D4 Rainy monkeys

Route: Hakuba - Nagano - Yudanaka onsen - Shibu onsen
Bicycle & walking: 8 km
Bus: 42 km
Train: 30 km
Average speed: 7,7 km/h
Total ascent: 316 
Riding time: 1:04 h
Weather: rainy and cold for most of the day, 10 C

The original plan for today was to cycle from Hakuba to Shibuonsen. Something that in the map (to me) looked very far , but actually doesn’t seem to be so unreasonable also because at least one of the roads out of Hakuba to Nagano is mostly downhill. I wouldn’t have taken that one though, because I feared too much traffic. In the end I did take that road, but with my bicycle as safely as possible stored away in the trunk of a highway bus. The owner of my hotel in Hakuba kindly drive me in his  van to the bus station so I only got a few drops of rain just the way from the door to the car. But still even that was wet. 

While in the summer I might not mind some rain (see second day around Fuji a few months ago), with temperatures below 10 C and needing to ride through the mountains, taking my bike wasn’t an option. Luckily there are a few busses every day between Hakuba and Nagano. 

This is a landscape as seen from the bus, and so similar to Classical Japanese paintings. 

I had briefly considered cycling from Nagano, but it was still raining and just seemed miserable to ride through that wetness for hours. So instead I took a train. My bike was allowed to sit in the reserved car (the only place where I found a reasonable spot to store it), but I had to go to the unreserved car as I didn’t pay the 300 Yen extra fee. 

In Yudanaka onsen station I reassembled the bike, repacked my luggage and changed into cycling clothes and then slowly set out through the train to my accommodation of the night. A Minshuku with onsen. 

I arrived here around 12:00 and in a first was already allowed into my room. Otherwise there are strong rules in Japan that you cannot enter your room before 15:00. However, I only dropped my luggage and got on my way to have lunch in the restaurant pretty close to the Minshuku. 

I was actually surprised to see on Google maps so many restaurants close to this Minshuku which isn’t in the central part of the small village a Shibuonsen. Hi recycling to the chosen restaurant, I realized that it was on the path to the snow monkey park. Anyway, I had lunch first as it was still raining and frankly time for lunch. Luckily afterwards the rain had stopped so I cycled a little bit further up the road until reaching the entrance to the path leading to the snow monkey park. 

Observing these monkeys, chill in the air, hot onsen water is really intriguing. Officially they are wild animals, and they are. But they are also not so wild because essentially, they are being fed by the park administration to make sure that they come and have their hot bath every day. 

But still, who doesn’t love some monkeys, chilling in the hot water and grooming each other.

I had been here a few years ago, may be in 2017, in the winter when there was still some snow. But those monkeys are equally funny without the snow.

After seeing my share of monkeys taking a hot bath, it was time for me to walk back to my bicycle, which is about the 2 km walk through a nice forest, and enjoy my own onsen in my Minshuku. The onsen can be visited also as a day spa and only has one big outside pool. No inside pool at all. Which is fine by me. Again no view though. Although it was only one outside pool, it actually kind of areas of different temperature. Very,  very hot close to where the hot onsen water is flowing into the pool and a little bit cooler in the farthest away corner of the pool.I relaxed a bit, relaxed more in my room, and then had dinner downstairs. 

For tomorrow it seems that the rain will stop, but it will still be a very cloudy day. I haven’t fully decided what to do tomorrow, but I will cycle to Nagano station, which isn’t actually that far at all, and then take a Shinkansen back to Tokyo to end this five day long weekend in Nagano Prefecture. 

D3 to Hakuba

Route: Azamino to Hakuba and a a bit beyond
Bicycle: 61 km
Average speed: 15,6 km/h
Total ascent: 785 m
Riding time: 3:54 h
Weather: cloudy, not so windy and quite cold, 11 C

When I planned this ride, I started with the hotel reservations, instead of the cycling routes. Which has led to the first three hotels being actually rather close to each other. Somehow I thought when I was looking at the map that there was a larger distance between them. Thus the basic ride today from A to B was only 41 km and with an elevation gain of only 420 m. I always thought that Hakuba was high in the mountains as it is a famous ski resort, and well it is at nearly 1000 m of elevation, but the valley around it more or less from Matsumoto onwards already is at a quite high elevation.

However I took it easy and took the direct route with the idea that once in Hakuba I could add a few extra kilometers and a few extra elevation meters from here and without my rather heavy luggage. 

Riding here again I took a lot of pictures of mountains. Actually mostly one mountain, the one behind Hakuba.

Wherever possible I took small country road although the main road that Komoot planned for me wasn’t  too busy either. But if I can have a reasonable small road I’ll go with the small one. 

Coming up to Hakuba one passes two very scenic mountain lakes:

I was at my accommodation around 12:00 just at the same time as another guest, and could leave my heavy luggage here. From here I went into Hakuba, a ski resort town but for Japanese standards a very well maintained one. I wanted to eat curry udon and searched for udon on goose maps. The place I found was quite upmarket and didn’t have curry udon (it had soba but had actually run out). However they had an excellent Katsudon. It was crisp and the coating had an intense taste. Never had something similar. 

After lunch I went up a street to a valley and mountain behind Hakuba. A road that leads apparently nowhere (well, probably to a small hotel) up and up. I didn’t make it up all the way, and called it a day shortly after reaching the hight of 1000 m.

A bit above this view if the river I returned downhill and stopped midway through at an onsen. This onsen only has a rotenburo and one would think that it should have a nice view into the mountains instead, no view at all. Surrounded by wooden walls. Not really sure why they might be needed. With a bit of planning this new (!) onsen could have been overlooking the river and there is nothing in the other side of the river. But probably Japanese aren’t so interested in viewing landscape while in the onsen. That’s the only explanation I have why so many onsen in theoretically good locations end up with no view at all. 

Anyway, the onsen itself was nice. A rather large outside pool (just one, but this is more like a small onsen in the countryside) with areas at different temperature depending on distance from the very hot waterfall of onsen waters. 

Cycling back down I came by this commemorative place for the 1998 Nagano Olympics. I had no idea that even Hakuba was part of those Olympics. 

D2 Around Matsumoto

Route: Matsumoto - Azumi
Bicycle: 43 km
Average Speed: 12 km/h
Total Ascent: 369 m
Riding Time: 3:34 h
Weather: sunny but fresh and again very windy (headwind), 19 C

Today was mainly dedicated to sightseeing: Matsumoto castle.

Nearly 30 years ago I was here the previous time. Traveling after my 4 month practical training at Riken in Wakoshi I had a few weeks free and visited a hiking friend if my father who lives somewhere close to Matsumoto. On the first day we went to an event on what I think was lake Suwa (where I was yesterday) where small lanterns were floating on the lake. On the next day I was on my own in Matsumoto and visited the castle. 

What I remember must about my visit to Matsumoto was my departure. I went to the train station to get my ticket and back then it was a much smaller train station than now. So the guy at the ticket office saw me walking towards his window from far away and with each step I took towards him he grew more and more preoccupied. So much that once I reached his window he had already crossed both his arms (typical gesture in Japanese to say something is prohibited / not possible…) and managed to say 2 words: “No English”. But I had my sentence in Japanese already prepared what I wanted. The terror on his face I still remember.

Japan and Matsumoto has come a long way since then. But I also don’t remember so many tourists. Today in the castle it was essentially one long queue through the entire castle because the stairs are narrow and steep. Some incredibly steep. 

Around the castle there was a soba festival with very long queues but I got a 10 Yen piece (for 500 Yen)

I think I departed from the castle around 13:00 and started my relatively short ride if the day. But with the late start and yet again a very strong headwind it took the entire day. 

Well I also stopped along the way to take a lot of pictures of mountains with snow:

Still fascinated by all these mountains. Why did I never realize just how many mountains there are in Japan? I always knew it, because it’s one of the reasons why most of the population is concentrated in a small , coastal part of Japan, but still, until now I haven’t realized what this actually means. And I think that unless I start hiking , and activity I don’t like at all, I won’t really realize. There are so many areas of Japan where one could walk for days on end without getting into touch with civilization. Does that exist in the Alps? 

I also stopped at a lake famous for its wild swans that come here from Siberia for the winter, but weren’t here now. 

The last tourist spot of the day was thus Wasabi farm. And I have to admit , I did NOT eat any wasabi. Just don’t really like it.  Had an apple pie and warm apple juice instead.

From there I continued along the river on what is practically a bicycle road and then up through a Forrest filled with weekend houses to my temple logging for tonight. A Korean Buddhist temple with Korean food.

D1 towards Matsumoto

Route: Kazunumabudokyo to Lake Suwa
Bicycle: 110 km
Train: 130 km
Average Speed: 17.3 km/h
Total Ascent: 1470 m
Weather: sunny and fresh, with a feisty headwind all day, 17 C

It’s a long weekend in Japan and I added an other 2 PTO days making it a super long weekend. 

Before it gets too cold, I decided to come to Nagano Prefecture. This time, not so much around Nagano city, but in the valley of Matsumoto instead. Today I got up before 5 o’clock in the morning, in order to take a train to Takao around 5:30, and then from there another train to Yamanashi Prefecture. I started my ride at Kazunumabudokyo, a train station, just at the entrance of the valley of Kofu, from where one has a very nice view over the entire valley and the vineyards.

I had been here last year in the summer, with a group from Meetup by train, where we visited together some vineyards, actually, not really a vineyard, but a field of grapes, where one could pluck ones own grapes and eat them there. Before that I had absolutely no idea that the region around Kofu is famous in Japan for its wine.

Initially, it was all downhill, until reaching Ryuo from where, unfortunately it is all uphill and a lot of uphill, as you can see from the Strava, nearly 1400 m of elevation. And that’s because although on Google maps all this looks like one big valley, it actually isn’t and one has to cycle up to the lower slopes of Yatsugadake, literally a mountain with 8 peaks, and definitely a majestic one.

I’m still amazed by the amount of mountains everywhere, and took way too many pictures of mountains, which truth to be told, as pictures don’t look so impressive. 

As impressive as these mountains may be, none that overbearing like Fujisan. Even from deep and Yamanashi prefecture, at Fujimi, you can see clearly in the distance Mount Fuji topping every single mountain around it, and standing in solitude.

All that climbing, albeit gradually, was a lot of climbing and I came up to an elevation of over 1000 m but one is still being surrounded by mountains and it feels like cycling actually in the valley. It also wasn’t only all the climbing there was also a fierce headwind the entire day. So I have clearly gained my relax time now in the onsen of my Ryokan here in Matsumoto.

Originally, my plan was to cycle all the way to Matsumoto, which is about 130 km and sounded kind of doable when I was planning the long weekend. But also, I got a pretty early start, I was not able to finish the right, so instead, I changed my endpoint to Lake Suwa, which has a nice cycling lane around most of the lake, and even from there when can see Mount Fuji in the distance. Admittedly, in real life, it looked bigger and way more visible, than on this photo.

SW2023 D4 Kinugawaonsen - Nikko

Route: Kinugawaonsen - Nikko
Bicycle: 33 km

Train: 160 km
Average speed: 11,5 km/h
Total ascent: 537 m
Riding time: 2:50 h
Weather: Sun, some clouds, still too hot and humid, 26C (per Wahoo)

For the last day of this rather short Silver Week (only the Monday was a public holiday... but I took the Tuesday as well), I had originally planned to cycle from Kinugawa onsen up to lake Chuzenji, the lake above Nikko and then down through the mountains to Kanuma and take a train from there back to Tokyo. However my stomach wasn't happy with me and it was still sooooo hot and humid... that I changed my plan and did sightseeing in Nikko instead. 

The main shrine, Toshogu was incredibly busy with school classes. I arrived there around 10:00 and there was one class after an other. Probably all from the same school. Maybe it was just bad timing. But I do remember a visit a few years ago to Nikko where this same shrine was also totally overwhelmed by Japanese tourist groups. I know this is an important Shrine for its history, but with so many groups it is hard to enjoy it. 

Strangely it got much quieter up to the burial of the Tokugawa shogun and on the way down I took this very quaint picture of the roofs of all the shrine buildings shining in their golden splendor through the forest. 

Nearly all tourists are gathered at this one spot and although the Nikko Futarasan jinja is only a few meters walking away, over there everything was very quiet. 

It even had a deity for patisserie chefs (the god is holding the branch of a specific citrus tree). 

I had lunch closeby in an other soba place (a lot of soba and udon these past few days) and then returned to my bicycle. 

It was still relatively early in the day, but I was clearly not in form to continue cycling so instead I had found an onsen on google maps. It was quite close (by bicycle) from the shrines, but in a very quiet area. So quiet, that the onsen doesn't have a reception desk. But rather a vending machine for the tickets and a small box in which to drop the ticket before entering the bath. It has a tub inside and a rotenburo with views of a garden. I had the entire onsen to myself for most of the time. Very relaxing indeed. 

The ride today was quite short, only about 28 km, but it seemed more exhausting that I would have expected for such a short ride, even with the heat... however looking at Strava shows over 500 m of elevation, which were accumulated in less than 20 km of cycling (the initial part was downhill). So that's pretty steep (for me at least), however it wasn't anywhere so steep that it actually felt steep or that I needed to push the bike. 

SW2023 D3 Aizuwakamatsu - Kinugawaonsen

Route: Aizuwakamatsu - Kinugawaonsen
Bicycle: 101 km
Average speed: 17,6 km/h
Total ascent: 1,192 m
Riding time: 5:44 h
Weather: Sun, some clouds and a few drops of rain, still quite hot and humid, 26C (per Wahoo)

After the ride yesterday, cut short by the heat, I was a little bit worried about today’s rather long and mountainous ride. However, I had planned the ride to be along a train line that also connects Aizuwakamatsu to Kinugawa onsen. Those trains aren’t very frequent, so yesterday evening I wrote down on a small piece of paper, the possible connections that could save me from the heat, exhaustion, or other impediments to continue all the way to my goal. But finally, I made it all the way! The ride was partially on a secondary roads, slowly sloping up towards the border between Fukushima and Tochigi Prefecture through a landscape bordered on all sides by mountains as far as your could look. 

I hadn’t really realized before, just how mountainous Japan really is. I know this sounds crazy. I’ve been living here, for more than 4 years. I’ve been traveling a lot, but still it surprises me just how many mountains there are. 

Pouring water over me at regular intervals helped to keep my body temperature in an okay range. Also, instead of thinking of it as of 100 km ride I was more looking at smaller targets: the next convenience store, lunch, the next major town. 

Some of the roads were very small countryside roads while others were more busy, none of them really too busy but if you know how empty the street could be every truck seems to be one too many. There was also a fair number of tunnels both up and down hill, but it was all okay.

On the way down to Kinugawaonsen, I did run into this group of monkeys. It seemed an entire family, maybe 20 or so, even including a mother monkey with a small baby. 

The hotel in Kinugawaonsen (Itoen) however was quite bad. I mean, it was cheap... and had a rotenburo, but clearly nothing had been renovated in that hotel since 20 - 30 years, so essentially since it was build during the bubble years. It is a real pity, there are so many onsens towns that have been utterly destroyed by huge hotels that are now either completely abandoned or are in a severe state of disrepair / not well maintained. And these towns are very ugly. But still enough people go there to enjoy a day away, the onsen and dinner. Although in that hotel dinner was the worse of the worst. But yeah, I survived this as well and I had a very huge (but ugly and slightly unclean) room. 

SW 2023 D2 - Around Aizuwakamatsu

Route: Around Aizuwakamatsu
Bicycle: 41 km

Average speed: 13.3 km/h
Total ascent: 341 m
Riding time: 3:03 h
Weather: Sunny, humid and definitely too hot for me, 31C

In principle I wanted to ride up to Ouchi Juku, an old post town on the way from Aizuwakamatsu to Edo, but it was way too hot for me. I had incorporated two other (minor) sightseeing spots into the  tour today... and at least I managed to visit those. 

The first stop of the day was a shrine I had found on google maps that looked interesting, and was on the way to Ouchi Juku... and more importantly today, in an area with old, tall, shade-providing trees. 

And right today there was a very small temple festival ongoing. With elderly men dancing, singing and playing the flute, and a very young boy (the grandson of the flute player) playing the drum with great enthusiasm, experience and energy. 

The show of sake under the 交通安全 (Road safety) sign was a bit surprising. But I guess also sake needs to be transported safely. I stayed at this shrine and its surrounding small forrest for quite some time, before going for a soba lunch in a very small, very village, restaurant, which crucially had air conditioning. By this time I had decided to give up on Ouchi juku (still too hot and now also too late) and was actually contemplating to return directly to Aizuwakamatsu... but then continued to the second attraction of the day. A temple up on a hill overlooking the fertile plains around Aizu Wakamatsu. 

Plains knowns for their fruit cultivations. On the way to the temple I passed a fruit processing plant that also sold directly to customers (quite typical in Japan) and got a peach. I had left it to the saleslady to select the right peach for me. She choose a rather hard one (hard like an apple), which however was very tasty. While I was standing outside eating it, an other employee (or maybe the owner) came, and gave me an other huge peach that had some small damage (so probably they couldn't sell it) that was softer and more juicy... but I found the harder one more delicous. 

The temple did remind me a bit of Kiyomizudera in Kyoto... only that this one only gets a few visitors a day, has a much nicer view and even a small cave behind the temple. 

Cycling back to Aizu Wakamatsu I could see that it was raining in the distance and it seems that in Wakamatsu itself it had rained very heavily... but I only got the rainbow: 

SW2023 D1 Koriyama - Aizuwakamatsu

Route: Koriyama - Lake Inawashiro - Aizuwakamatsu 
Bicycle: 82 km
Average speed: 15,4 km/h
Total ascent: 873 m
Riding time: 5:20 h
Weather: Sun, some clouds and still very hot and humid (Wahoo says 27C, but definitely was more)

I planned this trip a few weeks ago when I hoped that by mid September the temperature would be a bit cooler. And while it is definitely cooler than at the peak of the heat in August it is still very hot. But finally cyclable. 

My bike also was in repairs over the summer so it’s the first longer ride in a long time. 

I started yesterday after work and went already (by Shinkansen) to Koriyama, so that I could get an “early” start today. Finally it wasn’t that early, but still early enough to do everything I had planned for today. 

Koriyama is one of those very ugly Japanese cities with a lot of new (and not so new anymore) buildings that don’t create one city together but just a bunch of ugly buildings interrupted by a lot of car parks around the station. 

I cycled out of the city and up and up a relatively quiet road. Which at one point looked frighteningly steep, but actually wasn’t that steep and perfectly cyclable. 

Once up the rest was downhill / flat just with a little bit of up and down at some points along the lake. I went straight down to the lake in the expectation to find (a lot) of restaurants, but that wasn’t the case. It was mainly ample camping areas around the lake. Mostly fir people doing “day camping”. (Not sure if that’s a thing outside of Japan, but here it is quite widespread. People go to some nature location, build up a huge tent of just a shade, bring thousands of things with them: foldable chairs, tables, BBQ sets, has cookers, food, cutlery… the list seems endless and the cars full with stuff. Often it seems that even the cars are specific for transporting all this camping equipment. So while I didn’t find a restaurant by just going to the beach, google maps came to my rescue and found a place really close by. 

From there I continued my ride on the west side of the lake sometimes was really nice views over the lake and the mountains behind it. This lake is the fourth largest in Japan, I’ve already done the full circle off the first, second and third largest lake, but not of this one. I did a little bit under half of the lake, because my goal was a Aizuwakamatsu for today.

Along the way, I also saw these small white flowers, which kind of look like a white version of rape. However, I learned on the next day that they are soba, buckwheat. 

After a very nice and gentle descend from the lake, down to Aizuwakamatsu, yes, the lake is above the city. I made a stop at Sazae temple to see its special pagoda, which is constructed as a double helix. You can actually visit inside and go up and down in one sweep. 

I knew that the castle was going to close at 5:00 and last entrance was at 4:00, so I thought I was a little bit late, but actually, it was not very far and generally downhill from the temple to the castle, so I made it in absolutely good time, no hurry and could visit the castle as well today. As so many castles, also, this one was reconstructed only after the second world war. It got original destroyed sometime in the 19th century, but not during any war but apparently rather as a planned demolition of the castle. There were even pictures how it looked like before the demolition, and it didn’t look like it was ready for demolition, but that’s what they did. Only to rebuild it, this time in concrete, about 100 years later. But they did a reasonably nice job, and specially from the outside it is very scenic.

Inside is a museum, all in Japanese, about the history of the region, the samurais, the wars that were fought and lost around Aizu, and the helmets of the samurais, which must have inspired the designer of Darth Vader. 

From the castle it was a short ride to my guest house, where I will be staying for two nights. With all the heat, I was obviously drenched in sweat, but found very a nice onsen / sento close to Wakamatsu station, which had an incredible number of different pools, some of them outside some inside, with different waters and all this at the very cheap price of only ¥450. And I was early enough to finally get an Akasuri (Korean body exfoliation), which I had hoped to do a few months ago back when I was cycling around Fuji lake, but didn’t manage to get an appointment.