km… but I thought I could attempt the 160 km… which only were about 12 km more than the full circle from Katata. When I arrived back at Katata station, I made a quick plan of a ride that just added enough km to get up to the 160 km and to a station. And I was even rewarded with a last sightseeing spot along the shore, Karasaki ninja. 

After this long ride I was very much exhausted and had quite a sunburn (not peeling though) on my arms and feet, but still it was a great ride. And specially the most Northern part of the lake warrants more rides. 

On the next day, however I needed a rest day… and found the perfect gardens in/around Kyoto to do so. 

GW2023 D3 Northern Biwako with Sayaka

Route: Maibara - Yogoko and back
Bicycle: 77 km
Train: 160 km
Average Speed: 17.1 km/h
Total Ascent: 305 m
Riding Time: 4:28 h
Weather: Sunny but not to warm, strong headwind on the way out… nice tailwind coming back, 17C

My company is organising every year a cycling event in Europe and this year I signed up for the first time. I found out through the Japan company newsletter that a colleague from Osaka office also signed up… so we decided to spend a day together cycling when I was going to be in Kansai. Although she lives here, she has just started cycling, so didn’t know any good routes. So I proposed a few routes around the area I knew… and she selected the one from Maibara to Yogoko and back. (A ride I had done on a rental road bike a few months ago). It was also her first time rinko-ing (i.e. putting the bicycle into a bag and on the train).

We met at Maibara station, reassembled our bikes and then set out to the lake against a quite fierce wind. But not as bad as wind in the Netherlands. 

Surprisingly it was her first time at Lake Biwa although she lives in Kobe. We cycled along the shore mostly on the cycle path which officially is labelled “slow cyclists”, but protects from the cars and lorries. 

Specially the landscape around Yogo lake was really nice, with wild wisteria blooming on the banks of a small river.

At the lake we had lunch in an old fashioned restaurant and then returned with the wind in our backs in slightly downhill. Riding back for long stretches we literally didn’t pedal at all… and for some other parts we pedalled a little bit… but really without any real effort. Specially the part reaching nearly 30 km/h on a very gentle downhill (so gentle that it was kind of invisible) was a lot of fun. 

On the way back we passed through the countryside instead of along the shore, essentially repeating the ride I had done in early December last year. Passed through Nagahama historical centre …

… and back to the station at Maibara. With my new rinko bag from Montbell I am now very quick rinko-ing, so had some time to speak with the staff at the cycle rental station and got good advise for a Biwa-ichi (i.e. a total round of Biwa Lake by bicycle). I had seen that the weather on the next day was going to be good and, crucially no wind. So I thought that this would be the ideal day to attempt a Biwa-ichi. But it is 184 km… which is a bit too much for me. My longest ride so far was a 160 km (I.e. 100 mile) ride a few years back in the Netherlands helped with a nice tailwind along. So 184 km with a bit of hills (more than in the Netherlands) and without a constant tailwind sounded too hard. But I got the good advise, to only do the bigger part of the lake from Biwa-O-hashi onwards, i.e. Katata to Katata. Also because the part between Katata and Otsu is quite heavy with traffic (as I experienced when cycling from Gifu Hashima to Kyoto earlier in the year) and thus neither fast nor enjoyable to ride. 

GW2023 D2 Kyoto - Takashima

Route: Kyoto - Ohara - Kutsukijishihara - Takashima
Bicycle: 104 km
Train: 55 km
Average Speed: 19.3 km/h
Total Ascent: 913 m
Riding Time: 5:24 h
Weather: Mostly sunny, getting very windy in the afternoon and a few rain drops, 17 C

I nearly repeated a tour I had done in January this year, out of Kyoto, up to Ohara and then on through the mountains to Takashima. Back in January I was greeted by snow on the highest point of the ride… today, I was surrounded by fresh green and wild wisteria blooming in the mountains and along the streams.

Riding it now for the second time, the incline felt less steep and less long… and the descent down to Takashima is really nice, not too steep so really rolling down the hill without too much breaking. Ideal! 

It is mostly on a main road, but every now and then there is still the old village road. All the time along a river. What I really liked is how different coloured the hills are. So many variations of green. 

Last time I cycled from Takashima along Lake Biwa until it got dark (and until I had 100 km in the legs), but partially the road from Takashima on the lake is quite busy with traffic, so today I decided instead to prolong the ride by exploring a neighbouring valley. Turn left from Kutsukiichiba and along a gently sloping valley, that feels extremely remote. On a road with hardly any traffic, as the road doesn’t really go anywhere… except those small villages along that valley. This was a real discovery, and maybe next time with more time, I could do that entire road.

The landscape is really nice…

… however this is Japan… so even in nice landscape someone succeeded in constructing a really ugly building:

A few weeks ago I went with a friend of mine cycling to Miyagase dam in Tokyo and she had a cycling bag (rinko bag in Japanese) that seemed very convenient and much easier than the one I have, where I am always struggling to close it. So I bought that same bag, and today used it for the first time… and what a discovery. It took me barely 8 min (doing everything calmly) to get the bike into the bag. Only the strap is a bit too long… but it is adjustable. So just need to find the right length. With this bag I will definitely do much more rinko bag rides!

Returning to Kyoto by train and I left the bicycle already packed up, as tomorrow I will go to Maibara to meet a colleague from Osaka office and cycle together.