D2 - Fuji Subaru Line

Route: Up to the 5th station of Mt Fuji
Bicycle: 68 km
Total ascent: 1509 m 
Average speed: 13,6 km/h
Riding time: 5 h 
Weather: Sunny , not too warm, not too cold, around 20C

Living in Japan means going up Mount Fuji. Hiking I tried once 31 years ago and only got from the 5th to either the 6th or the 7th station. But by bicycle today, I managed to get up all the way to the 5th station where the road ends.

I had some trepidations about this long climb, but finally it was easily rideable, just very long and I have to admit a little bit boring.

The gradient is relatively stable, I think the steepest section of 1 km was slightly below 9%. There are pillars every kilometer so you have a good idea where you are and they also tell you the expected average gradient for the next kilometer.

Although there are a lot of cyclist going up, and maybe this weekend even more than normally, because next weekend is the  big hill climb challenge… However, there is no vending machine or water up until to the fourth station at 2020 m of elevation. 

The bottle I bought down still in the village at the convenience store was empty after about 6 km. Actually, it wasn’t empty, but I tried not to empty it until I knew where I could find some water. I found on the map a glamping site and was able to get additional drinks from their vending machine. I also asked a cyclist on the route, if he knew some vending machine up, but it turned out that the machine he remembered didn’t exist anymore. Surprisingly, there was no vending machine at the toll gate, where even as a cyclist you need to pay ¥280 as entrance fee. Which is only a 10th of a car.

After that, the “stations” of Mount Fuji start. When I attempted to hike up Mount Fuji back in 1995 it was a very frustrating experience. I knew we started at the fifth station and the tenth station is on the top so you start hiking, and we hiked at night, and after a while you start seeing some lights in the distance and think “okay, great there comes the sixth station”. And so far so good. Then you continue and relatively swiftly after, you see some more lights so I thought “okay, well that’s going better than I thought that must be the seventh station”. But that is not true. It is simply that the sixth station has a lot of different accommodations. I don’t know if I would have managed to get all the way up if I had known in advance, but it was extremely demotivating to be still at the sixth station even after passing so many huts that I always thought “okay, now this must be the seventh station”. So finally, we spent the night on a bench in front of one of those stations. 

For the cyclist cyber this problem doesn’t exist. There are markers every 100 m how much kilometers are missing to the fifth station and also the 1st to 4th station are generally only one. However, really only at the fourth station there is a place where you can buy food and drinks. I actually don’t know about the food. The place was already closed.

I’m writing a lot about drinks rather than my cycling experience. But I have to admit I’m paranoid of running out of water while cycling. I don’t think I ever actually did run out of water and I always have two bottles which probably together are a little bit over 1 L. When the first bottle gets about half empty, I start with my paranoia where I can find some more water. Normally in Japan, this paranoia isn’t very strong, because there’s vending machines everywhere so there is really no risk to run out of drinks. But when I’m in more remote places or on climbs, but I don’t know yet where the vending machines are my paranoia takes hold of me.

Overall, I would say that the climb was relatively boring. It’s never really challenging, which obviously is nice, but except for the last few kilometers there are also no views. So essentially, it’s a long, long road with a median gradient, riding up through a forest. Plus cars, plus buses. While I was riding up, I wasn’t really enjoying it, between my paranoia for the vending machine and the relatively boring uphill. But maybe now that I know where the vending machine is, I would enjoy the ride a little bit more. The downhill was actually quite okay, while long (30 km), it’s not steep. Thus, once I was back at the foot of the mountain, I already wanted to climb up again.

On one of these stations, I ask some cyclists if they knew where to find a vending machine and their tip with the fourth station was correct. As they were already riding downhill, they even shared some of their water with me. Which was very reassuring.

Enough about water, vending machines, and boring climbs. Now some pictures of the day: 

Before starting the climb proper, I had a good view on the target: 

While climbing generally, you do not actually see Mount Fuji. Which makes sense after all you are on the mountain.

 

The second station was the only one without any amenities at all. At the first and the third there was at least a toilet and at the forth: a toilet, a vending machine and a small bar, which had already closed for the day.

Further up one could see the crater. 

And from the fifth station one had a view over the northern Alps, Tokyo, Hakone, etc., etc. it’s always impressive how high mountains can look so low if you are on a much higher mountain.

Back down from the mountain I passed through the Mount Fuji exhibition area. I wasn’t interested enough to actually dedicate some time to it, but maybe for a rainy day. It’s something to keep in mind. Although I wouldn’t really know why I would be here on a rainy day.

 

Before finishing the day, I wanted to have a last look on Mount Fuji and gave a quick spin around a small part of lake Kawaguchi. Before heading back to my hotel and soaking in the hot onsen. 

D1 - Fuji 4 lakes

Route: Kawaguchiko - Saiko - Motosuko - Shojiko 
Bicycle: 67 km
Train: 100 km
Total ascent: 392 m
Average speed: 18,9 km/h
Riding time: 3:32 h
Weather: very sunny, windy, 25C

My company gives an additional day of vacation during the month of your birthday. I can see in the weather forecast that from mid next week the rainy season seems to start, and it is going to get humid and then probably hot.well, this weekend it is very sunny no rain forecast at all and not yet too hot. So I took my birthday leave day on Monday 1st of June. I also still had some vouchers from furusato nozei for hotels in Kawaguchiko. Surprisingly, it was no problem to find a relatively cheap room at short notice in a hotel with a rotenburo right in Kawaguchiko.

I had originally planned to take the train only to Hashimoto and then to cycle on Doshi Street over the mountains to Yamanakako and then over here to Kawaguchiko. But when I arrived at the station close to my house to take the train and disassemble the bike, it was already relatively warm at 8 am in the morning. So instead, I decided to take the train all the way to Kawaguchiko, which is much higher and presumably a little bit colder.and I think that was a good decision. Not only because of the slightly lower temperatures but also because I could cycle today around four of the lakes around Mount Fuji and have absolutely splendid views of the mountain. While I actually don’t really like Doshi Street as it has its fair share of cars and trucks.

I have been here before around all these lakes, both with very good views of Mount Fuji, as well as on a very rainy summer day with absolutely no view of the mountain. Today initially at Kawaguchiko Mount Fuji was partially behind clouds, but as the day progressed the clouds were swept away by very strong wind and a naked Mount Fuji appeared in the distance over the lakes.

Recently on Netflix, there was a Japanese TV series about an alien  living and working in a simple hotel around Mount Fuji. I always suspected that the hotel was on lake Shoji. And today I passed in front of it. It’s a typical hotel of this area quite outdated, but in a beautiful location.

I had no idea that this television series was so famous, and that people come here to take pictures of the locations where it was filmed. But I was clearly not the only person taking a picture of that hotel.

At the lake in front of the hotel, I had my onigiri and then continued back to Kawaguchi to my hotel.

I didn’t only see this apparently famous film location, but also the much more famous Lawson with Mount Fuji in the back. I had always assumed that that Lawson was somewhere around Gotenba but instead, it’s a few meters from Kawaguchiko station.I did not take a picture, but took a picture of another Lawson much closer to my hotel where I got my dinner and breakfast for tomorrow.

For tomorrow, the plan is to ride up Mount Fuji. Let’s see how that will go. 

GW2026 D8 coast line of Kunisaki peninsula

Route: Kunimimachi - Oita airport - Kitsuki
Bicycle: 32 km
Bus: 15 km
Total elevation: 351 m

Average speed: 14,8 km/h
Riding time: 2:10 h
Weather: Sunny, 20C , very windy but tailwind

Today the plan was to cycle on to Kitsuki, about 40-50 km from my lodging of the night for the last two days of this Golden Week trip. I hadn’t fully decided if to cycle along the coast or halfway up on the “orange road”, but the lady from the accommodation recommended the coastal road at least initially, and yes, it was very nice. Probably the one yesterday was also nice, but as I was riding through the rain much less enjoyable. So to the first village and conbini I cycled down along the coast and even found after a few kilometers a cycling path. 

On the side of the bicycle road they were also sun drying the local seaweeds we had for dinner yesterday.

From there I tried the “orange road”, but it was just a normal hillside / countryside road. No oranges and crucially no views of the sea. So after a bit I returned down to the coast. 

There were some nice stone formations on the shore…

… one called “buttocks stone”:

 

After not too long however my gear cable snapped leaving me stuck in the hardest gear. I replanned my route to have as little elevation gain as possible and probably would have been able to make it to Kitsuki under my own “steam”… but I had an accident at the UFO sight. Yes, Oita airport has a real UFO and “red men”… and a sight of departing aircraft.

When I was just about to depart the chain got stuck between the frame and small gear and I fell off. Luckily it was on a very quiet parking lot, so no danger and a biker was at hand who helped me deentangle from the bike. At this point I had lost my confidence in riding with broken gears and had a bleeding knee, so I walked the about 500 m down to the airport where the friendly ladies at the information desk gave me disinfectant and wound tape. 

I packed up my bicycle already in “Shinkansen” position, ie with both wheels removed and took the bus to Kitsuki. By pure luck, the beer is a bus stop right outside of my lodging and they let me in early. So really perfect place to fall from my bike. And perfect timing as I don’t need to move anywhere tomorrow before returning on Wednesday by train to Tokyo. 

 

GW2026 D6 TOTO toilet museum

Route: Shimonoseki - Kokura - Buzen

Bicycle: 82 km

Walking: 780 m (from Honshu to Kyushu)

Total ascent: 818 m

Average speed: 15,1 km/h

Riding time: 5:26 h

Weather: Sunny but overcast, 26C

 

Today only had one highlight and a lot of lowlights. 

Highlight: TOTO toilet museum

Lowlights: 

• all the traffic between Shimonoseki until way beyond Kokura. It took 50 km+ to get into a region without big streets and lots of cars, and only because I managed to veer off the coast to a road halfway up to mountain. 
• The chemical smell dominating well beyond Kokura and being extremely strong in Kokura city. Not really sure how people would want to live there. 

Starting from my hotel I road a few more km in Yamaguchi, taking in the view of the bridge connecting Honshu with Kyushu…

… while I took the pedestrian tunnel. 

On the other side of the tunnel is Mojiko, a port city that seems to have some Western history. At least around the port and station area there are multiple Western style old houses. 

From there it was a struggle through traffic to get to the toilet museum. I had known about this museum since I first cycled in Kyushu during my Tour of Japan in 2017, but back then I was nowhere close to it. A few years ago when I was cycling around Mt Aso and Oita I had considered going, but again it was out of the way. So finally! 

The museum is in the middle of the TOTO plant, a modern building.

The museum explains the story of Toto and its associated companies producing everything with ceramics, from plates to construction material and parts of electronics, but also toilets and full baths. 

This is the first sitting toilet produced in Japan:

And this the first washlet, now omnipresent in Japanese houses. 

What is always surprising how much ceramics shrink firing:

There was however also a Sumo wrestler and a children option:

When I built my house last year I had so many choices to make, but for the toilet I had decided ahead of time to go with TOTO, as TOTO is for me the definition of Japanese toilets. I am sure that the LIXIL toilet would have been just as good. While with my TOTO bathroom I am really happy, as it has a slightly soft floor. 

After the toilet museum it was back to the traffic and the air pollution. Frankly the roads or route got a bit better, but still not really enjoyable for a cycling trip. I had even considered taking a train to my final destination, but weather was good so I did work up the courage to continue cycling. Only the last 20 km or so were in small vials and the countryside but only because I managed to swear off the main roads onto a tertiary road through the foothills of some mountain. 

PS: so now I finally made it to THE toilet museum, which I thought was unique… and what does the competition do? Open an other toilet museum! https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/raina/260313.html

GW2026 D5 onto Shimonoseki in the rain

Route: Ichinomata onsen to Shimonoseki
Bicycle: 57 km
Total ascent: 596 m
Average speed:15,4 km/h
Riding time: 3:42 h
Weather: mostly rain, 15 C 

Today more rain. It didn’t rain all the time , but enough to not allow for any real sightseeing. I think the biggest “discovery“ of the day was , how much traffic there is around Shimokoseki. After the last few days where even some national roads were small tracks, this came as a bad surprise. Cycling out of Yamaguchi was much better, not a lot of traffic and quickly outside of town. While Shimonoseki is a very long town, that O needed to cross completely. 

I started the day with a quick visit to the onsen before ryokan breakfast. By the time I was ready to depart the rain had stopped since a few minutes  but it wouldn’t stay so. 

My first goal was a wisteria tree I found on Google Maps, but not in reality and on the rain I wasn't motivated to search for it, shortly after I had my first conbini stop. While getting something hot to drink the rain had stopped. Shortly after the conbini stop was the highlight of the day: 

According to an app on my phone it’s a tung oil tree and apparently poisonous. But those flowers were magnificent. I don’t remember ever seeing this tree before  , at least not with flowers. 

Shortly after was a stop in a gorge. It was however too slippery with the rain and fallen leaves to walk alongside the stream. I got “on the road” (aka “very small path theoretically passable for a car”) and walked a bit up until I came to a small waterfall. 

It’s probably nice in autumn with some colors on the trees.

After lunch it started raining again just to cease once much closer to Shimonoseki. The town seems to be famous for this tower and for fugu!

Fugu simply everywhere. As a lamp in the onsen of the hotel, on the manholes, on an other lamp in the onsen and there is the statue to the fugu in front of the main station. 

GW2026 D4 from the cold rain into a hot onsen

Route: Obama Beach to Ichinomata

Bicycle: 35 km

Total ascent: 346 m

Average speed: 17,8 km/h

Riding time: 1:59 h

Weather: cold, damp and then rain, 14C

Today was a short day on the saddle and a long day in the onsen. (And more onsen to come after dinner)

I took a relatively direct way from my lodging on the beach… (yes, ACTUAL beach, not something I am used to see a lot in Japan, where often the sea is treated as dangerous and something to be contained rather than enjoyed, maybe for good reasons)…

… to my next accommodation in the small onsen place of Ichinomata. I think there are only 2 hotels and no houses here, and the two hotels are probably under the same ownership, at least when I checked out the onsen of the other hotel online, they claimed that staying guests could use the onsen of the hotel where I am as well. Meaning probably that “my” onsen is nicer. It’s is a nice onsen, with two outdoor pools and a relatively nice view into the landscape. Not a direct view , but as the valley is quite tight, one can see the trees in all the hills around. The water is also special with a pH of 10! I am not sure if I ever bathed in water so alkaline. I have definitely taken baths in pH 1 “water”… (essentially hot acid) in Tohoku (Osorezan and Tamagawa onsen).

I didn’t actually take the shortest route of them all, as that seemed to go over a mauntain pass (not very high for my Tokyo standards) on a road where there are probably no cars all day, but instead more in the valley. Yet even so I managed to cycle on a road that sees 1-2 cars a day. And even when I came to “the big road”, which Komoot tried to avoid at all costs, there were hardly any cars. Well there are hardly any villages and inhabitants. 

With a forced smile I took a selfie when I put on my rain gear. As long as I am cycling , preferably uphill or in the flat, rain and cold is kind of okay  well, tolerable. But no rain and soaking instead in a hot onsen is always better. 

I hardly took any other pictures. One of a coastline …

… and one of a river I was cycling along. What surprised me these days is how much water the local rivers have. It shouldn’t surprise me, after all it’s spring and if there was any snow it melted, but in Tokyo there seems to be a draught, at least the water level in Miyagase Dam is incredibly low. Not so in Yamaguchi! 

PS: after dinner I can add that the fugu was especially tasty. I had had fugu before and wasn’t specially impressed, but this one was great. It seems that Shimonoseki is famous for its fugu.

GW2026 D3 scenic coast, no cars

Route: Hagi to Obama beach
Bicycle: 64 km
Total ascent: 1219 m ( but I don’t really believe this)
Average speed: 13,3 km/h
Riding time: 4:47 h
Weather: cloudy and much colder, 16 C

My main goal for today was a shrine with red torii gates on the coast I had seen recommended in some posts and questions on Japan Guide. 

It’s a place that is very much out of the way, but somewhat reachable from Hagi. When I first planned the trip I couldn’t find an accommodation anywhere close so instead I had booked a ryokan somewhere in the mountains. Which probably wouldn’t have allowed me to visit this shrine. However when I finally decided which of my 4 plans to put into practice, I rechecked my hotel options and did find a place on the coast not too far from that shrine. Probably I hadn’t found it initially as I strictly searched for places with free cancellation. 

I started in Hagi and road all day along the coast. On paper (or rather in the color coding of Google Maps) some of the streets I took were orange , prefectural roads, so I expected some traffic, but actually some of those prefecture roads were again much more like a rindo (forest road) than something established by the regional government and with heavy traffic in mind.

Even where this road was a bit bigger there was hardly any traffic all day. 

And this paired with great views of the rugged coastline with outlying islands. 

Occasionally a small village stuck in time and geography. These places are far from literally anywhere. Even from Hagi. 

Somewhere on the outskirts of a small hamlet was a huge metal earth globe. I have absolutely no idea who thought that installing such a thing at that crossroad would make sense. 

The highest point of the day was a small plateau right on the shoreline with views in all directions. It was on such a steep hill that with baggage and all , I had to push the bike for a bit. 

From there it was mainly downhill to a place with famous views of rice paddies along the shore.

 

More downhill (that I needed to climb up again later), to the famous shrine. Actually, the shrine itself isn’t very old, and curiously it is currently closed on weekends and local holidays. One wonders why it is open on weekdays instead. Anyway , even with the shrine closed one can still see the famous torii. 

From there to my accommodation. I had preordered grill dinner and wanted to be here quite soon so I could still get a shower prior to dinner. And to avoid too cold weather while grilling