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.