NY 2025 D6 Seven Lucky Gods Pilgrimage

Route: 7 Lucky gods Kyoto pilgrimage
Bicycle: 50 km
Total ascent: 357 m
Average Speed: 14.2 km/h
Riding time: 3:30 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, cold, 6 C

A few days ago while reading Japan Times, I saw an article on a New Years pilgrimage to the 7 Lucky gods (Shichi-Fuku-jin), which seems to be a tradition to do in the first week of the new year. The one in Kyoto is specially spread out, so well suited to be done by bicycle. 

These seven gods come from 3 different religions (shintoism, buddhism and taoism) and all seem to be quite fun loving and good natured. One of them, is even a female god. (And yes, I know the collage above only has 6 of them... read the whole blog post to find out why).

I started with the most outlying temple: Manpukuji in Uji. 

Manpukuji is a famous temple in itself, regardless of the Seven Lucky Gods. Famous for it's Chinese style architecture. I had come here in Golden Week a few years ago. But today, I only had eyes for Hotei-son, characterized by his round belly and full sack of presents he received for doing good deeds. 

For such a famous temple, there were few visitors there today. It isn't a real Hatsumode temple, so the locals didn't come and the tourists just all go to the same places. 

The next stop was back in Kyoto right in the middle of the tourist nightmare of Higashiyama: Rokuharamitsuji. This temple actually isn't on the normal tourist route, but today there was not only the pilgrimage to the Seven Lucky Gods ongoing, but also normal Hatsumode and this in an area that is already full of tourists. Most visitors though were Japanese who were buying new lucky charms for this year. There was even a rather long queue to pray before the goddess Benzaiten. So I didn't get a good look of her. 

The funniest of them all, as always, was good old Ebisu, the only originally Japanese of the 7 gods. Always ready for a joke. 

His shrine was close by and while there were also a good number of visitors, things where more relaxed and fun driven. With people trying to through a coin into a basket on the torii. 

BTW, the lanterns and the sentence below to the foreign observer might seem to be nice festive decorations, but actually it is publicity It says "For shopping, go to Takashimaya". 

From there I went over the river to an other mid sized temple, Gyoganji, which is hosting Jurojin a taoist god of old age. 

And on I went to Northern Kyoto to Matsugasaki Daikokuten, where Daikokuten an Indian buddhist god is venerated (and well bathed with cold water). 

The next temple was Sekizan Zenin with what seems to be the wisest of all the gods. At least judging from his enormous brain capacity. 

Here they were also selling small versions of him to be then exposed probably with your wish at the temple. Similar to the cats at Gokokuji in Tokyo (which will be pretty close to my new house). 

The most disappointing of them all was Bishamonten at Toji temple. Simply because he wasn't there. His statue is in the adjacent museum but only on display on some days of the year. Not today apparently. 

Toji temple itself is a very spread out affair and has it's charms... but that wasn't my objective for today so I just snapped a picture of the pagoda from afar and went back to my hotel making an early return and checking on some work emails before now writing this blog post. 

What was interesting in this pilgrimage is that these 7 gods are at 7 very different locations. From major temples such as Toji and Manpukuji to a small neighborhood shrine of Ebisu. Temples right in the center of Kyoto, such as Rokuharamitsu-ji to temples in the forest like Sekizan Zen-in. 

But all places were joined by flags announcing them as one of the Seven pilgrimage locations. 

NY2025 D5 - small mountain roads in the North of Kyoto

Route: Kyoto - Arashiyama - Mizuo - Sugisaka - Kyoto
Bicycle: 76 km
Total ascent: 977 m
Average Speed: 16.4 km/h
Riding time: 4:37 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, cold, 5C

After the somewhat dissatisfying ride yesterday, the tiger temple was great... but the ride afterwards to Ikoma and onwards was just riding through built up area, today I went to the North of Kyoto into what feels like very remote mountains. They aren't actually that remote, but all roads are really small, a few small villages and a lot of up and down. 

But to get there I first needed to traverse the touristic craziness of Arashiyama. Luckily all the tourists just concentrate in a few blocks around the famous bridge (what is actually so special about that bridge?) and the temples between there and the bamboo forest. But move away only a few blocks... and I stumbled upon a great temple complex: Seiryouji, with only a few visitors. 

After the last temple in Arashiyama a small mountain road starts. It starts relatively easy, but the last few hundred meter are like a wall. But that's where pushing the bike comes in handy. On the equally steep downhill one has this nice view of the Sagano valley. That valley is famous among tourists for a small sightseeing train. 

Only after that downhill the actual uphill starts. Which goes on and on, but at a nice gradient. Mid-way through is the small village of Mizuo apparently famous for it's Yuzu fruits. I have been here nearly 2 years ago... and looking back to that blog post I realize that I took today exactly the same pictures. 

The roads I was riding on, were mainly small or very small roads. Like this one. And just a joy to ride. It must be a great area also to ride when it is hot (or hotter) as it is all pretty much in the shadow of the trees and mountains. Although I wouldn't probably want to ride here when it is really hot, as there isn't an easy "escape" route back to a train station. Also with the villages being so small there is not a single conbini and around New Year all restaurants are closed. I say "all"... as if there were many. In Mizuo it seems there might be one or two and then much later in Hosono there is a ramen shop that does a very tasty boar ramen and deer dumplings. I tried the ramen in an other ride and it was excellent. But today also this shop was closed. 

NY 2025 D4 - Hatsu-Tiger-mode

Route: Yamatoyagi - Chogosonshiji - Mt. Shigi - Ikoma - Yodogawa - Kyoto
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. 

NY2025 D3 Nigatsudo and Kashihara jingu

Route: Kyoto - Nara - Kashihara - Yamatoyagi
Bicycle: 94 km
Train: 60 km
Total Ascent: 483 m
Average Speed: 16.3 km/h
Riding time: 5:46 h
Weather: Cloudy, some very dark clouds, which I managed to run out, cold, 5 C

For the last day of this year, I went to the temple in Nara I like most: Nigatsudo. 

Even nowadays when Nara is so flooded with tourists, around Nigatsudo it is still okay. Yes, there are tourists, but a normal amount, not hordes. And this is so strange. It is so close to Todaiji, just up a bit the hill... but it seems that the majority of tourists only alot half a day to Nara, see Nara park with the deer and Todaiji and then hurry on to Osaka or Kyoto or maybe Uji to see more clogged places, instead of making it up a little bit further the hill to Nigatsudo and its excellent views over the valley. 

I have probably written the same every time I wrote about Nigatsudo, but it is still an obligatory stop for me in Nara. I actually didn't visit any other parts of Nara. Also because a very dark cloud was looming overhead and looked like it might downpour at any moment. 

Originally my plan was to cycle to Nara and back to Kyoto. But I also want to visit a "tiger" temple which is farther away from Kyoto... so instead I decided to continue on, leave the bike in Yamatoyagi and restart from there tomorrow and go to the tiger temple... on the first day of the year of the snake. 

 I already got my commemoration photo of the year of the snake at Kashihara jingu. A day early, but thanks to this before the crowds. The shrine was actively preparing to receive thousands and thousands of worshippers from tomorrow. But today it was still very quiet. 

Overall the ride along the river between Kyoto and Nara is rather boring. Maybe I have done it now one time too many or I am just too much a mountain goat now that I am no longer thrilled by it. Yes, it is easy riding between Kyoto and Kizugawa on a broad cycling road along the river. After Kizugawa the cycling road becomes more complicated, disappears in some places before then returning in smaller edition somewhere after Nara. But Japanese landscape along heavily inhabited rivers simply is boring. The nicest part is the submergible bridge, which however now since a few years is under renovation. 

The rest of the landscape looks something like this. Villages, factories... and always a strong wind. 

At one place however there was a very early (or late... 31st December) blooming cherry tree:

In Kashihara jingu I saw the last sunset of the year... and I will not get up early tomorrow morning to try to see the first sunrise. I did do that I think once back in Barcelona... but it is easier there, as sunrise is much later in winter than in Japan. 

The day ended in an super sento in the Yamato Yagi area. The same I went to in early January this year. The area around the super sento continues to be as ugly as previously (and will never be nice). But today also the super sento was super full. I hadn't expected that so many people thought that it was a great idea to have a last bath on the 31st of December... but apparently I was wrong. Many people, many small children and some of the pools really full. I did relax a bit... but not as much as I would normally do. Also knowing that I needed to cycle in the cold the last ~5 km to the station didn't entice me to stay until late to try to avoid a bit the cold. 

The ride overall was rather boring... and most of the time on the bike I spent thinking about facades and what kind of material I would find acceptable or even nice for the facade of my house. My current conclusion is:

• Natural wood/bamboo would be ideal... but as far as I understand the building regulations in Tokyo this is out of questions due to fire prevention laws
• Mortar (ideally in a warm colour, maybe dark red, or the typical Japanese yellow)
• Maybe corrugated steel if it fits with the house design

But the typical material used for new houses in Japan which is a ceramic cladding that tries to look like stone but doesn't look like stone at all. It just looks like plastic to me (although it is some kind of ceramic)... that material I have yet to see a house that can pull it of. 

At least I know that mortar is possible, albeit more expensive than the ceramic cladding. 

NY2025 D2 Up to the heart of Kyoto

Route: Kyoto heart route in Northern Kyoto plus mountainous road behind Kurama
Bicycle: 74 km
Total Ascent: 1240 m
Average Speed: 15.7 km/h
Riding Time: 4:44:44 h (o yeah...)
Weather: Sun and clouds and even a few snow flakes, cold, 5 C

For my second day here, I repeated but prolonged a ride I had done nearly a year ago: https://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2023/12/d2-kyomi-pass-kifune-and-ohara.html 

But this time instead of sightseeing in Kifune I went up to Kurama and further up until national road #477. One of the smallest National Roads out there I guess. A small mountain road connecting Ohara with I don't know what. There is nothing essentially... Ohara to Kurama there is a more logical road further down the mountains and behind Kurama there doesnt seem to be anything except mountains and forests. Thus there were also only very few cars. Part of that National Road was so steep that cycling up wasn't in question (for me) and even on the downhill there were some parts that were scarily steep. 

The first part of the ride was essentially a copy paste, but with a better exit road from central Kyoto to the beginning of the climb. That climb behind Kinkakuji seems to be a staple for Kyoto road cyclists. On top of Kyomi pass there were two small groups waiting for each other. Even on this cold day in the middle of the winter... when most cyclists remain home. 

The other part I copied from that earlier ride was the lunch stop, in a wagyu restaurant, with very severe rules: no smartphones while eating, no loud conversation, no children, no single people by car, no take away ordering in the restaurant (only by phone), no perfume,... the list goes on. The restaurant is plastered with all their rules both on the outside but also on the inside. And frankly it takes away a bit of the enjoyment of the good meal. Where ever you look, there is some rule on the wall that forbids something. 

From there instead of Kifune, I went through Kurama, a place where I have been a few years back by local train and enjoyed the onsen there. It was closed during (or due to) Covid, but seems to be open again... although today it seemed closed... and anyway, it was at the bottom of the ascent, so not for me today.  

Overall it feels colder this year than last... although this snow picture is a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, there were some snow flakes behind Kurama in the mountains flying through the air, and yes, between Momoi pass and Maegahata pass on the side of the road there was snow as well as in the small mountain village of Momoi. But it was totally safe to ride and not that cold as the picture might make you think. Well... cold... but still survivable with the cycling winter clothes I use. 

The area looks like fun to explore. Maybe stay in Ohara and cycle from there on the various small mountain roads. But not in winter... in winter I prefer down in Kyoto in my U-Bell hotel (where I am now for the third or fourth time) with the hot sento waiting for my tired and cold body once off the bike. 

NY 2025 D1 - The return of the pickles

Route: Kyoto - Ohara and beyond and back
Bicycle: 60 km
Total Ascent: 662 m
Average Speed: 17.8 km/h
Riding time: 3:22 h
Weather: generally sunny, a few snow flakes, cold (but okay) 5 C

For this first day of my long New Years holidays, I had a slow start. The first time sleeping without a alarm bell in what feels like an eternity. I have been busy looking for a plot of land where to build a house, and otherwise on weekends I am generally out there somewhere with my bicycle. As I was today... but today at least I had no specific plan, didn't need to catch a train and thus had a sleep in. Then I put the bike together (which was in a rinko bag with both wheels removed, as that makes the bike considerably smaller so better to transport in an already very full Shinkansen) and then started at noon. 

While I was having my slow start I decided to on my target for today: pickles

There is a pickles factory cum restaurant at the entrance to Ohara. Ohara being a place where aparatenly a lot of vegetables are being grown 

I had been here a few years ago on an other ride and really liked the fresh pickles (I am normally not a big fan of Japanese pickled vegetables, but these were so fresh and varied), that I wanted to come again. I had tried one time... but it was too far in my route and I was hungry earlier, so today I made it the goal. 

When I first was at the restaurant, riding uphill, it was about 13:00. But as I had started only at noon, I still wanted to ride a bit more. So I continued up, a little bit down and up again all the way to a tunnel from where then it would be a long down hill to Takashima on lake Biwa. I just passed through the tunnel, looked at the snow on the other side and then road back down to Ohara and my lunch.

Riding up there it even did snow a little bit. Just floating snow flakes in the wind. Nothing that would actually stick. 

I remember this road up to the tunnel as quite challenging... but not so today. Very enjoyable instead. 

NY2024 - D7 Kyoto to Imaicho

Route: Kyoto - KeiNaWa cycling route - Imaicho
Bicycle: 78 km
Train: 62 km
Average Speed: 18.8 km/h
Total ascent: 214 m
Riding Time: 4:09 h
Weather: Cloudy, 8C

I didn't have a specific plan layed out for today, so in absence of that I decided yesterday evening to do the "easy thing" and just ride along the KeiNaWa cycling route to inner Nara prefecture (somewhere), leave the bicycle there to pick up tomorrow for a ride from there. I have riden already multiple times on this cycling route. From Kyoto to Kizu it is very straightforward, always along the river on a separate cycling route. Later on it get's a bit more "complicated" and although in general it is very well indicated, every now and then the route seems to disappear. But I had found a GPX file online that retraced the route quite well. I didn't actually take any pictures before coming to Nara, where I simply passed by the Heijo palace, a vast archeological site (that I visited before). It is probably a sacrilege to not visit again... but I didn't. 

During the ride I decided I decided to get to Yamato-Yagi, which seemed to be a very convenient transport point back to Kyoto. I have stayed already several times in that area, and like it. Plus Imaicho (which is an old city center within Yamato Yagi) is always nice. It is one of the view villages that are still mainly intact with old houses and seems still to be in normal use. There is a little bit of tourism ongoing here, but very low key. Which is crazy. There are so many tourists flocking to Takayama or to Magome/Tsumago (which are out of the way to reach for most of them), to see a bit of "traditional Japan"... but most of those same tourists stay in Kyoto (or Osaka) and totally ignore Imaicho, and the villages around, such as Asuka, which are an extremly easy day trip.

After a spin through the old part, I went to a super sento in the area. And what an area, your typical grotesque super sento area, somewhere sandwiched between a major road, a construction site and a chemical plant... but once you are inside you don't see or hear any of this and can find total relax. They had one of those "pool" where to lie on the ground on stones heated by hot water running slowing down. You are not actually lying in the water, but kind of on top of it on the hot stones. My favorite! 

NY2024 - D5 Two rides in one

Route: Kyoto - hills between Uji and Otsu - Biwako - Hikone
Bicycle: 106 km
Train: 85 km
Total Ascent: 928 m
Average speed: 16.1 km/h
Riding time: 6:37 h
Weather: sunny and perfectly blue sky but cold, 4 C, (including a bit of ice on one of the hilly roads)

Today was really two rides in one. The first part on ridiculously steep but also remote roads between Uji and Otsu and the second part in the sun and on the flat cycling road along Biwako. 

The original plan had even more hills in the early part including a visit to a mountain temple (Kami Daigo) but after struggling up two steep hills and the equally steep downhills, I decided against that and descended to the valley of Kamogawa continued there a bit in direction Otsu but then took yet another turn into the hills (not so steep though) and when I was on top of that hill took another detour around a hill through again very remote parts. Nothing of this is far away from Kyoto or Otsu, but it feels like a very remote place. 

Then a final steep downhill and down to the lake. I had conbini lunch at the lake as I wanted to get moving and continued towards Hikone, where I had identified a super sento yesterday. 

Around Omi Hachiman I took a detour that is closer to the lake and is really nice. I have cycled around/along Biwako now many times, but never did this road. Really nice. Initially along the shore and then up into the hills but still along the shore. Nothing too steep though and very little traffic. At the end a small harbor with a cat who “employs” several fishermen to catch her fish.

Apart from that “new” section, the ride was very traditional, with the obligatory photo of “Biwako” …

… and of the “idyllic” tree on the shore, very beloved by drivers of bicycles, motorbikes and cars for a romantic picture of their ride. Today many were awaiting sunset.

Not me though, I took a quick picture of bike and tree (traditions need to be respected) …

… and continued away from the sunset that I caught in Hikone just before turning inland and towards the onsen

For tomorrow I left the bicycle parked at Hikone station and will likely ride from Hikone to Takashima or at least to the Oku Biwalake area and then get a train back to Kyoto. Today it was so sunny but apparently tomorrow it will be cloudy with some rain in the afternoon. But around Lake Biwa there are many train stations so should be okay to go while checking the clouds. 

My original plan for today also had an other lake, Kisenyama Dam, but when I was at the entrance to a small road leading to it, there was an automatic announcement that sounded like continuing wasn’t a good idea. If I understood correctly the hunting season was on. 

NY2024 - D4 exploring around Fushimi and on to Uji

Route: Kyoto - Fushimi - Uji and back
Bicycle: 58 km
Total ascent: 532 m
Average Speed: 14.7 km/h
Riding time: 3:56 h
Weather: sun, clouds, rain all mixed, 6 C

In theory the weather forecast for today was no rain from the morning... but that wasn't really true. It was rainy in the morning, so I had a slow and late start. When I finally got going around 10:30 it kind of had stopped raining, but the roads were wet after a night of rain. My plan was to ride to the tea fields behind Uji, a ride a tried (from Nara) about a year ago, and was also stopped by rain. This time it wasn't only the rain that did put a stop to this plan, but also an intriguing roof ridge I saw on a hill, and decided to investigate:

The (rebuilt) castle of Fushimi. Very quiet place.

From there it wasn't far to a shrine on the same hill and the mausoleum of the Meiji emperor.

Weather today was very changing, sunny in one minute, grey in the next and a few rain drops soon after, just to return to sun or clouds again. Anyway, the rain was never strong enough to really get wet. Luckily as it's cold. 

After exploring the sights on this hill I continued my preplanned route towards Uji, and before I knew it was at Uji station. By then it was a bit after 12:00 so I decided to have lunch in Uji, in a family restaurant, considering that Uji is too touristy for normal restaurants plus it is 1st of January, so most normal restaurants are closed. While eating it rained again, and I also realized that my full plan was not achievable. So I replanned the route and shortened it a bit. It still went a bit uphill, and still contained one tea plantation.

Back through built up area, until I was down on the bicycle road along Kizugawa. Not the best ride through built up area, specially after the enjoyment of nature the first 2 days in Northern Kyoto. Not really bad... but just not really enjoyable either. Once on the river, there is the typical river cycling lane linking to the cycling lane on a few other rivers and back to my hotel. While I was cycling I heard my phone beeping. The typical beep of the alert system. After a while it beeped again and again. So I checked what had happened. I already suspected that it was an earthquake, and I was right. A rather major earthquake (shindo 7) in Ishikawa prefecture, with tsunami warnings for practically the entire Japan sea coast. Back in the hotel I watched a bit of television, where they were saying continuously "evacute now... don't leave it to later, evacuate now to higher places ... a tsunami is coming ... evacuate now..." Luckily there is some time between an earthquake and the inbound tsunami, so hopefully most people will have had enough time to evacuate to somewhere a bit higher. Now, about 6 hours later, and a multitude of strong aftershocks in the area, they continue to ask people to evacuate for the tsunami. So far however it seems that there haven't been a lot of injured people. But we will see in the next days. The announcer on the television at least seems to be well prepared. Assuming that he is sitting in Tokyo, the helmet is really only show.