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.

Saturday, 11 October 2025

D1 - up to Urabandai

Route: Koriyama - Inawashiro - Urabandai
Bicycle: 64 km
Train: 250 km
Total ascent: 862 m
Average speed: 16,4 km/h
Riding time: 3:56 h
Weather: rain all day, cold 11C 


For this weekend originally I had two reservations. One in the Hakuba area and the other one in Fukushima Prefecture. A few days ago, I looked at the weather forecast and it seemed that the weather in Fukushima was going to be reasonable while in Hakuba it seemed to rain. I have no idea what actually happened in Hakuba, but in Fukushima, it was definitely raining.

But now I was committed to this three day weekend in the Urabandai region. In Tokyo, I managed to get to the Shinkansen just before the rain started. When I got off the train in Koriyama, the rain hadn’t started yet here, but it would start soon after setting off towards Inawashiro. 

I had come up the same road a few years ago when I stayed in Aizuwakamatsu on a still relatively hot September weekend. Back then, I had a lovely view of the lake. This time the lake was grey and the imposing mountains around shredded in rain clouds. 

I stopped along the lake for lunch and they even had a small fire going, but my shoes and socks were so soaked that even putting them right in front of the fire, it made no difference for getting them dry. I am actually writing this block post on the following day and the socks are still wet although they have been hanging to dry for over 24 hours. Luckily, I was able to dry my shoes though with a strategic use of newspapers. Actually, a very interesting newspaper. It seems that instead of getting the first female Prime Minister, Japan will be getting the third non-LDP Prime Minister in a few days. But I needed something to dry my shoes.


After lunch while riding uphill I made a quick stop at a fruit stand, selling local apples and peaches.




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