Bicycle: 59 km
Train: 20 km
Average Speed: 14.5 km/h
Total Ascent: 584 m
Riding Time: 4:04 h
Weather: Cloudy and at the end a few light rain drops, 23 C
Also this last day of this years Golden Week was a great day out. Actually this week was much better than anticipated. Originally it seemed that only Monday and Tuesday weather would be good and rain on all other days… but finally there were only a few rain drops on Monday and today (just a few, and only for maybe about 30 min). The first real rain day is going to be tomorrow (which actually is today, as I often do not manage to write all the posts in the evening of the ride… and am writing now on Sunday on the train back from Kyoto to Tokyo a lot of the posts).
I started in Kyoto from my hotel, over to Yamashina and over to Otsu, passing through the same passes as yesterday. In principle my plan was to travel on from there through the mountains around Uji, see some tea planatations, down to Uji and back to Kyoto. But when I was up at Biwako I didn’t feel I had that much energy, and thus changed plan.
I had a break along the lake, close to this restaurant from Wuerzburg. It was closed for renovations a few months ago… and today I was there simply too early for lunch… so I didn’t go this time either… but definitely on my “to do” list for the future.
While sitting here I saw on the other shore of the lake this strange, white, mountain shaped building. I had come across it years ago on my Tour of Japan ride, but hadn’t taken any pictures. So I decided to head there and explore.
It’s a huge, modern building that integrates well into the landscape. Looking like a mountain from one perspective and from the other it is transparent. However the building itself houses some kind of new religious sect. Whatever they may believe, clearly their leader believes that the money of the followers are better spent by the cult rather than by the people who earned that money. It is also called “research institute” which for a sect obviously is totally misleading. But anyway, I passed, shot some pictures and still kind of like the building. It is not the only religiously funded building in the neighbourhood either. Miho Museum (where I had initially planned to go yesterday) is also funded by some strange sect, that also extracted a lot of money from their believers. Plus there are other religious buildings throughout Japan that are clearly funded by a lot of money extorted from believers. Not too surprised that someone got angry at these kind of churches and shot Abe-san, believing he had some connection with one of those sects.
I still hadn’t a clear target for the day, but now thought to maybe just make a round along the smaller part of Lake Biwa. However a bit further along, I sat down looking onto Hiei-san on the other shore and explored on Google maps what is around there. I actually discovered that there are 2 ropeways going up to Hiei-san, which surprised me, as we went many years ago by bus. While browsing through google maps I also noticed some temples at the foot of the mountain, and decided to replan my ride towards there. And this was a great decision.
I passed over Biwa-O-Hashi towards Katada, and passed through the fishing village of Katada. Which turned out to be a relatively intact, old village with a lot of temples and shrines. Definitely a place to visit again. I stumbled across a temple on the shore with a ticket booth and a parking lot, so I thought, well, I am here… so let’s see what this is about:
From there my way took me land inwards and up the lower slopes of Hiei-san through a rural area and up into a forest traversed by a very small and winding road. Very nice to ride indeed. Not to steep. Just nice. At the highest point of that road there was a remote temple with absolutely no one around. I took a quick look… but then went on, as there was an other temple on my list.
Saikyo-ji. Again something found on google maps, and what a find!
I arrived around 16:00 and thought that maybe it is already too late, but anyway went to ask at the ticket booth and it turned out I had a full hour left before they were going to close.
This is a sprawling temple complex, which somehow seems to love colourful pinwheels. The only other place I remember seeing that many pinwheels was an other temple: Osorezan in Aomori.
Definitely a nice spot and probably one to revisit in November with the red foliage, as the path up to the temple was lined with maple trees.
This put to a conclusion my Golden Week 2023. Tomorrow heading back by train to Tokyo and then off for a few days to Vietnam on a business trip. It was again a perfect Golden Week, with weather much better than expected. I was also happy with my hotel choice in Kyoto. Kyoto U-Bell hotel in Jujo. Not necessarily a place I would recommend to other travellers, but for me with the bike it was a good spot. In-house sento (which I used every day, except the one when I went to the super sento… which wasn’t the best), close to the subway station (I came back by train more often than not and did not reassemble the bike at Kyoto station to ride the last meters. It would have been doable… but with the hotel so close and often taking a train out the next morning again, it made more sense to leave the bike all packed up.), a relatively big room and I could even open the window a little bit. And all this for a good price. About 8,000 yen per night. I had booked it I think back in February… while in Kyoto for an other long weekend. I knew GW was coming up, but didn’t have any specific plan yet, so I thought that I could as well reserve a room in Kyoto and if I got some other idea later… could still cancel it at no cost. But I didn’t have any other idea (nor did I really think about it too much, once the hotel in Kyoto was booked), so that’s what I did. And it was good. Already a lot of time in Kyoto recently. But there is still more to explore. It is a convenient location, relatively fast to ride out of the city, but if starting / ending by train, also a major train station with a lot of connections.
While I have done trips from A to B to C with all the luggage on board, it is also very nice to ride a light bicycle without all the added weight. And have a stable base and be able every day to decide where to go, depending on weather, strength … So yes, definitely enjoyed it.
One thing a lot of people are always afraid about are the CROWDS of GW. Well, it all depends where you go, but frankly even today (I.e. Sunday, D8) taking the train back (on one of the most crowded days in the calendar) things were smooth. Yes, I had reserved my last row seat weeks ago… but I managed to change it on Friday to an earlier train, as the weather on Sunday was looking really, really rainy (and did deliver on this promise). And actually there were still available seats to be booked on most trains (just not with the luggage area). So all cool. No need to fuss about GW.
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