Bicycle: 40 km
Train: 122 km
Average Speed: 14.2 km/h
Total ascent: 626 m
Riding Time: 2:46 h
Weather: Sunny and cloudy, and cooooooooold, (Wahoo says 5C... but bones say much less)
I had left my bicycle yesterday at the bike parking house at Yamatoyagi so returned there today by train and the "fun" started. "Fun" in inverted commas, because it wasn't that much fun due to the temperature. Or maybe more due to wrong planning. As long as I was riding uphill I was nice and warm, I even stripped some of my layers riding up to Tanzan, but sightseeing in cycling cloths in this cold isn't a good idea. And riding downhill after sightseeing through the cold wind wasn't a good idea.
However I made it finally to Tanzan shrine above Asuka. I had cycled up painstackingly a few years ago, just to find it already closed. Not so today.
This time I cycled up from the Asuka (not Sakurai) side, up a road I remember thinking back then, I do NOT want to cycle up, because so steep... but actually it wasn't THAT steep. Yes... it's a mountain but with a few rests and a bit of weaving (not many cars), totally doable.
Down on the other side, over to a lake in the total country side and then a little bit up to Hasedera, where I had also already been a few years ago in decidedly better weather. Warmer weather.
I visited the temple but then instead of continuing with the original plan, which had me ride through the mountains behind the temple over to Nara (and then take a train back from there), I made it down to Yamato Yagi the quickest way and back to a train and my hotel in Kyoto. I didn't even stop at a super sento that is on the way, fearful of needing to leave the super sento and ride the last few (5 or so) km to the train station later in the day. Coooooold.
But I did decide to come back. Probably in Golden Week. This area is just too nice. And is definitely nicer with a bit more of green.
Now back in the hotel I took a relaxing and hot bath (in the hotel's sento), packed my suitcase and will now go to the conbini and ship it back home, before returning myself tomorrow (by Shinkansen).
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