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.

Part 3 (Day 12 - 15) - Aomori Shimokita peninsula 青森 下北半島 - Summary

Bicycle touring Japan - Aomori - Part 3

In this post I review bicycle touring experience in Aomori, in the very North of Honshu, Japan, where I spent the last 3 days, including an excellent stay at a temple on Mount Osore. 

Bicycle: 172 km

Other transport: 488 km

Region: Aomori, and a little bit Hokkaido and Iwate

Total riding time: 11:00 h

Total ascent: 991 m

After the agriculture and culture in Iwate, in these 4 days, I went up again North, to the Shimokita peninsula. This had been my original start into the Honshu ride, however due to the bad weather that was forecasted for that region for end September, I had stared in Iwate.

Here an overview map of the approximate routes taken:

The actual routes I took are in the Strava or Garmin feed of each day:

• Day 12 Hiraizumi to Hakodate
• Day 13 Hakodate to Osorezan
• Day 14 Osorezan to Noheji
• Day 15 Noheji to Tazawako Lake

And here an overview of the costs.

Compared to my original plan, I did not ride up to Osorezan by bike, but rather by a very comfortable taxi, and I did not finish in Hachinohe but in Shichinohe, ...  just one number less. (For explanation, see here), because I did not find an accommodation in Rokkasho.

The best of this ride without any doubt was the onsen right outside of the main temple on Osorezan. It is unfortunate that the water is so acidic, so it is recommended to remain only quite short in the water. But I could have soaked for hours there.

Also the entire surroundings of the temple, with the sulfur and hot steam rising between green woods and a crystal blue lake, were incredibly beautiful.

Osorezan is somewhat hard to reach, on the very tip of Shimokita peninsula, but it is definitely worth a journey.

From a bicycle ride perspective, I think the best part was between Oma and Ohata, because the road runs along the coast and there isn't too much traffic. There is some up-and-down before reaching Ohata, but it's kind of okay.

The ride between Mutsu and Noheji and on to Shichinohe was also okay in those parts where I had a street alternative to the main road, and actually there were some. Specially in the part from Noheji to Shichinohe I had for most part very quiet country side roads. There aren't any spectacular sights there, just Aomori countryside.

Regarding gear, I have finally used my shoes. Two days in a row! And I started using my bicycle shorts (instead of the skirt). I still feel however that the skirt is much better as it is cotton, while the bicycle shorts are made from some synthetic material that sounds like "rash-rash" which each step I take. It's okay thought while cycling.

With the outlook of a very rainy Saturday (7/Oct = Day 16) and some general tiredness, I opted to continue for Lake Tazawako and its onsen. And from here, probably on to Akita and Yamagata.

Day 15 - From Noheji through Shichinohe to Tazawako 野辺地から七戸経由で田沢湖へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 15

This blog post describes today's bicycle tour from Noheji on the Mutsu bay in Aomori to Shichinohe and then onwards with the shinkansen into the mountains around Tazawa lake, where I will spend the next days, waiting out the forecasted rain. 

Bicycle: 21 km

Train: 200  km

Bus: 13 km
Route: Noheji  to Shichinohe, by bike, Shichinohe to Tazawako, by train, Tazawako to hotel by bus
Riding time: 1:40 h
Total ascent: 210 m
Weather: overcast, 13 C

Either my weather app is not very reliable or weather forecast in Japan is not very accurate. In theory today should have been a day with bright sun... Like yesterday. However instead it was overcast the entire day. It didn't suggest rain, but no good for pictures, as you will see.

As I thought that I need a break and weather tomorrow is forecast as not being good at all, rain, I had decided on going to Tazawako. One rest point I had originally planned. But with the good weather expected for today, I wanted to do at least a bit of a ride. In planning yesterday evening, I had opted for riding to Shichinohe Towada shinkansen station and then take a train from there through Morioka up to Tazawako. Initially I feared that there would be only National street #4, so a street with a lot of traffic, but after some planning in Garmin I was able to find alternative roads for most part, which turned out to be very quiet but good roads through the countryside of Aomori.

On one of these quiet roads I even met a hiker who had been hiking all the way from Tokyo and today planned to go a bit further than Noheji. He was NOT impressed when I said that I would ride only to Shichinohe. His comment was, "but you are already nearly in Shichinohe. At most one hour!" (Implying that my riding day was going to be way too short)

Aomori 青森 meaning Green Woods did definitely live up to the expectations. Specially though on the mountains, where however I didn't go. 

On some quite far away mountains, there was even the first snow..

I arrived nearly an hour before the departure of the shinkansen from Shichinohe-Towada station that would bring me to Morioka and then on to Tazawako. I tried to find a place where to wash the bicycle a bit, but the car wash close by the station, did only car washing... So I simply put some oil on the chain. Cleaning will need to wait.

Shichinohe is not a very big town, actually I didn't see the town at all as the station is quite outside, in the middle of the country side. This picture here, I took less than 500 m from the entrance to the shinkansen station:

While I didn't make it to Hachinohe 八戸, at least not on the bicycle, I did make it to Shichinohe 七戸 and by train to both Hachinohe 八戸 and Ninohe 二戸 so that should make a Kunohe 九戸, right?
(Essentially all these towns are called "Nohe" with a number before, 8, 7, 2 and 9. But there is also 1, 3, 5 and 6 in the same region. Here a more detailed explanation of the numbering of these towns.

After this relatively short ride in the morning here the train comes that brought me to Morioka, where I had an other 40 minutes to wait until my next train for Tazawako came. (This was already the third time I came through Morioka this month!)

At Tazawako station I headed to the local tourist information center, where I got information about the onsen here in the region, Nyuto onsen, as well as Tazawa Lake, then I boarded the hotel bus and came up to my accommodation for the next 3 nights.

Based on the tourist information of the area, I decided to extend my stay to 3 days:

• One day soaking in the famous onsens of Nyuto onsen (tomorrow)
• One day having a ride around Tazawa lake (on the day after tomorrow) 
• On the third day to depart. Likely down to Kakunodate. 

I was lucky that the hotel could accommodate this last minute change. 

I had an early, and very lonely dinner, at 17:30 in the only restaurant, well more like a place you might find in a ski resort, as my room reservation - through Jalan - came without dinner... and in the hotel there was no possibility anymore to have dinner. (I have requested however dinner for tomorrow and the day after)

Looking forward to a leisurely day tomorrow!

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Aomori, checkout the below maps:

Day 14 - Osorezan to Noheji 恐山から野辺地へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 14

This blog post describes the early morning and explorations on Osorezan and then the bicycle ride to Noheji along the Mutsu bay in Aomori. 

Bicycle: 63 km
Bus: 14 km
Route: Osorezan to Mutsu, by bus, Mutsu to Noheji by bicycle
Riding time: 4:11 h
Total ascent: 322  m
Weather: sunny & windy, 15 C


Today started with a wake up call at 6:00, right in time for the morning prayer session at 6:30 in the main temple of Bodaiji. The temple itself seems to have been constructed very recently, but it has a history of over 1000 years and apparently is one of the 3 most sacred places in Japan. However there were only 4 monks, plus us who stayed in the shukobo for the night and a few additional people who came up to Osorezan early in the morning. They also had ordered commemorative stelae for some of their deceased family members.

Main temple

Here on my way to the temple:

After the morning service we had a few free minutes to do a quick walk through the temple grounds before breakfast at 7:30. Again, it was okay, but nothing spectacular. The best thing was probably the kiwi which was very tasty.

Coming up on the previous day by taxi, I had decided to go down by bus again. Essentially there is first a quite long ride up and then a quite steep ride down. And steep rides down aren't so enjoyable either. Also the road was wet and looked kind of slippery. And well, there is a convenient bus that leaves at 10:00. So that gave me 2 hours to explore the temple surroundings, take a lot of pictures and finally have a last bath.

Right in front of the main temple, with the water channels carrying the hot water from the onsen

Per the legend the place had been selected about 1000 years ago by a Buddhist monk, because it symbolized so perfectly the buddhistic ideas. 8 mountain peaks around a lake = lotus flower, which is a symbol in Buddhism, smoke from the volcano = hell, a nice beach on the lake = paradise, etc.

After this sightseeing trip, an other quick dip into the water. Well, we call it "water", but actually it is a hot acid: ph 2.4 ! But very enjoyable.

Yesterday (Day 13) and today on the volcano were also the first time I used my closed shoes. Here with yellow stockings, perfectly in match with the volcanic sulfur:

(However for the ride today I was back in sandals and short sleeves for most of the time.)

And here the bus that took me down from Osorezan to Mutsu:

As the internet in the shukubo was not very stable, I hadn't been able yesterday to organize tonight's accommodation. So the second thing I did once in Mutsu was to find an accommodation for tonight. (The first thing was to have a second breakfast with some baumkuchen that I had left over and a pack of milk). Initially my plan was to ride to Rokkasho, stay there for tonight and then ride on to Hachinohe tomorrow. However, I have been unable to find accommodation in Rokkasho, although there were quite a number of hotels / ryokans etc. available on the lakes. I called to some of them, and in some nothing was available any more, in one - per their web page - only male customers were allowed, and in one, although on the phone they told me that a room was available, when it came to spelling my name, he said, that no foreigners would be accepted. I have to admit that this felt very bad and I was a bit shocked by his reaction (and also by me being so shocked at this). So after not being able to secure a lodging for tonight in Rokkasho I looked at alternatives, and saw Noheji on the map. And here, I found an accommodation.

The ride from Mutsu to Noheji was okay, but not specially nice. There were some part, specially from Mutsu to a bit before Arihata, (minute 50 to 1:44 in the below Garmin map), where there was quite heavy traffic on the street. It is true that they are building a new express way, so hopefully one day this will be better. A bit before Arihata however there were parallel running "farmer streets" which were very quiet.

Osorezan in the distance

These farmer streets essentially brought me into Mutsu-Yokohama. Place where I thought it would be easy to find something for lunch, but although I crossed the entire village, the only available lunch was at the road side station... So there I went and had a late lunch.

Then I continued on to Noheji. Again that part of the ride partially was on farmer streets and partially on the main road. However by then all the heavy traffic was on an express way, that must have started somewhere after Mutsu-Yokohama, so traffic was okay, even on the main street.

I don't remember why originally I had made the plan to go to Hachinohe instead of Noheji when leaving the Shimokita peninsula, but it might have had to do with the continuous up-and-down that I encountered specially between Yokohama to Noheji. It didn't help that the wind that had been tailwind yesterday had turned into headwind today... or maybe I had turned...

Although the street runs along the Mutsu bay, there weren't a lot of places where one could see sea and mountains:

After some, for me, considerable up and down I reached Noheji and my accommodation for tonight.

It might not look especially welcoming from outside, but actually inside it is all very newly made. I took a Tatami room and now I am stretching out here on my floor writing. The other amazing thing about this room is the number of sockets: 12 in total! While normally Japanese rooms have a terrible lack of sockets. Not so in Noheji.

They also suggested an izakaya just in front, where I now just had dinner:

As I ended up in Noheji, where I hadn't planed to be, I looked at my options for the next few days, and finally decided to do some short ride tomrorrow (weather should be perfect) and then up to Tazawako, as the next days there might also be rain, so better to be in an onsen town and soak.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Aomori, checkout the below maps:

Day 13 - Hakodate to Oma and up to Osorezan 函館から大間経由で恐山へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 13

Today I started my ride through Aomori and as a highlight of the day made it up to Mount Osore (the ascent by taxi though), one of the three most sacred places in Japanese Buddhism and a great place to bath in acidic, hot water right from a volcano and just a stone's throw away from the main temple.

Bicycle: 55 km
Ferry: 40 km
Taxi: 14 km
Route: Hakodate hotel to port, Hakodate port to Oma port by ferry, Oma to Mutsu, Mutsu to Osorezan by taxi
Riding time: 3:20 h
Total ascent: 387 m (and this without actually riding up to Osorezan!)
Weather: cloudy and sunny, and a few drops of rain, 12 C


Today ended perfectly. In an onsen right below a temple with hot water flowing in directly from a volcano.

The day however started quite early (but not as early as tomorrow) in Hakodate, where I packed up, and left my hotel at 7:30, in order to be at the port around 8, right in time to buy my ticket to Oma, that I had reserved yesterday.

Around 9 we were allowed to roll onto the ferry. First the motorcyclists (3), then me, the only cyclist, and then cars and small vans.

My brompton was secured to the ship and I went upstairs to a room layed out just with some carpet where we could all sit on the floor. Japanese "standard class" on ships. From my room we had a great view over the ocean:

With me in the same room where 4 Japanese couples, somewhere between 50 and 80 years old that were also travelling through Japan. One couple by motorcycle and the others by car or camper bus. We all exchanged our travel plans and travel impressions. It was actually quite nice with all these other travelers. One elderly men even gave me as a present two origami figures of cranes that have a basket:

(As they are difficult to carry around, I have abandoned them in my room in the monastery below the  Buddhist scroll. Assuming that this is the nicest place where I can leave them.)

Before coming on the ship I had also spoken with the other motorcyclists, as we were waiting together in one area in order to be let on the ship. One was a guy (well, probably in his 50's) from Iceland travelling the world in what will be 2 years on his motorbike. So far he has done Europe, he started in the Netherlands, Russia, Mongolia. Now Japan and then on to North America, Central America, South America and next year summer again up to Alaska.

As I was the smallest vehicle of all, I was the last to leave the ferry in Oma. I then did ride on to the Northern most point of Honshu, where it was very windy. Luckily for me, the wind resulted to be tail wind for my ride. Otherwise it would have been a very hard day.

And then I set off along the Northern coast toward Ohata. Along the road there some algae were drying in the fresh ocean air. Either spread out or dangling in the wind:

The weather forecast for Oma and Mutsu today was: bright sun. However at least initially there were some dark clouds that seemed to bring rain. At some point it even started to rain very slightly and I already looked out for the next village in the hope to be able to hide somewhere and wait for the end of the rain. However instead of rain, at that moment the sun came through and it was sunny (plus some high and quickly moving clouds) for the rest of the day. Until now (19:00), when there was just a surprise rain shower. But from my warm room I couldn't care less. Even my bicycle is inside in the entry hall.

I knew from the Garmin elevation profile that there were going to be some up-and-down and one 100 m hill before coming to Ohata. Luckily the 100 m hill was steep on my end, so I could relatively quickly push the bicycle up, while the ride down was long and not very steep, so also ideal for rolling it down into Ohata:

If you look at my original plan for this ride Ohata was the start for a 200+ m ascent to Osorezan, through a road where I am unsure if it is asphalted or not. However when I reserved in the accommodation on Osorezan yesterday and asked about bears, I was told that yes, there might be bears. Specially on that road, as it is not very much transited. Thanks to these bears I had the perfect excuse for not making the ride up the mountain! (Per the taxi driver the bears in this region are small... but still, don't want to be chased nor eaten even by a small bear)
So I had asked the lady what are my other possibilities to come up to Osorezan. There are buses, but the last left around 14:00 from Mutsu, and no buses from Ohata, or taxis. Originally I had planned to take a taxi up from Ohata, but when I arrived there it was still early, the weather was quite nice and the ride over to Mutsu not too far, nor too hilly, so I decided to go on to Mutsu and take a taxi from there, which were supposed to be cheaper anyway, and I got a bit more time on the bike.

In Mutsu, thanks to Google maps, I found a taxi company and was driven up the mountain directly to my accommodation of the night. In looking at the road I have decided to not ride it down tomorrow, it is partly very steep (one first needs to climb up a hill and then down probably 400 m), slightly moist and partly also covered with fallen leaves. So it would seem not to be a very enjoyable and probably not even very safe ride down. So tomorrow will start with a bus ride down the volcano and then on my bike along the coast of the Mutsu bay.

While the ride today was nice, my accommodation for the night is spectacular! I am staying in the Shukubo of the Bodaiji temple on the lake of Osorezan. A Shukubo is a temple accommodation run by buddhist monks and includes a monks dinner and breakfast, i.e. all vegetarian and quite simple. My room however is so far the best (and largest) I had had on this entire travel, probably around 28 tatami mats in size:

And a room with a stunning view:

As in some previous nights, I have added one more futon to my bed for the night. So it gets softer. Luckily enough in Japanese rooms, there is a cupboard where all the futons are stored in, and as the rooms are meant for more than one person, there are normally spare futons. Which I simply use.

The best of the Shukubo so far however was the onsen. There are 3 onsen right on the grounds on the temple, actually on the way from the main gate to the main temple building, plus one more a bit farther away plus a modern one inside the accommodation itself.

Today in the afternoon I first tried out one on the temple grounds, that gets its hot waters directly from the volcano next door.

Although there is no rotenburo, with the fresh cold wind coming through the splits in the wooden hut, it was like being in a rotenburo. Simply great!

Before I started soaking I did at least a short exploration of the temple grounds in the sunset:

Dinner at 18:00 was a very quiet affair. The few guests, I think we were 12, were all sitting on the same long table, waited for the monk to tell a prayer and then we were allowed to eat. Everyone ate in silence. No idea if that is what one is supposed to do in a Buddhist monastery. And after 20 min the same monk came back said an other prayer and we finished our meal. Actually, while the accommodation is perfect, the dinner was a bit deluding. I had hoped for a very tasty Buddhist vegetarian meal, like the one we had a few years back in Koyasan, but it was just normal vegetable, tofu and rice. No extraordinary tastes.

Now in the evening I will have an other bath here in the more modern bath and then off to bed, so I can get up by 6:00 tomorrow morning, in time for the 6:30 morning prayer that we will all attend in the temple.

As probably to be expected on top of a volcano in a Buddhist monastery, internet connection is patchy. So I wont be able to upload this post until tomorrow, but then with pictures, maps and links.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Aomori and Hokkaido, checkout the below maps:

 Here also the short ride in Hakodate today in the morning: