GW2025 D9 exploring around Himeiji

Route: Himeiji to Engyoji (and back home)
Bicycle: 27 km 
Ropeway: 400 m 
Train: 580 km
Total ascent: 200 m?
Average speed: 11,2 km/h
Riding time: 2:27 h
Weather: grey but no rain. Neither warm nor cold, 20 C

I didn’t really have a plan for my last day of Golden Week. At some point I had planned to go from Shodoshima to Okayama and then ride the last day to Himeji (from where my train return ticket was). But when I discovered that there was a direct ferry from Shodoshima to Himeji I changed that plan. The ride Okayama to Himeji ( if done on potentially nice roads along the coast) was likely going to be too long for safely catching a train back home.

So instead I was already in Himeji, without a plan. Yesterday on the ferry I checked what is famous around Himeji and a temple on a mountain came up (and obviously the castle). And yes, this temple was very nice. Perked on top of a small mountain right behind Himeji , surrounded by nature. 

There didn’t seem to be a way up by bicycle so instead I took the rope way. From the top station it is about 1 km of walk to get to the sprawling temple complex. 

It reminded me a lot of Mount Hiei close to Kyoto, but I think this temple was even more quaint although it did have tourists. Including a very noisy group of elderly Spanish tourists. 

On the way to the mountain, I did pass below Himeji castle and took a picture, but had no plan to actually visit it. I have been 30 years ago… and apparently no strong inkling to go back. 

And with that an other Golden Week has finished and I am in the Shinkansen back home. My original ticket was for around 18:00 but I could easily change it for a 15:00 departure including space behind my seat for the bike. 

GW2025 D8 along the coast of Shodoshima

Route: Ikeda to Fukuda along the coast 
Bicycle: 65 km
Ferry: 41 km
Total ascent: 759 m
Average speed: 14.5 km/h
Riding time: 4:30 h
Weather: cloudy and humid, quite windy, 24C but felt warmer

On my last day (for this trip... but definitely a place to return) on Shodoshima, I went west along the coast, taking in more art and nice views of the landscape as I was riding. 

The main road itself isnt really full of traffic as it is a relatively small, albeit not tiny island. However half way up the hills is often a farm road with no traffic at all and great views out onto the sea over the slopes. Here with the olive groves Shodoshima is famous for. 

So famous that one of the art works is an enormous Elvis - olive in a grove. 

The entrance to the port (not Fukuda, a different port) even had this Greek entrance gate. Complete with a Greek inscription. 

In that same port was also a designer toilet ...

... imitating a small shrine just behind it. 

The best art of the day was in this old town house transformed now into a permanent exhibition of a famous photographer. This isn't really part of the triennial, but the owner did jump on the art ship. And for me it was probably one of the best art works I saw in this triennial together with the bamboo dome I had seen a few days earlier also on Shodoshima. 

This artist painted an object, here an entire room and then takes a picture of it from a very specific angle. So the interesting part was to see how this piece of art WOULD transform if not looked at from exactly the right vantage point. 

Even better was a gold circle painted in an other room... you can check it out in the film on my strava profile. 

Other art was ... well... decorative at best. 

From there less art, more landscape. On very quiet roads along the coast.

I made it in good time to Fukuda port, enough to have a quick look at the art exhibition in the local (abandoned) school. And enough time to pack up my bike. Because due to high waves (per the ticket seller 7 m!) the bicycle wasn't allowed in the car ferry section... but was allowed as a bag in the passenger section if properly packaged. Luckily I had enough time and my rinko bag. 

I strongly doubt that there was any wave higher even 3 m... and for sure no wave higher than 7 m... but rules are rules. And yes, it WAS windy. 

In Himeji port I put the bike together again and had found a super sento not too far from the port, and headed straight there. It was a totally typical supersento in an ugly industrial area. But what made this onsen special (and not in a good sense) was the smell from the surrounding industries. There must have been some chemical plant, and essentially everything smelled very chemical. When riding later to my hotel which was maybe about 5 km from there, I noticed that the entire city at least closer to the port, seemed to smell of that very same chemical exhaust. So the super sento isn't to blame for it... but it did reduce the enjoyment of the relaxation. 

Around Osaka - Nakayamadera 大阪の周りに・中山寺

Bicycle: 69 km

Route: Osaka - Takarazuka and back

Total riding time: 4:46 h 

Total ascent: 241 m 

Average speed: 14.4 km/h

Weather: Humid, some sun, some clouds, some rain and strong wind, 16 C

Today the weather was a bit uncertain so I put off the ride to Kinkakuji in Kyoto to tomorrow and instead decided last minute this morning to ride out along two rivers towards the North of Osaka. I found on google maps one potentially interesting goal, Nakayamadera and then added an other one, the Takarazuka theater, plus I knew that at least along one river there would be a cycling road and strongly suspected (but actually was wrong) that there would be one alongside the second river as well. 

I had my typical late start and started along the Naniwa river, a cycling path I have used several times before, among them in an aborted attempt to get to Minoh park a few weeks ago (which ended in rain and an onsen). 

Today did see a little bit of rain, but no onsen. With the state of emergency extended nationwide on Thursday this week, it seems that the local governments have urged more companies to close... and from all I can tell, the onsen and super-sentos have all accepted this guidance. So probably the ride I did earlier this week was my last onsen for this trip to Japan. I hope not the last onsen for this year, as I hope to be able to come back to Japan later in the year... but who knows. 

Well, it did rain... for a little bit I did hide under a bridge, then it seemed to become less, so I restarted... but so did the rain. So I donned my lovely rain coat and just for effect also the face mask and took a picture. But by the time I had finished putting all the gear on me and take the selfie the rain had nearly stopped. So literally after another 500 m I got out of my raincoat again. The mask I did wear in the more urban parts of the ride, where pedestrians were around and could not be avoided by many meters. But for most of the ride I didn't wear it. 

The ride along the rivers up to Itami and Takarazuka isn't definitely one of the most scenic ones, but at least the cycling lane has less hurdles than the one along Yodogawa river. 

Already quite close to the temple of the day, I came by this really strange, European style garden shop with park. And it wasn't the only garden center around. I didn't buy any tree or other plant... but did use their facilities... before making the final km to the temple.

Shortly after I also came by this shrine and took a quick picture.

I had been once before in the area of Nakayamadera, but without making it to the temple. Actually without even knowing about it. Instead I went to a very nice onsen there, after a brilliant ride through the more far flung countryside... which however would require me to use a train to get there... so for the time being that is off.

So Nakayamadera was a nice surprise. In normal times it must be a rather busy temple seeing that it had it's own shopping road leading up to it. But today half of the shops were completely closed and the other half (the restaurants) were open but had no patrons (it was however already a bit late). So even if Japan is very far from a complete lock-down - restaurants are open for lunch but not dinner - number of customers is definitely way down.

The temple must be relatively old, but I would say that currently most of the buildings are quite new, including the stunning blue pagoda.

What I learned only now, while writing this post, is that it is part of a 33 temple pilgrimage tour of Kansai, of which also Kiyomizudera (where I was two weeks ago) and a few other temples here in the wider region, that I have visited before. But today, I would say there weren't any pilgrims. There were a few other visitors, but few.

Behind the temple, was a small flower garden with nice views...

... and nice flowers (as to be expected).

I had my simple lunch on a bench looking over towards Osaka, below a cherry tree way beyond peak and a stupra in the background. Perfect!

After this rest I continued towards Takarazuka, where I had my second goal of the day, the theater building of the Takarazuka Revue theater.

Well, a uniquely ugly building. But here captured with a train in front, which makes total sense, because this theater is part of a railway company. The story, according to Wikipedia is that the founder of the Hankyu railway company wanted more people to use his trains, so he was trying to find something interesting for one of the stops of his train line... and came up with the idea of a theater. Which worked great. The theater is now famous in all Japan... and has expanded to Tokyo, where however none of the Hankyu trains can reach it.

I had tickets for a performance a few years back, but for some reason I couldn't go. So maybe something to consider next time I am in Japan for a rainy weekend.

The ride back the second river was uneventful but fast, thanks to a good tailwind.

Back closer to Shin-Osaka, I decided to go on an exploratory trip of the Naniwa Cycling Train and did ride it all to the end in Dekishima, then turned and back all the way to Shin-Osaka. From Amagasaki to Dekishima this cycling path is the contrary of scenic... but useful I guess. Closer to Shin-Osaka it becomes a little bit more scenic, but is just a useful cycling path along the river away from traffic (but mixed with pedestrians and joggers).

For dinner I picked up some gyoza in a nice restaurant in Higashi-Mikuni where I often went... but now it is take out only and only until 20:00. 

Evening ride to onsen in Amagasaki

Bicycle: 14.7 km

Route: Shin-Osaka to Amagasaki and back

Total riding time: 55 min

Total ascent: 44 m 

Average speed: 15.9 km/h

Weather: Dark, somewhat cold, 9 C

To celebrate the end of the work week and seeing that many (albeit not all) onsen in Osaka are still open, I decided to try out a new one, over in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture. Well, new for me... not the super-sento itself, which was actually a little bit old style or so it seemed. It didn't help that due to Covid-19 the restaurant was closed and that they don't offer free shampoo and soap, which however I bought at the reception. The bath is fine, with 3 different outdoor pools. Nothing terribly special. For the purists, probably the TV that one could see (and hear) from all pools could be quite an annoyance. 

The ride itself was slightly creepy, along the river on a nice cycling path, but in the dark and it is simply a very industrial area of Osaka. Also there are not many exits from the cycling path, but luckily there was one just shortly after the bridge I needed to cross. 

Still even for the ride back, I preferred the river, as the street that runs parallel is quite narrow and does have its traffic. Not a lot, but if you can choose between no traffic on a cycling path or some traffic on a narrow road, I go for the slightly creepy ride along the river as long as we are talking Japan. 

Rain & onsen 雨の日に温泉

Bicycle: 30,2 km

Route: To Itami airport and back

Total riding time: 2:05 h 

Total ascent: 67 m 

Average speed: 14.5 km/h

Weather: a few drops or rain, more rain and real rain, 9 C

In the morning some shopping in a nearby supermarket, where I bought enough should the government in Kansai region decide to put a lockdown, to survive for about 3-4 days. And more crucially I got toilet paper. A rarity right now due to Covid-19. (Apparently in Europe it is impossible to get right now and also in Tokyo it was not a common sight... but in Osaka there is no immediate shortage. A bit less than usual, but no shortage. The only shortage here seem to be face masks... but still all Japanese seem to have a stock somewhere hidden as most of the people on the streets are walking around with masks. 

This isn't all toilet paper. I only bought 8 rolls. I swear!

With the coronavirus pandemic I decided to do only local rides, starting and finishing from my doorsteps. For today I had decided to try this route https://www.strava.com/routes/11610963, however I started quite late in the afternoon (maybe around 15:00) so it was clearly impossible to do the entire route. But I still wanted to go out cycling a bit and the river part looked nice, so that's what I did. Cycling up the Ina river without a specific goal in mind, except a soak in an onsen at the end.

Ina River is one of the typical Japanese rivers. Highly damed and totally unnatural. This one, for most of the part I cycled, flowing through a industrial neighbourhood.

So this was probably the "nicest" it gets:

There were some sakura along the way, but still not in full bloom. And actually where I shot this picture there was a very strange, sweetish, chemical odour. This combined with the rain, cold weather made that not even Japanese were coming out to do hanami picnics.

When I came up to Itami airport (which is still operating, although for sure at a much reduced intensity than normally), it started to rain more, so I threw the red cape over me and started my descend through the rain back to Osaka and my onsen. In which I happily soaked for the next hour or so, had dinner and was happy again.

Himeji round trip - worst and good cycling road

Bicycle: 68.8 km
Train: 150 km

Route: Kakogawa - Himeji - Kasai - Kakogawa

Total riding time: 4:39 h 

Total ascent: 232 m

Average speed: 14.8 km/h

Weather: Some sun, some clouds, 17 C

After the perfect day on the bicycle yesterday I had great expectations for today, but unfortunately they did not become true.

I had seen on this webpage that there is as very long cycling road along the coast into Himeji. Plus another one inland from Kakogawa. So I planned a round trip Kakogawa - Himeji - Kasai- Kagogawa.

However the cycling road into Himeji is probably the worst cycling road in Japan. It is right below the Shinkansen tracks, through industrial installations, some houses, but no nice landscape at all.

Plus it was in the eternal shadow. I got bored of this pretty quickly and tried (not very hard though) to find an alternative. I wasn't very successful. Yes, the small street on the other side of the Shinkansen tracks was at least in the sun, and also had only light traffic. But it was equally boring.

Probably there would have been much nicer paths somewhere through the fields. But it was generally an area full of transport: Shinkansen, local trains and highway. No place for a nice cycling road.

Also Himeji except the castle seems to be only one more Japanese city. But well, the castles looks really nice and huge:

I hadn't planned to visit the castle, just to take some pictures and get going to hopefully see some better landscape. But I was feeling quite down, after this ugly ride and even when riding out off Himeji, while on small roads, it was through the typical suburbs of Japanese cities. What did I do? I decided that feeling low was due to lack of calories and got some noodles in a chain restaurant.

At this point I was considering to completely change my plan, ride back to Himeji, visit the castle and ride back by train. But after the noodles I felt more energetic, and continued on. Very annoyingly since lunch the internet on my phone doesn't work. How dependent we have become...

The ride from there on was through nice, but well, kind of standard Japanese landscape. I didn't even run into a nice or interesting temple.

I came by a really small train station, which doubled as a local art gallery:

In Kasai I cut the ride a little bit short, and there the only highlight of today started. A cycling road which was actually nicer than many others in Japan.

To have cycling roads along rivers is very common in Japan, but this one, probably because the river was quite small, was better than normal. It even went around a lake with a winding shore.

The cycling road quite close to Kakogawa joins the bigger river cycling road and arrives all the way to the coast.

I had seen in the morning in the train, when my internet did still work, that there was one onsen about 4 km from Kakogawa station and an other one very close to the station. I had decided against the one close to the station as the other one seemed much better. Well I should not have changed my mind. It was incredibly hot! When I entered the washing area it was so hot, that I found it even hard to breath.

I took a quick, nearly cold shower, rushed to the very small rotenburo area and had a bit of a bath there. Well I got clean, but I am not sure if I feel rested. 

Thanks to my internet connection issue with the phone, I couldn't uselessly spend my time surfing the internet while travelling back... so I wrote this blog post. Speaking of train, reminds me of this picture I took in the morning about noisy salmons:

urusai うるさい means noisy
mon モン can mean a lot of things, among them person
　saamon サーモン means salmon
うるサーモン  thus is a concatenation of all 3 of them. Resulting in really noisy and annoying salmons. 

So overall NOT the perfect day in the saddle. However the cycling road inland was nice and if you are in the area definitely nice to do. Although today I did not meet a lot of fellow cyclists. Much in contrast to yesterday. And now I understand. The area between Sanda and Ikeda was definitely very nice, even though there was not a single meter of cycling road. So next time I am in Osaka I will continue discovering that area and probably just one day go by train to Himeji and visit the castle. For a second time, after my previous visit, now 24 years ago.

Perfect ride (downhill) through the mountains behind Osaka

Bicycle: 56.1 km
Train: 70 km

Route: Hirono - Nakayamadera

Total riding time: 3:43 h 

Total ascent: 402 m

Average speed: 15.1 km/h

Weather: Sunny and warm for being November, 18 C

A few days ago, at an onsen in Osaka I picked up a map with cycling suggestions around Osaka. See #6 from this map. Looking at the map the ride seemed a bit long, but not too hilly... However when I opened the strava map (see the QR code on the map), it turned out that it was actually quite hilly, but I also realized, that I could do only half of the ride and start from the top... So that's what I did.

I started in Hirono, a small station in the country side behind Osaka, where the station master, once he had checked my tickets went on to continue cleaning the station.

The landscape was nice right from the beginning, just a few meters behind the train station...

... and got even nicer as soon as I was at a lake closeby. 

Generally it is still to early for koyo, but every now and then there is an isolated tree already in full colours.

And well, it was still warm enough to ride in short sleeves (and obviously sandals). So the trees are excused.

Occasionally I met a few other, much more serious cyclists, who were probably aiming for the mountains around me, but even for me this landscape was totally doable... thanks to my wise decision to start from the top. 

I did a rather small detour in an even more remote valley, which was really nice. This picture here is right in front of the restaurant where I had lunch: 

Although this is in the middle of mountains, it was actually a place specialized in sushi including fugu! But I had tonkatsu.

When I left, it was already close to 14:00 so there was no time to explore more of this nice valley and I headed back to the main "street". Not before taking a few more pictures.

Also along, what I call main street, there were some really nice places. Only sometimes the street had a bit too much traffic, but I could normally evade it, e.g. by riding on the side walk and it was never as heavy as last weekend coming down from Iga Ueno to the plain of Nara.

Kaki fruits are currently ripe and glitter in the sun:

This dramatic cliff looks more romantic in the picture than in reality, as it is taken from a bridge with a rather busy road.

A little bit further downstream however komoot had picked this small road along the river, which was just perfect. A long stretch of winding road with minimal traffic (I guess someone built for the cars a faster road somewhere on the hills), but perfect for us cyclists. And nicely sloping down.

Getting closer to Osaka, obviously at some point the city starts again, with highways, bridges etc, but as it was a Japanese river there was still for some time a cycling road alongside.

I had looked for an onsen, and had found one relatively close to Ikeda (which was my first idea where to end the ride), but while riding to the starting point in train, I noticed on Google maps an onsen close to Nakayamadera station, which seemed to be closer, so less riding after the bath). I checked out more information about it, and decided for it. And this was a perfect decision. It was a super-sento, but one dedicated to rotenburo. I think there was only one (large) inside pool. All others were outside. I think 8 outside, if I remember correctly. 3 of them with very special onsen water, that is full of iron and according to the description and the other patrons very similar to the onsen water in - not very far - Arima onsen. Which is a famous onsen place. 

Above the reception desk they have these huge inflated statues: 

Definitely a perfect day in the saddle.