Kyoto without tourists (2) - 観光客無しの京都の２

Bicycle: 103 km

Route: Osaka to Kyoto and back

Total riding time: 6:07 h 

Total ascent: 251 m 

Average speed: 17.1 km/h

Weather: Cloudy, but no rain, 16 C

After the great success of the previous two rides to Kyoto without tourists (see here for Arashiyama and here for Kiyomizudera and Fushimi Inari Jinja), today was the turn of Kinkakuji and Ryoanji. Two more "must-see-spots" in Kyoto that are normally so overrun by tourists that they are hard to enjoy.

A few years back around New Years we went with some friends to Kyoto and visited both. Back then we made it a point to go to Ryoanji a few minutes before it opened, and yes, we had a good and relaxing time at the temple that day. But by the time we got to Kinkakuji (which is closeby), already the masses of tourists had started to arrive.

But not so today. Although I was at both spots in the afternoon, when they would normally be totally overrun by tourists, today both were extremely relaxing and nearly void of tourists. Thanks to Covid-19!

As the other times I went to Kyoto from Osaka, I first had to ride up the Yodogawa river. While the cherry flowers are now all but gone, the rapeseeds are in full bloom:

I had brought some onigiri with me, so I didn't need to get into a restaurant (they are still open during day time, but closing at night... but as we are all asked to limit our interactions with other people to the bare minimum, I opted for some onigiri that I had bought in the conbini below my monthly apartment (with my dinner yesterday night). I had them at the typical Sakura spot at the confluence or Kizugawa, Katsuragawa and Ujigawa and then continued on, on the typical bicycle path along the river, which I now have already taken innumerable times. Well, innumerable isn't really accurate. I guess I could still very well number how often I have been riding up and down Yodogawa (if I'd do some digging through my Strava data... but it kind of feels like innumerable, as it is always the same ride. But a convenient ride. Like bike-conbini.)

Kinkakuji did not disappoint:

The below picture might not be the best of Kinkakuji, but it shows just how few people there were visiting. In normal times all this place would be absolutely teeming with tourist groups trying to take selfies. Today, I only had to wait a minute or so, so that even some people more in the back ground of the picture had walked out of frame.

But probably this is my favorite picture, with the tree island in the lake in front of the golden temple reflected in the pond. Very Japanese indee. And if you don't know the actual dimensions those trees could be perfectly a bonsai.

In Kinkakuji there is no temple interior to see, so it is really this one sight, which however is really rewarding, as long as you can enjoy it without crowds.

After this meditative experience I was briefly considering not to go to Ryoanji and head straight back, but then luckily decided to go. When will I ever get again this quiet experience at Ryoanji and anyway I had enough time to get back to Osaka... and if I would be too tired, well, I would "cheat" and hop on a train somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka.

Ryoanji is mainly famous for this rock garden. There is actually more to the temple, with a garden... but well, it does not get paid enough attention due to this outstanding rock garden. And yes, it is probably the nicest of all rock gardens in Japan, at least one of the most strict ones. I cannot imagine that it is enjoyable with hordes of tourists, as the enjoyment of this space is its quiet, meditative atmosphere. So in normal times, I would not want to visit it anymore. There are other, much less famous rock gardens, that one can admire with the needed tranquility. But today, I had to share this space only with a few other tourists. All admiring in ewe the rocks.

Only the cherry tree had already nearly lost all its flowers.

Proof of the number of visitors:

This is the actually quiet nice pond which also is part of the Ryoanji temple complex... but does not get duly admired.

Komoot had done a great job in finding a good approach to the area with one nearly straight and small street through Kyoto up the hill. On my way back, I had tweaked the route in order to ride through another temple complex, Myoshinji temple. This is a huge temple complex, which feels like a small city, maybe a bit like the forbidden city in Beijing. I like that place, but today I definitely did not have enough time to stop and enjoy it... and this place anyway is also enjoyable with tourists as it does not get that overloaded. So a good place for a future excursion. I took however one, relatively uninspired picture of the place. 

Riding back, again along the rivers, I decided to take this double bridge, with a dedicated bike lane and then ride down the Yodogawa river on the Shin-Osaka side.

The region around Oyamazaki is fully dedicated to transportation:

• Shinkansen tracks on the left
• Entrance to the high way next
• Bike and foot path over a bridge in red in the middle
• High way bridge crossing the picture
• Normal big road on the right of the cycling lane
• Exit from the high way to the right (where the lorries are standing waiting for green)
• An other pedestrian bridge in light blue crossing over them
• And probably even more

Not nice... but connecting. Just a few meters after this bridge traffic craziness on a bicycle one turns left, onto the river paths and away from traffic all the way to Shin-Osaka. Incredible!

Tokyo to Zushi - 東京から逗子へ

Bicycle: 56.7 km

Route: Shinbashi - Zushi

Total riding time: 4:08 h 

Total ascent: 234 m 

Average speed: 13.7 km/h

Weather: Sunny and quite warm, 17 C

A long weekend, and we are still permitted outside notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, which in Europe is getting from bad to worse and seems to be pretty out of control. In Japan, somehow they decided to try to ignore it as long as possible and they are simply doing very few tests, so there are few confirmed cases. However there are also still quite low numbers of deaths reported. Nothing to compare to Europe, where the epidemic has started much later. Nevertheless the government of Tokyo asked us this weekend to not do any hanami parties, but to enjoy the flowers by walking. I took that to mean that enjoying flowers while cycling would be also very much acceptable. 

As I wanted to visit friends who live out in Zushi, I decided to cycle out there. Yet another measure against Covid-19 and pro-cycling. No packed train... no virus!

I used komoot to plan out the route. On some parts however the streets were still a bit too big for my taste. Komoot just doesn't know that in Japan one can use one-way roads in both directions if on a bicycle, plus it doesn't seem to know that while on some major roads there are "cycling lanes", they are simply a line or sometimes only a sign on the pedestrian walkway and get totally ignored by the pedestrians (and cyclists alike). So during the ride I modified it a bit switching to smaller roads, which however made the ride quite slow. But still, I arrived where I wanted to arrive. 

For a small part I was even riding on the old Tokaido, for which a few days later I found cycling maps. The part I was riding was right through Kawasaki and right at that moment due to the heat my buttock was not too happy to me... but luckily there was a Y-roads where I got some chamois creme. 

I continued on an stumbled over a huge temple entrance and I ventured inwards. It was Sojiji temple. To me completely unknown, but apparently the second most important temple of (one of the many) zen schools in Japan. 

It was a very family like feeling in the temple grounds, with families doing small picnics and playing right in front of the old temple building badminton:

But the nicest part was probably these doors on the temple building, which at least to my completely ignorant eye, looked very much like moroccan doors. 

A bit further down, I did ride through Yokohama Minato Mirai... but didn't take any pictures. All these big, grey buildings... somehow not easy to take pictures of from a small bicycle. Maybe some future weekend from Tokyo a ride to Minato Mirai might be an option. 

But today I continued on. A little bit later at a conbini I picked up some lunch items, and looked on my map to see if there was any park nearby. Not really, but I found one, which was more a sports ground than a park, but still, some green and some place to sit, have my simple lunch and then ride on over the hills to Zushi.

In general the ride was not the nicest, simply because it goes through cities all the time. I probably shouldn't be surprised knowing that I road through the biggest metropolitan area of the world (Greater Tokyo area with nearly 40 million inhabitants) and three of the Top-10 cities of Japan in the same day: 

• #1, Tokyo, 8.3 million inhabitants
• #2, Yokohama, 3.6 million inhabitants
• #9, Kawasaki, 1.3 million inhabitants

4 prefectures, 3 days - Day 1: Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi ー３日間４県〜本日：埼玉県、群馬県、栃木県

Bicycle: 68,2 km

Train: 30 km

Route: Omiya - Ashikaga

Total riding time: 4:19 h 

Total ascent:  193 m 

Average speed: 15.8 km/h

Weather: Cloudy, sunny, windy (but tail wind),  13 C

For this 3 day weekend, after considering several options, it seemed that starting in Saitama prefecture was the best bet weather wise... and so far so good. The weather forecast had rain in Chiba and Nagano prefecture for today, but not in Saitama. So that finally swinged it against Boso Flower Line and against a ride down from Karuizawa through Bessho Onsen to Nagano. 

What I didn't realize when planning this trip on Wednesday this week, that I would be riding through 4 prefectures, in 3 days. Today I touched already 3 of them: Saitama, Gunma and Tochigi (and I even started in a fourth: Tokyo... but did ride only a few km to Shinbashi station, where I took a commuter train out to Omiya. A city which I had never considered for tourism, but while probably the city itself isn't interesting at all, the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum is a true treasure. 

For me, this tree here below alone, made the visit worthwhile. It really moved me. I cannot explain it, but the beauty of this tree arrived straight to my heart. A very peculiar emotion. The terraces (I am sure there is a much better word for it) in which this tree is shaped, the small gap to see the trunk, the overall harmonious form... a true beauty. And still very young, only 70 years!

Before I made it to the Museum though I paid a visit to the Big Shrine = 大宮 which gives Omiya its name. The shrine was nice enough, but really not different to a lot of other shrines I have visited across Japan. What was remarkable though was the amount of people close to the shrine and in the park around it that were playing Pokemon Go. Players of nearly all ages, probably with the exception of teenagers. But even the elderly where avidly playing and there were hives of people standing around in the park trying to catch a pokemon. I did not join. 

When I continued I noticed that the lowest gear didn't click in. Not so much of a problem for these 3 days... but will be quite a problem next weekend (Izu peninsula!), so I decided to search out a bicycle shop to get it repaired right away. It isn't the first time this happens (actually I think the 3rd, and on both bromptons). This time it happened after earlier this week I had my back tyre changed, because of a drastic loss of profile at a brompton dealer very close to my office. 

Before        -          After

I found a bicycle shop in a big shopping arcade, and for 770 yen got it fixed in less than 30 minutes. Although to say the truth, in both Tokyo and Leiden I had got the same problem fixed in a brompton selling store in a few minutes for free... but well, fixed is fixed. 

Then I made my way to the highlight of the day, the Bonsai Museum. There was currently an exhibition of a bonsai master. This exhibition both contained actual bonsais (inside the museum) as well as very detailed explanations about the different Bonsai techniques. Including all the information in English. All of the trees were utterly remarkable. Very varied. Some were entire landscapes out of one tree. (But no photos were allowed inside). Actually bonsais are meant to be a part of a Japanese room, and there were also 3 rooms where one could admire the entire room setting around the bonsai.

In the garden there were more Bonsais, including the beauty above, but also some cherry trees already in full bloom:

and several pine trees. The oldest was over 1,000 years old! Must have been handed down from one bonsai master to the next, I guess. 

In the big garden of the museum photos were not allowed, but a video from a slightly elevated point was:

After the museum it was already past 14:00 so I ate in a small restaurant right in front of the museum. At that point I had only made about 6 km of today's ride... So I decided to skip all the other bonsai gardens (of the bonsai masters) that are close by and start the ride in serious. 

First I was riding along the train lines, which seemed to be particular popular with the local trainspotters. Not sure if some special train was going to come through? Or if this is simply for any weekend day with decent weather. 

Thanks to komoot I had for over 30 km a quite perfect bicycle route along a small river. 

This cycling lane is part of a bigger cycling infrastructure in the valley, as one can see from this map:

When I crossed the Tone river, we were already close to sunset... unfortunately in Japan it gets dark early... and I am not an early bird... so the last kilometers into Ashikaga were in the dark... but not too bad, I have light, the streets didn't have that much traffic... and an onsen awaited me quite close to the hotel. 

Actually a very nice onsen, with 4 tubs inside, plus a pool and a collagen room, which had red light, and NOT a collagen bath. Not really sure how this is supposed to work or what it is supposed to do... but well. Plus 4 tubs outside! 

Plus there weren't really a lot of people either. And they had all kind of amenities (scrubbing towel, tooth brush...) free of charge. So definitely a great place where to finish the ride today... well... finished, finished I did in my hotel close to Ashikaga station, but that was only an other 2 km down the road. 

A long weekend between Shiga & Mie - Day 2 Koka to Iga Ueno 甲賀から伊賀上野へ

Bicycle: 32 km

Route: Koka - Iga Ueno

Total riding time: 2:33 h 

Total ascent: 256 m

Average speed: 13 km/h

Weather: Cloudy but no rain, 16 C

Today I didn't need to get up early, as the Ninja Museum was really close to my hotel and only opened at 10:00. (However I suspect that it actually opened at 9:00, as there were already quite a number of people, when I arrived at about 10:10).

I had read somewhere on the internet that this Ninja village is a bit run down... well, I wouldn't say so, but I think it is simply not the perfect place for a solitary adult traveller. It seemed to be great fun for all the families with children, who could experience a lot of "ninja activities", like crossing a pond on two stones:

The kids did fall into the water relatively often, but while it aroused a squeal from the onlookers, including the parents, none of the parents seemed to be overly concerned.

Many kids (and a few adults) went around the park dressed as ninja... although I doubt that there were rosa ninjas in the past.

For us adults there was less to do. There was a small museum, all in Japanese and a ninja house, with a guided tour through the different traps and escape routes, like this one below the hearth:

Again today's tour was planned using komoot. Generally komoot selected very nice small country roads, however twice, they brought me to a dead end or near deadend. Once it was really a dead end, but fortunately it was still very close to the bigger road from where I had turned so I could easily ride back the few hundered meters. The other time I was already in this nice very, very rural landscape, when the road first became unpaved (but still cyclable) and then there was a gate on the road. It was open though... So after some consideration I did ride through it and was able to continue one. I even came to a small (and short tunnel), which I passed, just to emerge at the back side of the next small village and not to find an other gate. Which was really relieving.

When I planned the route yesterday, I had seen that close to a temple there was a soba restaurant. So that's where I had lunch in an old farmhouse:

This was about the only place (together with the onsen, see below) to have lunch today on my ride through the countryside between Shiga and Mie prefecture. It is simply a very rural area, with only a few small villages. Too small to house anything like a restaurant.

At a certain point I came by these nicely manured trees, which were "guarded" by a group of elderly men resting before getting up to play an other round of something golf like. I really only wanted to take a picture of the nicely formed trees, but the elderly men were convinced that I was interested in some of their kaki fruits. So now I have 5 fresh kaki picked from a tree. (Note that fruit picking somehow is very popular among tourists - Asian tourists? - to Japan). I remember picking strawberries as a child occasionally... and frankly buying fresh ones picked by someone else and just eating them is more enjoyable for me.

My second goal of the day was an onsen I had found on the map. I wouldn't have chosen an onsen midway through the ride, but the pictures just looked too good. http://www.moku-moku.com/farm/onsen.html and yes, it was a very nice onsen. With 3 pools outside, one with quite lukewarm (well, for Japanese standards), greenish onsen water, and other one much warmer (but not too hot) that had apples swimming in it (which gave a very nice smell) and a third one at approximately the same temperature, but without apples or anything else. And all this in very nice nature.

Actually I was very much surprised by the amount of people going towards this onsen. There were 3 big parking lots, and surprisingly there were a lot of people on their way (or back from) it. Even several busses passed me on the last km to the onsen. However, it turned out that not everyone wanted to soak. Around the onsen, there was a big vegetable & fruit shopping market, some food stands and a big BBQ area. In the onsen from a co-bather I learned that in the BBQ area one can make ones own sausages and then grill them. Making them starting from the ingredients and filling them into the casing. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I did relax a lot in the onsen, but I got out of the water soon enough to still get to Iga Ueno in time before sunset. But not soon enough to do any sightseeing today. So tomorrow castle and more Ninja activities (museum?) in Iga Ueno before riding then down towards Nara (or maybe Kizu, which is in the same direction) and then at some point in a train back to Osaka for an other (short) week of work.

Although I had already taken a bath today, I went to a sento in the evening. The official excuse was obviously that I had poured some more sweat after the onsen... but the less official one, was that I wanted to see this sento which claims to be like in Showa area. And well, specially from outside and in the looker room it is really an old sento.

The actual bathing area was reformed some time (maybe in the 1970's or so) and doesn't look very old any more. But still, it was worth a soak.

A long weekend between Shiga & Mie - Day 1 Omi Hachiman to Koka 近江八幡から甲賀

Bicycle: 53.7 km

Train:  91 km

Route: Osaka - Omi Hachiman - Koka

Total riding time: 3:34 h 

Total ascent:  231 m (plus main stairs at Azuchi castle) 

Average speed: 15 km/h

Weather: Sunny, nicely warm in the day, cold at night

For this long weekend (Monday is Culture Day), I have decided to make a loop from Shiga prefecture through Mie to Nara prefecture. More specifically from Omi Hachiman to Koka, Iga-Ueno, and time permitting down to Nara. I planned this route on komoot and it would seem it is working quite well, except one section of the road, which well, wasn't even single track, but was NO track... which wasn't nice as it had cost me quite some energy to get to that dead end (see km 28 - 33) and it was getting dark by then. 

Today on Day 1, it was Omi Hachiman (yep, yet again) to Koka. Although I got up early today, and made it for the 9:04 train from Shin Osaka to Omi Hachiman, finally it got dark WAY too early... but well, after some difficulties, see below, I did make it to my (very ugly and dirty) hotel in Koka. But let's start this orderly.

I was in Omi Hachiman already last week and there two elderly ladies talked me into buying the entrance ticket for an art exhibition that is scatter through town. As they had been successful this was also the reason why even on my second visit to Omi Hachiman (after one in 2017) I still hadn't made it to the channel quarters of Omi Hachiman. 

So today the third attempt. And finally I made it! I headed straight from the train station to the (very small) area of Omi Hachiman with the channels:

And then up the hill behind it with a rope way to a temple on top (the temple wasn't anything special) but with really nice views over Lake Biwa as well as some smaller lakes in the area.

While riding up, I chatted with an elderly Japanese (from nearby Hikone) and later on he insisted to take my picture. Also when I was down the hill again, an other, equally elderly man, this time a kind of local guide, volunteered himself very eagerly to take my picture. Thus Susanne in all different situations. Generally in front of a really nice view. 

Down again, I rode a little bit into the old town area and found the 5th exhibition spot, which was in a very old Japanese house. The art again was, well, questionable, but the local volunteers who man those museums are all very nice. The one today insisted to speak in English, although he only knew a few words. Replying in Japanese did not deter him. 

The strange white heap is art (very thinly cut paper), everything around is the stables of the old house. When I was in the exhibition, I didn't make the association, but now looking at the picture, the white heap looks very much like the salt piles (盛り塩）that one can see sometime in front of restaurants. 

My next destination was Azuchi castle... or better to say the ruins thereof. I had passed those (and not visited them) already 2 years ago, so today was the day to visit them. They are connected to Omi Hachiman by a nice cycling lane (at least partially).

Here a map I found in the middle of nowhere for this cycling lane. However there were also several other ones I came across more inland. Will need to do some more investigations into cycling in Shiga!

Azuchi castle has only a very short history, from start of construction (1576) to it's destruction (1582). Just 6 years!!! And well, what mainly remains of it, are STAIRS:

And yet an other nice view over Lake Biwa:

Half way up, I had green tea and a traditional sweet in this nice tea house in a temple... however this was insufficient for my hunger... so once I had finished with the castle, I went to the nearest conbini and got some lunch (and came back to the castle to eat at it's feet).

This however left me departing the region at around 16:00... way too late to get while there was still light outside to Koka, which was an other 40 km away... 

The ride through the countryside towards Koka was very enjoyable as long as there was light. Nice, small country lanes. Ideal for bicycle riding. 

However right when it started to get dark I came to a point, where my plan foresaw continuing on a really small road through the countryside, instead of a much bigger road. I considered my options then... and decided to give the small road a chance. It would have been fine, if the road actually had gone through. About 1 km in, the asphalt gave room to gravel (which was okay)... but 2.5 km in... the path disappeared. Totally. Looking at google maps (satellite view) now, it seems that there isn't any path at all, but komoot has a path there. Not even marked as single track... So well, there wasn't anything else to do as to ride as quickly as possible back to civilization as it was getting darker and darker. Back at the main road, I considered again. Giving up, and riding to the next train station to do a laborious train ride? Or getting on in the dark on a normal road, without any plan on my garmin. I choose to go on, and actually it was okay. It was dark, and in some places I needed to go a bit slow to check the street conditions (as I was mostly riding on a side walk rather than the street, just for added safety), but specially once I was down in the valley of Koka I found a really perfect street. Small through villages, with a bit of traffic (so not feeling completely isolated), but no through traffic. Which brought me nearly until my hotel for the night. 

The learning for tomorrow is definitely to get going earlier so to be latest around 16:00 in Iga Ueno. Before it get's dark. Riding in the dark is okay... but just defeats the purpose of getting to know the landscape... But at least, I can come back to Koka once again in the future, to enjoy the landscape, I haven't seen today... and probably is quite nice. 

In principle here in Koka there are two Ninja related attractions, but unless I get up very early tomorrow morning, I think I will go only to the Ninja park, which is very close to the hotel (but only opens at 10:00). If I get up earlier, I could go back a bit to a Ninja house, visit that first (or only) and then the ninja park... Let's see tomorrow. 

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.