D4 Yoshida to Shizuoka but through the mountains

Route: Yoshida - Fujieda - Shizuoka 
Bicycle: 84 km
Train: 200 km
Total ascent: 964 m
Average speed: 15 km/h
Riding time: 5:45 h
Weather: again sunny but getting colder, 12 C (but still mostly shorts and short sleeves) 

For my last day of this long weekend I went to Shizuoka station to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. There are essentially 2 good ways to get from Yoshida to Shizuoka: along the sea on the Pacific cycle path or through the mountains. I took the mountains. And some of them were STEEP, one so steep that for a while I needed to push the bike, but not too long. 

I had done the route on the ocean (in the opposite direction) 6 years ago in my 2 month trip through Japan. 

Getting to the foot of the mountains wasn’t a lot of joy as it meant traversing a lot of build up areas with too much traffic. There must be better roads to avoid that traffic though. But once in the mountain area it got much calmer. Still quite low I came by a sign and a safety worker that showed to a closeby Momiji matsuri, I.e. red leaves festival. I couldn’t withstand so cycled there. It’s probably a nice valley but today it was full of local tourists walking up and down the road. Still cyclable though, weaving through the crowds. But the momiji and the matsuri were a disappointment. Barely any red trees, although it must have been close to peak…

… and the yakisoba I got at one stand was cold and not very tasty. For sure the worst matsuri yakisoba I have had. And strangely it didn’t even leave me very filled. 

From there on I continued on my originally planned way further up into the mountains, ignoring a sign that said that the road was closed between 2 villages unbeknown to me and google maps. I had to find out the hard way after struggling up a reasonably steep hill, that it was indeed MY road that was closed. 

Now I was in the middle of the mountains in a small village perked on the flank of a mountain.

And had to cycle down all the steep parts again, just to get up an even steeper hill on the other side of the valley. On a street hardly used by anyone. 

But it did get me to nice viewpoints. Luckily this hill wasn’t very long (just a few kilometers) and then it was mainly (well, with one exception) downhill to Shizuoka and a modern super sento in the city to wash away the sweat of the day and relax in the hot water. 

In the way into the city there was again a majestic view of Mt. Fuji.

D3 In the mountains behind Kakegawa following Shizuoka cycling webpage

Route: Yoshida - Kakegawa - Tenryu and back
Bicycle: 116 km
Train: 25 km
Total Ascent: 1020 m
Average Speed: 18.8 km/h
Riding Time: 6:06 h
Weather: Sunny and still warm enough (while moving) to be in shorts, 10C

Praise where praise belongs: to the Shizuoka web page on cycling. For today I took one of their routes behind Kakegawa and "just" added the way from my hotel to Kakegawa... which probably was another 25 km on top. 

From the hotel to Kakegawa, I did let komoot do it's thing... well with a little bit of tweaking to avoid bigger roads and some hills. In Kakegawa I had my first stop right below the castle, got a croquette from the souvenir shop and a picture of myself with my "horse":

From here the preplanned route started out into the country side and after some while up into the mountains and obviously through some tea fields on quiet roads. 

Among the many things I don't know, I had no idea that tea plants are having enormous flowers. Surprisingly not all tea shrubs were flowering now. Most actually weren't, but I came by a big field in bloom. Somehow looks a bit like a rose. 

At the exit of a tunnel, I found this cafe stop mainly (well, exclusively, if I hadn't stopped) frequented by bikers. Motor bikers. Run by a nice teafarmer who also runs a minshuku (in the next valley if I understood him correctly) and who on the weekends has this cafe stop serving hot coffee and simple food. Today: curry!

From there it was mainly downhill... well with one more uphill and then down into the plain around Kakegawa and more buildt up area, but also an area with trains. I didn't take this one... but a normal JR train from Kakegawa to a place closer to my hotel and then back over the river and down to my hotel for a last night before returning tomorrow to Tokyo. 

What I noticed in Shizuoka that a lot of cars stop to let cyclists cross the street. Not something I am used to in other parts of Japan. But not enough cars stop to be absolutely certain. 

D2 Oigawa valley

Route: Yoshida - Kawanahoncho - Kawaneonsen 
Bicycle: 81,8 km
Train: 26 km 
Total ascent: 1119 m
Average speed: 14,3 km/h
Riding time: 5:30 h
Weather: sunny and still very warm (for end of November), 16 C

For my first full day in Shizuoka I cycled up Oigawa. A river that can be very big, but currently only is a shadow of itself. For a more impressive river, I would need to come here again in late spring, when the snow is melting in the southern Alps. 

Still down in the broader valley close to Shimada was this submergible bridge. I didn’t cross it though slightly afraid of the strong side wind on a bridge without any rails. And well, I wanted to get going. If I stop for the first sightseeing a mere 10 km or so into the ride I’ll never “arrive” at destination. 

A little bit further along, I saw again the mountain with the kanji for tea 茶 where I had been cycling yesterday in the distance.It’s kind of hard to take a good picture of this character. Yesterday it was too dark.And today it was a bit too far.

Still down in the broad valley I came through this area off citrus plantations. Mainly みかん but also some Yuzu and other citrus trees. Surprisingly it didn’t smell of citrus, much in contrast to the intense apple smell a few weeks ago in Nagano. 

When I planned the ride yesterday, I made komoot not to choose the state road. Instead, I manually set it to the road on the other side of the valley, thinking that the state road for sure must be the busier of the two. I was wrong. The state roads actually is pretty small and currently even cut for a few kilometers where a landslide came down, after some major typhoon not too long ago.  That landslide did not only destroy the part of the state road, but also part of the train line. So nowadays the train only goes to Kawaneonsen. Which has a very cute old station building. I didn’t see it today, but this train company still uses steam machines and rides about three or four trips per day with them. 

Probably the highlight of today was this hanging bridge, which, in a day with a lot of wind, was doable, but scary to cross. Specially in the middle part where one is furthest away from the river banks, and very much exposed to the fierce winds that were reining  today.

Crossing this bridge however helped for the ride. Because I looked at the road on the other side and although this was the state road, It had barely any traffic. So I crossed over a normal bridge to the other much more tranquil side of the river and continued my ride there. 

After lunch, a few kilometers upstream I went to a Buddhist temple which claimed to have koyo in autumn. It was right but nothing stunning apart this one tree. Apparently this year in general the koyo season isn’t very good because it was too hot for too long in summer so the trees instead of going colorful go bare very quickly. 

From here I returned did a quick round around a light blue mountain lake (well dam) on very quiet roads, specially on one side of the lake. That road seemed to get less than a car per day. 

So quiet that I put my new bear bell in action.

From here it wasn’t too far and downhill to the onsen were I spent about 1,5 h soaking in salty hot water while looking at the mountain tops around. When one was standing on the rest area of the onsen one could also see the river and the railway bridge. There was even a timetable to know when the steam train would pass. 

But I took a regular old style train back down. 

D1 Teafields of Shizuoka

Route: Kakegawa - tea fields - hotel

Bicycle: 46 km

Train: 225 km

Average speed: 17,5 km/h

Total ascent: 418

Riding time: 2:40 h

Weather: sunny and warm (for being end of November), 17C says Strava but it felt way warmer

After a long week of work, a long weekend in Shizuoka! 

I have never been to this part of Shizuoka, but always when I come through here by Shinkansen going to Kansai, I admire the rolling hills with tea fields. 

Originally I had reserved also a Hotel in Hikone on Biwa Lake and was actually more inclined to go there, mainly because I was thinking that the koyo around Biwa lake must be really nice and because I wanted to go (again) to Miho museum. However, weather forecast for this area did project some rain, while the weather forecast around Shizuoka seemed to be sunny all four days.

I was really busy at work this week so stayed to work late on Wednesday and thus did not get up very early, but in a relaxed way and then set out to cycle to Tokyo station. As customary, I did not get a reserved car. Actually, there were no seats available in reserved cars anymore but instead I took an unreserved car which wasn’t even full and got an easy place to put my bicycle and departed a few minutes after arriving at the platform. However, I had no time to buy lunch at the station and recently there are no more food sellers on the train. So once I arrived in Kakegawa , the first thing was to get some lunch. I had seen that there was a castle, probably rebuild, and decided to get some conbini lunch and eat in the park of the castle. I don’t actually know if the castle has a park because when I got there, it seemed like one needed to get an entrance tickets to even get close to the castle. So instead, I had my lunch in a square below the castle. 

Then I set off along a small river with the typical small street/bicycle lane on both sides of it. Instead of taking a direct route from the station to my hotel, I took a route that was recommended on the webpage of Shizuoka prefecture that went through some apparently very famous tea fields. So famous that on the flank of one of the mountains, they wrote the character for tea 茶　with some vegetation. I didn’t get close enough to check what kind of vegetation they used, but I would hope that it was tea plants.Taking a picture, however, wasn’t easy as the mountain was already in the shadow.

I little bit further along I came through a high plateau that seemed to be the mecca of tea. 

From there one could even see Mt Fuji in the distance. 

From there it was a long, gentle descent nearly all the way to my hotel. I don’t remember how I found this hotel but essentially it’s in the middle of nowhere. A Japanese nowhere. Which means there are actually a lot of other buildings around like supermarkets, gasoline stations, private houses, vegetable fields, car repair shops… A cacophony of buildings and empty spaces, which don’t form anything by itself.

Somehow I got the bicycle room. Which is a room with enough space for a bicycle, but also a very strangely shaped room. My room doesn’t have a window, or actually, it has one, but the window is in the toilet.

I had arrived early enough to see the last hour of the Kyushu sumo event before heading to the hotels big bathroom and get a relaxing hot bath before going out for dinner. 

D2 - Fuji5ko and Shiraito falls

Route: Yamanakako- all 5 Fuji lakes - down to Fuji 
Bicycle: 108 km
Train: 140 km
Total ascent: 599 m
Average speed: 19,5 km/h
Riding time:
Weather: cloudy with a little bit of sun, no rain but quite cold, 7C

Cold autumn at last. After last weekend when it was still pretty warm, this weekend the temperature finally felt like November. In the morning from my hotel rooms there was no Fuji to be seen anywhere…

.. by the time I was ready to start the ride a little bit of Fuji was visible. 

The first lake was Yamanakako, which has a marvelous cycling path along most of its shore.

Lake #2 was Kawaguchiko, the most popular of them all with tourists. Along the shore was also a momiji festival, which essentially is an excuse to have food stalls and tourists in the same place at the same time. And more cars than necessary clogging up the road. But luckily after the festival the traffic also ended. 

Lake#3 is Saiko lake, which just seems to be an extension of Yamanakako.

Lake #4 is the rather small lake shoji, where I had lunch.

And finally lake #5 is lake Motosu a relatively big lake with little traffic.

From there I had 2 options: cycle back along the lakes to Kawaguchiko or cycle all the way down to the Pacfic and Fuji or Shin-Fuji station. And while I was a bit afraid of the long descent down to Fuji, because of the cold air, this was the way I took.  And I was perfectly dressed for the occasion: Undershirt with short sleeves, under shirt with long sleeves, Castelli jacket, wind resistant cap, baklava, cycling shorts, leg warmers, socks, closed shoes and gloves. 

On my way down I had seen that the Shiroito water falls were on my path. I had heard about them but didn’t really know what they are, but it was on the way, so I stopped. It’s apparently a major tourist attraction with a lot of shops  and a unique waterfall.

The tour planned in Komoot was saying that it would take over 900 meter of climbing when reality it were shy about of 600 m. This happens quite often. During the ride sometimes on a perfectly flat road wahoo was “seeing” steep hills, which just didn’t exist. This is not very practical because I might decide against a certain route for too much climbing, but if in reality it’s only about half of the climbing I might have done that ride. 

D1 To Yamanakako

Route: Hashimoto - Doshi - Yamanakako 
Bicycle: 64 km
Train: 32 km
Total Ascent: 1412 m
Average Speed: 13,2 km/h
Riding Time: 4:45 h
Weather: grey and a little bit of rain in some moments, 7 C

For this weekend I planned to ride to Fujisan and then halfway around it. To the starting point I went by train from Meidaimae to Hashimoto. A very convenient way for me to get from Tokyo to the foot of some mountains and the countryside. Under 2 km from my house I can catch a direct train that passes probably every 10 minutes or even less and gets me out into the green in 30 to 40 minutes. Once at the station, I put together the bike again.Today there was a local group of promoters for cycling in the area, who had set up a specific place to put your bike together with a bicycle rack, and also some tools. But for them, the important thing was that you completed a survey. I don’t really think I need a specific place to put the bicycle together, especially because it wasn’t really close to the exit from the station, so actually, it was a little bit inconvenient. But if they can improve the cycling infrastructure in the area it will be welcome.

From there I was off into the mountains, following the road that the cyclists took at the Tokyo Olympics a few years ago, and I took a few months ago when I came to Yamanakako the last time.

It is a long road all uphill never really, really steep, so I can make up my way slowly, but steadily. At approximately the midway point, there is the village of Doshi with several options for lunch. Today I went to a small restaurant of an elderly lady who transformed her living room into a curry restaurant. She had one of those vending machines for tickets for lunch, with a lot of buttons that seemed to indicate that there was a lot of different choices. But she also had pictures of the menu and actually they were only two choices. Either curry with fried chicken, or the same dish without curry. All the choices in the machine were for the spiciness and the amount of rice.

It is a long road all uphill and then only about 4 km downhill to the lake. Originally I had planned to ride around the lake ones like I did back in June. But it was kind of cold and damp and no Fuji in sight so instead, I went directly to an onsen not very far from my accommodation. The same onsen I went to in June and actually also the same hotel that I used back in June.

D3 Nozawaonsen to Nagano

Route: Nozawa onsen - Hirataki - Nagano
Bicycle: 110 km
Train: 250 km
Total ascent: 1078 m
Average speed:  17.4 km/h
Riding time: 6:30 h
Weather: sunny and warm (for being November), 18 C

As I was already halfway up the mountain I decided to continue going up through the ski slopes. 

The road had very little traffic. I think there were more cross-country skiers that overtook me than cars. And overtake they did at a speed so fast I didn’t have time to get a good picture. A bit later another smaller group arrived and I was prepared and got them on video but they were nowhere as fast as the first group. Not sure if they were the Olympic squad or something like that. 

I however stopped a few times during the ascent to take pictures, enjoy the scenery and catch my breath. 

When I arrived at “the top” (it wasn’t really the top but the place from where a road descends to the valley), I decided to continue just a little bit more before turning and going downhill. From the map I thought that this road was a bit larger than the one I had come up from Nozawa but it was even smaller, and from tomorrow until end of May (!) will be closed for the winter. A bit early maybe considering how warm it was even on top today. There was so little traffic that on the entire downhill I only met 1 car and 1 motorcycle. The gradient of the descent was also good I did break a lot, but still doable. And not too many curves. 

The topic of little traffic surprisingly continued down in the valley thanks to two roads on both sides of the river. One with and one (nearly ) without traffic. 

Many varied roads and most of them with nearly no traffic! What a treat! 

While I am writing this I am sitting in the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. This being a long weekend, the shinkansen were really full. There were no more reserved seats on any shinkansen (which is fine by me as I prefer non-reserved)... but in such circumstances this also means that the non-reserved section will be really full. So well, I lined up at the unreserved car. The first Shinkansen that came was already full, but still a lot of people squeezed in. So many that they needed to apply the "backwards entering technique" you see so frequently with commuter trains in Tokyo. I waited for the next one, an "Asama" shinkansen, which starts in Nagano, so I was assured a seat and a cozy spot for the bike behind the last row. Surprisingly this shinkansen did not get overcrowded, not even in Karuizawa where I have often seen the Shinkansen to have standing space only. 

D2 Nozawa onsen to Ryuo ski village and back

Route: Nozawaonsen - Ryuo ski slopes - Nozawaonsen
Bicycle: 61 km
Total ascent:1,215 m
Riding time: 4:12 h
Average speed: 14,6 km/h
Weather: some clouds but dry, 15 C

When I was in this area a few weeks ago in Shibu onsen, I found an interesting place on Google maps. A gondola going up to lookout point where one can see, in the right conditions, a sea of clouds below. However, when I was here the last time the conditions were not right. Actually, the lookout point was in the clouds for that entire day. Luckily, they have a live feed on YouTube where one can check the current situation. So I didn’t go back then but now that I’m back in this area I planed to go today.

As I am staying currently, also in a ski station, the first thing to do was going down hills, all the way down. And then it was all the way up to the next ski village: Ryuo. And up and up. 

But on a quiet road with not too much traffic. Admittedly this picture was from a specially quiet road  so quiet that I was ringing my bell just in case any bear was around.

The climb up seemed endless and the valley station of the gondola definitely wasn’t in a “valley”. But rather very much up a hill… only that the mountain behind was even higher. 1,770 m to be precise. 

When I finally arrived I parked my bicycle and started my prep what to bring, what to leave with the bike, when I heard an amount that the next gondola is going to leave soon. And I just about still made it. On the mountain the first thing, before enjoying the view was to get lunch in a rather trendy panorama restaurant. After lunch the obligatory pictures of the view …

… and then I made it to the next gondola a few minutes later, and returned down back to my bike. From there it was mainly downhill until it wasn’t. Until I needed to cycle up again to Nozawa onsen. On the downhill I passed through an Apple plantation (and other fruits: pears, grapes, kaki…). So many apples that the air was thick with the smell of apples. 

I knew the whole time that the climb up to my ski hotel was waiting at the end of the day and I was very apprehensive of it and unsure if I would have enough energy to get up there. However finally it was easier than yesterday. Maybe because I already knew how the road would evolve and there isn’t any crazy steep section. 

Nozawa onsen was one of the several places where the Olympics of 1998 were held, apparently the Biathlon events. However they also have a ski jump arena.

As yesterday the owner of the lodge drove me down to the village where I returned to the only onsen in town with a rotenburo to wash and relax and then to have dinner.