Bicycle: 82 km
Train: 60 km
Total Ascent: 811 m
Average Speed: 16.5 km/h
Riding time: 4:59 h
Weather: Very sunny and cold, 5C
As my first visit to a temple of the year, aka Hatsumode, I went to Chogosonshi-ji, the temple of the (paper mache) tiger. A bucket list item.
This temple is on a crazy steep hill (in some parts it was even hard work to push the bike uphill, other parts are ridable). I had left my bicycle yesterday in the bike parking lot of Yamato-Yagi station. When I returned there the old men who run the bicycle parking lot knew exactly which was my bicycle. Probably not hard to guess when you see someone coming in with full cycling cloths into a parking lot that has only mamacharis. So much so, that they didn't check if I had the receipt. But hey, that's Japan.
The first part of the ride was on bicycle paths along rivers. There are a lot of small rivers or channels in that area and many have bicycle paths. The surface in some of them is rather rugged... but still totally ridable. And then it went up the hill first through some satellite town and then further up. It was actually kind of the steepest in the town.
When I made it up it was maybe around 12:30 and there were still free parking lots for cars. Apparently cyclists are not foreseen to make it up the hill... so there wasn't any specially designated bicycle parking lot, so I was allowed to park under a tree in the big parking lot together with a motorbike.
The temple is a large, sprawling affair.
Today with many happy visitors with family doing their Hatsumode (first visit of the year to a shrine/temple), buying good luck charms and bringing the ones from last year back to be burned at the shrine. There were some queues for people to pray, but nothing outrageous.
Behind the temple a path with a lot of stairs and toriis started up to Mt. Shigi. And without thinking too much I walked up there... a LOT of stairs. ... to the view at the top and one more temple.
Most gods had the same offerings, an orange, a mandarin, a small piece of cake, some sake and a rice cake. Only this one here, got some more healthy offerings as well.
From there it was through the mountain range mostly downhill... although with some kickers until the mountain road came down the hill and ended up in build up area. From there... well, not such a nice ride. Just riding through build up area. I was able to find relatively small roads... but still not the same as riding through the mountains on small roads. Surprisingly though the national road that I took down towards Yodogawa didn't have that much traffic. I had feared for the worst and actually made some alternative plans, but ultimately it was just a rather normal road.
And then down to the bicycle path along Yodogawa that I road so many times when staying in Osaka for work and cycling on the weekend to Kyoto or Nara. Uneventful.
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