D3 over Tsuchiyu pass into the fog

Route: Urabandai - Tsuchiyu - Fukushima
Bicycle: 80 km
Train: 300 km
Average speed: 15.6 km/h 
Total ascent: 1143 m
Riding time: 5:09 h
Weather: cloudy and very dense fog on the descent, 16C

I had so many options how to return. One easy one would have been to just ride down to Aizu Wakamatsu, spend a few hours in an onsen right besides the station (I was there in a previous visit to the city) and then take the train back to Tokyo. But the weather seemed good enough to instead attempt to go to Fukushima. Even to Fukushima there were different options available. The maximum option would have been to ride over the Asama Bandai skyline, which probably had starting of koyo. But there were intermediate options, and I finally took one of those. 

I didn't start very early, which would have been needed for the full option due to the long climbing. After stocking up on food and drinks at the local conbini (and only conbini in the area), I took a left turn and was out in the mountains with small lakes below. 

These lakes formed after the eruption of Mt. Bandai volcano about a century ago and now in this region there are a few big lakes and a lot of small ones. 

This is what I got as a view of the inner crater of Mt. Bandai... not much: 

This is how it should look like ... but not today. I will need to come back, which I plan to do anyway. The region seemed very nice, and there are a lot of accomodation options in Urabandai. In winter it is a ski region, but fishing seems to be also very well loved activity as well as hiking. Cycling also was relatively popular. Specially on the first day I met a bunch of cyclists (all coming downhill) in the awful rain. 

I continued on my small road, which however did have some traffic, so I never felt totally alone and cam across a small food stall that sold local vegetables and other produce, but also offered some nice warm udon soups. Which took care of the lunch. 

While eating lunch I studied my options. From here I had still the option to go mainly downhill to Koriyama or to go uphill towards Fukushima. After a lot of thinking I decided to take the shorter of the two uphill versions, just riding to the entrance of the Asama Bandai skyline but not riding it itself, as time would not have been sufficient. 

It was a little bit too early for koyo. Probably the following week would have been good. Probably actually up on the Asama skyline it was already good for koyo... but not enough time for me. 

However when I started the descent towards Fukushima on the other side very quickly the fog moved in. 

And what a fog! It was so dense that one had to ride very carefully. It also doesn't help to wear glasses, which just seemed to attract every single water droplet. On the upper slopes I was still mixing with cars, not a lot but some. Farther down, the road separated: A road only for cars (I think it was illegal to cross the tunnels by bike/foot) and the old road, now essentially only for bicycles. Maybe on a day with nice weather some cars and probably a lot of motorcycles would use it as well to do some sightseeing... but not so today. In the fog this road didn't feel very safe. Not because of the road itself, which was good quality, but because there was just absolutely no one. No other cyclist was crazy enough to ride there and the cars and motorbikes were all on the main road. So it felt like if something would happen, it could take a day or two before someone would even find me. 

But nothing happened. No bear, no deer, no other kind of incident. 

Getting further down the fog lifted and I came to Tsuchiyu onsen. A small onsen village that was recommended by the owner of the pension I stayed. I took the very first onsen at the entrance of the village. They had a nice big outdoor pool. Not really with a view, but somehow one could see that all around there were trees. After this refreshing and cleaning bath (I was rather dirty due to the wet roads), it was downhill from there all the way to the station.

I had a ticket reserved for around 19:00, but I was at the station about 2 hours earlier. I packed the bike and there was a Shinkansen just a few minutes after I managed to pack everything which had some unreserved seats. I couldnt change to reserved seats as everything was taken, but there were enough unreserved seats that I even found a place in the last row to store the bike behind. 

D2 Around Lake Hibara

Route: Goshikinuma and Lake Hibara
Bicycle: 34 km
Hiking: 5,5 km
Total ascent: 452 
Average speed: 13.1 km/h
Riding time: 3 h
Weather: cloudy but no rain, 16 C

The day started with more rain, but by the time I was ready to leave around 10 o’clock it had finally stopped raining. Originally, I wanted to ride up to Bandai skyline, but with the threat of rain, a day out with a long descent on wet roads didn’t sound like an intelligent thing to do. Instead I decided to do just a round around the lake here by my pension. Before that, however I went to the local famous spot of several small ponds, that were created by the eruption of Mount Bandai in the Meiji period. These ponds are famous for their color variation.

The hike took about an hour and a half and then I started my ride around the lake with my sight on an onsen at the lakeshore already closed back to where I’m staying. That onsen is in a big hotel complex and on this long weekend, only open publicly until 15:00. But I planned it apparently to perfection and arrived there a bit before 2 in the afternoon so could enjoy a good soak in the hot water while looking into the forest over the lake.

My pension also allows stocks to stay. Which is very rare in Japan. Originally, I thought that was the owner would have probably several dogs, but apparently they don’t have any. Today in the morning I saw One guest was a dog who was very well behaved. The dog. This evening, a family of three adult adults and one dog checked in and this dog is extremely badly behaved and their owners don’t seem to have any idea how to control it. During dinner he was walking around in the dinner area and the pension owner needed to ask them to put the dock on a leash. But even then they put him on a leash, but didn’t attach the leash to anything so still the dog was still running around. Now I’m sitting in my room writing the notes of today and in the neighboring room, they are trying to manage the dog shouting at him that he shall not do this or that, and in all this, the dog already pissed into the common area. I think the pension owners are now trying to negotiate that the dog must sleep in the car. 

The other guests in my pension are two men who came here to fish. Which seems to be a very well loved pass-time in this area. There are a lot of small boats on the lake and really a lot of cars who had brought their boats with them.

D1 - up to Urabandai

Route: Koriyama - Inawashiro - Urabandai
Bicycle: 64 km
Train: 250 km
Total ascent: 862 m
Average speed: 16,4 km/h
Riding time: 3:56 h
Weather: rain all day, cold 11C 

For this weekend originally I had two reservations. One in the Hakuba area and the other one in Fukushima Prefecture. A few days ago, I looked at the weather forecast and it seemed that the weather in Fukushima was going to be reasonable while in Hakuba it seemed to rain. I have no idea what actually happened in Hakuba, but in Fukushima, it was definitely raining.

But now I was committed to this three day weekend in the Urabandai region. In Tokyo, I managed to get to the Shinkansen just before the rain started. When I got off the train in Koriyama, the rain hadn’t started yet here, but it would start soon after setting off towards Inawashiro. 

I had come up the same road a few years ago when I stayed in Aizuwakamatsu on a still relatively hot September weekend. Back then, I had a lovely view of the lake. This time the lake was grey and the imposing mountains around shredded in rain clouds. 

I stopped along the lake for lunch and they even had a small fire going, but my shoes and socks were so soaked that even putting them right in front of the fire, it made no difference for getting them dry. I am actually writing this block post on the following day and the socks are still wet although they have been hanging to dry for over 24 hours. Luckily, I was able to dry my shoes though with a strategic use of newspapers. Actually, a very interesting newspaper. It seems that instead of getting the first female Prime Minister, Japan will be getting the third non-LDP Prime Minister in a few days. But I needed something to dry my shoes.

After lunch while riding uphill I made a quick stop at a fruit stand, selling local apples and peaches.

D2 - above Nozawa onsen in a cloud

Route: Nozawa onsen - Uenodaira 

Bicycle: 32 km
Gondola: 3 km
Total ascent: 1139 m
Average speed:  10,6 km/h
Riding time: 3:05 h
Weather: cloudy and rainy, 20 C

The day started with a marathon and finished with some sumo. In between I went cycling. 

During the night and early in the morning it was raining but by the time I got on the bike it had stopped. However it only had stopped down here in the valley. Up in the mountain I was in one big cloud that left everything very wet. 

Initially there was a bit of a view of the valley. But later on there was nothing. Just gray rain. 

Anyway I made it up to Uenodaira where some valiant performers were trying to entertain a small crowd, probably of other people and their parents who where going to perform. 

I asked at the gondola if it would be possible to take it down to the village as riding down in the rain wasn’t really appealing. I already don’t like downhills. But cold, rainy, long downhills are definitely not my definition of fun. And yes, it was possible. Probably this doesn’t happen a lot, but they allow bicycles. Mainly the idea would be for Mountain (!?!) bikers to go up and the ride down. But they were happy to admit a road cyclist who wanted to go downhill. 

With that knowledge I road a bit more , probably up to the highest point. Which should be a bit below 1600 m of elevation. But then returned and took the gondola down back to Nozawa onsen, where it was not raining and comparably warm. 

Apparently this is the view from the gondola. Not today though. 

D1 - Maguse onsen and Nozawa onsen

Route: Iiyama - Maguse onsen - Nozawa onsen
Bicycle: 39 km
Train: 270 km
Total ascent: 899 m
Average speed: 11,9 km/h
Riding time: 2:55 h
Weather: finally not hot. Maybe around 26C and cloudy

Maguse onsen is one of the best onsen I have been to: An onsen with a great unobstructed (!) view of the landscape around. 

I have been to my fair share of onsen, including in the mountains, but more often than not even when theoretically they are in a beautiful landscape, you can’t actually see it while chilling in the bath as it is obstructed for privacy. Here they built the onsen on the hill in such a way that it is not visible from the street, so you get to enjoy this view while relaxing in the hot water. Paradise in onsen. 

Obviously taking pictures was prohibited, but I had a short time where I was the only guest and quickly took a few pictures. Before a group of Japanese elderly women and foreign young women arrived. They seemed to work in hotels in the area and used their day off for a trip to an onsen. 

I didn’t really have a specific plan for this weekend. I had reserved a room in “my” hotel in Nozawa onsen hoping for a bit of cool weather. And I wasn’t disappointed. First night sleeping with a duvet since several months. In Tokyo it was so hot this summer tgat I have given in to the temptation of air conditioning and even slept some nights with the a/c on. So sleeping under a duvet (even if only partially) was very refreshing. 

Due to lack of planning I didn’t have a reserved seat in the Shinkansen and even managed to somehow buy the wrong ticket and it took me an eternity to correct it. So while I should have been with 30 min + at Tokyo station to line up for the unreserved seat, I just made it in time to the platform and somehow squeezed into a full Shinkansen with bike and everything standing all my way to Iiyama. So when I arrived I assembled the bike calmly and then made a plan and saw nice pictures of an onsen at the station: Maguse onsen. So there I went. 

After the relaxing bath it was downhill, as that onsen is on a different mountain slope than Nozawa onsen , and then up again. 

I still remember the first time I came to this hotel in Nozawa onsen. I had booked it without checking the terrain. And it’s above the village at the bottom of the ski slopes. I remeber that the ride up to Nozawa onsen seemed endless. But not so today. It helps to have risen a certain route already and to know at which point one is nearly up. 

D3 Ooyu & Hirosaki in the heat

Route: Kazuno - Hirosaki - Shin-Aomori - Tokyo
Walk: 3 km
Car: 100 km
Train: 700 km
Weather: hot and sunny and this in Northern Tohoku, 32 C

Today in the morning on my phone already appeared a warning for Tokyo to not do any activities outside due to high temperatures. And even where we were in northern Tohoku it was pretty warm. 

We started off the day (after yet another other full Japanese breakfast) with a visit to a Jomon era stone circle in the village where we were staying. 

From there we continued to Hirosaki a famous castle (one of the 12 original remaining castles in Japan) in Tohoku. It is specially famous for its cherry blossoms and must be incredible busy then. Now it was simply hot, even though we had our small sun umbrellas. 

We just had a Quick Look at the old tower (which maybe is the only part of the castle actually still standing. It was moved a few years ago by a few hundred meters. Maybe because it was standing on the castle walls and they had become unstable. However it wasn’t really explained anywhere. 

We found our way back to the car and thanks to google maps found a restaurant on the way to Shin-Aomori station that was ideal for this heat.

We gave back the car slightly early (maybe 20 min) and even got some money back. That was a surprise. What was a less welcome surprise is that also the return Shinkansen was delayed, by about an hour due to some problems with a previous train, that delayed all other Tohoku Shinkansen. But at least this time we could sit in the air conditioned car with our drinks and snacks. And Netflix. 

Back home in Tokyo it’s hot, and will remain hot for the foreseeable future. Just a few days of respite Thursday and Friday this week, but then up again to 36C and more. With humidity , obviously. 

D2 - Towadako and Oirase

Route: Kazuno - Towadako - Oirase and back
Bicycle: 29 km
Car: 42 km 
Riding time: 1:49 h

Total ascent: 236 m 
Average speed: 16,1 km/h
Weather: mostly cloudy , 27 C 

When my friend first suggested this trip she proposed to cycle once around Lake Towada.  Which I agreed to, but also pointed out that although this is only about a 50 km ride it has more than 1000 m of elevation gain. It’s a lake. But it is a volcanic lake in an old crater and in one place the road goes up to the rim of the crater. So it was quite unlikely that we would manage to do the ride. 

Luckily a good alternative appeared. We had a relatively late start and until we were actually sitting on the bikes (we drove up to the lake from Kazuno by car) it was already 11:00. We parked at a road side station and started from there which was the flatter part of the ride. On our way I saw that the road along Oirase stream would be open from 12:00 onwards. 

My friend was very happy to see that news as it meant we could alter our overly ambitious plan to make a full round of the lake to a much more easy but tourist-worthy ride along Oirase stream. Actually I had hoped that we could walk along the stream, but only the road had been opened for traffic, the walking path officially was still closed. Which didn’t stop all potential hikers but did stop us from attempting it. Oirase stream is very popular and has become very popular with foreign tourists as well. But thanks to the closure yesterday there were very few people today and no bus tours. So we could ride leisurely along the road , stop every now and then and walk a bit to see some highlights. 

The River was fast flowing still showing the damage of the strong rain a few days ago. 

As this is a River flowing out of the lake the road along it is downhill. Not steep at all, but it also meant we would need to ride it uphill again  so relatively early we returned and started on our way back to the car.

The main road in some places was still very dirty from the rain that had washed down parts of the forest. So our bikes (and we) got pretty dirty.

Back at the car we put the bikes back into their bags and in the car and then drove back down to our excellent ryokan. We did stop at a very new road side station in our village that even had a foot bath. Kind of mandatory at a road side station called “big onsen”.

Back at our hotel we had a relaxing hot bath in the rotenburo before another excellent dinner and an early night on two very comfy futons. 

D1 - Towadako with a friend

Route: Tokyo -  Hachinohe - Towadako- Kazuno

Bicycle: 12km

Walking: 2 km

Train: 650 km

Car: 110 km

Weather: Sun and clouds and much cooler than Tokyo but still warm. 29C

A friend of me wanted to go for some summer vacation.  I hadn’t any plans but insisted that it must be up North to flee the scorching heat of Tokyo. I hadn’t any plans made some potential plans to go to Towadako, so that’s where we went. We met up a few weeks ago to plan everything, found a very nice ryokan in Kazuno (all the places on the lake itself were either extremely expensive or had bad evaluations). 

A month before we bought the train tickets, which turned out to be more complicated than we thought. Although we took an early morning train out of Tokyo on a Friday morning when we wanted to buy the tickets, there were no rear row seats available anymore and overall the train was already pretty packed. But she managed to get some reasonable seats in the second but last row. 

However this morning we had to wait for 1,5 h for the train. Somehow there was a delay in rail works between Omiya and Sendai so no trains of the Tohoku Shinkansen could leave Tokyo station.

 So although I got up at 4:30 we were only at around 12:00 in Hachinohe. 

Towadako is pretty hard to reach by public transport and probably impossible with a bicycle in tow, so we rented a car (my first time driving in Japan after converting my driving license again back in 2022… I had driven here sometimes between 2015 and 2017 but not since)  but luckily driving is slow and automatic cars are easy to drive. 

As a typical Japanese my friend found a perfect spot for a light lunch in an old farmhouse. 

Our original plan was to do some hiking along the famous Oirase stream… but when we got to the upper parking lot we learned that both the road and the hiking trail were closed since a few days due to damage by too much rain. So we did a mini walk around that information center … 

.. and then continued by car onwards to our ryokan. Which was actually good timing as we arrived around 17:00 and had all the time to enjoy the rotenburo while gazing out into the big Japanese garden with an even bigger pond…

… before our rich dinner in the room.

GW2025 D9 exploring around Himeiji

Route: Himeiji to Engyoji (and back home)
Bicycle: 27 km 
Ropeway: 400 m 
Train: 580 km
Total ascent: 200 m?
Average speed: 11,2 km/h
Riding time: 2:27 h
Weather: grey but no rain. Neither warm nor cold, 20 C

I didn’t really have a plan for my last day of Golden Week. At some point I had planned to go from Shodoshima to Okayama and then ride the last day to Himeji (from where my train return ticket was). But when I discovered that there was a direct ferry from Shodoshima to Himeji I changed that plan. The ride Okayama to Himeji ( if done on potentially nice roads along the coast) was likely going to be too long for safely catching a train back home.

So instead I was already in Himeji, without a plan. Yesterday on the ferry I checked what is famous around Himeji and a temple on a mountain came up (and obviously the castle). And yes, this temple was very nice. Perked on top of a small mountain right behind Himeji , surrounded by nature. 

There didn’t seem to be a way up by bicycle so instead I took the rope way. From the top station it is about 1 km of walk to get to the sprawling temple complex. 

It reminded me a lot of Mount Hiei close to Kyoto, but I think this temple was even more quaint although it did have tourists. Including a very noisy group of elderly Spanish tourists. 

On the way to the mountain, I did pass below Himeji castle and took a picture, but had no plan to actually visit it. I have been 30 years ago… and apparently no strong inkling to go back. 

And with that an other Golden Week has finished and I am in the Shinkansen back home. My original ticket was for around 18:00 but I could easily change it for a 15:00 departure including space behind my seat for the bike. 

GW2025 D8 along the coast of Shodoshima

Route: Ikeda to Fukuda along the coast 
Bicycle: 65 km
Ferry: 41 km
Total ascent: 759 m
Average speed: 14.5 km/h
Riding time: 4:30 h
Weather: cloudy and humid, quite windy, 24C but felt warmer

On my last day (for this trip... but definitely a place to return) on Shodoshima, I went west along the coast, taking in more art and nice views of the landscape as I was riding. 

The main road itself isnt really full of traffic as it is a relatively small, albeit not tiny island. However half way up the hills is often a farm road with no traffic at all and great views out onto the sea over the slopes. Here with the olive groves Shodoshima is famous for. 

So famous that one of the art works is an enormous Elvis - olive in a grove. 

The entrance to the port (not Fukuda, a different port) even had this Greek entrance gate. Complete with a Greek inscription. 

In that same port was also a designer toilet ...

... imitating a small shrine just behind it. 

The best art of the day was in this old town house transformed now into a permanent exhibition of a famous photographer. This isn't really part of the triennial, but the owner did jump on the art ship. And for me it was probably one of the best art works I saw in this triennial together with the bamboo dome I had seen a few days earlier also on Shodoshima. 

This artist painted an object, here an entire room and then takes a picture of it from a very specific angle. So the interesting part was to see how this piece of art WOULD transform if not looked at from exactly the right vantage point. 

Even better was a gold circle painted in an other room... you can check it out in the film on my strava profile. 

Other art was ... well... decorative at best. 

From there less art, more landscape. On very quiet roads along the coast.

I made it in good time to Fukuda port, enough to have a quick look at the art exhibition in the local (abandoned) school. And enough time to pack up my bike. Because due to high waves (per the ticket seller 7 m!) the bicycle wasn't allowed in the car ferry section... but was allowed as a bag in the passenger section if properly packaged. Luckily I had enough time and my rinko bag. 

I strongly doubt that there was any wave higher even 3 m... and for sure no wave higher than 7 m... but rules are rules. And yes, it WAS windy. 

In Himeji port I put the bike together again and had found a super sento not too far from the port, and headed straight there. It was a totally typical supersento in an ugly industrial area. But what made this onsen special (and not in a good sense) was the smell from the surrounding industries. There must have been some chemical plant, and essentially everything smelled very chemical. When riding later to my hotel which was maybe about 5 km from there, I noticed that the entire city at least closer to the port, seemed to smell of that very same chemical exhaust. So the super sento isn't to blame for it... but it did reduce the enjoyment of the relaxation.