D4 into the mountains between Sakurai and Nara

Route: Sakurai - Uda - Nunume dam - Nara - Tenri - Sakurai
Bicycle: 104 km
Total Ascent: 1,486 m
Average speed: 16.1 km/h
Riding time: 6:27 h
Weather: Sunny but fresh

For what turned out to be the last day of cycling, I again took inspiration from the route book of the area, but this time, wanted to head over the mountains to Nara. And while on D3 I learned that I didn't need to worry about the "big" national roads, today I learned, that it depends. Surprisingly there was a road recommended in the route book, which had more traffic that I would have liked. So much indeed, that after lunch I gave up (on that route) and instead searched for an alternative on komoot... and surprise, surprise, there was a very quiet alternative closeby. 

To start however I first needed air for my wheels, which was a bit of a search as the air pumps at the bicycle parking lot at the train station weren't fitting for my valves and the bicycle shop I had seen on google maps turned out to be so old school, that the last bicycle they repaired was probably a Penny-farthing. So finally I needed to go to a shopping mall with a modern bicycle shop to get my air. 

From there I went up into the hills behind Sakurai on a similar route as a few days ago, avoiding the more heavy  traffic on the road to Hasedera. And then crossed over at Ueda towards the mountains behind Nara. 

However that route, T1 on the map, had quite some traffic. Not totally terrible, but being in such a rural area with the options to other roads it seemed really strange that the suggested bicycle path was on this road. When I got fed up, I had lunch close to the highway in a small restaurant, and then replanned my ride, still in the same direction, but searching for much smaller roads. And I found them immediately. Some even so small that there will be hardly any car or other traffic at all. 

I planned in a ride to a dam ...

... and then from there it was down to Nara. Still on very small roads. So small that when I entered in this small village I was greeted by a gang of monkeys. 

As Nara grew closer, traffic became more heavy, but I guess that cannot really be avoided. Inside Nara, however traffic (of cars) is well controlled. 

I didn't take a picture of all the tourists, but it is always surprising (in Nara and many other tourist hotspots in Japan) how few the tourists venture away from the "must see" spots. Around the Todaiji there were MASSES of tourists, but already a few meters behind not that many... and ride a little bit further: None. Specially after a day in the mountains with such small villages that are going to disappear due to depopulation pretty soon, and so much nature, the masses of tourists came as a shock to the system. I didn't linger and Nara and took a route at the bottom of the hills back towards Sakurai. 

On the way however I came through Tenri, a strange settlement with a huge temple and even bigger, outright enormous, "hotels". I say "hotels", because they aren't hotels where you can book a room, but rather accomodations for pilgrims. I am not even sure if the word "temple" is correct, because this is one of those new religions in Japan. It isn't shinto and it isn't buddhist either. 

I had come through this place by chance a few years ago on my brompton already and back then saw it in action. With masses of people waiting, well organized in the courtyard. But today it was late in the afternoon and I was virtually alone. 

Tenri is probably one of the few cities named after a religion. 

Tomorrow and Sunday the weather forecast is so bad here, that I decided to go back to Tokyo a day early and then ride in Tokyo area instead on Sunday. 

D4 Rainy monkeys

Route: Hakuba - Nagano - Yudanaka onsen - Shibu onsen
Bicycle & walking: 8 km
Bus: 42 km
Train: 30 km
Average speed: 7,7 km/h
Total ascent: 316 
Riding time: 1:04 h
Weather: rainy and cold for most of the day, 10 C

The original plan for today was to cycle from Hakuba to Shibuonsen. Something that in the map (to me) looked very far , but actually doesn’t seem to be so unreasonable also because at least one of the roads out of Hakuba to Nagano is mostly downhill. I wouldn’t have taken that one though, because I feared too much traffic. In the end I did take that road, but with my bicycle as safely as possible stored away in the trunk of a highway bus. The owner of my hotel in Hakuba kindly drive me in his  van to the bus station so I only got a few drops of rain just the way from the door to the car. But still even that was wet. 

While in the summer I might not mind some rain (see second day around Fuji a few months ago), with temperatures below 10 C and needing to ride through the mountains, taking my bike wasn’t an option. Luckily there are a few busses every day between Hakuba and Nagano. 

This is a landscape as seen from the bus, and so similar to Classical Japanese paintings. 

I had briefly considered cycling from Nagano, but it was still raining and just seemed miserable to ride through that wetness for hours. So instead I took a train. My bike was allowed to sit in the reserved car (the only place where I found a reasonable spot to store it), but I had to go to the unreserved car as I didn’t pay the 300 Yen extra fee. 

In Yudanaka onsen station I reassembled the bike, repacked my luggage and changed into cycling clothes and then slowly set out through the train to my accommodation of the night. A Minshuku with onsen. 

I arrived here around 12:00 and in a first was already allowed into my room. Otherwise there are strong rules in Japan that you cannot enter your room before 15:00. However, I only dropped my luggage and got on my way to have lunch in the restaurant pretty close to the Minshuku. 

I was actually surprised to see on Google maps so many restaurants close to this Minshuku which isn’t in the central part of the small village a Shibuonsen. Hi recycling to the chosen restaurant, I realized that it was on the path to the snow monkey park. Anyway, I had lunch first as it was still raining and frankly time for lunch. Luckily afterwards the rain had stopped so I cycled a little bit further up the road until reaching the entrance to the path leading to the snow monkey park. 

Observing these monkeys, chill in the air, hot onsen water is really intriguing. Officially they are wild animals, and they are. But they are also not so wild because essentially, they are being fed by the park administration to make sure that they come and have their hot bath every day. 

But still, who doesn’t love some monkeys, chilling in the hot water and grooming each other.

I had been here a few years ago, may be in 2017, in the winter when there was still some snow. But those monkeys are equally funny without the snow.

After seeing my share of monkeys taking a hot bath, it was time for me to walk back to my bicycle, which is about the 2 km walk through a nice forest, and enjoy my own onsen in my Minshuku. The onsen can be visited also as a day spa and only has one big outside pool. No inside pool at all. Which is fine by me. Again no view though. Although it was only one outside pool, it actually kind of areas of different temperature. Very,  very hot close to where the hot onsen water is flowing into the pool and a little bit cooler in the farthest away corner of the pool.I relaxed a bit, relaxed more in my room, and then had dinner downstairs. 

For tomorrow it seems that the rain will stop, but it will still be a very cloudy day. I haven’t fully decided what to do tomorrow, but I will cycle to Nagano station, which isn’t actually that far at all, and then take a Shinkansen back to Tokyo to end this five day long weekend in Nagano Prefecture. 

SW2023 D3 Aizuwakamatsu - Kinugawaonsen

Route: Aizuwakamatsu - Kinugawaonsen
Bicycle: 101 km
Average speed: 17,6 km/h
Total ascent: 1,192 m
Riding time: 5:44 h
Weather: Sun, some clouds and a few drops of rain, still quite hot and humid, 26C (per Wahoo)

After the ride yesterday, cut short by the heat, I was a little bit worried about today’s rather long and mountainous ride. However, I had planned the ride to be along a train line that also connects Aizuwakamatsu to Kinugawa onsen. Those trains aren’t very frequent, so yesterday evening I wrote down on a small piece of paper, the possible connections that could save me from the heat, exhaustion, or other impediments to continue all the way to my goal. But finally, I made it all the way! The ride was partially on a secondary roads, slowly sloping up towards the border between Fukushima and Tochigi Prefecture through a landscape bordered on all sides by mountains as far as your could look. 

I hadn’t really realized before, just how mountainous Japan really is. I know this sounds crazy. I’ve been living here, for more than 4 years. I’ve been traveling a lot, but still it surprises me just how many mountains there are. 

Pouring water over me at regular intervals helped to keep my body temperature in an okay range. Also, instead of thinking of it as of 100 km ride I was more looking at smaller targets: the next convenience store, lunch, the next major town. 

Some of the roads were very small countryside roads while others were more busy, none of them really too busy but if you know how empty the street could be every truck seems to be one too many. There was also a fair number of tunnels both up and down hill, but it was all okay.

On the way down to Kinugawaonsen, I did run into this group of monkeys. It seemed an entire family, maybe 20 or so, even including a mother monkey with a small baby. 

The hotel in Kinugawaonsen (Itoen) however was quite bad. I mean, it was cheap... and had a rotenburo, but clearly nothing had been renovated in that hotel since 20 - 30 years, so essentially since it was build during the bubble years. It is a real pity, there are so many onsens towns that have been utterly destroyed by huge hotels that are now either completely abandoned or are in a severe state of disrepair / not well maintained. And these towns are very ugly. But still enough people go there to enjoy a day away, the onsen and dinner. Although in that hotel dinner was the worse of the worst. But yeah, I survived this as well and I had a very huge (but ugly and slightly unclean) room. 

Nara without tourist - 観光客無しの奈良

Bicycle: 85.5 km

Train: 40 km 

Route: Osaka to Nara

Total riding time: 5:40 h 

Total ascent: 386 m 

Average speed: 15.0 km/h

Weather: Sunny, warm but not too hot, up to Kyoto very nice tailwind, 12 C

After the touristy highlights yesterday in Kyoto for today I decided to ride all the way up to Nara. Not over the mountains, which is much shorter though, but along Yodogawa and Kizugawa.

Today's highlight, I would say was the view from Nigatsudo, the temple in Nara I like most... and there is no shortage of temples.

The initial part along Yodogawa was the normal ride along that river. Not very scenic. It's just a useful river. For BBQ, baseball, rugby, football, picnics, cycling, jogging, bird watching... and fishing! (Not actually in the river but in some artificial ponds)

Today the wind had changed and was blowing from the side/front all the way up the river until I changed my direction by turning on the Kizugawa, when it turned into a very nice tailwind.

Along Kizugawa I passed again the place with the Nagarebashi (submersible bridge) where I turned back last Sunday). I had no expectations that it would be open today, but actually it was.

So I took the opportunity to cross it - by foot - and continued on the other side of the river.

There were many nice Hanami spots along the Kizugawa and also generally the landscape and the cycling lane is much better. Landscape, because there are simply less buildings around. Cycling lame, although it is much more narrow, it doesn't come with the continuous obstacles as along Yodogawa. 

The bicycle lane, which on the other side connects also Arashiyama in Kyoto finishes a bit abruptly in a region where there is no really obvious connection into Nara, and I had left my komoot planned route to follow it a little bit longer, which maybe wasn't the most clever thing to do... but still I did not get lost (difficult in times of google maps and GPS) and even stumbled across some nice flowers that were NOT sakura:

I approached Nara from "behind" and first came to the park behind Todaiji, which seems to be used by the deer for rest from the tourists. At least that was my impression a few years back. However now with tourist numbers dwindling apparently the deer have decided to go and investigate what happened to all their senbei feeders and were roaming the streets of downtown Nara. Not that I can attest to that. The deer I saw seemed to be the typical deer of Nara. Half of them on-duty in front of Todaiji hunting down tourists to make them buy senbei and the other half waiting for their turn in the park and woods. And all of them rather photogenic.

After taking a few shots at the deer behind Todaiji, I cycled up the hill to Nigatsudo, a temple overlooking all Nara, and even during normal, touristy times, rather calm. Today even calmer, but it was also already 17:00 when I arrived there.

These ema will need to be redone for next year. No Olympics in the year of the rat:

I cycled down again with the idea to take a picture or two around Todaiji and then in the park and then to ride to my onsen of the day. But when I arrived at Todaiji, it seemed to be still open. So I asked, and yes, it was open just for another 10 min. In normal times I would not have rushed inside, I have visited Todaiji already at least twice, but with the sakura in full bloom in the inner courtyard, I did not let this opportunity pass, so rushed in and had the Todaiji nearly to myself (only one Japanese couple rushed inside with me).

Obviously I was here very late in the day, so probably even on a normal day there would not have been that many tourists around any more, but getting such a clean shot of the entrance of Todaiji (only with a small brompton in front of the gate), is unique. I remember from a few years back, when I came to Nara for a weekend, I went to Todaiji first thing in the morning and had a good time visiting it. Some tourists, but just a normal amount of tourist, no bus groups yet. Then I went up to Nigatsudo, which even then - it must have been 2016 or 2017, did not have too many tourists. When I came back to Todaiji around noon time (to pick up my mamachari that I had parked there), the place was teeming with bus loads of camera-armed tourists. Good for the deer (probably), not so good for me, the solitary tourist. But I had seen Todaiji by then already... So today again a very solitary visit.

By now it was getting colder (the sunset was approaching and in total it was colder today than yesterday), so I rushed to the park and then to a sprawling shrine complex, where I caught the last sun rays.

From there onwards, I didn't have any other expectations than getting my well deserved hot bath in the onsen... but the path I had chosen, along a small river proved me wrong. It was one of the main hanami spots in Nara.

After the onsen, I cycled to the closest train station and took a train back to Osaka, to a place about 7 km from where my apartment is, in a very convenient small station. No long trekking with the folded bike through stations (like it would have been for sure had I got of at Namba), but just out of the turnstiles, unfold and ride. The train was very empty, again thanks to Covid-19, so social distancing was very easy. I had the entire carriage for me (and my brompton, but I am pretty sure bicycles cannot catch the virus).

4 prefectures, 3 days - Day 2: Tochigi ー３日間４県〜本日：栃木県

Bicycle: 42.9 km

Route: Ashikaga - Tochigi

Total riding time: 2:57 h 

Total ascent:  144 m 

Average speed: 14.5 km/h

Weather: Sunny, some clouds and a cold strong wind (mostly tail wind though), 10 C

Today my explorations of the region around Tone river continued. I started at the Ashikaga Flower Park... but only there realized that actually quite close to my hotel there was the Ashikaga School, the oldest education institute in Japan, founded over 1000 years ago... and thus older than the oldest Bonsai I saw yesterday!

But I started at quite young plants today. So fragile that they need a personal hut for each single plant:

Apart from these flowers only some plums (?) were flowering. The main part of the garden was still pretty bare. But I can't complain. The garden is well known for its wisteria... and well, they don't bloom until about May. Now the wisteria trees were still completely barren and in the process of getting pruned. 

I was lucky though that I had picked up a free entrance ticket at the hotel, so the visit didn't even cost the 300 yen the other visitors paid. This garden uses a very intelligent ticket price policy. The more flowers bloom, the more expensive the ticket. I think 300 yen was the minimum... but even then they realize that they don't get that many people to visit the garden, so they offer free entrance as well with a coupon.

When I planned this ride the other day, I planned it in this region here solely because it seemed the only region with 3 days without rain (and so far, so good). So when I searched for what to do, I started with only two places I had vaguely heard about: Ashikaga Flower Park and Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. But 2 places to do tourism in 3 days, seemed a bit too few, so I looked at Google maps to see if there are any other places suggested to visit. 3 sprung up for today, and I integrated them into the ride. 2 out of 3 were fabulous. And the remaining one a bit deluding, but after 2 very nice discoveries this was not set-back at all.

So the first Google maps discovery was the Kurita Museum. It is very close to the flower park, just on the other side of the rail track and has very large grounds and on those grounds many different buildings, some modern architecture, some traditional...

Lower right corner: Building to the unknown potter!

... but the important part is obviously the art exhibited. It is a vast collection of only 2 types of Japanese porcelain: Imari and Nabeshima pottery. Actually mainly Imari pottery. A type of porcelain manufactured in Kyushu that was vastly popular with the European aristocracy even way before the Meiji restauration. Some of the pieces were of sublime quality. Like a simple dish, decorated to look like the inside of an open umbrella. Others were much more complicate, like a stylized description of the Tokaido invariably arriving at Nihonbashi. But there are also plates with maps of Japan (always excluding Hokkaido which at the time was a faraway island, inhabited by some strange indigenous people), like this one:

And well, slightly too large vases. Possibly made for the booming export sector of Imari pottery.

The museum was also nearly empty. I think in my entire time in the museum, I only saw an other 3 visitors. And this emptiness does really not pay tribute to the wonderful pieces of pottery exhibited. 

After so much museum it was time for lunch, which I had very close by in a restaurant, that must be teeming with people at the time of the wisteria flowering... but now was completely empty. But I got a hot bowl of curry Udon, which gave me some warmth and strength, which was needed seeing the fierce wind, which I had to endure riding to my next place found on Google Maps: Izuruhara Benten Pond.

I had been considering during lunch if to ride there at all, as I was quite tired from the ride yesterday... but decided to give it a go, and that was a great decision. Not so much because of the pond (however per an explanatory sign it is one of the 100 best waters of Japan (to see? to drink?), but because of the shrine that is right above the pond:

And from which one has a reasonably wide view over the valley:

This was really totally unexpected.

The place is a little bit touristy, and surprisingly has some descriptions in English. Not sure if that's because they are quite new (and maybe there is a drive towards including English in all newer signs), or if this place really attracts that many foreigners. Definitely not today, as I think I was the only foreigner I have seen the entire day.

Apart from that it was a nice ride through the countryside, which however is not totally romantic, as we are reasonably close enough to Tokyo and in a valley full of train connections, that the towns are generally well, typically Japanese... which means a lot of new and semi abandoned buildings, factories etc. But yes, countryside was nice enough, and even had some more modern historical remains:

Until I came across a field with a very small creek where in the middle of the field 3 old ships were parked. Really strange. How had they come here in the first place. Definitely not because of a tsunami... but I cannot even imagine that it had been because of some freek inundation, as there is simply no river close enough by, to wash ashore these ships. Mystery!

Only the third place that I had found on google maps did delude a bit. 新町薬師堂 (Shinmachi ? Yakushiji) It just was a small temple hall. But I think it is somehow historically important. But unfortunately the sign was in Japanese only. But no problem, it was on the way I needed to take anyway, and as said, I had already 2 unexpected discoveries today.

From there I rode into Tochigi city, where I will continue with my explorations tomorrow, last day of this long weekend.

Today finished in a sento here in Tochigi city. The goldfish sento, and there was a real basin of goldfish, that one could observe while soaking oneself. Very relaxing.

And finally I had Italian dinner in a place right in front of my hotel in an other historical building, probably from the Taisho or Showa era:

Golden Week 2019 - The plan GWの計画について

I am back in Japan for 2 month of extended business trip. In the middle of this time there is however Golden Week, the longest ever, 10 days off in a row. (Thanks to the tenno abdicating). 

I organized these 10 days at end of January, while waiting for a flight to Sapporo, that brought me, among other wintery things, to these very cute penguins in Otaru: 

Now this is no excuse for organizing a GW that is counter intuitive. Essentially the plan is:

- Day 0 (= Friday): depart from Osaka to Tokyo
- Day 1 (= Saturday): Tokyo with NPC friends
- Day 2 (= Sunday): Tokyo with more friends
- Day 3 (= Monday): move back (by train) to Kansai and stay in Yamatoyagi, in inner Nara prefecture, where I was already 1.5 years ago and liked it a lot.
- Day 4 & 5 (= Tuesday & Wednesday) in and around Yamatoyagi: Day 4 Miwa, Day 5 Asuka
- Day 6 (= Thursday), ride down towards Wakayama

Until here while illogical to move first from Kansai to Kanto and then back again, the plan isn't too bad. (Note that the Tokyo stint was conditioned by the date the NPC friends meet). Now the following part has me moving (by train) across a lot of land... to get to Matsue and Izumo. Why? Because I have never been even anywhere close to that region, it seems to be very cycling friendly, and I simply wanted to go. So...

- Day 7 (= Friday), moving by train (and a bit of bike) from Wakayama to Matsue
- Day 8 (= Saturday), Matsue
- Day 9 (= Sunday), from Matsue to Izumo
- Day 10 (= Monday), Izumo and flight back to Haneda for my last 3 weeks of business trip in Japan.

On Google maps these 10 days look like this:

GW 2019 - Day 3 - Yamanobe no michi 山の辺の道

Bicycle: 22 km
Train: 500 km

Route: Tokyo - Tenri (by train) - Yamatoyagi

Total riding time: 1:49 h

Total ascent: 163 m 
Average speed:  12.3 km/h

Weather: cloudy and at the end light rain, 14 C

After the brief stint in Tokyo, I am back in Kansai, in Inner Nara prefecture, in the same accommodation in Yamatoyagi, where I was already 1.5 years ago during my great trip through Japan.

In the morning I took a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and then a normal train onwards to Tenri. Tokyo station was quite full, but everything well organized, and as I had bought my reserved seat already at the end of March, all very relaxed.

When I planned the route for today yesterday, I apparently had planned it to start in Nara... but I forgot, and throught I had planned it from Tenri. I only noticed the error when I started up the Garmin at Tenri station. But no problem, as the route was coming through Tenri, and actually looking at it in retrospect it was much better to start from Tenri than to add the additional kilometers for starting in Nara. The weather today was not very stable and finally around 17:00 it started raining, which was right the time when I finished my last temple of the day.

But let's start in Tenri. I followed my preplanned route and came to what I thought was the first attraction of the day, an ENORMOUS temple complex in Tenri. I think I have never seen in Japan a temple complex as large and as organized for masses of worshippers as this place. It somehow reminded me of the Vatican. I parked my bicycle in an enormous parking lot and went ahead with my touristic duties.

What i found was a large temple seemingly supposed to host thousands and thousands of worshipers. However when I arrived there were only a few, as attested by this picture with the shoes:

Inside an enormous tatami-clad hall, but nearly empty:

Nothing really interesting in that enormous hall though. At least for my tourist eyes.

I then continued on the "balcony" that surrounds the temple and only there I felt how big this complex really was. It isn't only this main hall but a lot of additional halls, a large courtyard (more about that one later) and in the surrounding many , large hotel type constructions. The hallway around the temple deserved special attention by the worshippers, going down to their knees, cleaning it. And yep, it was immaculate.

Initially I had this impression that something was going to happen, but yet nearly no one was here. That changed rapidly. Within a few minutes the courtyard filled with organized groups of people. All standing in a row behind their assigned group number. These worshippers were mainly students (in their sport uniforms and workers, in their respective work uniform).

Before...

... and 15 minutes later

At times this temple must get so busy that below there are entires numbered like in football stadiums.

I left the complex before the highlight of the day and continued to my first official destination, Isonokami shrine. When planning the route, I had in mind the Yamanobe Michi, which while being a hiking trail can be in a certain way emulated also on a bicycle. With a mountain bike the hiking trail itself would most likely also be ridable. I even managed to ride some parts with my brompton. 

At this shrine instead of deer, it seems that chicken are venerated:

Apart from that peculiarity, it is a nice but to my eyes unremarkable shrine.

From there on, I loosely followed the Yamanobe no michi and came through very nice landscape with old, still quite well preserved villages along the way.

The region is well known for its autumn colours, but I would say that also in spring the different types of green on the mountains, are also very nice. In some fields these small pink flowers were blooming, and along the way I also saw a few wisteria in bloom. 

Further along the way, is Chogakuji, a very quaint temple in the middle of nature. I bought my entrance ticket from an old buddhist monk (?) who however was watching Judo in TV.

I had practically the entire temple to myself, we were essentially only two tourists at the temple. And this in Golden Week! However it is obviously not one of the main temples and it was starting to rain. Actually the very light rain transformed into a more persisting, yet still light rain. So after a quick visit, I retreated, searched for a spot under a roof to get me all dressed up. When I was last travelling through Japan in autumn 2017, my rain cloths were not up to the challenge. This time I only brought a rain cape, and at least with this relatively light rain it worked well. It doesn't get too hot under the cape, so no sweat that accumulates. However it also produces quite some wind resistance. On the positive side, however that with the helmet also the rain cape hood stays in place. So finally I managed to arrive at my accommodation dry. 

I am repeating accommodation from 1.5 years ago, a small guest house in Yamato-Yagi which I quite liked. In the evening I went to a local restaurant here closeby and then worked on my blog posts, as well as on planning my next days.

For tomorrow, the first agenda point will be to go to Osaka (by train), in order to get a new brompton saddle. The old one broke when reassembling the bicycle in Tenri. Luckily I am not too far from bompton civilization and found even one in Tokyo, that had saddels. But tomorrow more about this.