Bicycle: 50 km
Train: 140 km
Total ascent: 617 m
Average speed: 15,6 km/h
Riding time: 3:10 h
Weather: Sunny but not too hot
For my last day of this long Obon weekend I wanted to make my way back to an area where I can take a local train back to Tokyo instead of the Shinkansen. The Shinkansen in Karuizawa Is even a normal work weekends very full, and at the end of a cool Obon weekend I didn’t want to even imagine how packed it might be. Plus, I’m here for riding my bicycle.
I choose a route over the mountains on a small road Shinmonita. Essentially, the right is downhill as Carrizales on about 1000 m elevation while the Kanto basin is more or less close to sea level. Yet I managed to built-in a climb. When I plant the ride, I only was keen on building in the climb, and didn’t know where this road was actually taking me. To my surprise, it did take me to a local sightseeing attraction. Nakanotake shrine, which in itself is a rather normal mountain shrine.
Though I hadn’t known about the shrine when I did the route yesterday, I had found that there was an onsen on that very same road already on the downhill section. So that was my Final destination for the day. From this on one had a very wide view over the plain around Takasaki over to the mountains towards Nikko.
While soaking, I saw some dark clouds approaching so finally didn’t spend that much time in the onsen. I managed to get to a small train station in time before the floodgates opened. It was one of those days of torrential rains in which parts of Chiba were flooded.
This year the summer in Japan was uncharacteristically cool. Well, cool isn’t the right word but not scorchingly hot. So I think I have done more riding this year over the summer than in any previous years. I even continued commuting to work for a good part of the summer.
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