D7 Around Nasu

Route: around Nasu on the smallest possible streets
Bicycle: 58 km
Car: 19 km
Total ascent: 754 m 
Average speed: 14,7 km/h
Riding Time: 3:56 h
Weather: Sunny, windy and getting cold, 13 C

An ex colleague of mine and her husband are also into cycling. We had agreed a long time ago to meet some time to ride again together and finally this weekend all stars aligned. Yesterday evening her husband planned on NAVITIME a ride around Nasu on back streets. It seems that on that app (in the paid version) one can select conditions for a route such as “avoid hills” , “use backroads”… It turned out to be a very special route on extremly small back roads I wouldn’t have found on Komoot. 

We started and initially went up to a closeby michi no eki around which one had a good view of Mt Nasu and the entire mountain range. 

From there it was a gentle downhill on small roads between vacation homes, pensions, farms and fields until we got to the valley of Nasu and then climbed up again on a small but steep hill. From there a lot of small up and down until we emerged back into the city of Kuroiso where we had lunch. 

From there it was about 10 km uphill on a gentle slope (and obviously small backroad) back to their weekend house. 

From here we went by car to a fabulous onsen: Shika no yu

A very traditional mountain onsen with sulfuric , white water in a wide range of temperatures: 41C, 42C, 42.5 C (this was the biggest pool), 44C, 46 C and even a shallow 48 C for pouring hot water on your head. Most people were using the pools up to 42.5 V, but I saw one woman braving the 46 C water as well. Most other people thought that this would be too hot. For me 44 C and only for my legs was the max. The water was so sulfuric that my skin still feels like it is covered by sulfur dust. But must be very healthy. 

The entire valley was smelling of sulfur.