Yamanote line by bike - 自転車で山手線

Bicycle: 42 km

Route: Yamanote line sotomawari

Total riding time: 3:27 h 

Total ascent: 230 m 

Average speed: 12.1 km/h

Weather: Sunny, but not that warm, specially some chilly wind, 16 C

Originally for today the picnic ride with my friends from the NPC was planned, but due to Covid-19 pandemic it was cancelled a few weeks ago. What a pity, today would have been the perfect weather for a picnic. Not like last year when it was cold and rainy and we had to do our "picnic" in our favorite Taiwanese restaurant. But at least we could do it and enjoy the time together. 

When I was thinking yesterday where to ride in order to start and finish in Shinbashi without the need for any train, I remembered the Yamanote line ride we did with the NPC a few years back in August during an entire night. It was actually my last ride before starting on my two months adventure through Japan. And it was the test ride with all my luggage.

In the initial part of the ride I came through some small neighbourhoods with their temples and shopping streets around Shinagawa:

In that shopping street about half of the shops were open. The restaurants mainly seemed to do take-out. And a barber had decided to sell his face masks at about 100 yen per piece. In one shop they also claimed to sell self made ones, but one needed to order them.

I continued on along Meguro river where the cherry blossoms have been replaced by azalea:

Shortly before Meguro I came by this temple. I really only stopped there, because the slope was so steep that I only managed to ride until there before getting of and pushing... so as I was off the bike anyway... well, I could as well visit the temple. The outstanding feature was this small buddha completely covered in gold. But not expertly, but rather in a DIY style by the worshippers themselves. One could (not now, but in normal times) buy some gold leaves and then apply them on the Buddha...

... in theory on the place of the body that one wanted to cure... but I have some doubts that there is the same amount of people that have head pains than people that have pains in the middle of their left lower leg...

From this oasis of tranquility to the normally crazy busy part of Tokyo: Shibuya!

Although the government of Tokyo is urging people to stay at home, people were around. Walking, jogging, cycling but also doing grocery or other shopping. However compared to any normal Saturday Shibuya crossing was very empty. All department stores, cinemas, museums, pachinko parlors, music venues... are all closed, so in Shibuya there isn't much to do. But in the more local neighbourhoods people are around to enjoy the sun and flowers or simply to do some shopping.

After Shibuya my next picture stop was Meiji shrine just besides the newly build Harajuku station.

But then on through the Northern parts of the city. It is easy to think that Tokyo is a huge metropolis full of skyscrapers, but actually most parts of Tokyo are pretty low-rise. Only that this time I didn't take any picture of that part of Tokyo. I took some pictures of a really interesting architecture (left up), of an exposition of houses (right up) and a very dilapidated sento.

As it was a ride very closely along the Yamanote line I obviously also took pictures of trains:

I was lucky that the ride was along Yamanote line, because my stupid Garmin decided at Meiji shrine that it didn't want to work properly anymore. It was impossible to reactivate the touch screen. Only that I hadn't even deactivated it. It only resumed to normal working order in Yanaka, probably around 20 km later after a stop at a toilet. But with the Yamanote line there to follow and google maps I made go without it.

Riding through the city was definitely not a normal Saturday, when the streets in Akihabara and Kanda would be full of shoppers.

It felt a little bit like a late night ride, after most of the shops had closed... only that it was in the afternoon.

When coming through Ueno, there is a market street that normally is too busy to even contemplate to cycle through, but today it was possible. Along the side several makeshift stalls offered paper masks at roughly 70 - 80 yen per mask (in packs of 50). So a little bit cheaper than in Shinagawa. But I had bought two reusable and hand made masks back in Shibuya in a small artisanal shop.

No one had yet time to replace the "Tokyo 2020" signs, so there is publicity around the city (and also at Narita airport) for the "Tokyo 2020" Olympics...

But at Tokyo station, the clock has already been turned to next year for the countdown: 

When I passed through here in mid February, actually on my first ride back in Japan, it was only 5 months to the Olympics... Covid-19 happened and now supposedly it is exactly 454 days until the opening ceremony (the picture above is for the Paralympics). But we will see. Obviously all politicians say, that it will not be postponed again... We will see ...

The last stop on my ride today was around Tokyo station, right in time for the sunset, which I used for some special pictures. E.g. how to make even small brompton wheels look reaaaaaalllly big!

Sunset right opposite of Tokyo station ... 

... and by extension, just above the palace:

While the street in front of the palace was nearly void of traffic.

Enthronement ride 即位の礼ライド

Bicycle: 24.7 km

Route: Shinbashi - Oimachi - Tokyo Station - Ginza - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 2:00 h 

Total ascent:  98 m 

Average speed: 12 km/h

Weather: Dark... probably cloudy, but no rain anymore,  16 C


Today, on the day of the enthronement of the new Tenno, a mini Taifun swept through Tokyo. Actually it was so small that the weather apps deleted it sometime yesterday. But it did still bring rain with it. So well, a public holiday in the rain and tomorrow, as always after a taifun the sun will be shining... but we will be in the office.

Most of the day I spent in my hotel room, setting up my new iPhone and finally managing to connect it via bluetooth to Garmin! Yeah, 4 years later. Finally. And what an improvement. I was now able to download Komoot and Strava apps both on the garmin device, which means that routes planned on Strava or on the go on komoot can be easily transfered on Garmin. This is a real improvement, no more need for a computer for planning and as my garmin was always very picky with its USB cable connection, finally a stable connection between garmin and something else that can upload / download data.

So after a lazy day in my hotel room, I finally made it out around 19:30, with the idea to ride go to an exhibition of Shiota Chiharu in the Mori Art Museum. Well, I didn't make it very far. I simply after a few hundred meters on the bicycle lost all interest in art, and did only want to continue riding. Not before taking however my first proper picture with my new iPhone:

So I looked for an other "worthy" goal, and what better than an onsen. I knew a reasonable super-sento in Oimachi so while I was already out on the road, I took Komoot and let it replan a ride from "your current location" to Oimachi station. The route it planned was nearly perfect. Specially the smaller road that however rides more or less in a straight line out towards Shinagawa was ideal (I think I may have ridden it already once at the end of a NPC ride). Only the last stretch into Oimachi wasn't good. It went through an industrial area, which well, is a bit spooky alone at night... but well, this is Japan. But even at a certain point came to a road that very much seemed to be a private road of the railway company. So I turned back and found on the other side of the tracks an actually totally perfect small road that brought me right into Oimachi, also discovering that it is a place with a very vivid bar area. (Which I didn't visit though).

I parked where the onsen, but as I hadn't eaten a lot during the day, my first stop was in a fast food restaurant there to get me something, and then, with all my expectations I went upstairs to the onsen... but, alas it was closed due to refurbishment...

So yet an other chance for komoot to produce a new route, when I decided where to go next:

• To the emperors palace, Tokyo Station and Ginza! 

Planning the route on komoot was super easy, however getting it onto Garmin means that any ongoing activity needs to be ended first. I.e. not only stopped, but properly ended and saved. That's why the ride is broken down in two.

On my way back, once I came closer to the palace most streets were kind of half closed. Nothing (well, can't say that, but so it seemed) was completely closed, but many streets were kind of closed. At the first policeman I asked, he said that I count NOT continue straight... and he sent me to the right. But later on I tried again to turn into the direction of the palace and all other policemen, and there were many (and no policewoman as far as I remember), let me through. I even got right in front of the palace (where probably somewhere the gala dinner was still ongoing).

The streets in front were very empty, but also these, not completely close to traffic:

Then a right turn and towards Tokyo station:

... and finally a few more turns, and a scenic nightride on Ginza before returning back to my hotel in Shinbashi.

Day 56 - Sumo in Fukuoka 福岡で相撲を

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 56

On the last but one day of this trip through Japan, only little cycling, but a very Japanese highlight, Sumo at the Fukuoka tournament and also my last onsen soak of this ride. 

Bicycle:  5.2 km 
Riding time: 26 min
Total ascent: 28 m

Route: Hotel to Sumo tournament 

Weather: Sunny, 12 C

After 56 days cycling through Japan I finally made it to one last highlight of this trip, the sumo tournament in Fukuoka. I had tried earlier this year to get tickets for the sumo tournament in Tokyo, but although I went to the internet page about 30 min after the pre-sale started, the page did not work, phone did not work either and by the time I was in a conbini (that actually was not to far from where I was at the time), there were no seats anymore on any weekends... and I didn't want to take a day off, "just" for watching sumo. So when the tickets for the Fukuoka tournament started pre-sale in early October, I immediately went ahead and got my ticket for today, a Tuesday. 

On this day with perfect weather, I left my dear brompton outside parked below the sumo wrestlers flags and got in Fukuoka International center for a full day of Sumo fighting. 

Sumo is organized in different grades but during a tournament day all grades fight. Starting in the morning with the most junior devision and then scaling up little by little to the more senior and up to the maximum division. When I arrived, not terribly early in the day, but still hours prior to the first professional league match, only a few people were already inside the hall, as one can appreciate from the pretty empty ranks. 

Between the 6 different sumo divisions there is not really a noticeable change or a break, but little by little more spectators arrived and also the sumo wrestlers got more ceremony. E.g. the typical gesture of throwing salt into the ring, only started at the Juryo division (the second highest). Below that much less ceremony. Not only the sumo wrestlers themselves get more and more colourful (from uniformly greyish mawashi for all, to individually and colourful mawashis in the high divisions. Also the sumo judges get longer and more colourful robes as the day progresses. 

Every now and then between the bouts the ring would get newly watered and swiped and after most fights there was at least some cleaning of the ring.

After a few low rank fights I made my way back to the atrium, to get a bento box and was right in time to see the arrival of a few of the highest ranking sumo fighters. A lot of people (maybe even more than inside) where waiting in the atrium, educatedly behind a yellow line on the floor, for their heroes. Who swept through quick paced with their helping junior sumo wrestlers behind them, carrying their belongings. 

Sumo wrestler

Junior sumo wrestler with the bags

I had my bento on my seat and after some time the higher divisions started. There was even this colourful entry ceremony of the Juryo and Makuuchi division. Here of the Juryo:

In order that there is only minimal waiting time between the different fights, the next two wrestlers already sit along side the ring waiting for their match. In the highest division only, they get their personal cushion, brought in by one of their junior sumo wrestler-helpers. 

Although the time to wait for the next sumo wrestler to enter the ring is small, the wait for the match to actually start gets longer from Juryo, as wrestlers do more and more ceremony. Here an entire match from first entering the ring to the actual match:

Here the fight also was actually quite long. Often it is only a few seconds (see the last few seconds of the video below):

Before the makuuchi division started, the reigning yokozuna performs his "entry dance" (for sure there is a technical, religious term for it):

Not after each fight, but from time to time even publicity comes through the ring, but as it is a sacred space, also the publicity is in ancient packing:

And here the final fight of the day, between Hakuho and Ichinojo, which ultimately was won by Hakuho, allowing him a few days later to win the third tournament this year by 14:1.

After an entire day of sumo, I concluded the day with my last onsen soak on this travel in an super-sento very close to the sumo hall.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Fukuoka, checkout the below maps:

Day 55 - Dazaifu to Fukuoka 大宰府から福岡へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 55

Today a relatively leisurely day with a short ride into central Fukuoka after a nice visit to a very nice zen garden and some Sumo in television in preparation for tomorrow. 

Bicycle: 20 km 
Riding time: 1:40 h
Total ascent:  38 m 

Route: Dazaifu to Fukuoka

Weather: Sunny, but very windy again, 8 C


The morning I spent very leisurely in the onsen of my hotel, alternating between the 3 rotenburos. While during the night it must have rained, by the time I was sufficiently washed the sun had come through. I didn't have a lot of touristic plan for today, as I was in Dazaifu early this year and had already seen all the major sights. But I remembered a very nice zen garden in a temple close to the main shrine, so I visited both. 

At the shrine there were again a lot of families with their 3, 5 or 7 year old kids. I think there were actually no 7 year olds, as today was a school day and most kids looked smaller. 

To the shrine leads a pair of very typical bridges:

After a quick visit to the street leading up to the shrine, full of omiyage shops, I continued on to the zen temple. 

One can sit on this "balcony" and gaze into the garden. Very relaxing.

This is how it looked back in May:

And here the same spot 6 months later:

I was also lucky that when I was there not many other tourists were visiting. But exactly when I left an enormous group (well, one bus load) of elderly Japanese entered.

With that I left Dazaifu behind me and road again very leisurely into Fukuoka. Part of my way was on the approach path to Fukuoka airport.

While I was riding on one of the typical Japanese bicycle lanes along a river.

This brought me to my final accommodation on this nearly 2 months trip through Japan, a Toyoko-Inn in central Fukuoka that I had reserved already 2 months ago, when I bought my sumo ticket. Tomorrow I will go to see the real thing, today I just watched it in TV, and saw Hakuho continuing his straight line of 8 wins in a row during this tournament as well as one match that needed to be repeated as the judges could not decide who was pushed outside of the ring first.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Fukuoka, checkout the below maps:

Day 54 - Saga to Dazaifu 佐賀から大宰府へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 54

Today an other cold day through the plain between Saga and a little uphill to Dazaifu, where I visited the interesting Kyushu National Museum before soaking in my onsen of the night. 

Bicycle: 55 km 
Riding time: 3:50 h
Total ascent: 294 m 

Route: Saga to Dazaifu

Weather: Cloudy, a few drops of rain and later a bit of sun, strong wind, cold! 6 C


It was cold and windy today! Really cold! Probably it didn't help that I had decided to ride just with a skirt (not stockings), but closed shoes and cardigan. Probably the jeans would have been more comfortable for riding. 

Apart the cold there isn't a lot to say about the ride today. Here two pictures of the landscape, which again was the typical Japanese mix of fields, houses in all states of repair and disrepair, less industry than yesterday, train lines, including the Kyushu shinkansen and streets crossing it. And me on one of them... Partially I found smaller roads, but specially when they were through open fields, the wind was even stronger and colder, so where possible I reverted back to ride through built-up area.

Shortly before Dazaifu I found a curry restaurant, I had driven by a lot of other restaurants, but somehow had decided that I absolutely wanted to warm up with some curry. 

And then on to the one and only sightseeing spot of today, the Kyushu National Museum. An interesting building that I had seen earlier this year, when we were in Kyushu for Golden Week, but then I didn't have time to visit the inside. Originally I had hoped to visit it tomorrow... but tomorrow being Monday, it will be closed, and actually there was enough time today in the afternoon.

There was a very interesting exhibition about the Momoyama period. The time when the first Christian missionaries arrived to Japan and also other influences from overseas were present and Japan traded with other Asian countries. Before at the end of this era Japan was hermetically closed for all foreign contacts for the next 220 years. 

But during these few years when Christian missionaries first arrived to Japan and when Japan was finally closed off to the world, there was an active cultural exchange. In the exhibition was for example a folding screen with European city views, including Sevilla and Lisbon, or a wooden statue of Erasmus that had been conserved in a Buddhist temple. Also a embroidery with the virgin Mary that probably was produced in China was preserved in an other Buddhist temple. And through laboratories in Macao the Japanese folding screen became popular also in Europe. 

Apart from these intercultural objects, there were also a lot of tea ceremony objects that most of the visitors admired profusely. I have to admit that to me many of them look like first attempts at pottery in an evening class, but judge for yourself here. 

I also visited briefly the permanent exhibition of the museum that started with the Yayoi and finished around the Momoyama period. But only quickly as the museum was closing. So I rode over to my hotel on the hill opposite of the museum, here you can see the museum's roof from a distance as it integrates into the hill:

My hotel doubles as a day onsen. Before dinner I had a nice and relaxing bath, and I plan to have an other one tomorrow morning. Actually for tomorrow so far not a lot of plans, as I was in Dazaifu earlier this year and have seen already all major sights. But I guess I will to to the zen temple again and probably also the shrine. In Fukuoka itself there actually does not seem to be so many interesting things, so probably I will spend the morning soaking then off to Dazaifu "downtown" and then a short ride into Fukuoka. 

Tonight will be the last night in a Japanese room during my trip, as the next two nights are in a Toyoko-Inn in Fukuoka. 

Not one of the nicest Japanese rooms, but nice. Generally I have preferred the Japanese rooms over the Western ones, as with the same m2 they seem spacier as the bed does not take up so much space and during day time the futon just gets folded up and packed away.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Fukuoka and Saga, checkout the below maps:

Day 53 - Yanagawa to Saga 柳川から佐賀へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 53

Today was the first cold day on my cycling trip through Japan, and that in Kyushu! But not too cold to visit the village of Asterix, ups sorry, of the Yayoi culture.

Bicycle: 42 km 
Riding time: 3:00  h
Total ascent: 62 m 

Route: Yanagawa through Yoshinogari to Saga

Weather: Very cloudy, later a little bit of sun and a few drops of rain, windy, 12 C


I started the day in the onsen of my hotel and I ended it in an other onsen close to my new hotel in Saga. I had a hard time yesterday to find an accommodation, but finally the one I did fine, in Saga, close to the station, is very good. A big hotel, quite elegant and not very far from an onsen (well, more like a super-sento). So all is fine.

Between these two soaks, I had a small roundtrip - by bicycle only - through Yanagawa and then a ride up by bicycle to Yoshinogari, where there are remains of the Yayoi culture and a recreated village has been constructed. 

Yanagawa is famous for its nice channels and the boat rides on them. Well, I did not do the boat ride, essentially because doing it alone seemed a bit strange. So I just took some pictures of other people doing it:

As today was the first quite cold day on my trip through Japan, I did use my long trousers and did start my ride with a cardigan on. If you wonder, where the long trousers have come from, I added them to my luggage during my brief stop in Tokyo earlier this week. After a while of riding North against a fierce head wind, I did take of the cardigan though and continued in short sleeves. Still wondering if the jeans were the right garment for riding. They were perfect though for the touristic part of today.

The ride up North was through a typical and not very nice Japanese landscape. Well, not really LANDscape, but more like a VILLAGEscape. There was everything mixed, fields, plants, houses, abandoned houses, old houses, new ones, derelict ones, shopping centers, convenience stores... Everything mixed and in between rice fields. It didn't help that the wind was blowing strongly and not in my direction...

But finally I did arrive to the Yoshinogari Historical park, where important Yayoi excavations have been done, but more importantly from a touristic perspective, an entire village including residences for the ruling class and temples have been reconstructed. 

It reminded me a lot of the village of Asterix. Probably these wild boar at the entrance to the village did help create this impression: 

And well, the wooden wall around the village:

Also the houses really looked very Asterix-like. One could enter into most of them, where small every day scenes of the rich and powerful of the Yayoi culture were depicted.

This was the most important temple/shrine of the village. About 16 m high with two big rooms for ceremonies.

There is also a small museum with the typical clay rests and spear points that one can see in all these kind of museums (obviously a Yayoi culture fan - or any other pre-historic culture fan will say that the tools used by the Yayoi compared to everyone else are very different... but to me they looked like the typical stone tools to cut meat, spears to hunt etc.

Further inside the park there is also a museum with the excavated remains of a burial ground. At least the rich got buried in large vases, closed by an other vase. These burials were quite large, a sitting corpse really only occupied half of it. 

These two here are Majestix (= Vitalstatistix) and Gutemine (= Impedimenta):

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Fukuoka and Saga, checkout the below maps:

Day 52 - From Kagoshima to Yanagawa 鹿児島から柳川へ

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 52

Today was mainly a day on the move up North from Kagoshima, but I managed to squeeze in one sightseeing spot: Kagoshima Aquarium!

Bicycle: 13.5 km 
Train: 250 km
Riding time: 1 h
Total ascent: 31 m 

Route: In Kagoshima by bicycle, Kagoshima to Chikugo-Funagoya by shinkansen, and then on to Yanagawa by bicycle again

Weather: Very cloudy, a few drops of rain in Kagoshima, cold 9 C


Today rain was forecast, so I decided to use the day to move up North to my final stretch of cycling. Tomorrow and Sunday weather should again be reasonable fine (although right now not so sure about tomorrow...)

As the move up North was not going to take so long (by train), I decided to go to the Kagoshima Aquarium in the morning. It had a dolphin show both inside and outside in a channel that is part of the port.

Plus tanks full of fish and other sea creatures.

I never really liked aquariums, as I don't like fish so much (the looks of them, nor am I really a big fan of fish on my plate either). And I always get a bit sick in aquariums. I think it is not really only the fish, but something to do with water behind glass that breaks the light differently. In some way, looking at fish in aquarium (but also in the sea itself) is not something I enjoy. So well, I still went, as it is one sightseeing spot in Kagoshima and aquariums in Japan are very popular anyway.

When I left the aquarium it had started to rain very slightly, but not too strong, so I decided to ride to Kagoshima shinkansen station. Luckily a part of the way through the city center was roofed (well, only for pedestrians... but we are in Japan and cyclists commonly use the pedestrian walkway as well... so I did).

I took the shinkansen up North and as the weather forecast further North looked like no rain, just clouds, I decided to ride shinkansen up to Chikugo-Funagoya, a small village north of Kumamoto, and then ride the last kilometers to my hotel by bike, as coming here by train would have meant a lot of train changes.

I was lucky that the weather forecast and the actual weather were the same, so I could ride through the countryside on quiet roads, partially along the famous channels, towards Yanagawa.

When I decided yesterday where to go next, I wanted a place with an onsen, and in Jalan that is quite easy to search for. There is even a setting to search for a onsen with rotenburo. I had different options about places where to go, more traditional onsen towns, like Ureshino or Takeo, but specially Ureshino is hard to reach by public transport, so I decided for Yanagawa, which is not a place known for its onsen (we are in Kyushu, so there are onsen here as well), but known for its nice channels. When I reserved my hotel, I had probably not expected to be in this kind of location:

The next building to the hotel is a cement plant... But the area is popular, at least with the local crow population who gathered for an evening meeting on the power lines. They clearly had a preference for the higher lines. Not a single crow on the slightly lower hanging cables.

At the 7/11 at the corner, I got breakfast for tomorrow and my sumo ticket I had reserved in early October for next week.

As I had not originally planned to visit Yanagawa at all, I had a look today at the map what to do from here, and where to go, and decided on Yoshinogari. It turned out to be very challenging to find an accommodation for tomorrow night, on Jalan and Booking.com no hotels available even in the wider area (+/- 20 km from Yoshinogari), or at least not at acceptable prices, because 35,000 Yen for one night is not something I am prepared to pay for a pretty normal hotel. Finally I got lucky on Rakuten, and found a room in central Saga. With that experience I decided to also reserve the night of November 19th, in Dazaifu, which in turn was not complicated at all. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow. Maybe it is simply because it is Saturday???

With this all my accommodations for the cycle ride through Japan are booked, as the last 2 days in Fukuoka I had already reserved when I got my Sumo ticket weeks ago.

After a curry dinner at a local family restaurant I took a relaxing bath in the hotel onsen, which is well frequented by local people and has two pools inside plus a small outdoor area with a relatively large rotenburo, that is even half covered by a roof, useful in case of  rain.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Kagoshima and Fukuoka, checkout the below maps: