D2 - Fuji5ko and Shiraito falls

Route: Yamanakako- all 5 Fuji lakes - down to Fuji 
Bicycle: 108 km
Train: 140 km
Total ascent: 599 m
Average speed: 19,5 km/h
Riding time:
Weather: cloudy with a little bit of sun, no rain but quite cold, 7C

Cold autumn at last. After last weekend when it was still pretty warm, this weekend the temperature finally felt like November. In the morning from my hotel rooms there was no Fuji to be seen anywhere…

.. by the time I was ready to start the ride a little bit of Fuji was visible. 

The first lake was Yamanakako, which has a marvelous cycling path along most of its shore.

Lake #2 was Kawaguchiko, the most popular of them all with tourists. Along the shore was also a momiji festival, which essentially is an excuse to have food stalls and tourists in the same place at the same time. And more cars than necessary clogging up the road. But luckily after the festival the traffic also ended. 

Lake#3 is Saiko lake, which just seems to be an extension of Yamanakako.

Lake #4 is the rather small lake shoji, where I had lunch.

And finally lake #5 is lake Motosu a relatively big lake with little traffic.

From there I had 2 options: cycle back along the lakes to Kawaguchiko or cycle all the way down to the Pacfic and Fuji or Shin-Fuji station. And while I was a bit afraid of the long descent down to Fuji, because of the cold air, this was the way I took.  And I was perfectly dressed for the occasion: Undershirt with short sleeves, under shirt with long sleeves, Castelli jacket, wind resistant cap, baklava, cycling shorts, leg warmers, socks, closed shoes and gloves. 

On my way down I had seen that the Shiroito water falls were on my path. I had heard about them but didn’t really know what they are, but it was on the way, so I stopped. It’s apparently a major tourist attraction with a lot of shops  and a unique waterfall.

The tour planned in Komoot was saying that it would take over 900 meter of climbing when reality it were shy about of 600 m. This happens quite often. During the ride sometimes on a perfectly flat road wahoo was “seeing” steep hills, which just didn’t exist. This is not very practical because I might decide against a certain route for too much climbing, but if in reality it’s only about half of the climbing I might have done that ride. 

D1 To Yamanakako

Route: Hashimoto - Doshi - Yamanakako 
Bicycle: 64 km
Train: 32 km
Total Ascent: 1412 m
Average Speed: 13,2 km/h
Riding Time: 4:45 h
Weather: grey and a little bit of rain in some moments, 7 C

For this weekend I planned to ride to Fujisan and then halfway around it. To the starting point I went by train from Meidaimae to Hashimoto. A very convenient way for me to get from Tokyo to the foot of some mountains and the countryside. Under 2 km from my house I can catch a direct train that passes probably every 10 minutes or even less and gets me out into the green in 30 to 40 minutes. Once at the station, I put together the bike again.Today there was a local group of promoters for cycling in the area, who had set up a specific place to put your bike together with a bicycle rack, and also some tools. But for them, the important thing was that you completed a survey. I don’t really think I need a specific place to put the bicycle together, especially because it wasn’t really close to the exit from the station, so actually, it was a little bit inconvenient. But if they can improve the cycling infrastructure in the area it will be welcome.

From there I was off into the mountains, following the road that the cyclists took at the Tokyo Olympics a few years ago, and I took a few months ago when I came to Yamanakako the last time.

It is a long road all uphill never really, really steep, so I can make up my way slowly, but steadily. At approximately the midway point, there is the village of Doshi with several options for lunch. Today I went to a small restaurant of an elderly lady who transformed her living room into a curry restaurant. She had one of those vending machines for tickets for lunch, with a lot of buttons that seemed to indicate that there was a lot of different choices. But she also had pictures of the menu and actually they were only two choices. Either curry with fried chicken, or the same dish without curry. All the choices in the machine were for the spiciness and the amount of rice.

It is a long road all uphill and then only about 4 km downhill to the lake. Originally I had planned to ride around the lake ones like I did back in June. But it was kind of cold and damp and no Fuji in sight so instead, I went directly to an onsen not very far from my accommodation. The same onsen I went to in June and actually also the same hotel that I used back in June.

D3 Nozawaonsen to Nagano

Route: Nozawa onsen - Hirataki - Nagano
Bicycle: 110 km
Train: 250 km
Total ascent: 1078 m
Average speed:  17.4 km/h
Riding time: 6:30 h
Weather: sunny and warm (for being November), 18 C

As I was already halfway up the mountain I decided to continue going up through the ski slopes. 

The road had very little traffic. I think there were more cross-country skiers that overtook me than cars. And overtake they did at a speed so fast I didn’t have time to get a good picture. A bit later another smaller group arrived and I was prepared and got them on video but they were nowhere as fast as the first group. Not sure if they were the Olympic squad or something like that. 

I however stopped a few times during the ascent to take pictures, enjoy the scenery and catch my breath. 

When I arrived at “the top” (it wasn’t really the top but the place from where a road descends to the valley), I decided to continue just a little bit more before turning and going downhill. From the map I thought that this road was a bit larger than the one I had come up from Nozawa but it was even smaller, and from tomorrow until end of May (!) will be closed for the winter. A bit early maybe considering how warm it was even on top today. There was so little traffic that on the entire downhill I only met 1 car and 1 motorcycle. The gradient of the descent was also good I did break a lot, but still doable. And not too many curves. 

The topic of little traffic surprisingly continued down in the valley thanks to two roads on both sides of the river. One with and one (nearly ) without traffic. 

Many varied roads and most of them with nearly no traffic! What a treat! 

While I am writing this I am sitting in the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. This being a long weekend, the shinkansen were really full. There were no more reserved seats on any shinkansen (which is fine by me as I prefer non-reserved)... but in such circumstances this also means that the non-reserved section will be really full. So well, I lined up at the unreserved car. The first Shinkansen that came was already full, but still a lot of people squeezed in. So many that they needed to apply the "backwards entering technique" you see so frequently with commuter trains in Tokyo. I waited for the next one, an "Asama" shinkansen, which starts in Nagano, so I was assured a seat and a cozy spot for the bike behind the last row. Surprisingly this shinkansen did not get overcrowded, not even in Karuizawa where I have often seen the Shinkansen to have standing space only. 

D2 Nozawa onsen to Ryuo ski village and back

Route: Nozawaonsen - Ryuo ski slopes - Nozawaonsen
Bicycle: 61 km
Total ascent:1,215 m
Riding time: 4:12 h
Average speed: 14,6 km/h
Weather: some clouds but dry, 15 C

When I was in this area a few weeks ago in Shibu onsen, I found an interesting place on Google maps. A gondola going up to lookout point where one can see, in the right conditions, a sea of clouds below. However, when I was here the last time the conditions were not right. Actually, the lookout point was in the clouds for that entire day. Luckily, they have a live feed on YouTube where one can check the current situation. So I didn’t go back then but now that I’m back in this area I planed to go today.

As I am staying currently, also in a ski station, the first thing to do was going down hills, all the way down. And then it was all the way up to the next ski village: Ryuo. And up and up. 

But on a quiet road with not too much traffic. Admittedly this picture was from a specially quiet road  so quiet that I was ringing my bell just in case any bear was around.

The climb up seemed endless and the valley station of the gondola definitely wasn’t in a “valley”. But rather very much up a hill… only that the mountain behind was even higher. 1,770 m to be precise. 

When I finally arrived I parked my bicycle and started my prep what to bring, what to leave with the bike, when I heard an amount that the next gondola is going to leave soon. And I just about still made it. On the mountain the first thing, before enjoying the view was to get lunch in a rather trendy panorama restaurant. After lunch the obligatory pictures of the view …

… and then I made it to the next gondola a few minutes later, and returned down back to my bike. From there it was mainly downhill until it wasn’t. Until I needed to cycle up again to Nozawa onsen. On the downhill I passed through an Apple plantation (and other fruits: pears, grapes, kaki…). So many apples that the air was thick with the smell of apples. 

I knew the whole time that the climb up to my ski hotel was waiting at the end of the day and I was very apprehensive of it and unsure if I would have enough energy to get up there. However finally it was easier than yesterday. Maybe because I already knew how the road would evolve and there isn’t any crazy steep section. 

Nozawa onsen was one of the several places where the Olympics of 1998 were held, apparently the Biathlon events. However they also have a ski jump arena.

As yesterday the owner of the lodge drove me down to the village where I returned to the only onsen in town with a rotenburo to wash and relax and then to have dinner. 

D1 Nagano to Nozawaonsen

Route: Nagano to Nozawaonsen
Bicycle: 70 km
Train: 250 km
Average Speed: 14.5 km/h
Total ascent: 1050 m
Riding time: 4:30 h
Weather: Warm, sunny and just splendid, 20 C

Another long weekend, again good weather... actually quite warm for early November in Nagano... and off I went again to Nagano. A few weeks ago, I had organized several weekends away booking even double accomodations in two differents places where I want to ride, so I could cancel based on the weather. The other option for this weekend was Shizuoka... but Nagano in early November is definitely the place to be. 

I got up early in the morning... but it takes me quite some time to actually get started, so finally I didn't arrive to Nagano station until shortly after 10:00 and rolled out just before 10:30. There are different ways from Nagano to Nozawaonsen. Obviously the easiest would be a train... however that isn't the plan here. The second easiest would be just to follow the river to the foot of the ascent up to Nozawaonsen... boring... so instead I planned to visit yet again Nojiri lake but with the late start, lack of sleep, and the ascent that is needed to even get to the lake I got tired mid way through, so shortened the ride a little bit. Still came pretty close to the lake... but not to the lake itself. But road through really nice autumn colours in the countryside. 

I always knew that at the end there was a hill awaiting me... I just didn't realize how much of a hill it was. It seemed endless to my already tired body... and even when I reached this sign of Nozawa onsen, there wasn't actually yet any sign of the village itself. For that I needed to cycle a little bit further uphill until a higher lying valley came into view. 

But the lodge I had reserved wasn't in town... but rather in the ski area of Nozawa onsen. So it continued up and up for me. However once arrived, I was rewarded by this nice sunset over the Japanese alps in a light evening breeze: 

My hotel itself was called "Lodge Hahnenkamm" like the ski descent in Kitzbühel. An other hotel up there was called "Pension Schnee". Very Austrian everything. 

I was the only guest for the entire weekend and the hotel owners were extremly kind. They drove me down to the village (which in meters isn't very far, but a steep descent), where I went to the only onsen in town with a rotenburo... but that was a very nice onsen: Furusato no yu. I had a nice relaxing bath there. It has 2 pools inside. One called "lukewarm" at 41-42 C and one called "hot" at 43-45 C. And a rotenburo which seemed to be cooler than the lukewarm option. The hot option initially might seem to hot, but after a while was actually quite enjoyable. As long as you don't move around in the hot water. 

The city itself, being an onsen town is actually dotted with onsen, aparently all free of charge and the ones I saw all looking very nice... but none of them have a rotenburo... and if I can have a rotenburo that is definitely where I am headed. They looked nice though. Very traditional. 

After the bath I had dinner in town, then called again my hotel owner, who came down to the village to pick me up again. 

D5 Noijiri lake and back home

Route: Shibu onsen - Lake Nojiri - Nagano
Bicycle: 83 km
Train: 250 km
Average speed: 16,6 km/h
Total ascent: 1135 m
Riding time: 5:15 h
Weather: a bit of everything (except snow), 13 C

For the last day of this very long weekend I made yesterday two different plans:

• Plan A: ride up to the gondola for Sora terrace. Apparently a place where one can often see a sea of clouds. But not today… thanks to their live feed on YouTube I could check and it was within the clouds for the entire day. 
• Plan B: ride (again) to Lake Nojiri. Again because I had been here about a year ago already and really liked the lake, the landscape and the small villages. 

Plan B it was. 

In the morning it was still raining at the hight of my Minshuku but by the time I was ready to leave the rain has stopped. But streets were still damp. It was a leisurely ride downhill. Not too steep and mostly on very quiet roads. 

On the other side of the broad and very fertile valley I made it up the hills on a road that was so quiet that hardly any car passed but still it was a wide road. A few small villages thrown into the landscape. All apparently with minimal services only. 

I don’t think I saw a single restaurant anywhere. But I knew that this wouldn’t be a problem because the lake itself is a bit touristic. Low key, but touristic for local people to enjoy fishing, water sports…

I had phoned ahead to see if a small restaurant was open, and it was. Riding there it started to rain lightly, nothing to worry too much about. But about 1 min after arriving and sitting in the warm room , rain started to pour down. While I ate my Curry rice and an extremely tasty tomato salad (of local tomatoes), the rain stopped and even a shy sun was making some intermittent appearance.

While riding around the lake I had a feeling like there was something wrong with my rear wheel. And there was. The wheel had lost most of its air. I tried pumping it up with my small pump, but either that pump is so small that only microscopic amounts of air enter or I did something wrong, it didn’t seem that the wheel was gaining any air. So I continued riding carefully until the next village along the lake where I asked at a few watersport shops and the third one (that was actually closed) I found a bike pump. With that proper pump I managed to pump it up. It seemed that it was leaking air from a lot of microscopic holes on the side of the tire. But I checked during my ride (there would have been the opportunity to take a train back to Nagano) and it seemed that the air was now holding. Will need to observe that. The tire is less than a week old and tubeless.

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.