Overview Map of the actual ride

Riding leisurely around Tokyo 新橋から目黒を通して、下北沢へ、新橋に戻ってきた

Back in Tokyo for about 2 weeks on a business travel I took the opportunity of relatively good weather and a free day today for some Docomo bicycle riding. The Docomo bicycles are a fleet of rental bicycles available in a good number of Tokyo districts (but not in Setagaya and Meguro, where I actually went today). The bicycles themselves are ridiculously small ...

My small docomo cycle in front of the Bicycle Culture Centre... a place I have never visited, but passed by already numerous times with my NPC friends

... it really feels more like riding a bicycle of a 10 year old. But well... it's still a bicycle. 

They are also all electrical, which feels strange as if someone is pushing you (probably the father of the 10 year old riding it). During daytime it is possible to ride without the electrical support (which makes riding them however a bit hard, as they are very heavy), but at night time, if you want light, you get with it automatically also the electrical support. 

I am staying these days in a weekly apartment close to work, i.e. close to Shinbashi. A castle like looking entrance behind which a 8 storey apartment building with 1-room apartments is hiding. But perfect for me, still much larger than a hotel room. 

After sleeping in I finally got out at around 14:00 and took a bike from a very nearby cycle station, which is essentially on an other apartment buildings' bicycle parking lot. From there passing by Shiba-Koen, I made my way to the Institute for Nature Studies, a big forrest in the middle of Tokyo, in Meguro, which I hadn't even known about until a few days ago. 

Although this garden is already in Meguro, it is very close to Minato-ku, so that the closest bicycle docking station is actually not too far away. For some reason Docomo hasn't yet made it into Meguro. After visiting the garden (well, wood), I took again a bicycle and rode off to my old neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa, riding along Megurogawa, famous for its cherry trees, but this year cherry blossom was unusually early, so that by now, 15th of April, everything has well passed. In general the trees already were totally green without a single hint of flower on them. Only these few here, probably of a slightly late blooming variety had still some flowers on them, well hidden behind green leaves. 

Riding on I passed by our old house, which is still standing (that is never sure in Tokyo where older buildings easily get torn down for something new) and even the garden is still growing without further human intervention...

... got my haircut at my old hairdresser...

... and one of the best pizza's in town at Guerrero: 

After dinner, I took again my bicycle, which I had to park just outside, as docomo also has not yet (?) arrived to Setagaya, and rode back to Shinbashi. This time with light and thus with electrical power. Which was actually quite a nice ride through the night back. 

Cute Japan on the road 可愛いニッポン

This blog post is about the cute construction side road barriers that I have only seen in Japan

I am pretty sure out there is the world wide web are dedicated pages only to Japanese construction sites, but I took a few pictures of road barrier while riding and wanted to share them for being SOOOO cute. 

Unfortunately of the funniest of all I did not get a picture: A Hello Kitty themed fence that was being moved by a large construction worker. But I got in February 2019 an other Hello Kitty fence in a specially ugly construction side:

Here my selection:

Most are animal of some kind... 

 

 

But there are also some, very polite, humanly formed ones. 

Some that have sprung from the pages of a manga:

Or, very correctly, Fuji shaped road cones:

I feel that I took pictures only of a small proportion of Japanese road barriers. Once travelling by car through a very long construction side, there was an entire zoo lined up at the road. Deer, giraffe, monkeys, tigers, elephants, turtles... Sadly I didn't take a picture. 

Useful Japanese for cyclists 自転車の方への日本語

This post is about a few useful Japanese words you might want to be able to read / recognize before starting a bicycle tour through Japan

I don't plan to write all possible words that you might need in Japan as a tourist, as I am sure there are web pages out there, dedicated just to this. I just wanted to upload a few pictures of cycling specific road signs that might be a good idea to be able to read. 

Stop signs 

Stop signs in Japan are not octagonal, but rather can come in round shapes or just written on the street. Adding to this, they can come written in 3 different scripts: Hiragana alone, Katakana alone or Kanji and Hiragana (and very seldom also Kanji and Katakana).

Hiragana: とまれ
Katakana: トマレ
Kanji & Hiragana: 止まれ
Kanji & Katakana: 止マレ

It all means the same, STOP!

Riding in the other direction in One-way-streets

In general in Japan as a cyclist you are allowed to ride in the opposite direction in one-way-street. There should however always be a sign to actually allow it. It is normally written in kanji (and hiragana) and confusingly enough can come in different wordings.

E.g. 軽車両を除く literally meaning "light vehicles excepted", thus also including other vehicles other than bicycles, 二輪を除く meaning "two wheelers excepted" or the more straightforward 自転車を除く "except bicycles". I guess there can be also other phrases.




























Obviously if you are looking at a really big street, then you should always ride on the correct side of the street. But with the many small streets in Japan it is generally perfectly fine to ride in counter sense.

Bicycle parking

Again there are different words, the ones I can think of are: 駐輪場、自転車置き場 both meaning exactly the same. There are other words out there for the same concept as well. It is highly unlikely that they would be written in hiragana or katakana, simply because the words are longer and are directed to a more adult audience, while the "STOP" sign needs to be understood by small children as well, bicycle parking lot isn't so essential.

Bicycle lane

Again, there a different words for that, sometimes it can be quite easily deducted from the sign, other times only something like 自転車道, very literally bicycle lane, can be found. The one below surprisingly was with a pay box (有料) at the end... but that was a very specific bridge close to Kyoto. 

A more complete list of bicycle related Japanese words, can be found here:  http://www.japancycling.org/v2/info/lang/japaneses.shtml

Night Pedal Cruising - Hatsumode ride 2018 初詣ライドNPCチームと

These days back in Tokyo for the final removal after 3 years in Japan back to Europe, this time Holland. But luckily I was able to plan the trip right around the January NPC ride. Not having any longer a bicycle in Japan (as I brought the brompton with me back in late November to the Netherlands), I opted for Docomo sharing bikes, now available in many wards of Tokyo, including Shibuya (where the NPC ride starts), Shinjuku (where I was staying my last two days with a friend in Tokyo and Minato, where we finished the nights ride.

This time also 2 colleagues from work and the brother of one of them came along. Everyone on docomo's. 

We started in Shibuya in front of the United Nations University, but as I had seen on the Docomo web page that there were only a low number of bicycles available in the area, I decided to ride there from where I was staying. So I picked-up my bicycle in Shinjuku ward and rode leisurely to our starting point. Not so leisurely to actually turn on the electrical motor of the bicycle. 

It was the Hatsumode ride, so included visits to two shrines where we paid our respect to the local gods for a happy and successful upcoming year. Atago shrine, the second we visited, is located on the highest hill in all 23 wards of Tokyo! 

Before that we had a longer stop at Tokyo station, which just completed its reform. However I did not go an visit the station, but rather changed my bicycle. I hadn't used my battery until then, as it was very low, but even without using it, it was running out of energy. And the impractical feature is that if you want light, you need to switch the motor on. No motor, no light... which also means that from Tokyo station onwards I had this gentle and somewhat awkward push while riding. Nothing to be done about that. 

We finished our ride under Tokyo tower and then discussed where to go for some warm dinner.

As so often (I hadn't really thought about it before someone said it), we finished going to a Chinese place... This time a Taiwanese restaurant, where we had "my" shinnenkai only a few days earlier. But it was in a convenient location (including a Docomo docking station) and it did tick the box of "Chinese food".  

As I didn't have my garmin with me, I only recorded the ride on "map my ride" and then uploaded it to Strava. Not terribly convenient, also because it drains rapidly the battery of the phone. But here you go!

Strava year 2017 summary

Strava thought that it would be a good idea to make an animation of the statistics of 2017... well, here you go. 

Since I started using Strava, sometime in summer 2017, I have done climbed nearly 10,000 m (I would have never suspected this, as I am so adverse to cycling uphill) and did ride around 2,000 km.

I am sure that Strava will "punish" me this year for not doing another 2 months ride through Japan (or elsewhere), sending me incessant email reminders that I should go out and workout! Grrrrrr!!!

Strava year summary

Best cycling experiences

Bicycle touring Japan - Top 10 cycling experiences

Here my personal top 10 bicycle experiences in Japan:

1. Shimanami Kaido
• Reasons:
• Dedicated cycle lane on all bridges between the islands. 
• Indicated cycle route through all the islands.
• Superbe landscape.
• Here a detailed description of the rides. 
2. From Lake Biwa to Nara prefecture
• Reasons:
• Multiple cycle roads available. They are of varying quality from high speed cycling road along the river between Kyoto and Nara to partly overgrown lanes or gravel. But overall it is a very long cycling trip in which one can use on-and-off cycle lanes.
• Good cycling lanes around Lake Biwa, with nice views on the lake and not the typical "river ride". 
• Specially around Nara there are also a lot of sign posts specifically for cyclists.
• Great area with a lot of touristic highlights, even outside the obvious destinations
• Here a summary of the ride
3. Sado island
• Reasons:
• Small roads with little traffic leading through wonderful country side and well preserved and still functioning villages, including some sightseeing options (temples, shrines...) which are void of tourists. 
• In the center between Ryotsu and Mano Sado island is quite flat, but for the more ambitious cyclists there are two ranges of mountains on each side of the island to explore. 
• Here the detailed description of the 4 days touring Sado
4. Kibi Plain
• Reasons:
• Well indicated cycling lane through fields and on small rural paths
• Sightseeing spots such as temples and shrines
• Here a detailed description of the ride
5. Tono valley
• Reasons:
• I originally had decided to go to Tono valley because I heard of a good cycling infrastructure there. Well there is the typical cycle path along a river, however the valley has a lot more to offer, with having small streets with little traffic.
• The local tourism office has some maps for suggested rides
• Very nice landscape with still a lot of traditional houses 
• I did not ride INTO Tono valley by bicycles but rather by train (because of hills and of rain), however the part I did cycle up from Shin Hanamaki to Iwanebashi was also nice. No bicycle lane, but not a lot of traffic anyway. 
• Here and here a detailed description of the ride
6. Kubihiki cycling path on the Sea of Japan between Naoetsu and Itoigawa
• Reasons:
• 30 km cycling lane along the Sea of Japan from outside Naoetsu to Itoigawa 
• Nice view of the sea
• On an old railway track for most parts
• Relatively well maintained
• Use of old railway tunnels adds to the special feeling
• Keeps you away from the busy road 
• Here a detailed description of the ride
• And here for an official map
7. Cycling with friends from the NPC
• Here some rides with my friends from the Night Pedal Cruising in Tokyo
• Recently we also started to announce them on Meet-up, if you want to join
8. Cycle lane between Sapporo and Kitahiroshima. 
• Reasons: 
• Wide cycle lane through the forest between Sapporo and Kitahiroshima.
• In some points totally quiet, which I appreciated even more after riding in the traffic of Sapporo city. 
• Gently sloping up and down, as it is an old train track
• It is relatively short though. 
• Here the detailed description of the ride
9. Cycle lane to Sayama Lake
• Reasons:
• Long totally straight cycling lane out from Tokyo to Sayama Lake used by both neighbourhood cyclists as well as people going more seriously to Sayama Lake
• Links to a quite long cycling path out of Tokyo, you can essentially start in Shinjuku (or maybe even before), ride down along Kanda river to Kichijoji, then through small neighbourhood streets until somewhere behind Koganei park, get on the cycling road there (see map in the link below) and then ride slowly up to the lake and make a full round of the lake on the cycling path before returning back to Tokyo.
• Easy accessible from downtown Tokyo
• Here a map of the ride
10. Cycling along the Pacific from Shizuoka to Irago and on by ferry to Ise.
• Reasons:
• A long stretch along the Pacific ocean with views of the ocean and farther into Irago peninsula through fields
• The one big problem however is the maintenance of this cycle path. Besides a few perfect stretches (like the one leading from somewhere outside of Shizuoka to Omaezaki on an old railway track or the last few kilometers leading to cape Irago) it has a lot of totally overgrown parts that can become totally impassible and specially between Omaezaki and Hamamatsu the sand dunes on the path are a real problem. 
• Apparently nothing is being done against the vegetation. A bit more is being done against the sand, but for the time being I only saw statements of that something WILL be done, no results yet (unless the path was even worse before)
• Here a detailed description of the rides

Best accommodations

Bicycle touring Japan - Best accommodation

In this post I list those accommodations where I stayed and that I think I can recommend to other travellers. I have stayed at many others, but those didn't impress me specifically. The list is ordered by region, roughly from North to South.

Japan - generally: 

• Toyoko Inn 東横イン
• This is a big chain of business hotels. The rooms are simple but reliable and practically furbished (e.g. there is a washing line in the bathroom). You can get a membership card (I think for 1500 Yen) and then with each overnight stay points are accumulated and after 10 you get one free night. The hotels are normally conveniently located next to major railway stations. 
• Highlights:
• Discount system
• Practical rooms
• Location:
• All over Japan, close to big railway stations in general
• Big cities only
• Family Lodge ファミリーロッジ
• I only stayed at one in Kurobe. It seems to be a budget hotel chain mainly catering to car drivers looking for a place to sleep outside of cities but close to major streets. It is sleeping only, with only a minimal service for breakfast. But a conbini most likely wont be too far away to get something else. 
• Highlights:
• Good cost-benefit ratio
• Big rooms, clean and very new
• See here for a description of the experience

Hokkaido

• Ashita no jo　あしたの城
• This is a good quality Minshuku, with friendly hosts and a modern building. 
• Highlights:
• Gyunyunabe ("milk soup") for dinner and eating it with other solo travellers
• View in to the garden from the ofuro (bath tub)
• The big garden with view on Rishiri island
• Nice common living room. 
• Location: 
• Hokkaido, close to Tokumitsu
• Find a more detailed description of the ride to it here.
• Kirkiri 吉里吉里
• This feels like a riders house, at least it is very much geared towards riders of all kind, and the hosts have great interest in all their guests with a nice guest book. 
• Highlights:
• Very good dinner and breakfast
• Very friendly host
• The rooms are relatively small and dark, but you get the restaurant room to use, so essentially the room is for sleeping only. 
• Location:
• Hokkaido, Haboro
• Find a more detailed description of the ride to it here and a picture in front of it here. 

Aomori

• Shukubo on Osorezan - Kichijoukaku 吉祥閣
• This is a big a modern Shukubo (temple stay) right on top of a vulcano and obviously right beside the temple. Osorezan being apparently one of the 3 most sacred places in Japan. The room was really superb. Probably so far on this travel the best room I had. Food was below my expectations (which were high). And as due for a temple stay, you get to participate in the morning prayer at 6:30
• Highlights:
• Location! On a vulcano, right besides a temple, on one of the 3 most sacred places of Japan
• Onsen (see here for a rating of the onsen)
• Location: 
• Aomori, Osorezan
• A more detailed description of the experience here and here
• Business-in Club - ビジネスイン倶楽部
• This is a basic business hotel, quite small and I think family run in the small city of Noheji. It might not look very inviting from outside, but actually inside it is all totally new. The room is basic, but you get your own toilet and shower, which is not standard everywhere in Japan, specially with Japanese rooms. 
• Highlights:
• Very newly reformed
• Incredible number of electrical plugs
• Nice, basic rooms
• Location:
• Aomori, Noheji
• A more detailed description here

Toyama

• Kuronagi onsen 黒薙温泉
• This is a small simple ryokan with a superb onsen with two rotenburos (one mixed bathing, one female-only) in the middle of nature, but still reasonable reachable without any hiking skills. 
• Highlights:
• onsen pools surrounded by nature with direct views into the river gorge (see here for a rating of the onsen)
• If you are lucky you can watch the monkeys while bathing (you bathing, monkeys at their daily chores)
• Location:
• Toyama, Kuronagi onsen (on the Kurobe railway line)
• Find a more detailed description of the experience here and here

Gifu

• Hirayu no mori 平湯の森
• This is a onsen hotel buildt to resemble a mountain village, with simple tatami rooms
• Highlights:
• onsen hotel with no less than 9 different rotenburos (female section, 7 in the men's section)
• while it is a relatively bit onsen hotel, it is not ugly as many others are
• conveniently located right besides the bus stop of Hirayu onsen
• Location:
• Gifu, Hirayu onsen
• See here for a more detailed ranking of the onsen. 
• See here & here for a description of the experience

Aichi

• Kyukamura Irago 休暇村　伊良湖
• This hotel is one in the chain of Kyukamura ("vacation village"). It is located right inside a national park and this is definitely one of its attractions.
• Highlights:
• nice landscape directly surrounding the hotel
• reasonably good dining and breakfast buffet
• several activities are offered by the hotel
• Location:
• Aichi, Cape Irago
• See here & here for a description of the experience

Nara

• Haruya Hostel はる家
• A hostel, although in other places it would probably be called ryokan, in the old part of Naramachi in a restored old town house. 
• Highlights:
• good location
• Nice old town house
• Friendly hostel staff
• Location:
• Naramachi
• See here & here for a description of the experience. 
• Guesthouse Egao グエストハウス笑顔
• An other hostel, in a old town house, not as beautiful as the Haruya hostel above, but also cheaper, very close to Imaicho.
• Highlights
• Very friendly hosts
• Free breakfast
• Very recently renovated guesthouse with traditional tatami rooms
• Good price
• Location:
• Yamagoyagi
• See here for a description of the experience. 

Day 57 - Fukuoka and back to Tokyo 福岡から東京へ帰る

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 57

The very last day of this trip by bicycle, train, bus, ferry, plane, taxi and on foot through Japan, did not see a single kilometer on the bicycle... but many in a plane

Bicycle: 0 km 
Bus: 14 km
Taxi: 29 km
Plane: 1000 km

Route: Fukuoka hotel to city museum and airport and back to home in Tokyo

Weather: Rainy and quite cold


Although this travel through Japan was about bicycle travelling, at least mainly, today on my very last day, no bicycle riding involved at all, as it was raining outside quite intensely and cold:

After considering my options, I excluded to make a last minute splash to Toto toilet museum in Northern Kyushu, for being simply too far from Fukuoka. Looking at my other museum options closer to Fukuoka I found the Fukuoka city museum and took a bus there.

It was actually a quite good, modern museum. Somewhat similar to the Edo museum in Tokyo, with lively exhibits explaining the history of Kyushu since prehistoric times until today. There was also a good English audio guide and also many of the descriptions in the museum were in English. So I think it was a good option what to do on this rainy, cold day.

I made it back to the hotel in time, to catch a cab to the closeby airport and then off my brompton and we back to Tokyo.

Day 56 - Sumo in Fukuoka 福岡で相撲を

Bicycle touring Japan - Day 56

On the last but one day of this trip through Japan, only little cycling, but a very Japanese highlight, Sumo at the Fukuoka tournament and also my last onsen soak of this ride. 

Bicycle:  5.2 km 
Riding time: 26 min
Total ascent: 28 m

Route: Hotel to Sumo tournament 

Weather: Sunny, 12 C

After 56 days cycling through Japan I finally made it to one last highlight of this trip, the sumo tournament in Fukuoka. I had tried earlier this year to get tickets for the sumo tournament in Tokyo, but although I went to the internet page about 30 min after the pre-sale started, the page did not work, phone did not work either and by the time I was in a conbini (that actually was not to far from where I was at the time), there were no seats anymore on any weekends... and I didn't want to take a day off, "just" for watching sumo. So when the tickets for the Fukuoka tournament started pre-sale in early October, I immediately went ahead and got my ticket for today, a Tuesday. 

On this day with perfect weather, I left my dear brompton outside parked below the sumo wrestlers flags and got in Fukuoka International center for a full day of Sumo fighting. 

Sumo is organized in different grades but during a tournament day all grades fight. Starting in the morning with the most junior devision and then scaling up little by little to the more senior and up to the maximum division. When I arrived, not terribly early in the day, but still hours prior to the first professional league match, only a few people were already inside the hall, as one can appreciate from the pretty empty ranks. 

Between the 6 different sumo divisions there is not really a noticeable change or a break, but little by little more spectators arrived and also the sumo wrestlers got more ceremony. E.g. the typical gesture of throwing salt into the ring, only started at the Juryo division (the second highest). Below that much less ceremony. Not only the sumo wrestlers themselves get more and more colourful (from uniformly greyish mawashi for all, to individually and colourful mawashis in the high divisions. Also the sumo judges get longer and more colourful robes as the day progresses. 

Every now and then between the bouts the ring would get newly watered and swiped and after most fights there was at least some cleaning of the ring.

After a few low rank fights I made my way back to the atrium, to get a bento box and was right in time to see the arrival of a few of the highest ranking sumo fighters. A lot of people (maybe even more than inside) where waiting in the atrium, educatedly behind a yellow line on the floor, for their heroes. Who swept through quick paced with their helping junior sumo wrestlers behind them, carrying their belongings. 

Sumo wrestler

Junior sumo wrestler with the bags

I had my bento on my seat and after some time the higher divisions started. There was even this colourful entry ceremony of the Juryo and Makuuchi division. Here of the Juryo:

In order that there is only minimal waiting time between the different fights, the next two wrestlers already sit along side the ring waiting for their match. In the highest division only, they get their personal cushion, brought in by one of their junior sumo wrestler-helpers. 

Although the time to wait for the next sumo wrestler to enter the ring is small, the wait for the match to actually start gets longer from Juryo, as wrestlers do more and more ceremony. Here an entire match from first entering the ring to the actual match:

Here the fight also was actually quite long. Often it is only a few seconds (see the last few seconds of the video below):

Before the makuuchi division started, the reigning yokozuna performs his "entry dance" (for sure there is a technical, religious term for it):

Not after each fight, but from time to time even publicity comes through the ring, but as it is a sacred space, also the publicity is in ancient packing:

And here the final fight of the day, between Hakuho and Ichinojo, which ultimately was won by Hakuho, allowing him a few days later to win the third tournament this year by 14:1.

After an entire day of sumo, I concluded the day with my last onsen soak on this travel in an super-sento very close to the sumo hall.

Bicycle touring Japan - Ride maps

For details on the bicycle tour today in Fukuoka, checkout the below maps: