NY2024 - D3 Shopping and pure crazyiness in Fushimi Inari

Route: no real route... just close to the hotel
Bicycle: 8 km
Total Ascent: 51 m
Average Speed: 10.7 km/h
Riding Time: 46 min
Weather: grey, but it actually did not rain, 10 C

The weather forecast for today was rainy. So yesterday I decided to get a well deserved sleep in, something I do seldom lately as on the weekends if weather is good enough, and it often is, I am out and about with my bike. So after resting and then sulking a bit longer in bed (watching YouTube and the like) I finally got out there around noon. This time not dressing in cycling cloths, again something I relatively rarely do on days off and it is actually strange to sit on the road bike without the properly padded cycling shorts. I had a small shopping list of things I want to buy. I could buy them in Tokyo, but well, I am here and didn't have a ride plan for today. I went to a large shopping mall just South of the station where I had seen that there was an outdoor shop and many other shops, where I hoped to find a bath robe. I didn't find any bathrobe at all... but I found some new sturdy shoes. My current shoes I bought in 2018 when I moved to the Netherlands and since I have been wearing practically daily when weather isn't good enough for sandals. They are still okay... but I can see the day coming when they will fail, so I had decided to get a new pair. And so I did. I also got some New Years precooked dinner for later tonight. 

I came back to my hotel dropped my shopping and after a while set out just over the river from here to Fushimi Inari. It is crazy how busy that area is, but only about 3, 4 streets. Everything between the 2 train stations close to the shrine and the Fushimi Inari shrine itself. Hordes of people, mostly tourists, on the streets. But be away one more block, and it is a perfectly boring, anonymous Japanese neighbourhood. 

I just came to check out how Fushimi Inari is gearing up for the big hatsumode. And yes, it was gearing up. The presents to the shrine were already arranged ...

... and the food stalls up and cooking.

This ride concludes yet an other year on the bike. Considering that I practically don't cycle from June to August due to the heat in Japan, raking up over 8,000 km isn't bad. Nothing to compare to the 16,000 I did a few years ago in the Netherlands, but then I was cycling in the flat (and boring Netherlands) and went out there nearly every day for a quick spin after work. Now I am regularly riding to work (about 9 km each way) and in varied countryside on the weekends. And 8,000 km with nearly 70,000 m of climbing are also an other beast. In the Netherlands I did regularly rides of 140 km (e.g. riding from Leiden to Amsterdam, picking up people there for a ride, riding maybe 60 km with those guys, dropping them off in Amsterdam again and then back to Leiden... and 140 km were done. Easy peasy. This year, I think I did a 100 km ride at least every month (except probably June and August when it was too hot to get a lot of cycling done). (In July I was at a cycling event of my company in Europe, where it was hot... the hottest day of the year... but nothing compared to the humid heat of Japan). 

Also riding over 500 h in a year means that I spent about 6% of my entire time this year cycling. If you add time with the bike but not cycling, e.g. taking pictures, stopping for lunch... it was probably close to 10% of my time that was spent close to a bicycle out there in the nature. 

NY2024 - D2 Kyomi pass, Kifune and Ohara

Route: Kyoto - Kyomi pass - Kifune - Ohara - Kyoto
Bicycle: 76 km
Total Ascent: 1,025 m
Average speed: 15.7 km/h
Riding time: 4:49 h
Weather: Sunny and cool, 6C

For today I chose the "Kyoto heart" route, called so because of it's shape on Strava... only that I added Kifune to it as well. The initial mountain was the same as yesterday, but I took a slight different and maybe a bit better way from my hotel in the South of Kyoto to the North. Including a brief stop at a cycling "school", aka a park for kids to learn traffic rules... but it wasn't as nice as the park in Wadabori in Tokyo. So from there further up into the mountains on this small and very quiet road through the forrest. 

On the downhill I passed again a natural spring which seems to have very good water, as today as well as yesterday there were people who had come by car to fill up many many bottles... but as I only had one bottle to fill I got mine without waiting. After some further downhill a new uphill awaited on a new route, part of the Kyoto heart. Also that road very, very quiet. But yellow on the map. But hardly any cars. 

Then again downhill which brought me back closer to Kyoto and something like a suburb of Kyoto where I had decided to have lunch. I had seen on Google maps a "steak restaurant" that caught my eye. Rightfully so, the meat was excellent. 

But the restaurant itself very strange.  A place full of prohibitions: no smartphone while eating, no children, groups of people must come in one car, no perfume... They even said that they had to call the police because of perfume use. From the outside the place doesnt even look like a restaurant and does everthing to avoid to have customers... but then the food they prepare is excellent. 

After lunch it was uphill again, to Kifune. A place I now recognize. When I was for the first time in Japan in 1995 I took a trip for maybe 1 - 2 weeks in July or August and visited - among other places - Kyoto. There I stayed in a youth hostel and in the evening they had organized to go and visit a festival with lanterns at some temples. I signed up and we went by bus there with a guide, as far as I remember. I never really knew where that place was, but when coming to Kifune today, I am pretty sure it was here. It's a small weekend town in a narrow valley in the hills North of Kyoto. I don't think people actually live there, but it has a lot of summer restaurants, that probably serve food on top of the river, probably a few ryokans. And a very relaxed atmosphere. There is a train station at the bottom of the entrance street to it, from where it is a few kilometers walk and quite a lot of people did the treck. In the New Year it will be many more. 

Officially it is famous for its 2 shrines... but they are just your pretty average mountain village shrine. Nothing terribly special about them, but it is a great location to get into the nature not far from Kyoto city. 

Then it was downhill again, nearly back to the lunch restaurant, and from there up the next valley and over to Ohara. To Ohara I had been before, once to visit the most famous temple there and once just passing through. In principle I wanted to have early dinner/late lunch there at the pickels factory, but I had such a good lunch at noon and it wasn't late enough for an early dinner, that I skipped that idea. Instead I added an other temple and a few more meters of climbing. 

And finally it was all the way downhill to Kyoto and my hotel. With a brief stop at Shimogamo shrine at the confluence of Takano river and Kamo river. At this shrine there were also very serious preparations ongoing for the upcoming Hatsumode. A big parking lot (which will be too small for sure), a lot of food stalls and signs everywhere inside the shrine complex where to find what and where to go. But today still everything pretty quiet. 

NY2024 - D1 Shrines prepping for Hatsumode

Route: Kyoto - Keihoku - Kameoka - Kyoto
Bicycle: 91 km
Total ascent: 1090 m
Average speed: 16.7 km/h
Riding time: 5:26 h
Weather: Cloudy a bit of sun and kind of cold, 6C

Yesterday was my last working day of this year. A very quiet day. I had already sent my suitcase to my hotel in Kyoto on Tuesday and the bicycle was standing in the entrance already all packed up with both wheels removed, so I only had to bring a small backpack with my work computer (next week Thursday and Friday I’ll be working from Osaka office) and get the train to Tokyo station. JR had decided that from 28/Dec to, I think 4/Jan all Nozomi shinkansen trains are reserved seats only. They even sent a lengthy, Japanese only email explaining how to walk to the shinkansen entrance (which I ignored as it seemed way too complicated specially with the bike and all). Really setting the scene for huge crowds at Tokyo station. But actually it was pretty normal. I was early at the station, so that I changed the ticket (in the EX app) a when I was at the Shinkansen gate to a train half an hour earlier without any problem, still getting a seat with luggage allowance for the bike. 

For my days in Kyoto I don't have a very specific plan, except riding my bicycle in the surroundings of Kyoto. A few days ago I looked up on komoot suggested routes close to Kyoto and then yesterday evening did chose the one for today. Starting in Kyoto, going North and up into the hills and then down again to Kameoka and back over the hills to Kyoto. A very nice ride, except probably the last part from Kameoka back to Kyoto. It wasn't too bad either, but on a relatively busy road and then also Kyoto on that side of town was quite busy and ugly. I know there are better ways from Kameoka back to Kyoto, but those go over higher passes... and there was no time for that today. 

My first stop was still in Kyoto, at a large shrine complex already fully prepared for the Hatsumode in a few days. But now still totally quiet. 

There were multipe shrine buildings all prepared for the influx of visitors over the next few days. 

Initially I hadn't planned to visit this shrine and had actually already passed... but then thought that it would be a shame to let such a big shrine (Imamiya shrine) unvisited. It is in the area of Kinkakuji... but clearly doesn't get any international tourists. Who knows why. It clearly didn't make it on any "tourist to do list". 

From there the road up into the mountains started. Initially on the map it looked like a biggish road, yellow and all... but actually it was a very small road with hardly any traffic, going up and up. Not a lot of view points, but nice through the forrest. 

In a small village on the way I came accross an other shrine, but a very small one. Only on google maps it seemed to be an important one. And actually there was an explanation sign and I think the shrine dates back to Heian period... so actually pretty old. 

While there I checked on google maps for food options and saw a ramen place in right behind an upcoming tunnel. It seemed a pretty normal ramen place, but it was specialized in wild boar ramen (and deer / wild boar gyoza). I took the ramen, very delicious: 

From there it was kind of downhill or flattish uphill until my way was interrupted by a closed road... luckily the diversion was on a very small and nice road along a river. But it meant a little bit more climbing in afterwards. 

Heading towards Kameoka came this shrine, Izumu Daijingu which in komoot had given the name to the entire ride, although it wasn't really the hightlight of the day. The highlight were simply those relatively small streets through the mountains. Up and down enjoying the mountainous country side spreckled with a few small villages.  

At this shrine also last preparation for Hatsumode were ongoing, but all still very very quiet. A quietness to take a breath before the busy days ahead. 

From there down to Kameoka, up through the hills to Kyoto and down towards downtown Kyoto until I decided to look for an onsen to wash, relax and have dinner. Once I had settled for one, when planning the route to it, I noticed in komoot a suggestion for a sightseeing spot, a bamboo forrest. And this is a huge bamboo forest. It is prepared for tourists in principle... but in practice there weren't any. For walking it is too big and too far away from other sights. But for people considering to rent a bicycle in Kyoto definitely a good idea. Similar to the famouse bamboo forrest in Arashiyama, but much, much bigger and with no tourists. This bamboo forrest is still a growing place for bamboo, not a show piece. 

When already back in Kyoto I looked on google maps for a super sento and found this one, which kind of seemed on the way. It was reasonable well on the way for the initial part (and only thanks to this onsen I had discovered - in komoot - the bambus forrest above... but riding from here back to the hotel along the river was only good in some parts. It was simply quite dark along those rivers and the one close to the hotel is kind of difficult to navigate with too many large roads around. But I made it back to the hotel sound and safe. 

D4 Yoshida to Shizuoka but through the mountains

Route: Yoshida - Fujieda - Shizuoka 
Bicycle: 84 km
Train: 200 km
Total ascent: 964 m
Average speed: 15 km/h
Riding time: 5:45 h
Weather: again sunny but getting colder, 12 C (but still mostly shorts and short sleeves) 

For my last day of this long weekend I went to Shizuoka station to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. There are essentially 2 good ways to get from Yoshida to Shizuoka: along the sea on the Pacific cycle path or through the mountains. I took the mountains. And some of them were STEEP, one so steep that for a while I needed to push the bike, but not too long. 

I had done the route on the ocean (in the opposite direction) 6 years ago in my 2 month trip through Japan. 

Getting to the foot of the mountains wasn’t a lot of joy as it meant traversing a lot of build up areas with too much traffic. There must be better roads to avoid that traffic though. But once in the mountain area it got much calmer. Still quite low I came by a sign and a safety worker that showed to a closeby Momiji matsuri, I.e. red leaves festival. I couldn’t withstand so cycled there. It’s probably a nice valley but today it was full of local tourists walking up and down the road. Still cyclable though, weaving through the crowds. But the momiji and the matsuri were a disappointment. Barely any red trees, although it must have been close to peak…

… and the yakisoba I got at one stand was cold and not very tasty. For sure the worst matsuri yakisoba I have had. And strangely it didn’t even leave me very filled. 

From there on I continued on my originally planned way further up into the mountains, ignoring a sign that said that the road was closed between 2 villages unbeknown to me and google maps. I had to find out the hard way after struggling up a reasonably steep hill, that it was indeed MY road that was closed. 

Now I was in the middle of the mountains in a small village perked on the flank of a mountain.

And had to cycle down all the steep parts again, just to get up an even steeper hill on the other side of the valley. On a street hardly used by anyone. 

But it did get me to nice viewpoints. Luckily this hill wasn’t very long (just a few kilometers) and then it was mainly (well, with one exception) downhill to Shizuoka and a modern super sento in the city to wash away the sweat of the day and relax in the hot water. 

In the way into the city there was again a majestic view of Mt. Fuji.

D3 In the mountains behind Kakegawa following Shizuoka cycling webpage

Route: Yoshida - Kakegawa - Tenryu and back
Bicycle: 116 km
Train: 25 km
Total Ascent: 1020 m
Average Speed: 18.8 km/h
Riding Time: 6:06 h
Weather: Sunny and still warm enough (while moving) to be in shorts, 10C

Praise where praise belongs: to the Shizuoka web page on cycling. For today I took one of their routes behind Kakegawa and "just" added the way from my hotel to Kakegawa... which probably was another 25 km on top. 

From the hotel to Kakegawa, I did let komoot do it's thing... well with a little bit of tweaking to avoid bigger roads and some hills. In Kakegawa I had my first stop right below the castle, got a croquette from the souvenir shop and a picture of myself with my "horse":

From here the preplanned route started out into the country side and after some while up into the mountains and obviously through some tea fields on quiet roads. 

Among the many things I don't know, I had no idea that tea plants are having enormous flowers. Surprisingly not all tea shrubs were flowering now. Most actually weren't, but I came by a big field in bloom. Somehow looks a bit like a rose. 

At the exit of a tunnel, I found this cafe stop mainly (well, exclusively, if I hadn't stopped) frequented by bikers. Motor bikers. Run by a nice teafarmer who also runs a minshuku (in the next valley if I understood him correctly) and who on the weekends has this cafe stop serving hot coffee and simple food. Today: curry!

From there it was mainly downhill... well with one more uphill and then down into the plain around Kakegawa and more buildt up area, but also an area with trains. I didn't take this one... but a normal JR train from Kakegawa to a place closer to my hotel and then back over the river and down to my hotel for a last night before returning tomorrow to Tokyo. 

What I noticed in Shizuoka that a lot of cars stop to let cyclists cross the street. Not something I am used to in other parts of Japan. But not enough cars stop to be absolutely certain. 

D2 Oigawa valley

Route: Yoshida - Kawanahoncho - Kawaneonsen 
Bicycle: 81,8 km
Train: 26 km 
Total ascent: 1119 m
Average speed: 14,3 km/h
Riding time: 5:30 h
Weather: sunny and still very warm (for end of November), 16 C

For my first full day in Shizuoka I cycled up Oigawa. A river that can be very big, but currently only is a shadow of itself. For a more impressive river, I would need to come here again in late spring, when the snow is melting in the southern Alps. 

Still down in the broader valley close to Shimada was this submergible bridge. I didn’t cross it though slightly afraid of the strong side wind on a bridge without any rails. And well, I wanted to get going. If I stop for the first sightseeing a mere 10 km or so into the ride I’ll never “arrive” at destination. 

A little bit further along, I saw again the mountain with the kanji for tea 茶 where I had been cycling yesterday in the distance.It’s kind of hard to take a good picture of this character. Yesterday it was too dark.And today it was a bit too far.

Still down in the broad valley I came through this area off citrus plantations. Mainly みかん but also some Yuzu and other citrus trees. Surprisingly it didn’t smell of citrus, much in contrast to the intense apple smell a few weeks ago in Nagano. 

When I planned the ride yesterday, I made komoot not to choose the state road. Instead, I manually set it to the road on the other side of the valley, thinking that the state road for sure must be the busier of the two. I was wrong. The state roads actually is pretty small and currently even cut for a few kilometers where a landslide came down, after some major typhoon not too long ago.  That landslide did not only destroy the part of the state road, but also part of the train line. So nowadays the train only goes to Kawaneonsen. Which has a very cute old station building. I didn’t see it today, but this train company still uses steam machines and rides about three or four trips per day with them. 

Probably the highlight of today was this hanging bridge, which, in a day with a lot of wind, was doable, but scary to cross. Specially in the middle part where one is furthest away from the river banks, and very much exposed to the fierce winds that were reining  today.

Crossing this bridge however helped for the ride. Because I looked at the road on the other side and although this was the state road, It had barely any traffic. So I crossed over a normal bridge to the other much more tranquil side of the river and continued my ride there. 

After lunch, a few kilometers upstream I went to a Buddhist temple which claimed to have koyo in autumn. It was right but nothing stunning apart this one tree. Apparently this year in general the koyo season isn’t very good because it was too hot for too long in summer so the trees instead of going colorful go bare very quickly. 

From here I returned did a quick round around a light blue mountain lake (well dam) on very quiet roads, specially on one side of the lake. That road seemed to get less than a car per day. 

So quiet that I put my new bear bell in action.

From here it wasn’t too far and downhill to the onsen were I spent about 1,5 h soaking in salty hot water while looking at the mountain tops around. When one was standing on the rest area of the onsen one could also see the river and the railway bridge. There was even a timetable to know when the steam train would pass. 

But I took a regular old style train back down. 

D1 Teafields of Shizuoka

Route: Kakegawa - tea fields - hotel

Bicycle: 46 km

Train: 225 km

Average speed: 17,5 km/h

Total ascent: 418

Riding time: 2:40 h

Weather: sunny and warm (for being end of November), 17C says Strava but it felt way warmer

After a long week of work, a long weekend in Shizuoka! 

I have never been to this part of Shizuoka, but always when I come through here by Shinkansen going to Kansai, I admire the rolling hills with tea fields. 

Originally I had reserved also a Hotel in Hikone on Biwa Lake and was actually more inclined to go there, mainly because I was thinking that the koyo around Biwa lake must be really nice and because I wanted to go (again) to Miho museum. However, weather forecast for this area did project some rain, while the weather forecast around Shizuoka seemed to be sunny all four days.

I was really busy at work this week so stayed to work late on Wednesday and thus did not get up very early, but in a relaxed way and then set out to cycle to Tokyo station. As customary, I did not get a reserved car. Actually, there were no seats available in reserved cars anymore but instead I took an unreserved car which wasn’t even full and got an easy place to put my bicycle and departed a few minutes after arriving at the platform. However, I had no time to buy lunch at the station and recently there are no more food sellers on the train. So once I arrived in Kakegawa , the first thing was to get some lunch. I had seen that there was a castle, probably rebuild, and decided to get some conbini lunch and eat in the park of the castle. I don’t actually know if the castle has a park because when I got there, it seemed like one needed to get an entrance tickets to even get close to the castle. So instead, I had my lunch in a square below the castle. 

Then I set off along a small river with the typical small street/bicycle lane on both sides of it. Instead of taking a direct route from the station to my hotel, I took a route that was recommended on the webpage of Shizuoka prefecture that went through some apparently very famous tea fields. So famous that on the flank of one of the mountains, they wrote the character for tea 茶　with some vegetation. I didn’t get close enough to check what kind of vegetation they used, but I would hope that it was tea plants.Taking a picture, however, wasn’t easy as the mountain was already in the shadow.

I little bit further along I came through a high plateau that seemed to be the mecca of tea. 

From there one could even see Mt Fuji in the distance. 

From there it was a long, gentle descent nearly all the way to my hotel. I don’t remember how I found this hotel but essentially it’s in the middle of nowhere. A Japanese nowhere. Which means there are actually a lot of other buildings around like supermarkets, gasoline stations, private houses, vegetable fields, car repair shops… A cacophony of buildings and empty spaces, which don’t form anything by itself.

Somehow I got the bicycle room. Which is a room with enough space for a bicycle, but also a very strangely shaped room. My room doesn’t have a window, or actually, it has one, but the window is in the toilet.

I had arrived early enough to see the last hour of the Kyushu sumo event before heading to the hotels big bathroom and get a relaxing hot bath before going out for dinner.