Obon D3 this time the “real” waterfall

Route: Karuizawa - Shiraito - Onioshidashi - Karuizawa
Bicycle: 52 km
Hiking: 5km
Total ascent: 1116 m
Average speed:12.4 km/h
Riding time:4:13 h
Weather: Sunny , some clouds, no rain (!) and not too hot

After the attempt yesterday that finished in a very different waterfall caused by a heavy downpour accompanied by lightning, today, the revenge ride. So again up to the way, crossing where the toll road to the official Shiraito waterfall starts. When I arrived on top, I checked the bus schedule and there was going to be a bus in a few minutes, so I decided to take the bus to the waterfall instead of hiking there. Being this a long weekend in the summer, they were a lot of other people aiming for the same goal. This meant that getting to the tollbooth took quite some time. But luckily, once the toll booth was behind it wasn’t too slow. The bus station is actually very close to the waterfall.

This waterfall is a major tourist attraction, even attracting a lot of foreign visitors. Probably aided by the fact that there’s relatively frequent buses from Karuizawa. It is a nice waterfall, but I would say that the homonymous waterfall close to Fuji is nicer.

To get back to my bicycle, I walked through the forest a nice hiking pass of about 3.5 kilometers. While ride around the waterfall, there’s an absolute craziness of tourist, most Japanese and foreigners, shortly after the waterfall I was pretty much alone and a nice Forest. The sun filtered through the three leaves creating a nice atmosphere. I had forgotten my bear bell on the bicycle, So that I played requiems of Fauré. A few days later on YouTube, I saw a film explaining some ideas how to keep bears away, and one of the ideas was to speak loudly. So probably it would have been better to put some podcast on rather than classical music. But it created a nice atmosphere in the forest.

Back at the road, Junction I had lunch in the same place as yesterday, before continuing to the second highlight of the day: Onioshidashi, literally: monster pushing out. Getting there by car would’ve meant yet another toll road and much less descending in ascending, but again this toll road was closed to bicycles. But I managed to ride about half of the distance through a very tranquil vacation house area with a wide road and absolutely no cars.

The Onioshidashi Park is a volcanic park on the slopes of Mount Asama. This mountain once upon a time was a Volcano as impressive as Mount Fuji. Until it suffered a catastrophic volcanic eruption and lost huge parts of itself. It’s still a pretty tall mountain, but the lava stones thrown around give testimony to its destructive powers.

D2 Around Lake Hibara

Route: Goshikinuma and Lake Hibara
Bicycle: 34 km
Hiking: 5,5 km
Total ascent: 452 
Average speed: 13.1 km/h
Riding time: 3 h
Weather: cloudy but no rain, 16 C

The day started with more rain, but by the time I was ready to leave around 10 o’clock it had finally stopped raining. Originally, I wanted to ride up to Bandai skyline, but with the threat of rain, a day out with a long descent on wet roads didn’t sound like an intelligent thing to do. Instead I decided to do just a round around the lake here by my pension. Before that, however I went to the local famous spot of several small ponds, that were created by the eruption of Mount Bandai in the Meiji period. These ponds are famous for their color variation.

The hike took about an hour and a half and then I started my ride around the lake with my sight on an onsen at the lakeshore already closed back to where I’m staying. That onsen is in a big hotel complex and on this long weekend, only open publicly until 15:00. But I planned it apparently to perfection and arrived there a bit before 2 in the afternoon so could enjoy a good soak in the hot water while looking into the forest over the lake.

My pension also allows stocks to stay. Which is very rare in Japan. Originally, I thought that was the owner would have probably several dogs, but apparently they don’t have any. Today in the morning I saw One guest was a dog who was very well behaved. The dog. This evening, a family of three adult adults and one dog checked in and this dog is extremely badly behaved and their owners don’t seem to have any idea how to control it. During dinner he was walking around in the dinner area and the pension owner needed to ask them to put the dock on a leash. But even then they put him on a leash, but didn’t attach the leash to anything so still the dog was still running around. Now I’m sitting in my room writing the notes of today and in the neighboring room, they are trying to manage the dog shouting at him that he shall not do this or that, and in all this, the dog already pissed into the common area. I think the pension owners are now trying to negotiate that the dog must sleep in the car. 

The other guests in my pension are two men who came here to fish. Which seems to be a very well loved pass-time in this area. There are a lot of small boats on the lake and really a lot of cars who had brought their boats with them.

D2 - Akame 48 waterfalls

Route: Nabari - Akame waterfalls - Akameguchi
Bicycle: 13 km
Hiking: 10 km
Train: 55 km
Total Ascent: 440 m 
Average Speed: 17.7 km/h
Riding Time: 45 min
Hiking Time: 2:45 h
Weather: Cloudy and later some rain... but not on me, ~10 C

My first post with "hiking"... an activity I don't really like, because my eyes are normally glued to the ground so I don't actually see the surroundings through which I am hiking. Plus my knee isn't very happy with going downstairs (and yes... this hiking involved a lot of stairs). But Akame 48 waterfalls can be seen hiking only. 

As I was there too late yesterday, I had left the bicycle at Nabari station, so that's where today's ride started. From there up to Akame it isn't very far. I had spotted yesterday a bicycle rack where I left the bike hanging and then set off into the ravine. At the entrance they told me yesterday that it would take 90 min to get to the last waterfall and 90 minutes back. I thought that sounded like a long estimation, but for the way in, it was spot on. I entered the ravine at 9:20 and got to the last waterfall at 10:50... took a 10 min break and had a onigiri I had brought along. On the way back I was however a little bit faster and made it back by 12:15. 75 minutes for the way back. 

The path is along the ravine and follows multiple waterfalls from tiny ones...

... to much bigger ones. 

I had noticed yesterday that in the ravine it was quite cold and today with the weather being already colder, I opted for long cycling trousers and my trusted Castelli ROS jacket. Which was a good combination, allowing for some underlayers to be taken off during the hike and put on later again. 

Overall there were not many people on the hiking path. But one can imagine that in koyo period it will be quite full. Specially until the second major waterfall. After that the hike becomes a little bit more hard (after all, these are waterfalls... so to get to the one above, one needs to walk up and up and sometimes quite steep. So I think a lot of people only make it to the second waterfall... which means they are missing out on what I thought was the nicest of them all, Ninai waterfall (first picture above). 

When I came back I had lunch in a small restaurant in the rather ugly village at the entrance. While eating it started to rain... but luckily rain radar showed (and weather conformed) a break in the rain a little bit later. So I waited it out, then got back on the bike and down to the next train station in Akameguchi, quickly disassembled the bike, headed to the platform, managed to get the bag on top of the bike and jumped on the train that arrived in that moment. Perfect non-planning. 

Back in the hotel I had a long relaxing scrub in the hotels onsen, did put all my cloths in the washing machine and then relaxed in my room. 

Tomorrow it is back to work for at least 1 day, but in Osaka. Tuesday weather seems to be fine, so I will take PTO. Wednesday is the local holiday... but it seems it will rain... so maybe some museum time? Thursday again rain, so I will work but Friday looks nice and sunny, albeit cold.