D4 - A cold and windy day on Lake Biwa

Route: Kyoto - Tokaido - Biwako - Maibara 
Bicycle: 94 km
Train: 420 km
Total Ascent: 518 m
Average Speed: 17,7 km/h
Riding Time: 5:18h
Weather: coooold and veryyy windyyy, cloudy, some snowflakes, 0 C

While I write this I am sitting in what should be a warm Shinkansen train, but I am still kind of cold and not looking forward to get off the train and into the cold again. But this can’t be helped. 

Originally my plan was to cycle along the old Tokaido road, the main route that connected Kyoto and Edo during the shogunate. To start from the right place, I first cycled up to Sanjo Ohashi, took a quick picture before heading out of the city and up to Otsu.

Once over the hills in Otsu I continued to follow the old Tokaido. I had planned the route based on a route I had found a few years ago on Strava and with the help of komoot and google maps. On the ground it wouldn’t be possible to follow it. It is indicated in some parts, but not good enough to be able to follow it through. I wanted to take a picture of such an indication, but always thought “I’ll do it later…” and never did. 

Somehow riding the old Tokaido did not live up to my expectations. Either it was relatively small neighborhood streets with frequent crossings or large streets with a lot of traffic. This combined with the cold and the fact that I would have ventured away from the Shinkansen line, finally turned the tide and made me return to Biwako and the known cycle path along it. 

Today it was very windy and for the most part it was either headwind or side/headwind and this in the cold. Per the thermometer on the wahoo it was about 1 C, but it felt way colder. Cold enough that I was actually kind of cold while riding, and still am. And no onsen awaits me at home tonight, but at least hot bath tub! 

Apparently all the other potential cyclists got the note and stayed home today. I think I saw 1 or 2 cyclists beyond Kyoto. And this in a place like Biwako, where there is normally quite a steady stream of cyclists. 

Even at THE tree there weren’t any people today taking pictures with their car/motorbike/bicycle 

D3 - Gardens in Kyoto

Route: within Kyoto
Bicycle: 42 km
Walking: 5 km
Total Ascent: 260 m

Average Speed: 10,9 km/h

Riding Time: 3:52 h
Weather: clouds, sun, windy and quite cold, 5 C

This whole trip came about because I got a ticket for Shugakuin imperial villa for today and there is a long weekend. So today first agenda point was the planned visit to this imperial villa on the outskirts of Kyoto. 

No idea how many imperial villas there are in Kyoto, but at least 3 as I have been previously to 2 others. This one is famous for its landscape garden incorporating the wider landscape, like an English garden.

Probably the English weren’t the only garden builders who realized that a garden can profit from its surroundings. Luckily for this garden, it is in the hilly part of Kyoto, still on the outskirts and thus the landscape is still there to act as a backdrop.

The garden is specially famous for its autumn colors. And now in February was a bit barren, no flowers yet, no leaves yet. But still nice… and this only means that I can come back here some day in the future.

In one of the buildings (none seemed really fit for living there…), was “one of the three best shelves” of Japan (per the description). I didn’t even know that this was a category to excel in.

After the visit I descended back into town, stopped along the way in an old fashioned ladies curry shop and then headed to the Mirei Shigemori house & garden, where I had a reservation for 14:00. I arrived a bit early so headed for some explorations of the surroundings, which is an important shrine. But what was really nice about that neighbourhood , how remote and tranquil it felt.

The garden is a Japanese zen like garden, which he built originally for a shrine building but then bought the house and garden and used it as residence. Residence with tea pavilion and all, but still quite a normal sized house. 

The small white stones represent the sea, the reddish wavey stones the shoreline that is awash with waves and the green moss populates islands in this sea with high, rocky mountains.

Although today the sun was shining (at times) it was really cold, so after the visit I decided to head back to my hotel, have an afternoon break , get my full gloves and then head out again to an onsen where I had been back in January and eaten very well. (The onsen is also okay, but the food was specially good.)

BTW, if you wonder what happened to D2 of this trip, well it was a rest day. It was cold and rainy so I decided to do some long overdue shopping: a new cover for my kotatsu futon and some zabuton to sit. I searched on Google maps and found a few potentially interesting stores, went to 2 and ordered in one. Both these stores where still producing their goods in Kyoto!

D1 - Gifu Hashima to Kyoto

Route: Gifu Hashima - Nakasendo - Lake Biwa - Kyoto
Bicycle: 124 km
Train: 400 km
Total ascent: 556 

Riding time: 6:26 h

Average speed: 19,3 km/h
Weather: initially light rain, then dry with clouds and some sun, but cold, 3 C

A 4 day weekend and ticket to a royal garden in Kyoto did bring me today to Kyoto. Although I am by nature not an early bird, my alarm was ringing shortly after 5:30 this morning to catch a train from Shimokitazawa at 6:20 and a Shinkansen from Tokyo station at 7:33. My Shinkansen of the day was a peculiar Hikari. The only additional stop to a Nozomi was Odawara. Apart from that pretty much a Nozomi until it started to stop at every station after Nagoya. But I had to get out at the first station beyond Nagoya. So overall a very easy ride. But I had to start early in order to have enough time on the bike.

When I arrived at Gifu Hashima it was gently raining, not too much to put me off from riding though. But I need to recognize that the first part, until about Sekigahara wasn’t a specially enjoyable ride. Just a ride through built up parts of a sprawling town.

But then I made it in the Nakasendo, there was even a sign post saying Kyoto to the right, Edo to the left. Did people really get lost? 

From there the road wound a little bit uphill but actually not that much. The planners of the Nakasendo 中山道 didn’t really want to go on top of the mountains but THROUGH the mountains with minimum resistance. Now the highway, a state road, a small road, the local trains and the Shinkansen all take this same pass to come from Nagoya to Biwako.

Over the pass and down to Maibara and I was in known territory: Lake Biwa. Where I have already cycled several times. And also this time I took a picture of this big tree on the shore an my bike: 

The last times I was here with the brompton and once even with the brompton and a skirt with the picture of the brompton at this tree:

This tree seems to be known in the entire area for taking pictures with your mode of transportation. This time there were some people arranging their cars for the perfect shot. Last time there were several motorbike riders doing the same. So I am not alone to think this is a nice place. Probably Instagramme is full of this tree, cars, motorcycles and bicycles. 

After this stop I continued on my way to Kyoto. I was considering in leaving the bicycle at Otsu station and come here tomorrow and start from here (idea was to cycle over to Uji and the tea plantations), but the weather forecast didn’t seem too good, so I stuck to my original plan and went all the way to Kyoto. 120+ km, but mostly flat around the lake. 

On the West side it was generally sunny (but cold), but the East side is a high mountain range that was covered in snow until quite low slopes lying in the shadow. 

My planned route took me over the Biwako Ohashi, and then to Otsu on the other side of the lake. But probably I should have stayed on the Eastern side. I remember that cycling there was quite good. On the Western side it’s just on a road with a lot of traffic. At least it’s nice to be able to pass by so many cars stuck in traffic. 

Over to Kyoto there us a steep hill. Last time I climbed it I was on my heavily loaded brompton and definitely pushed up the hill for the most part. Today with my light weight carbon road bike I managed to cycle up, albeit with a break. 

Down to Yamashino, up again and down to Kyoto and in the beginning dark I arrived at my accommodation for the next few days. My suitcase had also already arrived by TaQBin. After checkin I went to the local supermarket to get dinner and breakfast and then a shower was on the plan. But instead I found (thanks to google sensei) this sento closeby which was somewhere between a normal neighborhood sento and a super sento with 4 pools inside and (!) a rotenburo! 

A day away with plums

Route: Mito - Tsukuba
Bicycle: 82 km
Train: 200 km
Total Ascent: 346 m
Average Speed: 18,9 km/h
Riding Time: 4:20 h 
Weather: a bit of everything including a few drops of (light) rain, 15 C

Today I had a short night. After cycling yesterday with my friends from Night Pedal Cruising to a sento in Shinagawa, enjoy the sento, have dinner and then to my place to eat cake… I was in bed after 1:00. But I woke up at 5:30 in order to catch a subway at 6:20 to get to Mito by 9:00. 

Originally it had seemed that the weather today would be rainy, but when checking again onFriday it seemed that Ibaraki would be okay. Plus it is plum blossom time and Kairakuen in Mito is very famous for its many plums. 

The best thing about this garden for me was the smell of the flowers. Although the ume matsuri (plum festival) is already in full swing since a week or two, it is actually still too early. Most of the trees only have buds but no flowers. They did plant early to late trees, but only very few of the early trees are already in full bloom. Anyway this allowed me to document the many stages these flowers go through before being in full swing. No pictures yet of wilted flowers.

The garden claims to be one of the 3 most important traditional Japanese gardens, together with the garden in Okayama and Kanazawa. But for me it mainly seemed to be a huge plantation of many different plum trees on a field. I am sure it is very pretty when they are all in full flower, but that’s not what for me makes a Japanese garden. 

When I placed the ride I refound the rin-run- road by Tsukuba. 40 km of bicycle path that runs on a decommissioned train track. Not comparable to the train line cycling path over Venn but also no comparison to most Dutch cycling roads, but still nice enough, and a much nicer landscape than anywhere in the Netherlands. So I incorporated it in the ride, which made this ride very much enjoyable. 

On my way I came also through an apparently famous shrine, where there was some cos play action today. 

Originally I had planned to finish the day in an onsen close to Tsukuba station, and best time I’ll head to this direction I’ll definitely do this, but I am quite tired (not from the riding but from the short night), so I am back on my way home, already just a few stations away from home, looking forward to my bath tub at home, and early dinner! 

Miura Peninsula

Route: Yokosuka- Miura peninsula - Enoshima - Koza Shibuya 
Bicycle: 90 km
Train:110 km
Total ascent: 542 m
Average speed: 18,7 km/h

Riding time: 4:47 h
Weather: Sun and clouds and during the day surprisingly warm.  12 C

Today wasn’t my first time on Miura peninsula by bike but the first time I made it in just one day. Did choose though I think a different route. At least it seemed much flatter than I remembered it. 

I had my bike still all packed up from the ride to Odawara with my friends and earlier this week, so had decided to take advantage and start the ride somewhere outside of Tokyo. When looking for ideas, Miura peninsula came along. It’s a rather famous cycling destination from Tokyo, but frankly I am not sure I like it that much. Specially the part from Mizakiguchi to Zushi and further on to Enoshima has heavy traffic. So heavy that the cars hardly advance. For us cyclists it is possible to pass the cats on the left, but it isn’t the same fun as just riding. 

However one has to admit that the views over Tokyo Bay are nice.

Around Mizakiguchi the peninsula is quite rural at least when one manages to escape from the main road, then one is surrounded only by cabbage and daikon. So many of them, that actually the entire region smells cabbage. 

Shortly before Enoshima, Fujisan made its appearance. 

From Enoshima I entered one of the typical Japanese cycle paths along a river. This one after Fujisawa becomes a really nice one. But even better was the end in Koza Shibuya at Ofuro no Oosama, one of my preferred Super sentos in the Kanto area. 

Weekend at the Odawara Hilton with Friends

Day 1
Route: Tokyo - Odawara
Bicycle: 99 km
Total Ascent: 601 m
Average Speed: 17.7 km/h
Riding Time: 5:36 h
Weather: Sunny and quite warm for early February, 8 C

One of my friends from the Night Pedal Cruising (NPC) is a concierge in the Shinjuku Hilton hotel and he gets employee discounts in stays at other Hilton’s. So he organised this ride to Odawara. For the group this was already the 3rd ride, bit for me the first. 

We met on a Monday morning around 8:00 in Futakotamagawa and set off through the non-countryside around Yokohama towards the West. It took a while before we hit a river with a good cycling path along.

We took regular rests and at some point arrived on the coast where there is for a while a nice cycling path right behind the beach. It tends to be quite sandy, but with some caution was well rideable. At this monument to the city of Chigasaki we took an other group picture, all doing a little C with our hands. 

Soon after it was time (albeit so late that most of the dishes had already sold out) for lunch, which we had in the harbour restaurant of Chigasaki. Fried fish was it for me. On we went to Odawara where it was starting to get dark just about at the time when we started our final ascent to the hotel. The Odawara Hilton is high above the city on a rather steep hill. So steep that everyone was talking about this hill weeks before. And yes, it is steep, specially at the beginning where it seems to be more like a wall than a hill. I managed that part only partially and then had to push the bike, but soon after it got a bit flatter so I could jump back on the bike. With a few more rest stops from there I made it up the rest of the mountain. Apparently this hotel was originally built and owned by the city of Odawara. However as the bubble burst th deity needed money and someone more expert than themselves to run a hotel so sold it cheaply to Hilton who managed to keep the hotel afloat. It isn’t only a hotel it comes complete with an onsen, a swimming pool , a play bath, a wedding church and a lot of other facilities. 

On Day 1 after checking we went quickly to the play bath area, but couldn’t stay for long as the Buffett dinner was waiting for us  and definitely a good buffet (as far as buffets go). We had been instructed to bring dr8nks along for the after party in the “boys room” but after only about 1 beer per head (craft beer brought along by one of my friends who is very much into craft beers) we were all pretty tired (and it was late) and retreated to our beds.

Day 2
Route: Odawara - Shin Matsuda
Bicycle:24 km
Train:
Total Ascent: 83 m
Average Speed: 16.6 km/h
Riding Time: 1:27 h
Weather: cloudy and colder than the day before, 12 C 

Day 2 to most part was not spent on the bike but rather in the pool or on a recliner close to the pool. It has been ages that I haven’t been in a pool. What was surprising that so many people (at least the younger women but also some men and children) were wearing a kind of jacket and trousers in the water. The older people who came here mainly for swimming or participating in one of the water gymnastic sessions were generally wearing normal swimsuits. 

Ou day had started with an other very rich buffet. The hotel was actually full with a conference by Roche Taiwan, so when we first came down for breakfast it was quite busy, but after a while they had to leave for their meeting sessions if the day , and we had the rest of the buffet to us. 

Around noon we got going and headed down the steep hill back to Odawara.

Down in Odawara in the harbour we had lunch, more fried fish for me and then went to the castle and a small coffee shop in its park, to relax a bit more with some hot drinks under the trees that just very shiny started to bloom.

Crazy fast ride around Kasumigaura

Route: Full circle of Kasumigaura and over to Tsukuba

Bicycle: 137 km

Train: 145 km

Average Speed: 26.0 km/h (!)

Total Ascent: 73 m

Riding Time: 5:30 h

Weather: Sunny, no wind, 4C (but felt warm enough to take the long sleeves off)

I had seen a new Meetup group announcing this ride around Kasumigaura, one of the places on my bucket list. The sell was that this would be also for beginner road cyclists, so I gathered my determination and signed up. 

I had never made the full loop and even in parts I think I had been here only once before, many years ago on one of my first rides with Garmin (RIP). But the lake is definitely very nice and with the sun out it was warm enough to roll down the long sleeves of my winter jacket, albeit I was the only one thinking so. Everyone else was still very much in deep winter mode. 

We set out and had a very high pace going... but just about to be able to stick in there. A few stops on the way were planned, the typical conbini stops to get to a toilet, fill up the bottle and get some quick snack between the teeth and into the stomach. 

A bit later a stop at a local restaurant, famous for its huge Katsukare where we were lucky to get in as a relatively large group for a small and famous restaurant. 

After a quick picture at a road side stop the slowest rider (not me) dropped of and went directly from there over a bridge back to Tsuchiura... while the rest of us set out to cycle around the smaller part of the lake as well. And here the speed really picked up. So much that the front group left us, but luckily a French guy had pity with me and I was sitting in his wheel cycling with all my possible speed and hitting 30 km/h and more. 

The day should have ended after this beer back at Tsuchiura station, but it turned out that there was some major problem with the train line and no trains passed for hours on end. Some of the guys had come by car, so they went back to their car and even took an other 2 with them, the German girl, decided that riding an other 80 km back to Shibuya was her thing... while the French guy and I headed over to Tsukuba, a mere 10 km away to catch a train from there.

Weekend in Shizuoka

Day 1
Route: Hamanako lake 
Bicycle: 82 km
Train: 280 km
Average Speed: 17.1 km/h
Total Ascent: 504 m
Riding Time: 4:46 h
Weather: sunny but cold, 2C

Today was the first ride with a group of cyclists from Osaka I had been in contact for the last 3 years. I had found them on their internet page just at the beginning of Covid and met a few members of them in Osaka in preparation of a ride to an island in the Seto sea, but a few days later the government asked that people don’t do any group activities and don’t travel, so the ride got canceled. But I had made it into their - extremely lively - Line group. Now finally I managed to join a ride. And what a ride! 

The day started early in Tokyo to be at 8:30 already at Bentenjima station, but then the fun started. I had been at this very station 5 years ago on my ride through Japan but didn’t ride around the lake back then. 

The organizer before the ride had asked me about average speed suggesting that they’d go at 25-30 km/h, which was a bit intimidating, but it turned out to be considerably slower, so we had a lot of time to enjoy the views.

And take pictures. 

It seems this group specially enjoys taking pictures of bicycles all nicely lined up.

Hamanako seems to be famous for eel, so for lunch we went to an eel place. The first few we tried were already full and we would have needed to wait for 1+ hour, but finally we found a restaurant with space for 8 and really tasty eel:

After lunch one of the participants slowed down a lot, but now we were at the forest from the station, so we made our way slowly back. Close to the station stands this torii in the lake and we took some special go pro pictures. While taking pictures we were standing around a lot so it got really cold. The group had decided to put the bikes in the bike bag and take the train to Hamamatsu, but I was cold at that moment and I don’t specially like to disassemble and reassemble my bike, so I rode the last ~ 12 km into town… and actually arrived before everyone else. Early enough to get a shower before dinner. (It seems Hamamatsu is famous for gyoza).

Day 2

Route: Hamamatsu - Omaezaki - Yaizu 
Bicycle: 100 km
Average Speed: 19.6 km/h
Total Ascent: 298 m
Weather: sunny but cold, and a strong tailwind, 4C
Riding Time: 5:04 h

On the second day we went from Hamamatsu along the coast to Omaezaki and then to Yaizu. We did choose the right direction, we had a very strong tailwind along the entire coast. 

I did this same ride (or at least a part of it) in 2017 in my 2 months cycling trip through Japan, but in the other direction, from Shizuoka to Hamamatsu. Day1 back then was nice... Day 2 was in the rain and I got so wet that I searched for refuge in a shopping mall, changed in a toilet, called a taxi and went to the nearest train station and from there to Bentenjima (the same train station as yesterday), where I had already reserved a hotel. But today the sun was shining, the wind was blowing strongly from behind so we sailed down the coast. Sometimes riding at 30 km/h along with little effort. 

However the problem with the sand on the cycling path continues:

2017

2023

Only that now those parts are closed, diverting the ride to a normal road for long stretches. So what could/should be a very nice ride on a cycle path along the shores of the Pacific, in most places is just a ride along the road. It seemed that the planners had indicated some secondary roads even further inland, but we took the main road. 

NY2023 D8 Up in to the hills and down to Biwako

Route: Kyoto - Ohara - Takashima - Biwako

Bicycle: 101 km

Train: 25 km

Average Speed: 19.1 km/h

Total Ascent: 752 m

Riding Time: 5:17 h

Weather: Sun & clouds, but no rain today, 4C

On my last day, a bigger ride, up the hill I cycled up a part on Day 6, and then up and up. There is a long, very straight valley parallel to the Biwa Lake, with a good road, not too much traffic and a nice incline, not too steep. So actually quite perfect, both for riding up, as well as rolling down. This is the view from close to the highest point:

Shortly after I entered a tunnel (the first in a row of maybe about 3 tunnels) and when I came out, there was this:

Snow! But the road was very much free of snow, so no problem at all for riding: 

This descent was quite perfect, only the road surface could have been smoother... but I guess one cannot complain for a road with relatively little traffic and harsh winter conditions, it was reasonably well maintained and had a perfect incline. And nice panorama off the road:

On the mountains around and the one here in the distance, there was already snow. Not a lot of snow though... but that is probably going to change over the coming weeks. 

Continuing down and down, I came to Takashima, which was my minimum goal of today, as that is the first place with a train line, but it was still early enough in the day, and I still had energy, so I continued on riding along the famous Biwa-ichi cycling road. This is in some places a real cycling road, in others it is just a blue line on a street. Sometimes there is a fast track (generally on the bigger streets) and a slow course, which is generally more on smaller, neighborhood streets. 

Along the way, in an area with not a lot of space between mountain and lake, so on a rather busy road, there was this torii standing in the Biwa Lake in the late afternoon sun: 

At around 80 km in, I still felt I had enough energy, so I decided to make this my first 2023 100 km ride. Last year, I only managed one 100+ km ride, since moving to Japan. (I don't remember where and when, but probably it was a rather flat ride). So I continued on, always parallel to the train line and for most part on the Biwa cycling course. Although at some point I must have missed a turn... but sometime later I found the course again. And anyway, with the train line to one side and the lake to the other, there isn't any getting lost. I had planned to look for a station once I hit the 100 km, and by pure chance right at that point, a sign appeared showing to the right for Ogoto Onsen station. I had comfortable time to pack up the bicycle, while it got dark outside. Then hopped on a rather empty train directly back to Kyoto station. 

NY2023 D7 Kyoto - Otsu - Uji - Kyoto

Route: Kyoto - Otsu - Uji - Kyoto
Bicycle: 63 km
Average Speed: 17.3 km/h
Total Ascent: 380 m
Riding Time: 3:39 h
Weather: Cloudy, rainy from Uji onwards, 3 C

After a 1 day hiatus yesterday (the first working day in 2023, that I spent in Osaka office, so that I could extend my stay in Kansai a bit further), today back on the bike. The weather a few days ago didn't look very promissing for today, yesterday evening it looked a bit better... so I actually had planned a quite ambitious ride for today... but then today in the morning it again looked like it would be raining in the afternoon... and sure it did... while I was still on the bike. But it wasn't a too strong rain and by the time it started raining, I was already in Uji, so already back in civilization. 

Actually today's ride I kind of copied from someone I met 5 years ago, while cycling through Japan, when I headed down from Omi Hachiman to Uji. Since then I am following him on Strava. Normally he makes very long rides or rides with a lot of climbing, but a few days ago I saw him making a ride from Kyoto to Otsu and then down to Uji, so I kind of copied that for today. 

The first stop was on lake Biwa which lay in the mist of the cold day.

When riding into town, I remembered that there was a German Brauhaus in a German half timbered house. Last time I had just bought a conbini lunch when I spotted this restaurant, so I decided to go there today... but it was closed as the building is under complete renovation. That's how it looked like in 2017:

So I just had a nuts bar and then continued on my way along the Kizugawa, which flows out of the Biwa lake. Down a very nice valley, with a very gentle slope and not too much traffic. Somewhere midway through hunger set it in, but I didn't need to wait until Uji, but found a small village along the way where 2 middle aged women had a small restaurant in their living room, where I had fried chicken with tartar sauce, i.e. Chicken Nanban. 

Continuing down the river I came to Uji, took a picture on the bridge, went to the toilet and then continued in the starting (light) rain back to Kyoto.