Nippara Cave

Route: Ome - Nippara - Haijima
Bicycle: 69 km
Train: 105 km
Average Speed: 16.8 km/h
Total Ascent: 832 m
Riding Time: 4:05 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, warm, but an early start helped, 26 C

Probably my last ride before the summer heat does grip Tokyo and the rest of Japan (probably with the exception of Hokkaido... but no plans to go there anytime soon). Today I did manage to get up early take a train before 6:30 am and start already at 8:30 am in Ome. A few weeks ago I had cycled from home to Ome... but today, that was only an option for cycling back... not for cycling out, as it is going to become too hot. Thanks to the early start I was already in the shadows of the forest when it started to become hotter. I took it easy (as always), cycled up to Ome first, had a break there for some onigiri, and then onwards to Nippara. A dead end road along a mountain valley full of green, a wild flowing river ... 

... and at the end surprisingly a village.

Above the village is a lime stone cave which claimed to have some stalactites and stalagmites, well... it has some not very impressive stalactites but it is still a great cave and so coooooool (but just about okay).

All this without ever leaving Tokyo! 

On my way up I had noticed a small restaurant with fishing pond besides the street which seemed to have a nice terrace overlooking the river, so instead of having lunch at the cave I road down and had a surprisingly good (but small) pasta dish here while watching the paying fishermen not fishing any fish. 

On the way back I had considered riding all the way back to home along Tamagawa... and while it was getting cooler.. it was still pretty hot, so decided to give up on that idea, and take a train back from Haijima. But instead of going home, went to a famous bicycle shop, in principle only to get a new saddle (as my old one had broken a few weekends before when I feel while standing with the bike)... but turned out there were other things also to fix... so finally I handed in my bike for the next 4 weeks for a general overhaul. Was about time after about 25,000 km!

Too hot outside... so an onsen it was

Route: Hashimoto - half way up to Miyagase - Machida - home

Bicycle: 66 km

Train: 35 km

Average Speed: 14.5 km/h

Total Ascent: 748 m

Riding Time: 4:31 h

Weather: Sunny and too hot, 27 C

This weekend I tried a ride in the mountains  (original plan was to ride up to Miyagase dam and then maybe further up from there)... but we started quite late and it was already quite hot when we were still climbing up, so on a dragging climb we (I, to be precise) decided to turn back and take a different route again back to down the mountains, to lunch and a very relaxing onsen. Actually a very nice super sento in your typical built up ugly Tokyo suburbia... but this was a super sento with a twist: Very dark waters and one of the rotenburos at only 35 C, which was a perfectly coolish temperature to linger in the water for a long long time, getting out of it only occasionally to heat up again a little bit in the next pool over (which was probably at around 40 C). 

The region around Miyagase dam is probably the easiest place in the mountains accessible from my home. A short ride to Medaimae or Sasazuka station and then a direct train to Hashimoto and in less than an hour I am at the starting point and from Hashimoto up into the mountains it isn't too far either. 

After the long and relaxing soak in the onsen it had gotten a bit cooler and so it was possible to ride a bicycle again... and instead of just slowly riding to the next (and closeby) train station, I decided to ride back home. It didn't look too far on a map (about 30ish kilometers)... but it turned out that the landscape (you can't call it countryside because it is essentially all built up until Tokyo) around Machida is pretty lumpy. A lot of up and downs. Not the best ride I ever did... But hey, I made it back home. 

Ride out to Fuji & Rain around Kawaguchiko

Day 1

Route: Hashimoto - Doshi road - Yamanakako

Bicycle: 81 km

Train: 35 km

Average Speed: 14.7 km/h

Total Ascent: 1436 m

Riding Time: 5:31 h

Weather: Sun and clouds, no rain, 20 C

I had booked a simple hotel on the shores of Yamanakako about a week ago. Cancellable until 2 days before so I was checking the weather forecast on a daily basis. It was kind of unclear but seemed okay enough, so today in the morning with a relatively early train I went out to Hashimoto and from there into the mountains again. Along a road that featured in the Tokyo Olympic 2 years ago. 

It is a nice mountain road, with not too much traffic but enough vending machines and several small villages along the road to cycle up slowly but steadily. It is actually also a nice incline and would probably even make for a nice descent (which I did not try on Day 2 though). The descent down to Yamanakako on the other side was relatively short, as that lake is quite high. I arrived very early at my hotel, so I had more than enough time to do ride once around the lake and enjoying the views of Mt. Fuji floating above the clouds. 

Back at the lake some more Olympics inspired photos before heading to an onsen closeby, washing, relaxing and having dinner before checking into my room. The hotel owner was very nice and let my bicycle park inside. 

Day 2

Route: Yamanakako - Kawaguchiko loop

Bicycle: 47 km

Train: 100 km

Average Speed: 17.6 km

Total Ascent: 200 m

Riding Time: 2:33 h

Weather: Rain, rain and more rain, 14 C

My original plan for today was to attempt to ride up to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji... but there was no Fuji today:

It had been replaced by incessant rain for the entire day. Anyway from where I was staying there were only 2 ways back home and both involved riding a bicycle at least for some time. Method #1, back over the mountains and downhill to Hashimoto. Method #2 over to Kawaguchiko and a train back from there. Riding downhill for a long time in the rain, is not my definition of fun nor does it feel specially safe... plus it would probably have been freezing cold. So option #2 it was. And actually cycling in the flat (or at least not a lot of downhill) in the rain isn't that bad, as long as you don't stop. The rain jacket does keep the upper body dry to a certain extend, but the pants get completely soaked and obviously are seeping upwards into the jersey. But as long as you are riding and it is not too cold outside, it is not that unpleasant as this picture might make it seem. Stopping however for a lunch or any other longer break wasn't really a good plan. Sitting mostly wet in a restaurant is neither good for the restaurant nor for me. 

So I just cycled around Yamanakako, then over to Kawakuchiko and as I was in good enough spirits made a loop around the Kawaguchi Lake, but did not venture further to the other 3 lakes. 

At this likely famous photo spot I run into bus loads of foreign (freezingly cold and miserable looking) tourists who had booked a day trip "to see Mt. Fuji"... and all they saw was their money gone, their clothes wet and the inside of a gift shop. But not a single glimpse of Mt. Fuji. I guess those tourists were feeling even more for me, out there on a bicycle in the rain... but I can go back to Mt. Fuji nearly any weekend, and I have seen Mt. Fuji from all its 5 lakes in glorious weather last year. And know that I will have so many more opportunities to see it, that I didn't mind. And as said, as long as you don't stop too long, cycling in the flat in the rain, isn't that bad. 

However bad enough to really want to go to an onsen, wash, dry and hopefully find a dry spot in the afternoon to catch the train back. And so I did. I had found a super sento close to Fujikyu Highland amusement park and cycled there. In onsens normally you take of your shoes at the entrance and leave them in a locker. But my feet (still cycling in sandals) where so dirty that that didn't seem like a viable option. So the front staff gave me a small towel to whip down my feet ... which I handed back totally soiled... but now with reasonably clean feet to walk around. 

Washing in that onsen felt wonderful. All that road grime to get off, and then soak in the water. I spent several hours there between bathing and having lunch, before it seemed that there was a window of opportunity in the rain to head down to the closeby station and get on a train back to Tokyo. 

Narita with friends

Day 1

Route: Funabashi - Hanamigawa - Narita

Bicycle: 54 km

Train: 35 km

Average Speed: 15.6 km/h

Total Ascent: 200 m

Riding Time: 3:27 h

Weather: Surprisingly sunny and getting hot (although the measured temperature seems to say otherwise), 19 C

This weekend friends had organized a ride out to the Hilton Narita. The same friends with whom I went to the Odawara Hilton back in February and to the mountains of Tokyo last October. One of them works at the Hilton in Shinjuku so gets discounted rates for staying at other Hiltons and these two are the closest to Tokyo. 

This ride was organized as two of the group soon will relocate to Thailand and unbeknown to us before the ride had just got married the day before... so kind of this was their honeymoon ride. At least we were nice enough to give them a double room. 

The day before typhoon #2 had come bashing through Honshu, but it seemed that from the late morning the rain would have moved on and we could cycle. So we decided to meet for lunch at a famous Ramen place close to Funabashi station and only start the ride around 14:00. With our speed we made it to the hotel just in time for dinner. No washing before though. 

One of the team lives in Funabashi and did plan the ride. To a good part it was along Hanamigawa which I had ridden a few years back on suggestion of yet another Tokyo cycling friend. 

The intense rain from the previous 2 days, had inundated some parts of the cycling road, but still mostly rideable. Only one of the rest stops along the way was deeply inundated... 

... it is that little hut in the background. But the water was nicely cold in a warm day, so it was actually quite nice to wade out there. (Keep in mind the water height to compare how much the water receded already on Day 2 below). 

On one of the many rest stops we had, we took a picture of us as peanuts, famous local produce apparently. 

 And on we went... to our next photo opportunity.

Day 2

Route: Narita - Hanamigawa - Funabashi

Bicycle: 83 km

Train: 35 km

Average Speed: km/h

Total Ascent: 282 m

Riding Time: 5:38 h

Weather: Sunny, humid and warm tending to hot, but still okay, 23 C

On the second day we started early... well earliER... probably we only got started at around 10:00 am. Also today was a day full of rest stops and photo stops. For this group of friends the important thing when cycling together is the TOGETHER... not so much the cycling itself. And that is also fun. Sometimes to me it can seem a bit too slow... but then just enjoy the moment, the time out there, the time on the bike and the next rest stop. And obviously the time in the evening in the hotel. 

Japanese are quite used to travelling with friends and sharing rooms (which I don't mind either). And while this Hilton didn't have very big rooms, some other hotels and specially ryokans in Japan are geared towards groups sharing one big room. 

The first one was on a hill just outside of Narita airport plane spotting. A hill apparently buildt only for this purpose with many "professional" plane spotters that were listening in to the conversations of the tower on small radios plugged into their ears and who did seem to know every single plane where it came from, where it would fly. In a country of train spotters they must feel like an exotic breed. 

Through some quiet country lanes ...

... we went on to Narita-san, a big temple in Narita city. There were some big celebration that day for the founder of this specific buddhist sect. 

More country lanes did bring us back to Hanamigawa river and lunch closeby. By now it was quite hot... but still kind of bearable, but the lunch break was welcome. However 2 of the friends didn't feel well. One with sleep deprivation (it seems he sleeps only a few hours every day and has a hard time falling asleep at all) and the other with a bout of pollen allergy. But luckily we were in never too far from a train station, so dropped them of at a train station, helped them back up their bikes and after a while (and by now a bit cooler) continued back to the river and riding towards the Pacific. 

Also today still parts of the way were inundated... 

... but the water from the rest place had receded... and one could "sit" there again:

And on we continued versus the Pacific where we arrived shortly after sundown. And were still not in Funabashi, hadn't entered an onsen yet and hadn't had dinner yet either... 

So on it was to Funabashi, a supersento and dinner at the supersento before catching a late train back to Tokyo. It wasn't the last train... but I think I arrived home at around 1:00 am, after a good day out with friends.