This blog is about travelling through Japan on a bicycle. Initially on a foldable bicycle (Brompton) and more recently mostly by road bike (Spezialized)... but also by train, ferry, plane, bus or any other transport, if sea, weather, mountains or the like come between me and my desire to ride.
I have tried to summarise information that could be potentially helpful also for other bicycle travellers through Japan, such as list of bicycle roads, helpful web pages etc.

Sunday 6 November 2022

D4 Waterfalls over Takayama

Route: Nagano to Okuyama and back
Bicycle: 76 km
Train: 250 km
Average speed:  km/h
Total ascent: 967 m
Riding time: 4:11 h
Weather: Sunny, 10 C

For my last day of this 4 day weekend, I had looked up on Google Maps a bit the region, and found a waterfall in the mountains behind Takayama. Riding up there I came through this very Japanese typical koyo landscape, probably at its peak and with a small river also coloured in brown. 


Probably because the onsen town of Takayama has brownish water... Although I didn't try it. On the village square was this public bathhouse: 


I had lunch here and then further up into the hills to the first waterfall. Which was actually across the valley on the other side and against the light hardly visible. But tall. 


But there were tourist groups coming here by bus. Luckily they didn’t stay very long so there was also time to enjoy the view on my own from a small viewing platform. Originally I wanted to return from here but the guard of the parking lot convinced me that not too far up the road there was a second much better waterfall. 

And yes, that one was much better. Shorter but you could walk under it.




Saturday 5 November 2022

D3 Behind Mt. Iizuma

Route: Kurohime - Togakushi Jinja - Nagano
Bicycle: 47 km
Train: 30 km
Average speed: 12.0 km/h
Total ascent: 1025 m
Weather: sunny, some clouds, but cold (because of the elevation), 6C
Riding time: 3:53 h 


Yesterday I had left my bike at the local bike shed outside of Kurohime station... and it faithfully waited for me (not totally alone) the entire night.


And then the climbing started... all the way up to the Upper shrine of Togakushi, through stunning landscape of volcanos. 


But it was a gradual climb with no crazy slopes, so I was able to work up my way, little by little enjoying the views.

At the top of the climb was the upper Togakushi shrine, but getting to it from the street involved nearly 5 km of hiking (walking) including the last part some uneven stairs up to the shrine. I wasn’t alone to have set out for it, there was a formidable “procession” making its way up the slope.


If you expected some extremely unique or even old shrine or a beautiful view at the end, those expectations were trashed  there was a rather normal , relatively new, small shrine and although we had walked uphill for 2,5 km, there wasn’t any real view.


At the entrance there had been two soba restaurants, but unfortunately the waiting list was so long that I gave up and instead continued on to the Middle shrine, which also turned out to be a pretty normal shrine. 


But somehow both of them are very famous (and popular). For Japanese probably there is some religious meaning to these shrines and for us foreigners I guess it is the landscape they are in.


Then the descent started. Initially it was quite gradual as there is a high plain around the Mt Iizuma… with some more nice views. 



I even went to an old (but rebuild castle above Nagano (which was closed and semi abandoned) , but then the real descent started and it was literally terrifying. 7 sharp bends at 16% inclination on a rough surface in a kind of half tunnel with cars coming up and down through it. Never again! 


Miraculously safely back in the valley, I went to Zenkoji temple. I had been a few weeks before at the end of Silver Week already, but back then in the rain, today with maple trees glowing in the sunlight it was a nice view.


Friday 4 November 2022

D2 Koyo at Lake Nojiri

Route: Nagano - Shinano- Lake Nojiri - Kurohime 
Bicycle: 58 km
Train: 30 km
Average speed: 15.2 km/h
Total ascent: 1054 m
Weather: cloudy, wet after lunch , 5C
Riding time: 3:49 h


While I write this I am sitting in the waiting room of Kurohime station, where I arrived just a few minutes after the train to Nagano had departed and now need to wait for one hour. Admittedly the waiting room could be a little bit warmer and unfortunately the soba place has closed also at the same time as the train left. But anyway I’m sitting here in the dry and trying not to get too cold. After a day outside riding through very beautiful koyo... but also some rain at the end:

When I first booked the hotel in Nagano for this long weekend I hadn’t really a precise plan what I wanted to do, but I thought that this area here should be nice for cycling. And it definitely is. So I asked in a cycling related Line group, I’m a member off, if anyone had any suggestions for cycling in this area. And one member suggested Lake Nojiri.

When I first arrived to the lake it looked very romantic with the clouds hanging low over it and vapor coming up from it. 

After riding for a little bit along the shore I found a very posh place to have a hamburger. Apart from hamburgers they also had a sauna which seemed to be very popular, as there were many people that clearly just had come out of the sauna.

During lunch I decided to do the full circle of the lake, which wasn’t actually part of my original plan. But looking at it now it was definitely the best part of today’s ride. 

Maybe I should have stop there and come directly to the train station, but I continued with my original plan which foresaw another lake and potentially a waterfall. I didn’t make it to either because what previously was just a bit of dampness became rain and rain at 2°C is just plain cold. 

I’m not entirely sure, but this might’ve been the first ride I’ve ever done with more than 1000 m of climbing in just one ride. And that in only about 50 km!

A few hours later I am sitting now in a horse meat restaurant enjoying some horse sashimi and being very comfortable warm after taking a long onsen soak in my hotel  the same DormyInn where I stayed for 1 night at the end of my Silver Week this year. 


Thursday 3 November 2022

D1 Karuizawa to Nagano (a try)

Route: Tokyo - Karuizawa - Nagano 
Bicycle:  km
Train: 160+
Average speed:  km/h
Total ascent:  m
Weather: very sunny and warm for November, 17 C
Riding time: h


For my first day of this 4 day weekend I had planned a long, but continuously and gradually downhill ride from Karuizawa to my hotel for the next few days in Nagano. 

The weather was perfect, sunny and relatively warm for early November. 

However the ride didn’t go to plan. Although I had changed my tires to tubeless only a few weeks ago, an enormous nail entered in the tire and the sealant wasn’t able to close the hole. 

Luckily the mishap happened at a parking lot, so I had comfortable space to try to put an inner tube in and continue. I tried and tried but didn’t succeed. Then someone from the parking lot who turned out to be also a cyclist came over to help. He managed to put the tube in, but it turned out that the inner tube I had been ferrying around for years was also broken. My savior then went to have lunch but offered to drive me afterwards to a bicycle repair shop. Which he did with his entire family. The shop he had chosen was surprisingly far away, but open and I got fitted with a new inner tube, went to the next train station and got by car to Nagano.

A few months later I tried with a friend who likes repairing bicycles to change the inner tube on my front wheel. And although we were sitting comfortably in his apartment, I wasn’t even able to get the tire off, nor was I able to put the tube in. A further few weeks later I bought a tubeless tire repair kit, but currently have tubes still in the tires so just hoping for the best.