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.