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

Day 10 – Day 6 of tour

A good sleep!!! Amazing croissants at breakfast! And decent coffee. Love the deep fried lotus root with the scrambled eggs 😊 and the almond jelly cubes are delicious (made with agar).

Sunny today but single digits when we left so three layers on to start. We rode 6 km to Takefu Village to visit a knife making collective, 14 individual artisans making distinctly different knives/sythes. The region was selected by the original knife making master because of the excellent water; they are also known for pottery. Unfortunately we didn’t see them at work as it was a religious holiday for the village, but they kindly opened the knife museum, toured us around the workshop where they are made, and then opened the shop (we made it worth their while!). There was an amazing art piece there that was made with suspended knives and mirrors.

Workshop building and museum

Forge (coke fed) and knife making equipment in workshop

Knife sharpening stations – each has a different stone

VERY hot in summer and the back wall away from the forge VERY cold in winter.

Originally making scythes, they have branched out into all kinds of knife making.

art with mirrors and knives!

The complex was fairly new, and full of glass – someone from our group walked into a heavy glass door that was moving and got quite a clunk!

Then it was off towards Tsuruga, 40 km or so away; for the most part, once through Takefu village, we were on bike paths. We had strict timelines, as there is a tunnel system from the original railroad built in the 19th century to move goods unloaded from ships (described in the shipping museum a couple of days ago) but they were under construction and not usually open weekdays. Our guide had gotten special permission for us to get in, and so we had between 1 and 2 p.m. to get through.

The riding was lovely – along a river, with rice paddies on the sides and feather grass on the river side.

We had to get off and walk a couple of times due to groups of small children on the path near a school; so cute. They formed a ring holding hands around their carer as we went by.

Starting to get a little autumn colour, but the forests are mainly conifer.

rice paddies on the right

croquet course!

We rode to a village famed for its soba noodles, a very quiet and small village but which had some amazing stores – a specialty coffee bar! and a high end clothes store. Yet there was barely anyone about. The place we went for lunch is 200 years old, now an NGO (non-profit) but used to be a hotel; it wasn’t frequented enough as it’s too far off the beaten path so now serves soba noodles and functions as the HQ of the NGO. Beautiful old traditional house.

A local came by to chat, quite excited to see a group of foreigners at their soba place, and gave us all pamphlets about the NGO. He also took us upstairs and showed us ancient skis, and told us about a “ski robot” he and another villager had invented and built in his house many years ago. They were invited to Innsbruck to give a talk about it… He wanted to come riding with us, and escorted us on bike to the edge of the village 🙂

He also brought to show us a 100 year old Japanese massage tool, which worked by hand turning and was rated fairly effective by the British couple who tried it.

The food was delicious, apart from the dish on the upper left; they served us the water the soba was cooked in, which likely has some nutrients, but it tasted like dishwater. The upper right is a dongo ball, usually made with glutinous rice but I suspect here was buckwheat flour, served with ground almond. It didn’t go down well with most of the Caucasians but I enjoyed it.

Some of us headed to the coffee bar and were amazed at the variety of coffees to be had. It took a while to get them though as they use a traditional drip method and clearly weren’t in a hurry. Amazing to see that in such a small village, however… the few people we did see waved and smiled at us as we rode by.

Each cup was ground with selected coffee beans and slowly dripped through, though it looks like there is a machine there as well.

We set off fairly promptly to make our time at the tunnels. A fairly long but gradual hill led up to the start, and the first tunnel was a little downhill which was a tad disconcerting in the dark. We had been warned to only ride in the middle as there were potholes on the edges and that was indeed true; a couple of places were quite wet and the lights had burnt out making it pitch black, but fortunately in most of them it wasn’t long enough to be a problem (the lights on our bikes were completely useless). One long tunnel however had no lights whatsoever and you couldn’t see the other end (there was no light at the end of the tunnel) so it was like skiing in a whiteout – no idea of which end was up. I walked most of that one.

Getting ready to go into the first tunnel.

There were about 8 tunnels in all, owned by different companies apparently and in order to patch the route together each company had to be individually contacted. Some refused initially and then agreed when the others gave permission. Trying to imagine construction of these in the 18th century is mind boggling – dynamite didn’t appear until 1867. Maybe gunpowder from China helped the excavation?

Not my favourite part of the trip, interesting to be sure but having cataracts doesn’t assist in seeing in the dark.

Nice views from up there though! Tsruga Bay.

And so from here it was mostly downhill, over back roads and bike paths beside and under a major highway at times and eventually into Tsruga where we will be staying for two days. After the usual soak in the onsen, dinner together with far too much food and drink (pre-ordered inclusive dinner) and VERY noisy and hot in the restaurant so was glad to get back into the cool air. It was generally chilly today, up to 14C in the direct sunshine but cool when moving and apparently another cold day over most of Japan, cooler than yesterday. That’s what we bring layers for though!

Today’s distance: 51 km, 349 m elevation gain

Highlight: the soba lunch and village in a close tie with the knife museum.

Day 9 – tour day 5

Lousy sleep last night… After an amazing buffet breakfast we set off in sprinkling rain and grey clouds to Oshima Bridge, where a shrine is located on an island. Very windy with waves crashing onto the rocks, but a surfer was out enjoying it. Colder today as well, esp in the wind. Dramatic change in the coast, from sandy beaches to rocky.

The bridge is a lovely red – we were supposed to visit at sunset yesterday but it was too cloudy to have much of a sunset.

The wind was fierce all day but fortunately it was mostly a tailwind. The times it wasn’t, and you came around a corner into its full force, were sobering.

We headed south along the coast, on roads this time but they were fairly quiet. The ride was a “free ride” which meant the competitive ones raced ahead as we all went at our own pace…

Had the boats not had Japanese writing on the side, this could be a small fishing village in Scotland

Quiet harbour – effective breakwater

some odd sedimentary rock formations

volcanic eruptions left this

We stopped for lunch at an oceanside restaurant – good to get out of the wind. Lovely spot, complete with its’ own raptor posing for a picture… the eagles were playing on the wind gusts outside the windows while we ate.

looking north from whence we’d come

Kindly posing for a picture…

A Room with a view…

Interesting food – seafood taco salad (was very good but no resemblance to taco – maybe b/c it was a tomato base to the seafood part?)

After lunch another free ride – we all waited outside the restaurant for the guide to get going and were almost hypothermic by the time we were given the green light.

Pretty coastline, but quite rough – apparently doesn’t deter the surfers.

We went through multiple tunnels, one a km in length – thankfully, as we would otherwise have been going up and down like a yo yo. No gentle seaside path in this landscape!

Eventually we gathered together again and did the hill – 370 m in 4 km. Grades weren’t too bad though and happy to report that I wasn’t the lantern rouge!

It quickly cooled down on the other side of the summit as we are approaching the mountains, and we rode through pleasant villages, rice paddies, and over a few more undulations over the next 15 km before hitting the large town of Kuzuokacho in the Echizen region (during rush hour). This region is known for its artisans, particularly knife makers and pottery but unfortunately there is a local festival tomorrow so we will miss out on both as they are closed for the occasion. We are in a chain hotel tonight – also with onsen which was greatly appreciated after being cold today. Dinner was pre-ordered in the restaurant across the street but apparently the guide hadn’t read the food restrictions page? and despite several discussions previously hadn’t ordered anything without meat. They quickly retooled though and I had excellent sashimi (and cold tofu which was edible on top of hot rice).

We learned today was Japan’s coldest day of the fall season, all over the country – it snowed in Haikado, and on Mt. Fuji, which was late for the latter to get its first snow. The skiers are happy! We were very lucky it never rained seriously – it seemed to be trying at times but never quite caught on. Being wet and cold would have been another story. Fortunately sun forecast for the next two days. There is a saying in Japan “Three days warm, four days cold” and this same place next Thursday is apparently forecast to be 23C.

Today’s mileage: 71 km, elevation gain 588 m.

Today’s highlight; watching the brave surfers at Oshima Bridge.

Day 8 – tour day 4

Lovely hotel, much quieter and smaller than the Las Vegas style Prince Hotel. Nice buffet breakfast with decent coffee, then we packed up and headed out for 8 a.m. under grey skies, just spitting a little. Forecast was for clearing later, and clear it did, yielding to lovely sunny skies for the majority of the day plus a bonus, a tailwind for a good part of it.

We cycled out of Kanazawa initially on roads then onto a bike path, then turned south onto a bike only path. Gorgeous, with beautiful sandy beaches.

the only place I’ve seen garbage, and that was mainly b/c it washes in from the sea, and blows around.

The beaches were amazing, mile upon mile of sand. Some surfing done here apparently.

We had frequent stops at strategic locations where Hammu could come in with the vehicle and we were well provisioned. Japanese toilets, in parks and public places, are AMAZING. Most have heated seats and bidet functions and are spotlessly clean. At times it looked a little Dunkirk-ish, with bamboo barricades for wind on the inland side and the breakwater concrete pilings on the sea side.

One of several nutrition breaks.

We stopped for lunch at a park close to a family mart which had an amazing selection of food; settled on some sushi (excellent), iced coffee and chestnut daifuku. Views were lovely but needed to be in the sun as the wind was chilly.

As we cycled along there before lunch, there was a continuous roar of fighter jets as they were apparently doing a military exercise in response to North Korea’s latest ICBM test. They all came back to base though and we had an excellent view of them landing as they flew over our coastal path into the AFB beside it. Some $$ in jet fuel used there… The white buildings to the north on the point in this picture are the AFB hangar buildings.

After lunch we rolled out for a short stretch to a shipping museum in Kaga, where some elected to go in and pay the huge entrance fee of 350 yen (about $3.50). It was fascinating to see the difference in the building of this shipping merchant vs. the samurai house; apparently there was a lot of money to be made in that trade. They did one trip a year along the west coast, picking up goods in the south and selling them as they went up, then loading up in the north and doing the same on return. The house was huge, with a huge garden. Filled with interesting artifacts, and an interesting tree out front with a pine tree growing out of a camelia tree – likely bird droppings with a seed that took root. Someone also found a persimmon growing, which we’d had for breakfast.

We had some roads and detours around construction on the coastal path, but the traffic wasn’t bad and there’s safety in numbers. Lots of lovely little fishing villages and lagoons, with rice paddies on the inland side. A few cranes were spotted; they are a feature of Japanese art. Only one section of solar panels, and one lone windmill.

We had a few undulations to deal with at this point, but none were very strenuous and we rolled into our lovely hotel with sea views about 3 p.m. We were told we were one of the fastest groups ever as they had planned to have us arrive at 4:30 and had to adjust the lunch spot. Must have been that tailwind…

Happily not feeling too tired, especially after the lovely onsen (hot baths). A great tradition…

Dinner was amazing, a buffet with an excellent choice of Japanese food, ending with mochi, and 4 different flavours of ice cream including yuzu!!! and chestnut. Yummm.

Today’s mileage: 78 km, 260 m elev gain

Highlight of the day: scapes of the sandy beaches in the warm sunshine and the blue and green ocean beyond.

Think I was a bit optimistic about that jetlag being done…. lousy sleep last night.

Alas the Japanese restaurant was closed this a.m., so in order to bypass the buffet circus on the first floor I went to the Chinese restaurant for breakfast. Adequate but absolutely dreadful coffee.

We collected and headed over to the Metro to experience the Tokyo rush hour with all our luggage – likely not popular but the unfailingly polite people said nothing as they packed in around us, all in business suits. No need to hang onto anything as we were so packed in it would have been impossible to move. After a few stops there was a mass exodus so we got to sit down, but it filled up again quickly; we were extruded at Tokyo station. It is another huge station, a major connection spot for the bullet trains and we transferred to our train platform with several collection spots along the route. We are like an accordion, spreading out, pushed together at a collection point and then spreading out again 😊. We made it uneventfully to the right platform and found the right queue to be in – quite confusing with parallel lines for queueing for this train, and then the next, and the tickets don’t have any English on them so we got a lesson for future trips we may take without guides on how to interpret the numbers. Very helpful.

The bullet train took about 1 3/4 hour to deposit us in Kanazawa with a few stops enroute. Very efficient, and to the minute in leaving and arriving. A luggage team was formed for our group as we’d had to pile everything at the opposite end to where we were sitting, so they passed the bags out to the platform while we debarked on the opposite end of the car. Might mention I haven’t nearly the worst size bag! The prize for compactness goes to a couple from Colorado who arrived at the platform with a SMALL carryon size suitcase and daybacks full but not bulging. When I complimented them I learned they had craftily sent their hiking and Kyoto stuff via luggage courier from the Shingawa hotel directly to the Kyoto hotel for pickup on arrival….

Kanazawa is a modern and attractive railway station which we quickly cluttered up outside the exit. We had to dig out our seats and pedals for swapping out so we appropriated a back lane and it was a mess of luggage and bike bits being handed to the bike mechanic (Hammu) and much to the amusement of the school kids going by.

Kanazawa’s modern station. The fellow standing in the middle is a pig farmer from Denmark, lovely guy with a great sense of humour (apparently owns and operates a farm in Sweden as well).

Hammu, in our support vehicle, waits patiently for bike bits.

We get a safety talk with rules of the road from Tsuyu, complete with pictures 🙂

Formal group photo while we’re still clean and smiling LOL

One last group photo before we start the cycling in front of the lovely station

Then we took the luggage to the hotel for dropoff and got lunch while the tour crew swapped pedals, and even managed to get the saddles on although we’d originally been told that would have to be done later tonight. The brakes are backwards to what we’re used to in North America, and the hybrid gearing I will never get used to… as usual, the handlebars are way too low for me so I’m stooped over uncomfortably – the bikes come in “small, medium and large” (cringe) but they did say they’d try and work on something tonight. They are all hardworkers! Our tour leader “T” has been doing it a long time and intermittently tells us stories of outrageous behaviour by clients in the past…. like the one who set the fire alarm off at a hotel thinking it was the elevator button, but managed to break it in the process, of course in the middle of the night, so everyone had to listen to the fire alarm beeping for an hour until it could be fixed… Maybe that’s why they can’t use the same hotel anymore LOL?

Definitely cooler here, with a brisk wind. We dug deeper for more layers… cloudy today but no rain.

We were free to forage for lunch on our own and most headed to the food court at the nearby shopping centre. I had an awesome seafood okonimayake … half of it went under an ice pack in the hotel lobby afterwards (doggy bag) thanks to the translator device. Learned in Mongolia the perils of eating a full meal before cycling…The staff looked completely blank when I asked if they could store it in a fridge somewhere for the afternoon but the translator did an excellent job of getting the message across and we compromised on the ice pack as they didn’t seem to have a fridge available.

So off we went after the obligatory safety talk and explanation of the rules of the road in Japan – slightly different hand signals, esp. stop and the fact that bikes never “take the lane” as in North America. It was a bit daunting riding on the opposite side of the street at first, but it was literally “follow the leader” so not much to think about. We rode in city traffic, then onto a pedestrian path along a canal, stopping for a brief visit to a samurai house from the 13th century. Very plain.

As the houses were so close together, fires were a real problem with the possibility of wiping out whole neighbourhoods, and they were frequent. So the practice was to create a “firebreak” by knocking down the houses in the immediate proximity to limit the spread.

Sleeping quarters for 4.

It is a pretty city in the historical part, and the narrow streets and alleys we cycled in the canal district were lovely.

Only a few tourists around, and apparently many less pedestrians than usual. Unfortunately unable to get pics as it’s illegal to take pictures while moving on a bike, and we didn’t stop. It was full gas to the next stop, Kenruoken gardens, originally the gardens of Kanazawa castle. Reputedly one of the three best landscape gardens in Japan, absolutely gorgeous. It sits atop a hill in Kanazawa, which we pedalled up and I was chastened to find it hard work until I realized at the top I had it on the hardest gear… will take a while to get the system of those gears.

Very interesting to see the work crews starting to affix the winter supports – almost every limb is painstakingly affixed to a trellis to support it for the load of winter snow. Not a blade is out of place in the garden…

The work crews were getting a lot of attention…

The fountain is Japan’s oldest – gravity fed (the gardens are on a hill).

starting to see a little autumn colour….

Three little maids are we?

Autumn variety of Sakura cherry tree – white blossoms are just finishing. Apparently glorious in the spring (and packed solid with people).

Several reflective ponds and four distinct sections to the gardens.

Water course

Waterfall

I took a lot of pictures! It was breathtaking.

Back onto the bikes, and home along the canal on a different path – hopefully have gotten my bike snafu out of the way for the trip as I caught a clip on the exit bollard on a sharp left and went down. Happily no damage to my raincoat and shorts, the biggest concern LOL – a couple of bruises likely and a small scrape on the elbow. All soothed by a visit to the natural hot springs onsen on the roof of the hotel after check in. The bikes were stored close by in the huge parking “lot” for bikes at the nearby shopping centre but will be moved for better security overnight. Apparently there are bike thefts albeit the locks they put on them would last about 2.5 seconds in Vancouver and the staff seemed pretty confident they would be protective…

We had our 6 p.m. briefing and have our first long ride tomorrow, on a bike path along the coast. Weather forecast is for a tail wind fortunately though rain to start, hopefully not for too long. Some headed out for dinner but I have retired to consume the second half of my okonimyaki with miso soup and seaweed crackers, chased down by a chestnut daifuku.

Highlight of the day – undoubtedly the Renkouren gardens, with the alleys in the canal district second.