D4 Yoshida to Shizuoka but through the mountains

Route: Yoshida - Fujieda - Shizuoka 
Bicycle: 84 km
Train: 200 km
Total ascent: 964 m
Average speed: 15 km/h
Riding time: 5:45 h
Weather: again sunny but getting colder, 12 C (but still mostly shorts and short sleeves) 

For my last day of this long weekend I went to Shizuoka station to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. There are essentially 2 good ways to get from Yoshida to Shizuoka: along the sea on the Pacific cycle path or through the mountains. I took the mountains. And some of them were STEEP, one so steep that for a while I needed to push the bike, but not too long. 

I had done the route on the ocean (in the opposite direction) 6 years ago in my 2 month trip through Japan. 

Getting to the foot of the mountains wasn’t a lot of joy as it meant traversing a lot of build up areas with too much traffic. There must be better roads to avoid that traffic though. But once in the mountain area it got much calmer. Still quite low I came by a sign and a safety worker that showed to a closeby Momiji matsuri, I.e. red leaves festival. I couldn’t withstand so cycled there. It’s probably a nice valley but today it was full of local tourists walking up and down the road. Still cyclable though, weaving through the crowds. But the momiji and the matsuri were a disappointment. Barely any red trees, although it must have been close to peak…

… and the yakisoba I got at one stand was cold and not very tasty. For sure the worst matsuri yakisoba I have had. And strangely it didn’t even leave me very filled. 

From there on I continued on my originally planned way further up into the mountains, ignoring a sign that said that the road was closed between 2 villages unbeknown to me and google maps. I had to find out the hard way after struggling up a reasonably steep hill, that it was indeed MY road that was closed. 

Now I was in the middle of the mountains in a small village perked on the flank of a mountain.

And had to cycle down all the steep parts again, just to get up an even steeper hill on the other side of the valley. On a street hardly used by anyone. 

But it did get me to nice viewpoints. Luckily this hill wasn’t very long (just a few kilometers) and then it was mainly (well, with one exception) downhill to Shizuoka and a modern super sento in the city to wash away the sweat of the day and relax in the hot water. 

In the way into the city there was again a majestic view of Mt. Fuji.

GW2023 D6 O-Mikoshi in Nagara

Route: Kyoto - Nagara - Otsu and back
Bicycle: 33 km
Carrying o-Mikoshi: 6.8 km

Riding Time: 2:35 h

Carrying Time: 1:54 h
Average Speed: 12.6 km/h
Total Ascent: 500 m
Weather: some clouds, some sun, warm, but bearable,  23 C

Originally my plan was to cycle to Miho museum (a fabulous place where I went with the Brompton a few years ago), but I got a late start and wasn’t feeling full of energy, but still I got started. At the basis of the climb up over the hills from Yamashina to Otsu, I saw a road advise that the road would be closed between 13:00 and 14:00 o’clock due to a matsuri in the village below. So I decided to have a look. What I didn’t expect that I’d be enlisted to be a carrier of the smaller women o-mikoshi. But hey, I hadn’t any specific plan for the day, so carrying an o-mikoshi through the streets of Nagara was a good plan.  

… and was a lot of fun. I had wanted to participate in a matsuri a few years ago in Higashi Kitazawa (where I was living) after seeing it as a spectator, but the weekend it was scheduled we were away, so never got round doing it. But will look into it again, maybe this year! 

On the way we stopped a few times, got food and drinks from the neighbours, rested a bit and then went on our way with the o-mikoshi. 

After about 2.5 hours we were back at the shrine, had a last religious ceremony and then a group pictures with all participants and the mikoshi’s in the background.

There were 3 mikoshi’s in total: The main, big one; a smaller one for the women (we were only 7, 6 carrying it, and one carrying the feet to put the mikoshi to rest), and another small one for the children. 

Plus a wagon full of flowers, a young priest on a horse, a fable lion… and a lot of local people. 

A weekend in Zushi - 逗子で週末を過ごす

Bicycle: 16 km 

Riding time: 2:03 h
Total ascent: 267 m
Avg speed: 7.7 km/h
Route: Zushi - Kamakura and back
Weather: Sunny and some clouds, quite humid but not too warm,  maybe 23 C

This weekend I went to visit friends in Zushi. On Saturday I had a quite slow start, after getting terribly drunk with colleagues the day before, even singing with the bar owner in a bar that was already closed... and missing our last trains home. But I still needed to get up relatively early on Saturday morning as I had decided to go and buy my new iPhone 11 Pro, which is still sitting here on my desk in its box, wrapped. Getting an iPhone isn't just going to an Apple shop and buying it, but queuing for about an hour to make the request and then getting later the same day an appointment to pick it up. Well I succeeded. 

Once that was done, I got into the train to Shin-Zushi, actually quite a good connection from Daimon, just one change of trains over the same platform. 

My friends picked me up at the station and on Saturday afternoon / evening we went to the beach to have a BBQ. Unfortunately the weather wasn't totally ideal for it, with some rain. Not really strong, but well, some rain, so we couldn't sit on the beach or the blanket. 

But we got rewarded with a nice sunset through the clouds. Only Fuji-san did not make an appearance. 

Today we then took their small foldable bicycles, I had left my brompton here as I really didn't want to log it around the entire trip for maybe only a short cycling trip and went over from Zushi towards Kamakura. To a zone of Kamakura that I had visited at least once already by bicycle, but maybe also once with my husband. But there were still new things to discover! Kamakura is really a place of endless discoveries. Even today we saw an entire other area that we didn't even touch, that seems to merit an other day of discoveries. And probably even farer from the tourist masses, although quite close to the centre of Kamakura... but that is going too far ahead... we stayed mainly in the west side of Kamakura. 

Our first sightseeing spot was a very nice garden, with a wonderful, natural river flowing through it. A real gem and with momiji it must become even nicer: 

In this park they even do sometimes classes for preparing Japanese sweets and other events. 

From there it was only a few meters down the road to Jomyoji temple. A nice temple... but also nothing overwhelming. 

What we did admire where the huge and colourful spiders that had erected everywhere their fabulously elaborated nets. Only, that I hadn't my iPhone Pro 11 with me... and the zoom picture with the iPhone 6 just isn't nice enough. We even saw a colibri at some point today, but taking a picture of those guys is close to impossible, so quickly they move around. 

Apart from all the "wildlife", there is also a nice Japanese tea house though from where one can gaze into this rock garden (we looked from outside):

Just over the street there is Hokokuji, yet an other temple, known for it's bamboo garden. I had visited it a few years ago and have a nice memory of it. I think there were even some couples taking their wedding pictures. However today it was clearly very full of tourists. When we arrived there was an entire group following their leader with a flag and other many tourists waited at the bus stop in line to get back to downtown Kamakura. Well, it is a nice temple (judging from my memory and the pictures on their web page... but if you start off the day with just small temples with only a few tourists going somewhere where their are hordes of them, just didn't sound attractive, so we continued on some small streets just a little bit further down the road to the oldest temple in Kamakura, which also it is the starting point of a 33 Kannon pilgrimage route in the wider Kanto area (actually the region is called Bando), it is a temple only visited by a few tourists but relatively (well, relatively) many worshippers. And is really nice. But don't tell anyone!

In the same area of the Hokokuji, there is also an other interesting building, a Japanese art deco building. Which today per Google maps was closed... and checking now it's web page, it seems it is only open on 4 days per year, 2 days in spring and two in October... but that October weekend is already over. Although the garden seems to be accessible more or less year around. 

From this temple we decided to give it a try at one more temple... and there are more!, so we continued to follow the street towards downtown Kamakura and then turned right again into small streets and at a crossing, where we needed to decide between two temples, both at about 800 m and both at the end of a road, we decided for the one on the right, which was probably the nicest temple of all we visited today: Zuisenji Probably it gets a bit more tourists than some of the others (at least we saw several taxis going or coming from the temple), but when we arrived there were only 30 min left to visit it (which was actually more than enough time), and we got it nearly to ourself. 

It must be specially spectacular in February with the ume (plum) blossoms. But also today it did have some flowers:

We stayed nearly until closure and then road home (to my friends). When deciding which road to take we took a different from the one we had come, and while the part going into Kamakura and down towards the seaside was fine (actually there seems to be yet another area of Kamakura waiting to be explored), the one going over to Zushi wasn't the best, with some quite huge tunnels for traffic (but we managed to cross them on a foot path. 

In the evening, as also yesterday, we went to a strange event/party in the garden of a central shrine in Zushi, where a pop-up bar was grilling and selling drinks, with a DJ and some strange art work, which finally even involved a Japanese belly dancer!

GW 2019 - Day 10 Izumo and back to Tokyo 出雲大社から東京へ

Bicycle: 15 km

Bus: 20 km

Plane: 800 km

Route: Izumo - Izumo Taisha - Tokyo

Total riding time: 1:14 h

Total ascent: 61 m 

Average speed: 12 km/h

Weather: Surprisingly cool and very, very windy, some drops of rain,  21 C

After the heat yesterday and the day before, today it was surprisingly cold and very, but very windy. The place where I was yesterday evening for taking sunset pictures and where I had decided to have my second breakfast today, was just tooooooo windy to sit down comfortably there.

Luckily I found an other spot not too far away with some benches and it had also stopped raining by then... So I had my breakfast there. Then I continued along the coast on the bicycle road towards the Izumo Taisha. Close to it there is this rock in the sea with a torii on top:

Izumo Taisha apparently is the 2nd most important shrine in Japan (after Ise shrine where I was 1.5 years ago). 

But probably one needs to be a historian or a devote shintoist to appreciate the shrine. For me, it seemed to be similar to many other shrines I have seen, even probably a bit less interesting, as it seemed to be newer than many other shrines.

However close to the main shrine on this weekend there were some traditional performances, so I enjoyed those.

 After the performance the dragon even came through the audience and did - ritually - bid us all in the head. I guess it is helpful... but actually in the moment it was a tiny little bit painful.

Yes, I would have had the time, but not the energy due to an upcoming cold, to ride to the airport. And well, there was a very convenient direct bus from Izumo Taisha directly to the airport. So I hopped on to that in the early afternoon. At the airport I then had a rather long wait, but I got some lunch and rested some more. For sure this all contributed to the fact that finally the cold did not develop into a full blown cold.

What I discovered only after coming back to Tokyo, was that I missed out on Tamatsukuri onsen! Well, at least that way I have a reason to come back to the region! 

GW 2019 - Day 8 Matsue castle and Matsuri 松江城とホーランエンヤ

Bicycle: 26 km

Route: Matsue and surroundings

Total riding time: 1:52 h

Total ascent: 53 m 

Average speed: 13.7 km/h

Weather: Sunny and too warm, but also very windy which was rather cool, 24 C

Although (or maybe because) the day did not go according to plan, I had a marvellous experience at a local matsuri which was the local part of a famous matsuri that is hold only once every 10 years in Matsue, the Horan Enya.

In the morning I had visited Matsue castle (more about that below) and then was facing the decision if to continue with the route I had planned, out on an island in the middle of Lake Nakanoumi to visit a famous garden: Yushien or to abort and just do a bit more sightseeing around the castle and return to my hotel. I am kind of coming down with a cold, but taking Frenadol... but it's not too bad either. So well, I decided to head out to the garden.

The way there lead me through some country roads along the river that connects the two lakes by Matsue.

However it was windy and hot, although the air was quite cold, and I got more and more tired... so I decided to just head to the next bridge and return on the other side of the river, as I had come yesterday from Yasugi into Matsue. Shortly before arriving to that bridge however I passed a very small fishermen village and there was clearly something going to happen. A good number (maybe 20) photographers with enormous objectives had gathered and were waiting... I had no idea for what they were waiting, but decided to wait as well. It was kind of clear that it must be a local festivity.

After a while from the village these two appeared and offered to take a picture.

More and more people appeared and all headed to the small jetty to board a ship that was moored there, but before that it was the turn to take the official pictures. One of the many photographers was the official one, plus two TV channels were there taking some pictures and many amateur photographers.

Overall however there were not that many people around, and getting a clear shot was easy.

And finally the boat headed out into the river between the two lakes, while one man was dancing with a ceremonial rudder at the bow while an other one was dancing with two long lace decorated sticks at the stern, the men in the middle of the boat were rowing (only for show the ship actually moved with a motor) and singing Horen Enya. (See video at the top of this post).

I later learnt that this matsuri is conducted only every 10 years with many more boats that go to Matsue to pick up at the Inari jinja (close to the castle) the local god and bring it to an other jinja at the Nakanoumi and then pray there for 10 days, before herding it back to Matsue and its own shrine. The next time this matsuri will be celebrated is from 18th May onwards and it will be apparently everywhere very crowded. But not so today on the local version of the matsuri.

While enjoying the sight at some moment I was approached by one of the TV guys, and even gave an interview about my impression of this festival. Which was obviously very good, so colourful and not your normal Mikoshi matsuri, but one on boats.

So finally I didn't make it to the garden and not even to the bridge where I had thought to return, but spent a nice and unexpected afternoon among the celebrating fishermen seeing from the first row a small glimpse of one of the most famous matsuris in Japan.

When the boat after 3 rounds in front of the pier came back to the shore I made my way to return to Matsue.

In the morning when visiting Matsue castle I had seen that the samurai houses were open until about 17:00 (or maybe even longer), so I decided to go and at least visit the Hearn Residence. Well, it is a rather small Japanese house, with an even smaller garden. Nothing special, but it is in a row of other preserved Samurai houses many of which one can visit. What was interesting though where the trees behind those buildings which were full of cranes making their nests:

After the visit to the Samurai neighbourhood I made a small detour to the Giant bicycle shop in Matsue and got my bicycle pumped up. Afterwards I took a short break at the public hot footbath.

So now back to the official main highlight of Matsue, the castle:

It is one of the 12 surviving original castles in Japan, so I visited it first thing in the morning. Although I saw somewhere (when already leaving) a possible indication how long it could take to get up to the last floor of the castle, actually there was no waiting time getting up, On each of the 5 floors there are some small exhibits about the construction of the castle, which are also very well described in English, and then one more flight of steep stairs up, more exhibits... until the very top:

Now actually the view from the top isn't that nice actually, with the new city below. For getting down there was some queue but mainly due to the stairs being so steep that one needed to descend them slowly and carefully.

From Osaka to Daigoji in Kyoto, but... 大阪から京都の醍醐寺へ、が...

Bicycle: 56 km

Train: 54 km

Route: From Shin-Osaka to Daigoji and further to Yamashina

Total riding time: 3:59 h

Total ascent: 190 m 

Weather: sunny and quite warm, but the air still cold, 21 C

Back in Japan, for business as always. 

In February I had stored my faithful brompton under my office desk in Tokyo and yesterday I recovered it from there, rode to Shinagawa station and then with the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, where I will be staying until end April. Today Saturday, thus the first possibility for a ride. 

Originally I had planned to go this weekend to Yoshino to see the cherry blossoms there, but current blossom report has it that the blossoms are just about to open, so clearly to early. While in Kyoto blossoms are at its best (or slightly after best already) ... but last weekend they were still just about opening. So I looked up nice cherry blossom places in Kyoto and Japan Guide suggested, among others, Daigoji. A temple which isn't in the main spots for temples and actually a bit hard to reach (well, for the average tourist), but quite nicely reachable by bicycle. 

However, surprise, surprise, I didn't have an early start. Today's excuse was that I wanted to buy Sumo tickets for Tokyo in May, but although I was ready at precisely 10:00 the web page selling the tickets broke down immediately. When it worked again (a few minutes later) all tickets for the 2 days we have availability were sold out. I even tried in the conbini around the corner... but with the same result. Then shower, breakfast... so finally I didn't start until 11:30. 

The weather was really fine today and I had a great ride along the river connecting Kyoto and Osaka. Specially the part after crossing the bridge became quite nice after a while. It is your typical cycling lane along a heavily regulated river... so don't expect nature in all its splendor, but a good ride. When I came to the bridge towards Arashiyama (where I rode back in January this year), there was a huge Hanami party ongoing between two joining rivers:

I got some Maki-Sushi at a stand, ate it in the shadows of one of the cherry trees looking over the river and onto the mountains around Kyoto. 

Nice rest. And then I continued onwards now along Uji river, which has a reliable and partially not very much used cycling lane attached to it. As so often in Japan. While along Yodogawa river there were no cherry trees (until the Hanami spot above), along Uji river there were long stretches of shimmering trees:

By error I drove a bit too far (not too much), so needed to return to the Daigoji temple. Unfortunately by the time I arrived there it was probably around 16:20. I took my time to park the bicycle (close to another brompton!) and by the time I arrived at the first temple building, I realized that I needed a ticket... by the time I arrived at the ticket booth (50 m away), it was 16:32 and ticket sales had stopped at 16:30 sharp... So no way to get into the temple. But also true that 30 minutes would never have been enough. So - at least today - I could only take a few pictures of cherries and temples:

Still I took my time to walk through the parts of the temple that are generally open and took the pictures I could. I decided however also to return there tomorrow. 

At around 17:00 everything was closing and I recovered my bicycle and rode back down to the Uji river and onwards to Yamashina station, where I had come already last Sunday with some colleagues from Spain and Germany in the pursuit of Kyoto tourism. I considered there for quite some time, if I should park the bicycle there at the station... but finally decided against it, just in case that I do NOT got to Yamashina tomorrow. Probably a stupid, but also the safer decision. 

Day 24 - Hatano matsuri 畑野へ祭を

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 24

Todays bicycle ride was to the matsuri in Hatano on Sado island. A small village matsuri but including yabusame!

Bicycle: 23 km
Riding time: 1:47 h
Total ascent: 174 m
Route: Mano to Hatano and back
Weather: Cloudy but no rain, 13 C


While yesterday was still a day to ride in shorts, sandals and T-shirt, today I was happy to have brought the fleece jacket. Also actually I didn"t do that much riding today, just from Mano to Hatano, the neighboring village. Actually surprising that nevertheless I mad per Garmin 23 km.

Today's objective was not riding but to go and see the Hatano matsuri, or as this web page of the tourism board of Sado claims: "Hatano Matsuri and the Annual Grand Festival of Kumano Shrine". Well, it is probably the greatest festival they have in Hatano, but it is quite small. Actually initially I had a hard time to even find it. I thought that the entire village would be decorated for the matsuri, but actually it is only one street leading to the shrine, and I had not come by that street. Also Google maps was misleading me to some other Kumano shrine in Hatano, which must have been so small, that even when I was right there, I didn't see it. But luckily I had more than enough time, so after some further searching, I found the shrine with its matsuri.

 When I arrived just the formal ceremony in the shrine had ended (I hadn't planned to attend that anyway) and everyone in very formal dress code poured out of the shrine. I confirmed that the mounted archery (Yabusame) event (for which I had mainly come) was indeed going to happen at 13:00 and as I had then still time, I set out through the village to find the drummers.

They go around the entire village visiting ALL houses and performing their bad spirit exorcism. Reportedly they started at midnight and will take the entire day until midnight to get around the entire village.

I even had time to get something to eat, and drink a Sado milk, obviously in a Toki bird decorated milk carton (see Day 22 for more on this bird).

Then back to the shrine, where they were getting ready for the yabusame.

Archer and horse ready:

Bow engaged:

Hit:

Well, okay, so theoretically this should all be done on a running horse... but at least he did hit with each arrow the target. 9 times in total!

After that some shrine music...

And then the bad spirits and the drummers did arrive and performed a long dance in front of the shrine.

And then the priest blew the horn for departure ...

... and the mikoshi with music set off for a round through the village, but on a truck, probably because all the young men were busy going from house to house with their drum.

At that point I was feeling rather cold, so off to the local onsen, where I did bath and warm up.

Tomorrow over to Ogi and then back to Honshu.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today on Sado island, checkout the below maps: