Articles from November 2024

Met Tsuyen in the lobby today, getting ready to take his new group out to Nara, on the outskirts of Kyoto. There are only 6 in his new group which will be much easier for him after us 14! He said he enjoyed our group but that they were really fast!! I agree! I met one of the riders in the lounge – they are Aussies, mostly looking in their late 50’s or early 60’s. Cheerful looking bunch.

Took a taxi to the station and was interested to see that it cost me 1800 Yen going back, in less traffic, when it cost 1500 Yen coming, taking longer because of heavier traffic but I was with a native speaker. Tourist surcharge? I paid with a smile, as there was no way to converse about it anyway, and it’s still cheap by Canadian standards (~ $18).

Bullet train to Tokyo at 10, chatted at the station with a research scientist from Indiana (origin Germany, worked there x 10 years) doing an add-on few days to his conference in Tokyo. Sounds like he gets around quite a bit for conferences – he’s an AI guy and was pretty impressed with how advanced Japan is in this… said the tour of the business they got was like being in candyland. 3D screens, and lots of bells and whistles, and way ahead of the US in their tech.

Uneventful train trip except that I got a throat tickle and had to spend part of it in the intercarriage area coughing as the water didn’t do it. Finally found the throat lozenges which did the trick. Read an interesting article on the train about earthquake preparation by the railway companies – they have their own seismographs which predict the extent of damage and automatically put on the emergency brakes of the bullet trains as needed. Tracks are constructed with the latest seismic protection, especially after the 2011 earthquake that shut down the system. Amazingly, because of the automatic braking, nobody was hurt or killed on a train during that major earthquake. Impressive. I was also interested to see quite a few solar panel installations both on roofs and on the ground en masse, as we whizzed through the countryside. Train was completely full.

Off loaded at Tokyo Station, amazingly found the right exit and had a 2 min walk across station square to the hotel, which is quite swish. I was able to get into the room at 12:30 which was surprising but excellent as I got to dump the luggage and head out. The hotel has a direct entrance into the underground passage to Tokyo Station, I found, which will be useful tomorrow. It also has an unusual configuration, with the main entrance on the ground floor but the reception is on the 7th floor, which took me awhile to figure out! Nice view of Tokyo Station from the elevator to the 7th floor…

Headed out to look at some pastries – this is the business section of town and has a lot of high end stores, chocolateries and a few patisseries. Research!

Then over to Imperial Palace grounds, which I had seen last year but it was stinking hot then and we didn’t (couldn’t) wander around too much. Nice welcoming sign on the grounds…

Love the juxtaposition of the old and new. No tours of the imperial palace today, tomorrow or the day after.

It’s disappointing that there are no decent gardens around the Imperial Palace – the trees are nice, and there are no blades of grass out of place but no lovely gardens like there are around temples. The moat should be filled with water lillies!

The meeting of the old castle and the business district is clearly a place to take wedding photos! I saw three couples, with modern dresses and not kimonos, lining up to get pictures taken. The most amusing thing was seeing the brides crossing the busy intersection attempting to keep the white skirts of their dresses, up and clean while still maintaining their ruffles 😊!

It turns out that the underground passages connect from the hotel/Tokyo station to the intersection directly across from the palace grounds – you can be spit out directly across from the trees shown above. Handy! After dropping the research material off in the room fridge it was off to do errands – first, back into Tokyo Station, a vast metropolis, in search of a lunch/dinner of vegan ramen. There were two options, one of which I had to get a metro ticket for as it was inside the fare zone. I’d been there before and their ramen was excellent, and I sort of knew where it was, but bravely elected to try and find “Tokyo Ramen street” where there was another recommended vegan option. It was fully on the other side of the station – reasonably well signposted, though bewildering in the number of shops, zones and underpasses I passed through to get there… you have to buy a meal ticket before going in, from the machine outside which had little English i.e. essentially prepay and that was confusing but fortunately it was quiet and a restaurant worker walked me through it. Excellent gyoza and danden ramen; quite spicy but very tasty. Not quite as good as the Kyoto place though, just a hair cheaper…

After that it was off to try and locate a state liquor store inside the station that I had discerned from my ramen instructor would carry yuzu sake. That took quite a while, no info people to ask and the AI feature to the information board was useless. (So was my translator – it kept changing “yuzu sake” to “music”). Two asks at stores of clerks eventually yielded the info that I had to buy a ticket to get into the fare paid zone to access it…. argggh. 150 yen later, and another ask, I finally found it. Yahoo! Of course, the ticket wouldn’t work getting me out of the station but I’d expected that from last year and selected an exit with a manned booth, and I was let through when I explained what I’d done. I think last year we just leapt over the turnstile…. silly system.

Finally another interaction with a ticket machine buying my express rail ticket for tomorrow – very confusing, I don’t have a good record with these machines. Happily not too busy so one of the staff members came over and assisted. It took the Exodus group a LONG time to get through the process in Kyoto even with the leaders helping out…I’ll leave lots of time to find the zone that the airport express leaves from – didn’t seem well marked as I only saw it listed once in my three trips through the station. A detour to Family Mart to get yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, and back via the underground shortcut which is now easy to find.

Although a soak in the bath looked very inviting I opted for a reviving cup of matcha tea and headed out to investigate the downtown lights. I’d seen some signs of Xmas decorations in my first walk which was interesting – Tsuyen and Manu were saying that Christmas isn’t much of a thing here, and that most people would work Christmas Day. The vast majority are Buddhists, but it looks like in the big city the western influence is stronger, and they are well into their decorations for Xmas with trees up in the hotel restaurant and lovely light displays and street parks already.

the lights went on for a long way!

I walked by one shopping complex and there was music coming from it so went in to investigate – big crowd watching what looked liked a kids’ theme/Disney type area in action with lights and moving pieces.

No idea what it was – there is also a Harry Potter store in Tokyo Station, they do like their cartoon/fictional characters!

Very pretty overall though, and so was Tokyo Station at night.

from the elevator

At last I got my soak in the tub, bath salts provided here! (it was herbal patches yesterday) and there is another couple of inches to the length of the tub in this hotel. I am judging the hotels by the size of their tubs – most you can’t even sit in, or there aren’t any, but there are no points deducted if there is an onsen in the hotel.

Last pack done, checked in for the flight tomorrow – this holiday is almost over!

Highlight – the colours in the mountains, and the Shirakawa-go stay. But lots of others, including the fun Kyoto tour, and the cool cycles through small villages with old houses, narrow alleys in canal areas in Kanazawa and other towns. Ranrouken gardens….

Total mileage; 484.5 km. total elevation gain; 2979.1 m Less than expected – my recordings of many of the days were shorter and less elevation gain than the Brits’. Not sure why. I think Moira did that entire elevation in one day of cycling LOL but it was a good mix of cycling and touristing along a very neat route.

Up at 5 a.m, out the door at 6:15 with breakfast of croissant, yoghourt and fruit (and room coffee as the lobby wasn’t yet open). It was bright daylight when I got out the door, had expected it to be dark. Over to the metro and quickly caught the first train, but unfortunately it must have been a limited express and it didn’t stop at Inari station. Got off at the station prior when I discovered it wasn’t stopping at mine, changed lines and was patting myself on the back for managing that, but it was quite a delay for the next train. When it did come, my map app told me to get on, so I did but alas it went straight to Kyoto main station, without stopping anywhere else so I had to backtrack. The two goofs added an extra 1/2 hr to my journey which was annoying after the early start to beat the crowds…good thing I’m on holiday 😊

Still pretty quiet by the time I got to Inari shrine, so the hike up and around the mountain was relatively peaceful. Some nice views, and a pretty trail with all the gates lining it. Definitely is a stair master on steroids though, I had sweat marks on my tshirt by the time I got to the top and was wishing I’d worn shorts. The weather forecast had predicted rain by 10 a.m. so I had started with fleece and rainjacket which quickly were discarded!

Quite a nice forest, with birds singing and signs warning of boars and monkeys (none seen).

not as benign as this apparently gentle uphill seems to imply!

Many nationalities and languages heard enroute, with the universal language of “out of breath!”. There are side paths to shrines in multiple locations, and another loop you can do off the main hike; I started to take it but it went rapidly downhill and both wasn’t sure where it was going, and didn’t want to add more stairs to the effort so I abandoned that trail shortly (there was no one else on it)! LOL, there was a fellow with a leafblower on that trail, having a happy time blowing last night’s leaves off which also turned me around. Can’t get away from those danged things!

There were, of course, joggers going up the steps…

view from the trail junction

limited exposure view from near the top

Managed on the way back down to find a side route that avoided the lower Torii gate loop, for which I was grateful when I saw the crowds at the bottom again. The food stalls were just opening up, with their “potato tornados” and the other tempting things they offer, and the masses were starting to descend. Ice cream at 9 a.m.? seems popular.

Back to the hotel, by Metro correctly this time, to drop off the fleece and out for pastry before they are sold out. Trying a “millefeuille” with a twist tonight… The shop was incredibly inefficient processing orders and two others left without ordering, exasperated by the delay. Usually shops here are quite efficient, perhaps some staff didn’t show today? – the store was certainly humming.

With the pastry safely in the fridge I downgraded to shorts (no sign of rain) and headed out on foot to the old city area near Maruyama Park (Higashiyama). It took me some time to get oriented as I’d been concentrating on not running into pedestrians when we were here previously on bike, and I hadn’t paid much attention which direction we were going. I’m still very disoriented in this city with even broadstroke directions. There was lots to see as I wandered around though, lots of lovely kimonos in that part of the city, a carnival in a park I cut through, lovely old houses and posh looking hotels… people being carted around by the fit rickshaw drivers, and entertainment provided by cars attempting to drive down pedestrain laden streets.

One of the quieter cobblestoned streets in a park:

I finally found the area I was looking for, and it was awash in people. Lovely area, but super touristy and lots of food for sale which looked to be about double the prices outside the area. No speed walking here – you have to shuffle along with the crowd.

lots of lovely things for sale, though if you are willing to pay the prices.

definitely a hilly part of Kyoto!

There are three or four long streets joined together like this, with a temple and park at the top (of course!)

Fun to shuffle for awhile, but it got a bit much so I had a sit down behind the temple for some water and nuts and caught another three little maids posing under a maple tree.

The temple (Kiyomizudera Temple) was spectacular and is prominent on the skyline in the area. It was also one of the more crowded places I’ve visited in Kyoto.

There was a wedding ceremony going on in the section below this one, with lots of tourists oggling and taking videos…

Wedding pictures happening here too.

My only contribution to the economy in this district was to a coffee shop which I found online (% Arabica was its name) – very busy and you were given a number and waited about 10 mins for the coffee but it was superb and worth the wait (especially as I was able to sit down!).

After that I was fuelled for the long and winding walk home through some charming neighbourhoods and many fewer pedestrians, thankfully.

Lunch/dinner was a local sushi conveyor belt restaurant – about triple the cost of the last one. Good sushi though; I had salmon with sesame, lovely tuna, puffer fish (yes, the most expensive plate!), shrimp and octopus (the latter unintentionally). Good green tea to go with it and less than a block away made it worthwhile.

Back to the hotel for a brief pack and to test the millefeuille; this bakery is meh, it was overbaked. Good but not spectacular overall, 6/10.

A quick walk to the Gion district after dark to see it lit up; it was as busy as during the day but prettier with the lanterns alight.

again, it felt quite touristy and one suspects prices are inflated. The group went out together during the trip and paid a lot of money for Kobe beef dinner, which they said was really good but did cost a lot.

There is a theatre in the district which puts on geisha performances and looks to be popular.

I feel like I have scratched the surface Koyoto; there would be lots of different things to do on a return trip but I feel like I saw a fair bit with the help of the cycling. I don’t think I’d like to be here in spring because of the crowds; it would be a beautiful sight if you can get near it. I’ll rely on Monty Don to film it for me.

Cold seems to be improving!

Breakfast again at the hotel, last breakfast buffet TG. Had to go a little earlier than I’d have wanted, to get in touch with Brad re: the pedals; he figures that Roger has them. Unfortunately I know that Roger and Helen are having a lie in this a.m. as their plane isn’t until later, but at least I know I’ll get them by 10 a.m. as that’s checkout time!

In actuality it took me about that long to get ready, packing everything into the case and one carry bag (has food etc). Just at the right moment there was a knock on the door and the pedals appeared, they had indeed been given to Roger. Down into the base of the case they went, along with other bike stuff I won’t need anymore. The theory is that I won’t need to completely repack again, but inevitably something I need has disappeared (like laundry soap – slippery stuff that, and shampoo just doesn’t do the same job!) and I end up rummaging in the bottom of the case anyway. We live in hope…

I did luck out in the lobby after checking out as I discovered that Tsuyen is going to the same hotel as me, meeting his next tour there tonight. I was able to ride in his taxi, giving him a hand with suppies, and a good thing as the location is pretty hidden. It’s got a lovely entrance off a very busy street, but if you didn’t know it was there you would definitely walk past it. Explains why Debbie and I had so much trouble finding it on the map prior to leaving….I had pinned it, so would have found it eventually but it was definitely easier with someone who knows the way, esp. as the taxi will drop off on the opposite side of the busy street. The new hotel is quite lovely – much smaller and has more character than the Via Inn, for sure. It has a lovely scent when you go in and is peaceful and quiet, in stark contrast to the busy street. There is also a “living lounge” with free (good!) coffee 7 am. onwards. Luggage dropped off, check-in is some hours away.

So headed out for some sightseeing – first to the Nishiki food market, which was just waking up. Interesting space with all kinds of food for cooking and food stalls, both western and traditional. I wandered around looking at things, unable to find dried Shiso leaves (for ramen) but one could buy pretty much anything else including yuzu sake. (I will get mine in Tokyo as I don’t want to haul it around more than I need to).

Lots of matcha, wagashi (Japanese sweets) for sale – got a chestnut daifuku that was quite lovely. LOTS of tourists here, both Japanese and foreign.

I then turned back towards the metro station that I needed for Kyoto Botanical Gardens, and hit the patisserie street. Lots of lovely, high end patisseries. I made a note of where to come back to and walked by them all, as I didn’t want to carry a pastry around the gardens either.

At Kyoto Botanical Gardens, I was walked through the ticket buying process by an elderly volunteer, who politely asked if I was over 70 (the definition of a senior in Japan) as the ticket would be cheaper. What a bargain cf Van Dusen, it was only $4 (including entry to the conservatory which was an extra $2).

Had a good wander around the gardens, with grey skies threatening rain (as had the forecast predicdted) but it only spat a little. The gardens were relatively quiet, a large expanse with different zones and I took many, many pictures as it was quite lovely. The conservatory was amazing, and there were some lovely fall colours, a bonsai exhibition that was underwhelming, an orchid exhibition that was very artistic (inside an entrance building) and a French formal garden which was charming. There were still roses in bloom, and it would have been comfortable to sit and have a picnic as some family groups were obviously doing. Parts resembled VDG in that they were needing weeding, more the periphery than the main areas which were well kept.

Following are but a few of the many pictures I took, which I dedicate to my relative Morag who died suddenly and tragically at the start of this trip. She was a talented gardener and botanist and would have loved wandering around this garden. She was much in my thoughts as I meandered around.

an interesting one with flowers and fruit directly from the trunk, like cacao

passionfruit!

back outside again, water lillies!

and this quixotic sculpture at the entrance:

Time for lunch after all that hiking so a foray to Gion to the vegan ramen restaurant was the next stop. Another awesome ramen dish… stopped at the supermarket on the way back to get some more miso soup, and yoghourt and fruit for breakfast. Mandarins are excellent right now!

It was back to the hotel for check in after that, and found the luggage had already been put in the room. A nice room with some room to breathe, tastefully decorated in traditional Japanese style. The pillows are the first useable ones I’ve had in Japan; generally they are rock hard, and seem to have rice or something similar sewn into the back of them? They advertise as a combination of hard and soft but I’d never found the “soft” side…

A quick trip back to the pastry street found most of them sold out, but managed to purloin a slice of “Japonais” made with matcha that was really lovely when consumed later that evening. I am beginning to really enjoy matcha, which I didn’t before coming. 10/10 for this one!

A lovey soak in the bath repaired some of the aching in my osteoarthritic joints after all the walking today – no onsen at this hotel alas, and I find walking much harder than cycling nowadays. None of the baths are long enough to stretch out in, but they are deep.

The alarm will be set early for a hike around the Inari shrine tomorrow a.m. so an early sleep is in order.

Last day of cycling!

Breakfast at the hotel was busy! Some teens’ sports team was in the hotel, and they descended upon the breakfast at 6:30 a.m., opening time, like a flock of locusts. The usual great variety of dishes, japanese to chinese to western (cereals like cornflakes), in the buffet – I usually came down somewhere in the middle of Japanese and Western as many of the Japanese dishes have meat and I can’t face fish for breakfast every day. Though the smoked mackarel is good… the scrambled eggs are inevitably runny, and a “boiled egg” means soft and still runny white. There is always canned fruit salad and yoghurt with the tasty mini croissants which always gets me through. Coffee at this breakfast was middling but the room coffee had a neat little filter bag system with real grounds in it and made better coffee actually than the fancy machine in the dining room in my humble opinion…

We assembled with bike gear on and headed on for a circular tour of Kyoto with an option to exit early without the last few stops and 10 km if desired. Most of us had runners and flat pedals to facilitate the touristing stops; it’s been a LONG time since I’ve used flat pedals and it felt weird, but strangely easy to pedal. Definitely an asset in the city with all the stops and starts. The locals riding bikes never signal which way they’re going, and the cars feel they have precedence over everything else, so it’s an interesting environment. We started on some very busy streets but Tsuyen navigated us to quieter streets and then bike paths fairly soon. His route finding has been quite amazing the whole trip… The bike path took us to the outskirts of the city, then we headed north alongside the river towards Arishayma. It’s a popular spot for wandering amongst shops, colour in the leaves in the background, and the bamboo forest to visit. There were a lot of bollards on the bike path and unfortunately one of the women caught a pedal going around one fairly early and got a fair knock – no road rash, but she was shaken. We waited for quite awhile ahead of the accident waiting to see what the outcome would be (I’m loving not being asked to participate in care!!) and found these open cherry blossoms, like there were at Ranouken gardens in Kanazawa.

Eventually Jane decided to continue on and nervously weaved her way amongst the remaining bollards along the river path. We rode past informal community garden plots, which we learned flooded frequently and were wiped out, but always rebuilt. We had Manu with us cycling so Manu’s café was open one last time at the first stop near Arishayama, with the remaining snacks produced from his pack!

The first rest stop produced a few leaf colour photos, as well as some posing white cranes. There must have been fish in there, as there were quite a few concentrated in one spot.

lots of people out and about, especially on the opposite side of the river.

lovely birds!

The river was quite picturesque in places, and busloads of tourists were unloading, snapping photos and then proceeding on…

Our Danish pig farmer, with ever present grin or infectious chuckle, lurks in the right of the picture. He really enjoys life, and LOVES cycling! Probably the most competitive, and fit, of all of us.

We crawled across the bridge behind a bus, traffic starting to build, as were crowds, but still very moveable and the tour leaders said it was very mild congestion compared to other times. Happily we were able to weave through traffic and pedestrians fairly nimbly, getting a view of the town and sights without having to deal with the congestion. Many of the visitors were Japanese and some in traditional kimonos as always.

Most of the group made it across the railway crossing before the train came, but some were stuck; it sounded like a toy train going through from where we were waiting! The next stop was the bamboo forest, where bamboo grows and is harvested for fencing mostly – it grows full height in 3 months which is pretty incredible.

Tsuyen took a full group picture here, but hasn’t yet sent the link – it should be good as he did a vertical panorama (mine isn’t as good) but you get the sense of the size of them!

People were being carted around Arishyama in two wheeled rickshaws by very fit looking young lads – it was mostly flat but can’t be an easy job, not the least because of negotiating the pedestrian traffic.

Next stop was the zen (Ryanoji) temple, and we had a lovely winding ride through a path amongst rice fields, vegetable patches and then back into suburbia eventually. The fields had a very rural feel to it even though it is only about 30 min outside town. There were some “undulations” in the next part along a lovely road which reminded me of Marine Drive, with some very nice looking houses and gardens and of course a temple or shrine sporadically appearing. There are over 1,000 shrines and temples in Kyoto alone, and they all look well maintained and very beautiful. Our next stop was Ryanoji Temple, which we learned is a centre for zen contemplation – if you are enlightened you see the maximum number of stones in the zen garden.

The temple grounds were as always, gorgeous.

There were some examples of really interesting pruning, like pollarding which I took lots of photos of for master gardening class! Japanese gardeners are of course master pruners.

There was a lovely teahouse and garden, with an ingenious water feature that was melodic and self-powered. Alas no videos work in this site.

colour was starting to appear here as well

It really was a zen place.

Again, crowds weren’t bad here. Apparently Queen Elizabeth made this garden famous with a visit here.

As with all temple gardens, there were very distinct zones.

A short ride further along “Marine Drive” took us to a sushi train restaurant, which was a blast. As I love sushi, it was heaven; dishes wander by on a conveyor belt, and you just pick off what you want. There was a matcha making station at the table with hot water dispensing and matcha powder which made amazingly good tea. If you want to order something specially (or the table ahead of you pounces on the things you want!) there is an ipad type device on the table and you just order there; it comes along at high speed, in the opposite direction to the first belt, on another conveyor belt a level above the regular one. At the end, you slide your empty plates into a slot and a chip on the plate records what was on it and calculates your bill. It was a bit more complicated for us as there were 4 to a table, and in our case 3 different bill payers, but an ingenious system. The sushi was excellent, with a good variety and there was quite a queue to get in to the restaurant so obviously the locals agreed. The total for me was $7 for a meal of sushi! What a country!

Another short ride, now spitting rain, took us to the Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji temple, actually covered with 5 mm thick of gold leaf (increased in thickness since it was last burnt down by a mentally ill monk in 1950 to provide more fire retardancy). The rain increased a little while we were here but didn’t last long, fortunately; as well as a lovely building, the temple grounds were again gorgeous.

the backside of the temple with the colourful grounds surrounding it

lovely walks and grounds once more

the temple just visible through the trees

you can see the rain on the lake here

the entrance

We rode through narrow streets and alleys and came out in Imperial Palace grounds – vast and a gravel version of the Mall in London.

There is no admission inside, and the Emperor splits his time between Kyoto and Tokyo. Kyoto was the original centre of government but it was moved in the Edo period to Tokyo, abandoning Kyoto which suffered economically. Because of this several construction projects were started including the canal and aquaduct system (seen later) to support the economy. Because of the historical significance of Kyoto it was removed from bombing target possibilities for both conventional and nuclear bombs.

At this point half the group decided to ride back to the hotel, so were guided back by Manu and Brad, the other lead; the other half of us proceeded onwards for an optional 10 km more. Next stop was Philosopher’s path, beside the constructed canal system, and a place that is stuffed tight with people in the spring to see the cherry blossoms as they line this very picturesque walk. We were actually able to cycle most of it, with some interesting cobblestone bits, as there weren’t too many people out. Named after a famous philospher who used the route to get to Kyoto University, next to Imperial Palace, it is now a lovely stretch of several kilometres with water running down from the constructed aquaduct. It is filled with quaint narrow streets and alleys, which we negotiated carefully with our bikes! At least we were a fairly small group now.

Would definitely be spectacular in the spring with the cherry blossoms

but I wonder what the locals think of the crowds taking over their neighbourhood?

This took us shortly to Nanzen-ji Temple and aqueduct, another majestic building and lovely grounds.

the grounds boast the largest stone lantern in Japan

Above the temple is the aqueduct, which continues to carry water today.

good water flow!

Maruyama Park, a fashionable place to get wedding photos taken, was the next stop and fortuitously there was some posing going on.

Another huge green space, with pretty autumn colouring, easily reachable by many locals; it is the theme of Kyoto, a very big city now but with historic roots and many green spaces.

We had an interesting time getting to the next stop, and had to walk our bikes due to the increase in pedestrians; shoppers coming and going to the Higashiyama district (historic, high end shopping district).

We parked our bikes with Tsuyen and walked up to a viewpoint to get a view of Yasaka pagoda, a landmark of Kyoto that was pointed out to us on the first day here; there are east and west pagodas and as they are perched on a hill they look spectacular.

It’s remarkable in Kyoto how you can cycle through a neighbourhood that feels ancient, then in the next block emerge into a modern city that is night and day. The next part of the trip was through busy bustling modern Kyoto, then a bike path through the old red light district (now dotted with coffee shops which looked very inviting!) and then back into modern Kyoto around the train station. We delivered the bikes to the Exodus warehouse/bike rental shop and were promised our saddles and pedals back at dinner.

Cycling through and around Kyoto got us to a large number of places, and we wouldn’t have been able to see half of what we did by public transit or car. As long as you are with someone who knows where they are going, it is a vastly better way to get around (admittedly would be very tricky on one’s own). It was also superfun to pedal around so easily and see so much!

I got my souvenier bag back at the 6:15 meet with the pedals inside and took a quick look – they looked like wide pedals like mine (the souvenirs from Tokyo had been kindly stored under the van seat for the duration to make daily packing easier). I ran the stuff up to the room without looking closely, and we headed out for the farewell group dinner. A couple had been to Hiroshima today and they joined us later – interesting to hear their impressions (Brits). One thing they noted was that the peace memorial was for children and that there were literally thousands of Japanese schoolchildren at the site; apparently every school child is taken there at some point.

The group dinner was fun, and some contact info was exchanged; the usual “what’s app group” established and goodbyes were said. Several couples are staying on another two nights, like me; most at the same hotel but one couldn’t get a reservation so is moving down the street to another hotel near the station. The tips were delivered to the guides with a humourous speech from one of the Brits who noted that this was the fastest Exodus group he’d ever ridden with albeit the eldest in age and we all nodded… there were some superstars in this group for sure, amongst whom was the Danish pig farmer whose favourite day was the mountain leg and he wanted more elevation!, two triatheletes (one 71 yo and the other who had a rare heart condition during the last swim part which likely will preclude him from competing again) and another very fit couple from Colorado who are heading on a 200 km hike next back to Tokyo along a “camino de santiago” like route. Made me feel just a little better about being lantern rouge for a good part of the way – never very far behind, but usually lagging a little due to picture taking or just plain inability to keep up with that lot when they were going full steam! The ebike rider, Gordon, was inspiring at 79 to be still doing trips like this, but he also competed for lantern rouge as did one other rider at the begining.

Certainly, catching a cold never improved my performance ability! I am just grateful I didn’t have to hop in the van at any point as it was all lovely scenery. A spectacular route. In addition to my cold, I have a good collection of bruises and some road rash from 4 falls the first four days. There were a number of falls altogether in the group – albeit I was early in the trend, I never fell after day four which is when everyone else started falling! A very enthusiastic cycling group though.

On return to the hotel after dinner I discovered I had been given back the wrong pedals so was glad I’d exchanged contact info with Manu. Though I couldn’t call or text him I sent an email, and one to Brad, our other leader; someone obviously had mine and mine were definitely better pedals! Fingers crossed it gets sorted tomorrow.

Decent breakfast buffet, slightly better but not great night in a very stuffy small room in Gifu hotel. Very budget hotel!

We packed our suitcases to go to Kyoto by van, and happily they were able to all be crammed in with the 16 bikes – amazing work by Mannu and Brad. This avoids another complicated pack with daypacks for two days while they are in transit. Then it was onto a local train with a transfer to a bullet train to Kyoto. The bullet train had a few seats left but the local train was standing room only. Such an efficient system of trains though – and always dead on time. My only problem on the train was not coughing – it was agonizing at points and the water didn’t always do it, nor did the throat lozenges.

Kyoto station is enormous. We walked to our hotel and then back to the station for an orientation tour – it is 9 floors tall, and has amazing views, another huge Isetan (dept. store), and a floor just of ramen restaurants. Good coffee and restaurants of every ilk… on an aside, the mini croissants in the breakfast buffets have been amazingly good, and the ones in the French bakery on the basement floor where we picked up coffee looked wonderful…

The tour of the train station saved us the 750 Yen admission to the Kyoto tower as we had all the sights pointed out to us from the top floor…

lots of areas to sit and eat, read or meet.

It had its’ own Lego model!

Lots of Lego fans in our group, including the Danes!

Then we hopped on the metro to visit Inari shrine, with all its Torii gates. Good to have a guide there, and the crowds weren’t as bad as expected; it was busy enough, but plenty of room to move around and even get a few shots with only a few people.

as always there were the elaborately dressed Japanese taking selfies or posing…

Not just youngsters wanting to be on instagram apparently!

A pensive pose

The gates are like a tunnel, there are so many. The Torii gates are dedicated for 2-3 years and then redone with someone else’s name, somewhat like the memorial plaques we have on park benches… I am guessing that the Inari shrine does well monetarily but they are the main temple/shrine, so support others.

We would call the colour orange, but it is a natural vermillion pigment.

The path goes up and around the mountain, where I suspect numbers would thin more, but that’ll have to be another trip as we just completed the lower loop. Our Danish farmer picked up a conversation with some Canadians wearing a t-shirt with an equipment manufacturer he recognized, and they were deep into a conversation on the effects of climate change in farming when we pulled him away!

We picked up lunch at the food vendors row on the way back down -all kinds of interesting food. I tried a strawberry matcha daifuku, which was good (the adzukai bean paste in the centre had a little chocolate flavour added). Then I watched the various reactions to others who picked it up to try, and chatted with them as we were all perched on a wall across from the stall eating it – a couple from London on a 6 month honeymoon trip around Asia, and a dutch couple who were just wondering what it was! People from all over the world here. We also learned from Tsuyen that Inari sushi comes from here – the pocket sushi that bears its name.

We hiked over to Tofuki-ji temple and admired the old latrine there (!) – Japanese toilets have really come a long way 😏. The temple was magnificent, and again not too busy – our guide highly recommended going into the gardens which are in four quadrants around the temple, but thought they might be too crowded as this is their peak season due to autumn colours. Happily they were quieter than the Kenrouken gardens we visited in Kanazawa – the zen gardens were my favourite part. Everyone else headed back to the hotel to check in, so I was wandering at will by myself in the gardens. Very peaceful

The main temple

In the grounds

some fall colour

A bridge across a waterway that is a favourite photo-op

Once the tour group ahead of me had moved off, it was actually very quiet and the birds were certainly happily tweeting! It became another nice warm sunny day, tshirts and light pants.

The zen garden

The patterns are so precisely done…

In the zen garden section there were also four distinct zones designed by the landscape architect.

more stones

and the final zone.

Next was a trip to Gion to a highly recommended vegan ramen place for early dinner; the subway system is notably older in Kyoto than Tokyo. Possibly not as much English signeage either which is a little surprising – the metro ticket machines do convert to English but are a bit trickier than those in Tokyo. Maybe I’m just not used to them? Anyway the trek out to Gion was well worth it, that is easily the tastiest Ramen I’ve ever had. Not cheap, but worth it. I was there at 3 p.m. and easily got a seat but apparently it’s lined up for hours at night. Happy to see that it’s within walking distance of the next hotel in Kyoto so I will undoubtedly be back!

I browsed the patisserie section in Isetan at the railway station on the way back, and have earmarked a couple to try. Research started on coffee shops and other patisseries for the two days on my own here!

Back to the hotel to check in and found they had me registered for four nights. Another goof by the Toronto Exodus agent, she was definitely not efficient. It is a newish hotel, defintely several grades up from last night’s and the ac works – no need to crank open the window. We had 6 p.m. briefing and then most of the crew headed over to Gion to eat and see if they could get a geisha sighting…. I wanted to go, but my nose is running like a river at this point and I have no energy left so had to save my dwindling reserves for the bike ride tomorrow. Our last ride! I am converting to flat pedals tomorrow as we will be doing a fair bit of walking, and hope that my nose dries up by then so that I can breathe going up those hills!

Goju Hashiman to Gifu

Horrible sleep last night, about 3 hours due to the scratchy throat, congestion and coughing.

Breakfast was beautiful but difficult to face first thing in the morning; and way too much.

So off we set to explore the castle at Goju Hashiman, rebuilt from the Edo period and quite impressive. So was the hill on the way up; we rode halfway, and then walked the rest but those were some steep grades at the bottom! Unfortunately I didn’t remember to start my bike computer so those will forever be lost.

Lovely views from the castle, and it was quite an impressive wooden structure of many floors with excellent viewpoints.

Some pretty leaves up here as well

You can see it was another spectacular sunny day and we were soon down to shorts and short sleeves again.

I joked that this diarama depicted us all at the 6 p.m. briefing from Tsuyen (going over the next day, usually in way too much detail so we couldn’t remember it all).

walking up the path after ditching the bikes

Then we went into the historical old town, which was lovely. It had a system of waterways and fish are kept in them; the trout and coi must have been about 5-6 lbs. Really pretty area though; water was very important in the development of Goju Hashiman.

a gate/garden we passed on the walk

Lots of tourists starting to show up though we were there by 9:30 (and at the castle at opening).

The manhole covers are all attractively decorated, with fish as motifs. The town is said to have a fish shape (largely dictated by steep mountains around it limiting further outward growth).

A quick stop at a temple, where Tsuyen taught us how to do a Buddhist prayer

He also demonstrated the meaning behind some of the sumo wrestler moves.

And then we hit the road. “Free ride” after the first few km as we followed the same country road without turning. Lovely and warm, with the river babbling either on our right or left.

It was billed as flat or downhill, but of course had a number of undulations…

We leapfrogged each other taking pictures at different spots. One couple stopped and had a dip in the river which they said was surprisingly warm.

Happily, after a small bit of highway at the start we moved onto secondary roads, which meandered through small villages and forests. Alas, early on I discovered I’d lost a cleat so was trapped onto the pedal at one stop; had to get my foot out of the shoe to get it off and that was it for the left clip for the rest of the day. I suspect the gravel path on the way up to the castle was the culprit.

These roads would have been busy with tourist traffic prior to the superhighways being built. The infrastructure in Japan is impressive, and we wandered under several large structures as we did every day.

We got to lunch at Mino at a lovely bakery where Tsuyen had pre-ordered sandwiches and coffee – very tasty. Then an hour to wander around this quiet and pretty village which is known for its’ rice paper products. There were sculptures protected in plexiglass all over town, and they would have been a lovely sight at night as they were all illuminated. It was quite hot so I found a quiet courtyard in the shade that was public space, with the usual excellent public bathroom.

some of my favourite paper sculptures:

and my favourite…

paper lanterns beautifully crafted with all kinds of designs…

Then it was on the road again after watching more Japanese fighter jets passing overhead… a much busier route into town so we all kept together, and eventually reached Gifu with another stop. It was getting lateish at this point and we had a stop at a large Buddha statue so I was wondering what time we would arrive (hoping it was in the light!).

gardens in the grounds of the buddhist shrine

I guess we would have made it in before dark but two of the cyclists collided at a stoplight on the last 4 km into town and one got a bit of a jolt. He tried to get back on the bike again and promptly fell over again, so a taxi was called, the bikes were locked up to be picked up by Mannu and we finally got underway again. Bumps and bruises, nothing major but a shook up cyclist. The main reason I linger at the back with some distance – I’m surprised this hasn’t happened before, some of the riders are pretty erratic.

Although the distance wasn’t huge today, nor the elevation gain, being out all day in the heat was tiring; the older fellow, Gordon (79 y.o.) opted for a regular bike today rather than his usual e-bike as the profile was supposed to be gentle downhill. He arrived very tired, and I think regretted the swap during those undulations we had all day… I think I was the tiredest today of all the days out, but more due to the lousy sleep and the cold trying to pounce.

An exciting night after 6 p.m. briefing trying to manage the coin laundry – thought I’d take advantage of the machines, and hopefully tit will do better on the jeans than I’ve been able to do by hand. It did a lousy job of drying though, took three cycles and they still came out very damp. Hope they will dry overnight. TG for the translator, which was also a boon looking for throat lozenges. Dinner was miso soup and sushi from Family Mart just down the street; a relief not to have to go to a restaurant and navigate the menu, and eat a huge meal late. Fingers crossed to sleep tonight! The hotel room is abysmally hot, so I have the ac on and the window open; it’s a very basic hotel tonight, down a grade from APA in Tokyo where I stayed initially.

We’ve essentially finished the cycling now, bar a short 40 km loop in Kyoto where we head to tomorrow by public transport. The plan is to swap the pedals back to the original and I can wear runners for that trip which is probably better anyway as we will be doing a lot of walking during the day. Just not sure how I got everything into the case when I left??? I will have to do a careful pack in Kyoto before heading back to Tokyo.

Highlight today: the paper sculptures in Mino

Mileage: ~63 km adding in the bit I didn’t record, and definitely > 200 m elev gain as that first hill was wicked. We had a big buildup to the “wall” before Mino – of course the competitive ones raced up it. I walked given I couldn’t release my clips… that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Takayama to Gujo Hachiman

Beautiful autumn colours today! The road was busier as it’s a popular place to come to see the autumn leaves, with good reason.

We started with the usual buffet breakfast. Meh, but coffee decent. Starting a cold, have had a scratchy throat the last couple of days and was hoping it wouldn’t develop into anything much. Had a look at the profile today and cringed – not feeling well, wasn’t sure I was up to another day of climbing (879 m elev gain and 77 km in the trip notes).

We had an hour to walk around Takayama first, part of the Hida region, which is sometimes referred to as “Little Kyoto” as its’ streets are based on the Kyoto map. Takayama is in the Gifu prefecture, located in the heart of Hida mountains in the Japanese Alps. Its full name being Hida-Takayama, this ancient feudal city is now an increasingly appreciated rural and historical touristic destination. They are known for sake brewing, morning markets, crafts and old buildings that have been preserved. It was indeed pretty, albeit over run with tourist groups (the usual, following in a queue behind a flag).

crane in the river

Buddhist temple

too early for this huge old gingko tree to be coloured

Charming historical section with preserved buildings and some sake breweries

sake brewery

the riverside market was already crazy busy at 8:30 a.m.

walking back to the hotel I admired this innovative umbrella carry system

After that we got on our bikes and rode back to the road juncture we had passed on the way in yesterday, and headed up a long slope (many km) on a much busier road than usual. But, pretty indeed with fall colours as we were heading into the Japanese Alps.

the road at the bottom

We followed a river a good part of the way which provided lovely scapes – unfortunately couldn’t stop often enough due to narrow shoulders.

The higher we got, the better the leaf colour became! We did have some clouds, so the colours faded during grey skies.

The tour leaders were very fastidious about parking bikes neatly at every rest stop. The van would be there with water, drinks and snacks; “Mannu’s café”

everyone was cursing the motorcycle driver who parked just under these trees….

There was a tunnel here, but also a road around which we were able to take to avoid riding in the tunnel. It was gorgeous!

The river is again down below on the left. I was frequently behind because of picture taking!

We had a short morning and an early lunch, at a café in the middle of nowhere that Tsusyen has been using for a long time. The owner/chef had a stroke and his wife, who is better at pastry, took over; she is struggling so they continue to support her with trips every two weeks. They phone ahead a preset order. It was a lovely place, with gorgeous china and we had tomato soup and sandwich which was very good, albeit early in the day. We were also warned that we eat early because there is a big dinner at night today…

After lunch we headed uphill (reminiscent of Mongolia!) for the more serious part of the climb. We all agreed at the top that it had been undersold – it was actually quite a stiff climb.

As I was going slowly today because of my cold, I asked and got permission to head out early while people were still getting organized and whipped out smartly. I rode a little up the hill and then realized I’d left my wallet and phone behind so had to go down again, much to the confusion of those now starting up. I’d actually left them in the van, it turns out, but it made the hill tougher as I worked harder to catch up… it was good to see the top! There was a reflection pond with some lovely colours up there, well worth the pedal.

Many tourists here too, taking pictures and driving the roads to see the leaves. They were all surprised to see a long line of cyclists!

We donned coats for the tunnel (2 km done all together) then the descent down, which was steep in sections, and long! It was hard again not to stop and take a lot of pictures…

and several others had the same idea at any pullout – we did have a little advantage over cars, being able to pull over when there was a shoulder.

It was a “free ride” again at our own speed and we photographers at the back leap frogged each other, and the lantern rouge was solidly held this time by Gordon, 79, on the e-bike as he is a cautious descender. We reassembled at the bottom, where it was much warmer, and some of us crossed to the gelato shop across the road – yummm. Chestnut gelato… definitely earned it today!

We managed to get off the highway onto a lovely country road through a beautiful forest, and some quiet villages for part of the way into town – nice to get away from the traffic! There were some gorgeous gardens and houses on the way in.

We were at our accomodation about 3 p.m., a fairly fast ride for the distance and elevation gain. There seemed to be a bit of a snafu with the single rooms and it took a while to sort it out, but eventually got in and none of us could figure out why there were no lights – none of the switches worked. Unlike card hotels, this one had a key and an orange block; there is a space marked in orange “in” where the orange block goes in to activate the lights. You learn something new every day….

I went for a walk through town after changing and doing the obligatory handwash, and discovered a very prosperous looking little village with some attractive houses.

beautifully shaped trees and attractive gates

lots of conifers – the winters are quite harsh in this region.

A visit to the onsen, apparently the last one we have in our accomodation, was welcome for the tired muscles. Yesterday’s was the nicest, but even today’s plain one is a blessing! We will miss these.

dinner was a lot of new things, almost all delicious – not sure I’m in love with the gelatinous slimy texture of the mountain yam (upper left) but the raw tuna hidden underneath was fabulous. Persimmon for dessert.

Today’s highlight: no brainer, the leaves

Mileage today; not sure why it’s not uploading to strava… dicey internet here, I think. My GPS seems to consistenly under-report what the Brits get, even despite my extra bit of hill! The profiles are certainly helpful when it comes to going uphill – there is a measure to the end that can be used to maintain hope and also gauge exertion needed. My bike computer reports 68.6 km and 659 m elevation gain, which I would say felt about right.

Shirakawa-go to Takayama

We got up to “mountain misty” conditions, with our bikes soaked from the dew overnight. It wasn’t cold though, but definitely damp.

Another sumptious meal in our accomodation – too much for breakfast, especially with a ride uphill on the books.

leaving the accomodation in the morning (ours is in the centre)

And so off we set, on the road again… I woke with a sore throat this a.m., the scratchy throat being part of the reason I didn’t sleep well last night, but am in denial that it is going to develop into anything. It’s just a dry throat, right? In the trip notes today was to be 80 km and 1340 m elev gain, similar to the ride up Mt. Baker this summer.

Up hill we went, a long but relatively gradual (yes, a few spikes in there!) ride. Through many snowsheds and tunnels as usual – tunnelling is something the Japanese have certainly mastered. There wasn’t a ton of volume on the road, but when a car or lorry went through the tunnel, it was definitely loud. It was a free ride, so everyone rode at their own pace, but groups stayed together for the tunnels for safety and we had flashing lights on back and front.

fall colours

It became quickly apparent that the gear problem I’d mentioned a couple of days ago hadn’t been addressed – couldn’t get into low gear. Fortunately we stopped before the steeper part and it got fixed, as I definitely needed it for the top part of the climb. We had a couple of quick stops enroute at info points, a dam viewpoint, another spot to admire some 500 yo cherry trees that had been moved from the area the dam flooded before it happened (you can see the size of these rootballs LOL).

stopping at a dam viewpoint – over the top of the first hill!

the dam with fall colours

It was quite warm by this time and most of us were in shorts and tshirt.

Soba noodles for lunch at the rest stop, which was between the first (biggest) hill and the second. I was able to change to a cooler top at the lunch stop.

Some waterwheels collected by an entrepreneur.

Not much else to report; the second hill seemed the hardest, after we went up and over it my riding partner noted we’d only gone 14 km and we both agreed it felt like double that at least… There were some fairly intense downhills too, and some maniac descenders in the group. I was about 100 m behind one woman at the top of the third hill, and going down, saw her whiz off into the sunset. When I mentioned this at the coffee stop she said, yes, she likes her downhills and her husband just laughed. Egads. On roads I don’t know, I’m a bit more cautious.

After the third hill we got a coffee stop, in the middle of nowhere but really excellent coffee and the pastries looked good as well. He sold out of apple streudel (there were only 4 pieces and intense competition for the last bit!).

We collected together at the coffee stop to ride the last 10 km into town together; it was rush hour traffic and good to get to the hotel. This is an upgrade to our normal “Route Inn” with a much nicer onsen (inside, outside, and cold plunge pool as well as free ice cream after!). Futon on the floor, but roomy.

We walked to a pre-ordered dinner and I had grilled fish which was excellent; almost everyone else opted for Kobe beef which they also rated highly. Tomorrow, more hills, and fingers crossed my dehydrated throat scratching disappears overnight.

Only two cycling days left (excluding the day cycle tour in Kyoto).

Today’s mileage; interestingly we all compared notes and there was quite a bit of difference between devices, though we all rode exactly the same route! Mine said 72.69 with 1,031 m elev gain, and others said 77 km so somewhere in there! It was enough.

Today’s highlight; the maples in fall colours that we saw individually along the way in contrast to the lovely blue of the dam resevoir.

Today we transferred by bullet train back to Kanazawa, then by bus to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO site just over an hour away. It is Sunday, so there are a LOT of day trippers in the village, the bus is full and the village when we arrived was standstill traffic. It took about 20 mins to get from one side to the bus station… a bit of a zoo.

We disembarked and went to our accomodation. Three different Gassho (traditional thatched roof) dwellings for our group, and we had a complicated pack last night as our cases were sent on to Takayama, the next stop. We had to pack for the day in the village, the night and the cycling the next day – which would incidentally be our hardest day on the roads. Hard to know what to pack for layers, as it was 2C in Shirakawa-go this morning, but 17C later on. Most of us packed many layers.

After lunch perched on a rock wall (lunch pre-purchased during the layover at Kanazawa; for me sushi, green bean sesame salad and grapes; many of the Brits went to the bakery for sandwiches) in fairly warm sunshine we were set free on the village to explore. Many of us started with the hike to the observatory, where there were finally some fall colours on view.

The village has maintained many of its’ traditions, which used to be the case for many of the mountain villages in the region. These were preserved because of the villages’ remoteness and difficulty of access; they are in a mountain valley (reminscent of Bhutan). Some of them were flooded out when a dam was built, and some structures have been transported to the heritage museum locally and to other places, and others are still underwater (there are apparently diving excursions to visit them). Shirakawa-go is a popular Japanese tourist destination in the fall so the vast majority of those milling about were internal visitors, but certainly many other languages were heard as it is well known.

Picture below; village with fall colours above it. The A shaped structures are the original gassho houses, which are still lived in for the most part and passed on generation to generation. They are “prayer hand” construction, looking like two hands together in prayer, and interestingly the walls lean outwards rather than going straight up.

this one illustrates the building technique of leaning walls outwards

village view from the observatory:

As you can see, it is a small village perched in a narrow valley in the mountains. We felt pretty fortunate getting to stay in the village itself as accomodations are pretty sparse and completely booked. The masses left about 4 p.m. though so it was peaceful after that!

fall colours are finally appearing

above the village

Interesting plant seen on my walk: European spindletree

This village was also known for its “cloudy sake” making, and at the end of the museum tour I was offered a taste. It’s drunk with miso paste in between, and is tasty but quite powerful!

The picture below shows the second floor of the gassho house; they were quite roomy for houses of the time, albeit this was even more spacious, belonging to the head family of the time.

These are the silkworm coccoon collectors that were used; they fed on mulberry leaves until pupating, then the cocoons were used for spinning. This started in the 16th century; other village income sidelines were making gunpowder using nitre from the larval fertilizer, and paper making (washi).

Throughout the village were neat waterways, and in some there were farmed trout. This shows someone drying fish near their house.

The heritage museum was huge, and as well as great information provided some really pretty views. The day was fairly hot, but as always the sun went down about 3 p.m. and it quickly chilled down.

outside the sake exhibition

an earlier one level gassho. The fall colours above of course aren’t adequately captured.

The museum was really well done, and much quieter than the village.

It showcased some traditional, but much later designed, Edo period houses

every house had a buddhist shrine

typical bedroom area

After checking in to the gassho, where the Imperial Emperor stays apparently when visiting the village! a few of us walked over to the local public baths, which were lovely. Home is a futon on the floor, shared toilet for 7, and separations of screens only for privacy between rooms (which allowed for walking around three sides of the futon, but nothing much else). Here’s hoping nobody snores tonight! As usual, the special dietary folk are sequestered together and dinner was served at 6 p.m. – absolutely delicious and sooo much food….

We are all used now to wearing a kimono to dinner, and taking our shoes off at the door. Mannu, our van driver is opposite. He’s a qualified engineer from Kerala, India who worked three years as an engineer in Japan and decided the workaholic Japanese work lifestyle wasn’t for him. Now he works for different tour companies seasonally, and spends three months of the year back with his family in Kerala. He has two sisters in Nova Scotia as well; lovely guy, always smiling!

After dinner we all retired to our “chambers” and I plugged in the two pairs of earplugs when going to sleep although didn’t stop the coughing from next door being heard. Fortunately she stopped fairly quickly and as I was awake between 1 and 3 a.m. I can attest there were no snorers in our group! We each had a hot water thermos and a kerosene heater in case of need, but the blankets were very sizeable and I didn’t need it. There are a lot of stink bugs around right now and one crawled over the head of the next door neighbour at one point so we did hear about that! There was also a very well fed spider in the loo with a red abdomen and black thorax, quite pretty.

Our accomodation. The accomodation hosts spoke little English, but we had the tour leader and Mannu with us so had no problems communicating.

No mileage today! No internet either due to the mountains, hence this post is a day late.

Today’s highlight; the historical preservation of the lovely village

Loop in the Fukui prefecture

Good sleep! Okay breakfast.

Another nice sunny day, warm this time so soon after starting most of us were in shorts and short sleeved shirts. We started with a train ride of 20 mins in a local train from Tsugura to Mihama and then met up with our bikes. We followed a bike path and back roads to Wasaba Bay, which looks like a lake but is one of many inlets on the coast. Going through the villages it was again oddly quiet, with few people about but the explanation came when we got to the Bay as it was well lined with fishers. They were catching a small fish with a very pointy nose.

It felt like a summer’s day, riding around a lakeside resort.

Contrary to the sign, it was almost completely flat!

Wasaba Bay is full of fish farms, mostly mackarel and that was the explanation for the village being empty!

Next we cycled around Lake Mikata, which had a cycle path around almost all of it that was reminiscent of the seawall around Stanley Park. Very few other cyclists, but more cars on the roads than we’re used to as it’s a Saturday so crossings had to be taken carefully. There were orchards of fruit trees every place possible to grow them, mostly persimmon but some citrus as well. Many were being tended/pruned by their owners.

From a bridge at one of the few hills we had to climb.

A very picturesque ride.

An interesting lunch stop with seafood pizza and delicious fresh apple juice. There are quite a few persimmons left on the tree; we understand they need to be left until the sugars have been maximized, often after the leaves have fallen.

The manadarin oranges we have been eating have been heavenly… there was a tree next to this one that was loaded, but many were still green.

After lunch we set off back to the train station, and transported back to Tsuruga. Getting back early meant time for laundry (hand washing in the sink) and a visit to a well reputed coffee shop a km away. It was indeed good coffee and the dessert menu was fantastic – all kinds of homemade ice cream (tea, kyakura (??) amongst others, and many traditional desserts. The staff spoke no English at all, so my translator came in very handy. Sorry I didn’t take a picture, but the traditional dessert I consumed was lovely – served on a banana leaf, with sweetened adzuki beans in the centre, three flat wagashi balls (glutinous rice flour + small amount of sugar + water, mix to a paste then knead, boil, cool and shape), a little whipped cream and an unidentified topping fruit (?dried plum?). Yumm. A quick walk around the main street on return to the hotel area took me to a grocery store where I picked up some sushi and sussed out the local yuzu sake for future purchases. I managed to navigate the self-checkout lineup – the store was clearly in rush hour mode and the queues at the cashiers were long – progress is being made! Again, the translator was helpful in the grocery store to navigate around meat ingredients.

Briefing at 6 pm for the next two days and a complicated pack – a daypack with all things needed for a travel day and then cycle gear for the toughest cycle day the day after, in the mountains. Happily it looks dry for the rest of the week, including Saturday in Kyoto. Will take it!

Distance today: 37 km, elev gain 129 m

Highlight of the day; the warm gentle ride around Lake Mikata