Obon D1 towards fresh air

Route: Yokokawa - Usui pass - Karuizawa
Bicycle: 28 km 
Train: 140 km
Total ascent: 999 m
Average speed: 8,7 km/h (not helped by all the walking I did)
Riding time: 3:15 h
Weather: Sunny and kind of warm but tolerable in the mountains and nice in Karuizawa (at 940 m elevation) 33-28 C 

While you’re up this year is baking in the heat with heat wave upon heat wave, in Japan, it is surprisingly fresh this year. I did write to the office until quite late in July and then again this week it became fresh enough to be able to cycle to work without melting away. So I thought that I would give it a try to have a long weekend away. Since several weeks, I’m kind of feeling that I didn’t take enough vacation this year and really need some time off. Next Tuesday is a local holiday anyway (mountain day), so how better to celebrate by doing a long weekend in the mountains.

Thus, on Thursday, I set out with the help of ChatGPT to check where around Tokyo it would be the best temperature. Initially I had thought about going to Nozawa onsen, A village have been already several times in Nagano prefecture. But the problem is getting there because unfortunately, there are no local trains from Tokyo that go towards Nagano city. You need to take the Shinkansen, which obviously was sold out weeks ago. After all, it is Obon, a traditional holiday in Japan, where many people take off maybe visit the mountains or traditionally visit the grave of their family. By pure luck I found one room at an agreeable price in Karuizawa. Karuizawa is the classical high class summer vacation spot of Tokyo elite. It was “discovered” by an Anglican missionary in 1886. From there, it quickly grew into the favorite spot for the rich and cultured elite of Tokyo to spend their summers. His own summer house has been well maintained and is now open to visitors.

As a exemplary missionary, he obviously also built a church:

Karuizawa is a very peculiar village. It doesn’t feel Japanese.I don’t really know what isn’t Japanese about it but the summer houses are scattered through the forest and it kind of feels like an ideal summer retreat from a 19th century novel.

Quite centrally in the village is also this famous pond:

To get here, I came by train first to Takasaki and then Yokokawa which is the furthest that the normal train line that once existed between the Tokyo area and Karuizawa is still running. Although this week, it was surprisingly fresh in Tokyo, it actually got hotter now. So I did decide against cycling up from Takasaki and took the train as far as possible, just to the base of the climb.

At the station, I went through my summer cycling routine, soaking my T-shirt, completely in water and holding my head under cold flowing water before starting the ride.

There are various roads over the pass towards Nagano prefecture from highway to small winding road over Usui pass. This road is famous for the train bridge that supposedly is evoking glasses:

As the train line no longer runs, one can now walk on the line and through the train tunnels. I have to admit a cycled until the bridge, also it was officially prohibited. But there were only very few pedestrians so really no issue. At the bridge, however there were many more pedestrians and crucially a few guards who insisted that I walk. 

The train road now ends at an abandon station. From there, I had to carry the bicycle over some stairs down to the road. That road is extremely curvy. Quite similar to this tree:

A few meters behind the pass, I found a vending machine and got some cold drinks and had one onigiri in the shade. Until here I had only written about 12 km and it would have been only another 2 km down to my hotel at the station. But I saw a tourist map on that pass and it called out a shrine that wasn’t too far and perfectly reachable from where I was.

A very nice road through the vacation house forest did lead me with many more curves to the shrine. When I first had lunch, some soba noodles, before visiting the actual shrine. The shrine itself to me seemed pretty normal. But it must be quite well liked, because it had a huge shrine shop. 

This was actually a shrine where you kind of needed to walk through the shop to get to the small devotional shrines to pray for the health of your dog or car. 

GW2026 D6 TOTO toilet museum

Route: Shimonoseki - Kokura - Buzen

Bicycle: 82 km

Walking: 780 m (from Honshu to Kyushu)

Total ascent: 818 m

Average speed: 15,1 km/h

Riding time: 5:26 h

Weather: Sunny but overcast, 26C

 

Today only had one highlight and a lot of lowlights. 

Highlight: TOTO toilet museum

Lowlights: 

• all the traffic between Shimonoseki until way beyond Kokura. It took 50 km+ to get into a region without big streets and lots of cars, and only because I managed to veer off the coast to a road halfway up to mountain. 
• The chemical smell dominating well beyond Kokura and being extremely strong in Kokura city. Not really sure how people would want to live there. 

Starting from my hotel I road a few more km in Yamaguchi, taking in the view of the bridge connecting Honshu with Kyushu…

… while I took the pedestrian tunnel. 

On the other side of the tunnel is Mojiko, a port city that seems to have some Western history. At least around the port and station area there are multiple Western style old houses. 

From there it was a struggle through traffic to get to the toilet museum. I had known about this museum since I first cycled in Kyushu during my Tour of Japan in 2017, but back then I was nowhere close to it. A few years ago when I was cycling around Mt Aso and Oita I had considered going, but again it was out of the way. So finally! 

The museum is in the middle of the TOTO plant, a modern building.

The museum explains the story of Toto and its associated companies producing everything with ceramics, from plates to construction material and parts of electronics, but also toilets and full baths. 

This is the first sitting toilet produced in Japan:

And this the first washlet, now omnipresent in Japanese houses. 

What is always surprising how much ceramics shrink firing:

There was however also a Sumo wrestler and a children option:

When I built my house last year I had so many choices to make, but for the toilet I had decided ahead of time to go with TOTO, as TOTO is for me the definition of Japanese toilets. I am sure that the LIXIL toilet would have been just as good. While with my TOTO bathroom I am really happy, as it has a slightly soft floor. 

After the toilet museum it was back to the traffic and the air pollution. Frankly the roads or route got a bit better, but still not really enjoyable for a cycling trip. I had even considered taking a train to my final destination, but weather was good so I did work up the courage to continue cycling. Only the last 20 km or so were in small vials and the countryside but only because I managed to swear off the main roads onto a tertiary road through the foothills of some mountain. 

PS: so now I finally made it to THE toilet museum, which I thought was unique… and what does the competition do? Open an other toilet museum! https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/raina/260313.html

GW2024 D7 Through onsenlandia

Route: Kurokawa onsen - Sujiyu onsen - Tadewara wetlands - Ukenokuchi onsen - Yufuin
Bicycle: 59 km
Total ascent: 1193 m
Average speed: 11,3 km/h
Riding time: 5:15 h
Weather: blue skies but surprisingly cold, maybe around 12 C

What a view!

Mt. Aso in the background with the smoke coming from the caldera, a few other mountains connected to Mt. Aso, the rolling hills and high plateau in front and the edge of the caldera that surrounds Mt Aso. 

And all this by chance as I took the “wrong” road. I wanted to take Yamanami highway, but the small connection road that Komoot saw didn’t exist in reality, and the next option that wahoo saw didn’t exist in real life either. So I continued on the small road I was on until it joined a bigger road but at that point I was already at least halfway up the mountain and cycling down just to join Yamanami highway didn’t seem a good idea, when this road was going in the same direction and had hardly any traffic.

This ski slopes were the highest point of the ride, I donned my rain jacket to not freeze on the downhill and down I went  … 

… until turning towards the Tadewara wetlands.

Not sure if I was impressed by the wetlands themselves (they were green but no special flowers in bloom) but the backdrop of Mt Kujo, apparently an other active volcano, was majestic. 

From there it wasn’t very far to the next attraction, a swinging bridge over a small and very deep river with its waterfalls. And although this place is quite hard to reach, it seems relatively popular with bus loads of foreign tourists. 

From there on through small streets, one actually a bit too small (and steep) to be enjoyable to ride… but it fooled me as the beginning of that road (only the first 100m or so) were newly build and thus in perfect shape… to my destination: Yufuin.

Once here I went to the local onsen on a hill behind the main city, with a huge rotenburo (but no internal tubs) ..

… and with the boiling hot onsen water coming out if the ground around it.

And then down to my accommodation 

D1 - Weekend around Bessho Onsen

Route: Takasaki - Megane bridge - Takasaki - Ueda - Bessho onsen
Bicycle: 55 km
Train: 220 km
Total ascent: unknown (wahoo says 3,200+ m which is totally wrong)
Average speed: 14 km/h
Riding time: 3:46 h
Weather: sunny, VERY windy and much warmer than I thought (maybe 25C?)

Since a long time I wanted to visit Bessho onsen. There is a poster in Japan guide forum that often recommends it and it looked like a nice place. But I never found any available lodging. When I planned my upcoming weekends back in January I gave it a try again and found a ryokan at a reasonable price and reserved for 2 different weekends in March and April. 

The initial plan was to ride from Takasaki through a winding mountain street that goes along a decommissioned train line to Karuizawa and then down (and slightly up) to Bessho onsen. But in the early morning train (leaving shortly before 7:00 am from Shinjuku), a fellow cyclist told me that that road was closed due to a typhoon last year. There is an alternative which I feared would be full of cars and trucks (and that premonition turned out right). But anyway, I got off the train in Takasaki and set out into the direction to Karuizawa on my preplanned route. As so often it went along a river on a cycling lane. 

I was cycling against a fierce headwind, which I hadn't expected. The handover from a drinking party with ex-colleagues yesterday probably also didn't help plus it was much warmer than I had anticipated. I was cycling with shorts and had taken off the arms of my Castelli jacket... but still, it was warm. When I finally came to Yokokawa, where the ascent to the mountain pass starts but from where there is also only the big street anymore and no small countryside lanes anymore, I had a short  recon of the route and confirmed that for it to be enjoyable there were too many cars and trucks. So instead I did cycle up the road that is closed. 

I had also gotten quite hungry, but found a good soba restaurant at the bottom of the climb. It turned out that it was at an entrance to the decomissioned train line. One isnt supposed to ride on it by bicycle, and I can see that in more touristy moments it might not be a good idea, but today I was pretty much riding on it alone, just crossing with a few pedestrians until I came to the famous bridge. 

Proably the view from below is more famous though. 

As you can see however from the pictures, the trees were still totally barren (this winter has been long and while not overly cold in total, so far there haven't been a lot of spring days). Even sakura this year is quite late. 

I asked a motorbike rider if he knew if the street was really closed... but he didn't. Maybe I should have continued up a little bit to see for myself. But both his road map and the cyclist in the train told me that it wouldnt be open... and I still needed to get to Bessho onsen. 

Unfortunately with the introduction of the shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagano, the local line that existed has been decomissioned between Yokokawa and Karuizawa. Before and after it exists... but not between. Which also means that the only possibilty to get from Tokyo area (by train) to Karuizawa is taking the shinkansen. But I started with a small local train from Yokokawa back to Takasaki

By shinkansen to Ueda and then back on the bike (the trains to Bessho onsen are infrequent) and it isn't that far anyway, up to Bessho onsen and my ryokan for the night. I arrived there around 17:30, got my room and then rushed to the bath to at least wash off the sweat before having dinner which started at 18:00. In small onsen towns it is often a good idea to reseve hotel with dinner... as there might be no open restuarants around at all. In my rush to wash I did get a quick picture of the rotenburo though. 

After dinner I then took my time to get a proper relaxing bath. I had been contemplating if instead I should be going to the nearby public bath (Oyu) but finally decided against it. After all I had a private bath with rotenburo included in my ryokan. 

The ryokan was run by what seemed to be a group of elderly. I dont think I saw any employee that was substantially below 80 years old. 

D2 Oigawa valley

Route: Yoshida - Kawanahoncho - Kawaneonsen 
Bicycle: 81,8 km
Train: 26 km 
Total ascent: 1119 m
Average speed: 14,3 km/h
Riding time: 5:30 h
Weather: sunny and still very warm (for end of November), 16 C

For my first full day in Shizuoka I cycled up Oigawa. A river that can be very big, but currently only is a shadow of itself. For a more impressive river, I would need to come here again in late spring, when the snow is melting in the southern Alps. 

Still down in the broader valley close to Shimada was this submergible bridge. I didn’t cross it though slightly afraid of the strong side wind on a bridge without any rails. And well, I wanted to get going. If I stop for the first sightseeing a mere 10 km or so into the ride I’ll never “arrive” at destination. 

A little bit further along, I saw again the mountain with the kanji for tea 茶 where I had been cycling yesterday in the distance.It’s kind of hard to take a good picture of this character. Yesterday it was too dark.And today it was a bit too far.

Still down in the broad valley I came through this area off citrus plantations. Mainly みかん but also some Yuzu and other citrus trees. Surprisingly it didn’t smell of citrus, much in contrast to the intense apple smell a few weeks ago in Nagano. 

When I planned the ride yesterday, I made komoot not to choose the state road. Instead, I manually set it to the road on the other side of the valley, thinking that the state road for sure must be the busier of the two. I was wrong. The state roads actually is pretty small and currently even cut for a few kilometers where a landslide came down, after some major typhoon not too long ago.  That landslide did not only destroy the part of the state road, but also part of the train line. So nowadays the train only goes to Kawaneonsen. Which has a very cute old station building. I didn’t see it today, but this train company still uses steam machines and rides about three or four trips per day with them. 

Probably the highlight of today was this hanging bridge, which, in a day with a lot of wind, was doable, but scary to cross. Specially in the middle part where one is furthest away from the river banks, and very much exposed to the fierce winds that were reining  today.

Crossing this bridge however helped for the ride. Because I looked at the road on the other side and although this was the state road, It had barely any traffic. So I crossed over a normal bridge to the other much more tranquil side of the river and continued my ride there. 

After lunch, a few kilometers upstream I went to a Buddhist temple which claimed to have koyo in autumn. It was right but nothing stunning apart this one tree. Apparently this year in general the koyo season isn’t very good because it was too hot for too long in summer so the trees instead of going colorful go bare very quickly. 

From here I returned did a quick round around a light blue mountain lake (well dam) on very quiet roads, specially on one side of the lake. That road seemed to get less than a car per day. 

So quiet that I put my new bear bell in action.

From here it wasn’t too far and downhill to the onsen were I spent about 1,5 h soaking in salty hot water while looking at the mountain tops around. When one was standing on the rest area of the onsen one could also see the river and the railway bridge. There was even a timetable to know when the steam train would pass. 

But I took a regular old style train back down. 

Arashiyama without tourists - 観光客無しの嵐山

Bicycle: 114.3 km

Route: Osaka - Arashiyama and back

Total riding time: 6:37 h 

Total ascent: 299 m 

Average speed: 17.3 km/h

Weather: Some sun, some clouds, no wind to speak of, 13 C

Although since earlier this week there are some restrictions in place in Osaka (among other prefectures), going out to do sport is still perfectly allowed, and I was definitely not alone, although kept to myself. 

After the great experience last weekend in Kyoto and Nara without tourists, I decided to give Kyoto (this time Arashiyama) another try. I had a few other rides also planned more local in Osaka, but will do those some time in the future.

Today's highlight was definitely the Arashiyama bamboo grove without tourists:

Normally nowadays this bamboo grove is just packed with tourists. So much, that it can easily seem that there are more tourists than bamboo around. But not so today. But before I got there... I needed to ride up again the Yodogawa River.

There were definitely less people around than in the last 2 weekends, specially less people doing picnics, but still some groups playing baseball, rugby, tennis or football, which technically is allowed as the web page of the local government exercise is one of the examples of necessary activities for daily lives, as long as done with the smallest number of people attending... so 22 for football... 1 for cycling. Although I have to say, I saw a few cyclists in groups. Mostly it was probably families, but some were clearly riding buddies (unless there is a unknown subculture of polyamorous gay men in Osaka and around).

I came again to the hanami spot at the confluence of Kizugawa, Ujigawa and Katsuragawa where they form Yodogawa and it was clear that mankai 満開 was last week.

Top left: today, top right: 2 weeks ago, bottom: 1 week ago

But still, some nice hanami shots:

As mankai was over, the path leading out into the peninsula was open for cyclists. I didn't need a second invitation and rode it. Probably the first 2 extra km of today.

I continued on on the same river as last weekend, after a while transferring to yet another river, that brought me smack into the center of Arashiyama and over the Togetsu bridge:

Last time I was here was right after a massive typhoon had hit Kansai and destroyed the bridge to Kansai airport (from where I was supposed to leave a few days after the typhoon). As that didn't happen, I decided that weekend to go to Arashiyama (by train), ride around on a rented mamachari and explore the lesser known (and much less touristy areas) of Arashiyama, which was a nice ride, although I got my feet wet on the river banks riding through some puddles that profed deeper than I thought.

Today, the river was well within its shoulders. While riding up the river and getting to the 50 km mark, I was getting hungry. Not too hungry, but well, hungry. So I discussed with me my options but finally decided to make it until Arashiyama, as I remembered that a few years back (maybe 10?) we had a very nice vegetarian lunch in a restaurant in a temple (Tenryuji). The restaurant was still open, just if they had waited for me, one of their few customers of the day, and definitely the only one to make it to their door after 13:15

After lunch I explored the gardens of the temple, which are apparently dating back to the 14th century when this place first was a palace and then became a temple. Today for sure one could admire the garden as it must have been 700 years ago. Quietly sitting on the veranda, gazing out over the pond into the hills where some cherry trees are flowering.

Also across the rest of the garden more trees were flowering, most prominently the rhododendrons.

I would say that today there were more employees around (gardeners working on their knees with tiny knives weeding out invisible weed and guards who had no one to guard or amonish) ....

... than tourists.

Top: handbag in social isolation, bottom: shoes in social isolation

... okay, the shoe picture is slightly tricked. There was one more rack for shoes just behind me, where there were actually 3 other pairs of shoes. So no, I was not totally alone in the temple.

In total, lunch included I spent 2 hours at this temple complex, feeding, relaxing, taking pictures. I even paid the extra entrance fee for the Dharma Hall where a dragon on the ceiling will follow each of your steps... and watches carefully that no one takes a picture of it.

So now it was nearly 15:30 and I knew I needed to get moving back, did I want to make it back to Osaka before nightfall (or at least back to the onsen of choice of the day). But I could not leave Arashiyama without a quick peak to the famous bamboo grove. Last time I was here, it was packed with tourists, and I just had a quick peak and no picture. This time tourists were sparse.

Normally this path is no longer ridable with a bicycle due to the masses of tourists walking through. But today even this was possible. I met the guy in this picture a few kilometers later as we were both riding back towards Osaka (only he had 20 km less than me before him), right when we both were trying to take a picture of a shinkansen and hanami:

Shinkansen hiding behind the petals 

The ride back along the rivers was eventless. I stopped for a quick snack at the hanami spot, where there is a rest area for cyclists and then continued down the Yodogawa river, where I noticed this bicycle cemetery that I must have passed already quite often, without ever noticing it properly.

I passed through some more of these terribly annoying roadblocks ...

... before heading "inland" to my choice of onsen of the day, a onsen of the same chain I went to yesterday in Amagasaki. This one however a bit newer. I had a great relax in the different outside pools, including one lie down option on stones with hot water flowing over it, and just made it in time for last order to their restaurant for my solitary dinner.

The plan for Arashiyama was a 108 km ride, which I knew was doable, after the 101 km ride last week to Kiyomizudera. I got up a bit earlier than normal and was out on the road at 9:00 (early for me... late for many others), which gave me the full day ahead. Also I didn't have a heavy sightseeing plan due to Covid-19 but also due to the fact that I needed to ride all the way back, if I didn't want to cheat on the restrictions to only do essential travel. But my timing was perfect arriving at the onsen only shortly after it became dark.

While I road at the beginning of the day I thought, well, 111 km would be a nice number, knowing that there are always a few extra km that one rides by missing a right turn or by just straying off the route. However during my dinner at the onsen, I looked at the date, 11th of April and first thought, oh perfect 111 km on the 11th, is a nice number, until I realized that 114 km on the 11/4 would be even nicer. So that's why I did a few extra loops just below my house - no Strava art :-) 

And oh yes, it was my longest ride ever, by a whole 7 km!

Tomorrow it will rain. So a rest day, and time to write some posts.