Day 7 - Tokyo to Morioka 東京から盛岡へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 7

In preparation of my next leg of bicycle touring in Japan, on Day 7 I took the shinkansen up to Morioka. 

Bicycle: 400 m

Train: 540 km

Route: Tokyo to Morioka

Riding time: 0 h

Weather: rainy in Tokyo

I was having some discussions with myself, whether to call today Day 7 or Day 7 minus 1, but finally opted for Day 7 anyway, although it did not really involve any riding... only TRAIN riding to the starting point of Day 8 tomorrow. But as the blog is called "Japan by bike (train, bus...)" the train ride will count ;-)

I spent the day in Tokyo recovering from the jet lag of the flight back from Europe yesterday and buying some last minute supplies for the ride. At 19:20 I then took the Hayabusa shinkansen from Tokyo station to the North, Morioka. I plan to do the Iwate ride starting from tomorrow, going down the Kitakami river valley, with a side trip to Tono valley and then down to Hiraizumi for some sightseeing.

I decided on this piece of Tohoku riding, as it seemed (when I looked on Monday this week) that weather more to the North would be rainy. Looking now it seems that tomorrow there could be actually some rain, at least in Morioka... but not in Tono, where I am heading. So let's hope that it is not too bad... The rest of the week looks reasonably fine.

Also this time I reserved all the hotels upfront, until Hiraizumi. No problem finding accommodation in Morioka, but much more challanging in Hiraizumi. Actually I didn't find anything at Hiraizumi, but a bit outside of town (about 4 km) at a state run Ryokan. I was curious anyway to get to know them. I have heard good things and bad things. But only good things about their food... So I reserved with dinner & breakfast! But that will need to wait until day 10.

Although I had specifically reserved a seat at the END of a car, in order to have some space to store the bicycle behind the seat... the lady at JR reservation instead gave the the seat at the FRONT of the car... with obviously no space for the bike. So now it is standing halfway in the aisle and each time the lady with the drinks and snacks comes through we need to carefully move snack wagon and bicycle to fit them both in the narrow aisle. Well, at least Japanese are nicely ignoring my bicycle and the trouble I cause. 大変ご迷惑をかけ、申し訳ございません ... seems to the be the right feeling.

Very Japanese I had my ekiben (bento box bought at a train station, train station = eki = 駅) in the train. I kind of always buy Tonkatsu bento, but actually never really like it... Should maybe reconsider my bento choices...