GW2026 D6 TOTO toilet museum

Route: Shimonoseki - Kokura - Buzen

Bicycle: 82 km

Walking: 780 m (from Honshu to Kyushu)

Total ascent: 818 m

Average speed: 15,1 km/h

Riding time: 5:26 h

Weather: Sunny but overcast, 26C

 

Today only had one highlight and a lot of lowlights. 

Highlight: TOTO toilet museum

Lowlights: 

• all the traffic between Shimonoseki until way beyond Kokura. It took 50 km+ to get into a region without big streets and lots of cars, and only because I managed to veer off the coast to a road halfway up to mountain. 
• The chemical smell dominating well beyond Kokura and being extremely strong in Kokura city. Not really sure how people would want to live there. 

Starting from my hotel I road a few more km in Yamaguchi, taking in the view of the bridge connecting Honshu with Kyushu…

… while I took the pedestrian tunnel. 

On the other side of the tunnel is Mojiko, a port city that seems to have some Western history. At least around the port and station area there are multiple Western style old houses. 

From there it was a struggle through traffic to get to the toilet museum. I had known about this museum since I first cycled in Kyushu during my Tour of Japan in 2017, but back then I was nowhere close to it. A few years ago when I was cycling around Mt Aso and Oita I had considered going, but again it was out of the way. So finally! 

The museum is in the middle of the TOTO plant, a modern building.

The museum explains the story of Toto and its associated companies producing everything with ceramics, from plates to construction material and parts of electronics, but also toilets and full baths. 

This is the first sitting toilet produced in Japan:

And this the first washlet, now omnipresent in Japanese houses. 

What is always surprising how much ceramics shrink firing:

There was however also a Sumo wrestler and a children option:

When I built my house last year I had so many choices to make, but for the toilet I had decided ahead of time to go with TOTO, as TOTO is for me the definition of Japanese toilets. I am sure that the LIXIL toilet would have been just as good. While with my TOTO bathroom I am really happy, as it has a slightly soft floor. 

After the toilet museum it was back to the traffic and the air pollution. Frankly the roads or route got a bit better, but still not really enjoyable for a cycling trip. I had even considered taking a train to my final destination, but weather was good so I did work up the courage to continue cycling. Only the last 20 km or so were in small vials and the countryside but only because I managed to swear off the main roads onto a tertiary road through the foothills of some mountain. 

PS: so now I finally made it to THE toilet museum, which I thought was unique… and what does the competition do? Open an other toilet museum! https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/raina/260313.html

GW2025 D4 some art in and around Takamatsu in the rain

Route: not really, just Takamatsu and Shikoku mura
Walking: 14 km
Train: 10 km
Total ascent: 242
Walking time: 3:25 h
Weather: rain in the morning, grey in the afternoon, 15 C

It seems that the destiny of Day 4 of Golden Week is rain. I just saw in my Strava feed that last year I was walking from an onsen back to a train station in the rain around Mt Aso. This year I am not in a onsen rich region (for Japanese standards). Here the topic is art. 

I had initially considered to go to Naoshima as per plan, but without the bicycle. However the entire morning it was raining and pretty cold. Luckily I brought my light down jacket. And bought a sturdy umbrella in a conbini close to my hotel. But even so it seemed a miserable idea to go to a small island in that rain. Not everyone agreed. There were plenty of people going by ferry, although likely much less than anticipated for the last day of Golden Week. 

I just looked at some “art” around the port. I say “art” as at least this piece of “art” is so far from being art , that I wonder how it made it on the list.

A few other things were around but all far from leaving any impression. 

For lunch I had the famous Udon of Takamatsu, all my Japanese colleagues mentioned that I must eat Udon here, went briefly back to the hotel (which has a trap called TV set with Netflix connection), before venturing out again and going to the museum village of Shikoku Mura. 

It assembles old houses brought here from many parts of Shikoku. Plus a modern art museum built by Tadao Ando.

When back in the hotel (now I am in a very small train going back to the city) I’ll have a long, warm soak in the onsen (with rotenburo!) and then do some “homework” for my house building. In the Tadao Ando museum there was an art installation that asked for visitors to contribute a shape that is currently close to them. I built my house. 

NY2023 D6 Kyoto - Ohara

Route: Kyoto - Ohara and back
Bicycle: 50 km
Average Speed: 16.2 km/h
Total Ascent: 472 m
Riding Time: 3:06 h
Weather: Sun and clouds, and a few rain drops in the hills, 5 C

In principle today I wanted to avoid the mountains, but surprisingly I did more vertical ascent than yesterday... which kind of sounds surprising. 

After the cold and rainy experience yesterday, I took it easy this morning, getting up late (after all I am on vacation) and then deciding on a rather random route not too far from Kyoto. I just looked at google maps, marked a few temples that looked somewhat promising and planned a route. 

As I started so late, I didn’t make it to all my spots, but I had a great and very varied day, with more than sufficient “temples” 

• A cat temple
• A temple dedicated to pickles
• An actual Buddhist temple up in the hills above Kyoto
• An onsen temple

The cat temple is actually called so in Japanese ニャンニャン寺 (NjanNjanJi), the sound that cats make in Japanese. It’s an old Japanese house dedicated to everything cat:

Per google maps it seemed that they also had a restaurant, but no. At this point I was a bit hungry, so another look at google maps and saw that there was a Kyoto delicatesse restaurant a bit further up the hill. It turned out to be a pickles factory with restaurant and shop. 

With every lunch, there was a free pickles buffet... and I have to admit these pickles were good. I am not a total fan of pickles, but these were extremely fresh and tasty. 

From there it wasn't too far to the only actual temple of the day, Sanzen-in ab ancient buddhist temple with a nice garden, that seems to be very famous (for its azaleas)... and seems to get a lot of visitors, except today. But there were parking lots all over the village.

From there it was a fast and easy ride back to Kyoto, passing by briefly by my accommodation to pick  up some clothes, and then off to another super sento in the center of Kyoto. 

SW - D7 Obuse to Nagano

Route: Obuse - Nagano
Bicycle: 40 km

Riding time: 3:19h
Average speed: 12 km/h
Total ascent: 391 m
Weather: cloudy and some light drizzle, 20 C

The weather forecast for today was better than reality… it started with rain in the morning in Obuse and ended in rain in the afternoon in Nagano. 

My first “stop” was the Hokusai museum a few hundred meters from my hotel of the night. The hotel actually looked nicer on pictures and from outside than the room itself. All the clothes I had washed yesterday evening where still as wet as when I had just washed them. Not even my gloves had dried, so I cycled without. Not very comfortable…

I had been in Obuse in early 2017 by train on my way to Shibu Onsen to see the snow monkeys…

… back then I didn’t go to the Hokusai museum, although it seemed that everyone else who had come to Obuse was interested in nothing else but this (well and omiyage obviously). So I had a new thing to do in Obuse. The Museum is okay. Probably the most interesting exhibit is actually not an original from Hokusai but rather a new print showing how many steps (in this case 11) were needed to print one view of the Fuji. 

While for the first 4 days in Tsunan I had kind of a plan what to do, for these later days I had none. So yesterday evening I simple entered “Sightseeing” in Google Maps to see what it would come up with, and I found a temple in a nearby valley that seemed interesting as well as some castle remains in the next valley. 

I only made it to the temple though, but it was a nice temple with a bit of a thrill. In order to go to the upper part of the temple I needed to enter bear territory, or so it seemed judging by this fence around the entire mountain. 

But no bear, luckily, just a temple at the end of a steep and winding road.

After visiting this temple, I reconsidered my plan for today, also because it was starting to rain a little bit more, and went to Nagano directly and to the Zenkoji temple. And here in the rain were all the tourists I hadn’t met in the last week.

The most interesting bit of the temple was the visit to an underground , pitch dark space below the “altar”. We crept forward little by little, holding onto the wall and every now and then bumped into each other. All in search for a hidden noisy “door” contraption. Not really sure what it was supposed to be, but everyone else was very excited when they found it in the dark. 

The temple itself is at the end of a huge “temple approach road” and behind the mountains start, only that today all this was in the mist of rain. 

 While yesterday night my bike  had to sleep outside on the veranda, today it is sleeping right in front of the reception in the dry and warmth. 

 

I had reserved this hotel, the DormyInn on recommendation of a fellow poster on the Japan Guide Forum, which is the hotel in Nagano she always recommends. It is a business hotel but with a few extra quirks: a small super sento including rotenburo and sauna, free ice cream, free apple juice & coffee in the lobby and a soup at night. Also the rooms are slightly bigger than your normal business hotel. 

4 prefectures, 3 days - Day 3: Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama & Ibaraki ３日間４県〜本日：栃木県、群馬、埼玉、茨城

Bicycle: 63.5 km

Route: Ashikaga - Sugito

Total riding time: 4:31 h 

Total ascent: 133 m 

Average speed: 14.0 km/h

Weather: Very Sunny, no clouds, some wind, perfect weather,  14 C

Todays highlight was probably visiting Gunma, while the bicycle was in Tochigi (front wheel) and Saitama (rear wheel):

Front wheel: Tochigi; rear wheel: Saitama, rider: Gunma

And only 3.5 km later, I was in Ibaraki. And only because I hadn’t planned this ride carefully enough, I missed Chiba, which would have been only an other 4 km from my route today, and actually quite feasible. But well, then I would have needed to change the title of all 3 days’ worth of posts.

The day started in Tochigi city, which to my surprise I found out yesterday evening, still has some old buildings. It is not so nice as e.g. Sawara, where the old buildings are all very much centred around a small channel, but the interest in the old buildings in Tochigi is more that there are also some from Taisho area, clearly influenced by Western architecture, as this hospital (which continues to be a medical center to today)…

… the restaurant where I ate yesterday evening and the old city hall, which however was totally in refurbishment. There were also some more normal old Japanese houses in town:

The one attraction I had found before going to Tochigi was the New Ginger Museum, which was definitely a very pink (and strange) experience. This awaits you at the entrance:

And it is not what it seems to be… or well, actually it kind of is, but by saying that it is a ginger root, it becomes totally acceptable to dedicate a complete, pink museum to a penis.

All possible things one can prepare with New Ginger, which actually isn’t fresh, but pickled ginger. I even took a sweet with ginger and a ginger soda.

But the highlight of this museum, without doubt was this video of the entire company dancing the New Ginger dance:

After these first touristic stops the ride of today could start. When I planned, I had not really found anything else interesting in the area, so set as a goal a super-sento with a convenient train station closeby, at a reasonable distance. For the ride itself I handed over the planning mainly to the komoot app. However I entered a few changes to avoid any major roads, and the ride was really great. Nothing by itself outstanding, but just a nice enjoyable ride through Japanese countryside with some mountains in the far distance. Some, closer to Nikko even with still some snow on the top, but not a lot, for end of February. This year was unseasonally warm in Japan. Mainly I rode on small country lanes and then on the typical Japanese bicycle path along a heavily dammed river. The rivers in that region still show the signs of the flood last year October, and are still being cleaned up from debris (mainly vegetation) lying around.

I finally came to a big water reservoir which has a cycling road right through the middle of it. On the center is a small artificial island, where I hate some cookies I had bought on the first day. Shortly afterwards, and just before the point with the 3 prefectures, there was a Michi-no-eki, where I got the best grilled sweet potato I had in my live. Only grilled, nothing added, but so creamy and sweet.

After the picture of at the prefecture boarders, the ride continued through similar landscape, although become a bit more built up over time, as I was approaching Tokyo.

The super-sento for today, was really nice. With 3 pools inside, and a whooping 5 pools outside and a small forest in which to gaze (although the supersento is in a built up area, there are no houses close or high enough, to warrant a high wall around it. Very nice. I had a long soak in the different waters, followed by dinner and am now sitting in the Tobu express train, back to Tokyo, heading for Otemachi, where I should be arriving in about 5 minutes. Perfect timing for this post. 

4 prefectures, 3 days - Day 2: Tochigi ー３日間４県〜本日：栃木県

Bicycle: 42.9 km

Route: Ashikaga - Tochigi

Total riding time: 2:57 h 

Total ascent:  144 m 

Average speed: 14.5 km/h

Weather: Sunny, some clouds and a cold strong wind (mostly tail wind though), 10 C

Today my explorations of the region around Tone river continued. I started at the Ashikaga Flower Park... but only there realized that actually quite close to my hotel there was the Ashikaga School, the oldest education institute in Japan, founded over 1000 years ago... and thus older than the oldest Bonsai I saw yesterday!

But I started at quite young plants today. So fragile that they need a personal hut for each single plant:

Apart from these flowers only some plums (?) were flowering. The main part of the garden was still pretty bare. But I can't complain. The garden is well known for its wisteria... and well, they don't bloom until about May. Now the wisteria trees were still completely barren and in the process of getting pruned. 

I was lucky though that I had picked up a free entrance ticket at the hotel, so the visit didn't even cost the 300 yen the other visitors paid. This garden uses a very intelligent ticket price policy. The more flowers bloom, the more expensive the ticket. I think 300 yen was the minimum... but even then they realize that they don't get that many people to visit the garden, so they offer free entrance as well with a coupon.

When I planned this ride the other day, I planned it in this region here solely because it seemed the only region with 3 days without rain (and so far, so good). So when I searched for what to do, I started with only two places I had vaguely heard about: Ashikaga Flower Park and Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. But 2 places to do tourism in 3 days, seemed a bit too few, so I looked at Google maps to see if there are any other places suggested to visit. 3 sprung up for today, and I integrated them into the ride. 2 out of 3 were fabulous. And the remaining one a bit deluding, but after 2 very nice discoveries this was not set-back at all.

So the first Google maps discovery was the Kurita Museum. It is very close to the flower park, just on the other side of the rail track and has very large grounds and on those grounds many different buildings, some modern architecture, some traditional...

Lower right corner: Building to the unknown potter!

... but the important part is obviously the art exhibited. It is a vast collection of only 2 types of Japanese porcelain: Imari and Nabeshima pottery. Actually mainly Imari pottery. A type of porcelain manufactured in Kyushu that was vastly popular with the European aristocracy even way before the Meiji restauration. Some of the pieces were of sublime quality. Like a simple dish, decorated to look like the inside of an open umbrella. Others were much more complicate, like a stylized description of the Tokaido invariably arriving at Nihonbashi. But there are also plates with maps of Japan (always excluding Hokkaido which at the time was a faraway island, inhabited by some strange indigenous people), like this one:

And well, slightly too large vases. Possibly made for the booming export sector of Imari pottery.

The museum was also nearly empty. I think in my entire time in the museum, I only saw an other 3 visitors. And this emptiness does really not pay tribute to the wonderful pieces of pottery exhibited. 

After so much museum it was time for lunch, which I had very close by in a restaurant, that must be teeming with people at the time of the wisteria flowering... but now was completely empty. But I got a hot bowl of curry Udon, which gave me some warmth and strength, which was needed seeing the fierce wind, which I had to endure riding to my next place found on Google Maps: Izuruhara Benten Pond.

I had been considering during lunch if to ride there at all, as I was quite tired from the ride yesterday... but decided to give it a go, and that was a great decision. Not so much because of the pond (however per an explanatory sign it is one of the 100 best waters of Japan (to see? to drink?), but because of the shrine that is right above the pond:

And from which one has a reasonably wide view over the valley:

This was really totally unexpected.

The place is a little bit touristy, and surprisingly has some descriptions in English. Not sure if that's because they are quite new (and maybe there is a drive towards including English in all newer signs), or if this place really attracts that many foreigners. Definitely not today, as I think I was the only foreigner I have seen the entire day.

Apart from that it was a nice ride through the countryside, which however is not totally romantic, as we are reasonably close enough to Tokyo and in a valley full of train connections, that the towns are generally well, typically Japanese... which means a lot of new and semi abandoned buildings, factories etc. But yes, countryside was nice enough, and even had some more modern historical remains:

Until I came across a field with a very small creek where in the middle of the field 3 old ships were parked. Really strange. How had they come here in the first place. Definitely not because of a tsunami... but I cannot even imagine that it had been because of some freek inundation, as there is simply no river close enough by, to wash ashore these ships. Mystery!

Only the third place that I had found on google maps did delude a bit. 新町薬師堂 (Shinmachi ? Yakushiji) It just was a small temple hall. But I think it is somehow historically important. But unfortunately the sign was in Japanese only. But no problem, it was on the way I needed to take anyway, and as said, I had already 2 unexpected discoveries today.

From there I rode into Tochigi city, where I will continue with my explorations tomorrow, last day of this long weekend.

Today finished in a sento here in Tochigi city. The goldfish sento, and there was a real basin of goldfish, that one could observe while soaking oneself. Very relaxing.

And finally I had Italian dinner in a place right in front of my hotel in an other historical building, probably from the Taisho or Showa era: