D1 - Weekend around Bessho Onsen

Route: Takasaki - Megane bridge - Takasaki - Ueda - Bessho onsen
Bicycle: 55 km
Train: 220 km
Total ascent: unknown (wahoo says 3,200+ m which is totally wrong)
Average speed: 14 km/h
Riding time: 3:46 h
Weather: sunny, VERY windy and much warmer than I thought (maybe 25C?)

Since a long time I wanted to visit Bessho onsen. There is a poster in Japan guide forum that often recommends it and it looked like a nice place. But I never found any available lodging. When I planned my upcoming weekends back in January I gave it a try again and found a ryokan at a reasonable price and reserved for 2 different weekends in March and April. 

The initial plan was to ride from Takasaki through a winding mountain street that goes along a decommissioned train line to Karuizawa and then down (and slightly up) to Bessho onsen. But in the early morning train (leaving shortly before 7:00 am from Shinjuku), a fellow cyclist told me that that road was closed due to a typhoon last year. There is an alternative which I feared would be full of cars and trucks (and that premonition turned out right). But anyway, I got off the train in Takasaki and set out into the direction to Karuizawa on my preplanned route. As so often it went along a river on a cycling lane. 

I was cycling against a fierce headwind, which I hadn't expected. The handover from a drinking party with ex-colleagues yesterday probably also didn't help plus it was much warmer than I had anticipated. I was cycling with shorts and had taken off the arms of my Castelli jacket... but still, it was warm. When I finally came to Yokokawa, where the ascent to the mountain pass starts but from where there is also only the big street anymore and no small countryside lanes anymore, I had a short  recon of the route and confirmed that for it to be enjoyable there were too many cars and trucks. So instead I did cycle up the road that is closed. 

I had also gotten quite hungry, but found a good soba restaurant at the bottom of the climb. It turned out that it was at an entrance to the decomissioned train line. One isnt supposed to ride on it by bicycle, and I can see that in more touristy moments it might not be a good idea, but today I was pretty much riding on it alone, just crossing with a few pedestrians until I came to the famous bridge. 

Proably the view from below is more famous though. 

As you can see however from the pictures, the trees were still totally barren (this winter has been long and while not overly cold in total, so far there haven't been a lot of spring days). Even sakura this year is quite late. 

I asked a motorbike rider if he knew if the street was really closed... but he didn't. Maybe I should have continued up a little bit to see for myself. But both his road map and the cyclist in the train told me that it wouldnt be open... and I still needed to get to Bessho onsen. 

Unfortunately with the introduction of the shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagano, the local line that existed has been decomissioned between Yokokawa and Karuizawa. Before and after it exists... but not between. Which also means that the only possibilty to get from Tokyo area (by train) to Karuizawa is taking the shinkansen. But I started with a small local train from Yokokawa back to Takasaki

By shinkansen to Ueda and then back on the bike (the trains to Bessho onsen are infrequent) and it isn't that far anyway, up to Bessho onsen and my ryokan for the night. I arrived there around 17:30, got my room and then rushed to the bath to at least wash off the sweat before having dinner which started at 18:00. In small onsen towns it is often a good idea to reseve hotel with dinner... as there might be no open restuarants around at all. In my rush to wash I did get a quick picture of the rotenburo though. 

After dinner I then took my time to get a proper relaxing bath. I had been contemplating if instead I should be going to the nearby public bath (Oyu) but finally decided against it. After all I had a private bath with rotenburo included in my ryokan. 

The ryokan was run by what seemed to be a group of elderly. I dont think I saw any employee that was substantially below 80 years old.