Onsen, Castles, Mountains, Monkeys and Friends

After two days’ rest at an Onsen in Yamanakako, I was feeling much revived and ready to hit the road north towards Nagano; the power of a good hot spring bath works wonders and I was ready for a few long days in the saddle. I set off after breakfast (sometimes a challenge in Japan: I like fish, but it’s a bit much at 7am), and was soon cruising along the cycle path along the lake, staring at Mt Fuji while trying not to run over groups of Chinese tourists who were like narcissistic jousters armed with selfie sticks. After casting scorn over the mobs of coach trip passengers taking selfies (I hate that word) with Fuji-san, I decided I should probably do the same… seems to be the done thing and all that.

Being the snob that I am, I decided to use my small tripod and, after realising there was no sturdy object to perch it and my camera on, I was soon negotiating with a nearby shrub, trying to delicately balance my camera in its branches. Upon witnessing this stupidity, one of the other tourists popped along and took pity on me, offering to take the photo. I should have bought a selfie stick…

How to ruin the view of a perfectly good mountain.

After my humbling tourist moment I headed away from the cycle path and in the general direction of Kofu. Having looked at the map, there was supposed to be minimal climbing today and I was being treated to mile after mile of glorious descending. Soon I was on route 137, a busy little road with relatively little climbing initially; however, it does have some fairly long tunnels, at least a couple of miles in one case.

Thankfully the Japanese drivers were kind to me and gave me plenty of room despite the horror stories I had been told of the truck drivers over here. After the first few tunnels I reached what would be my only serious climb of the day, about three to four miles of twisty busy road leading up to another very long tunnel. Thankfully there was a fantastic view and the long slog gave me plenty of time to have my last full views of Mt Fuji.

Once the tunnel was dealt with I was soon on possibly the most fun descent of my life, eleven glorious miles of wide smooth twisting roads shooting down a mountain into the heart of Kofu city. Pedalling like crazy enjoying the free miles gained on the descent, I reached 39.5 mph but just couldn’t break 40; for the first time on my trip I wished for heavier luggage!

I had initially planned to stop just outside Kofu and camp for the night, but at the 30 mile mark I was feeling good and probably a little giddy from the descent so decided to press on to a promising camping spot in Nirasaki, another 10 miles down the road. It was a bit of a long ride as the road had started to climb slowly and the adrenaline was wearing off from my earlier excitement. I had been browsing Google maps looking for potential camp sites and was torn between a park by a river and a ruined castle with a temple.

After spotting the river site and seeing no cover to hide the tent, I pressed on a few more miles up a steep hill to reach my home for the night. It was a lovely place and I set my tent up near the toilets tucked away out of sight behind the temple.

After a slightly restless sleep hearing multiple varied animals snuffling about the tent in the middle of the night, I was treated to a glorious but chilly sunrise, the light streaming through the temple buildings.

I’ve slept in worse places

Once I was all packed up I headed back out on the road, it was a very cold start despite the sunshine and my route seemed to have me in the shade for the first hour or so. The ride was to take me to Okaya, north of Suwa lake, and looking at the map it seemed a relatively straightforward ride down a valley with a river.

What the map didn’t show is the long, slow climb, which in over 30 miles gained nearly 2,400 feet in elevation. It was a long day broken up with rest stops for ice cream, wild monkeys drinking from a river, and some dubious shortcuts suggested by my satnav. After about 20 miles I was over the highest point and slowly rolled into Okaya, parking myself by the lake for a well-earned rest.

Cities and lakes at nearly 3000ft

I woke the next day to the sound of rain, lots of rain, and wind. I had gone to sleep in some pain due to a fair amount of sun burn over the last few days riding but there was no danger of that today.

On my visit to Tsukuba circuit with Koichi at the start of my trip, I had met a few of Koichi’s friends, and it turned out that they lived on my planned route through the Japanese Alps. I was offered a place to stay and was told to let Koichi know when I would be in the area.

My first port of call would be Garage Pierce in Ina City, run by Mitsuru Miyajima. It’s a specialist garage dealing with classic British cars and lots and lots of Minis. Ina city was a short 17 mile ride downhill from Okaya and with a strong tailwind behind me I was enjoying flying down the small country roads despite my shoes being full of water.

On one particularly good downhill section I heard a funny noise. Pulling over to inspect it, it seemed that the front mudguard had been knocked and was rubbing on the tyre. After a quick bit of cable tying and bending of supports all seemed well so I set off again. Within a mile I was back parked on the side of the road wondering what the heck was still making the noise.

I found some shelter in the lee of a hill and took the luggage off the bike to inspect properly. Once the front bags were off it was clear what had happened: another bolt supporting the luggage rack and mudguard was missing, and this time the bolt had sheared clean in half, leaving the remaining part immovable in the front fork. The words uttered at this point will go unrecorded; however, with a few more cable ties I managed to get everything braced up enough to get back on the road for the remaining ten miles.

It was a sodden, cold and a muddy wretch that arrived at Garage Pierce and I don’t know if Mitsu and his apprentice Kyle quite knew what to make of me initially. I was soon ushered inside the apartment above the garage and got into some dry clothes, was fed some lovely home cooked curry and rice, then dunked myself in the bath for the sake of all around me.

Feeling much more human, I was soon in the garage with Mitsu fixing the bike and replacing the old bolt with something a little more sturdy. Mitsu speaks a small amount of English, and my Japanese as I have sadly discovered is appalling, so we chatted a little with bits of both languages and the help of Kyle who had lived in New Zealand a while and was fluent in both languages.

With my shoes drying by the kerosene heater in the Garage office, I was off out with Mitsu in some borrowed Crocs to the local bodyshop / blacksmith / swordmaker (probably something I will never see again), after looking at the Nissan GTR that was in for some repair work for a customer we went into the office for a chat with the owner, who could not only make stunning hand made knives but also had a great collection of vintage cameras. We were on firm ground here and talked for at least an hour with neither of us knowing a word the other said, the joys of a common interest sometimes goes beyond shared language it seems.

Next was a trip to the local supermarket, not normally an item of interest but after a walk around it appeared that I was to be cooking the evening’s meal. I quickly rattled through my brain and the ingredients for Spaghetti Carbonara were purchased along with sundry other items for the coming days. I say days as the garage operates on a 5 day on, one day off rota and it was a few days till the next day off. I agreed to stay a few days helping out, then we would enjoy the day off together before I would be back on the road heading south.

The evening meal was a half-success in so much that it was eaten and nobody was ill; however, I still don’t think it was quite my best work (and the appearance of a bottle of Tabasco sauce may suggest that my hosts felt the same, but they were far too polite to say so if that was the case).

The next day arrived with the joy of clear skies, dry shoes (I still am not a fan of Crocs), and work to be done. Now in a workshop I am pretty much useless, I can hold things, pass things and generally otherwise get in the way, so I was put to work cleaning and polishing one of the many Minis that Mitsu has for sale. It was good work and somewhat surreal to be polishing away at a Mini in the middle of the Japanese alps; the last time I had done this job was as a child for pocket money back home in the UK. I made sure to do a better job this time!

Parked up outside the garage

Kyle’s father Paul had arrived for the day to help out with some fabrication work on an old MG for the day. I hadn’t spoken much with anyone for a week or so, let alone in English, so I’m afraid I must have quite bored both him and Kyle that day!

Work finishes at the garage at about 8pm and another new friend from Tsukuba circuit had arrived to join us for dinner for the evening. Hideyuki Yamaoka is a customer of the garage and Mitsu runs a race Mini for Hide when he isn’t running his ENT clinic in nearby Komagane. After a quick scrub up and a slightly awkward moment explaining that the clothes I had on were the best I had, we headed out to a nearby Yakiniku restaurant.

Now for those who don’t know, ‘Yakiniku’ basically just means fried meat. You all sit around a table with a gas grill and various dishes of raw meat and vegetables waiting to be cooked by the customers. It may seem a little strange to cook your own food at a restaurant, but it’s a lovely experience with everyone pitching in to make sure it’s all cooked the right way, etc, and it was a really good ice breaker for me with everyone. Plus, like an awful lot of Japanese food, it tastes amazing.

L to R – Hide, Kyle and Mitsu

Lto R – Kyle, Mitsu, yours truly, and Paul.

During the evening it was decided that Hide and myself would meet up the following morning (while everyone else was still working) and take a ride in his Mini over to a neighbouring valley and have a look around, so the next day we headed up route 361 through the Gonbei tunnel and into the Kiso river valley.

We stopped for a delicious locally made ice cream, and after deciding it was a bit chilly, headed to a nearby Onsen for a soak to warm up. This particular onsen’s party trick was that its water was naturally sparkling, and I was happily entertained watching the bubbles rise off my arms under the water. I resisted my ‘Sparkling water is Still water’ joke, assuming that perhaps the pun may be lost in translation despite Hide’s excellent English language skills.

Snow on the ground and we are eating ice cream: totally worth it!

After a tasty lunch of cold soba noodles and miso soup, we were off on our way to Narai-juku, a historic town on the Edo-era Nakasendo highway that linked Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo) and the two main powers of Japan at the time, the Shogun in Kyoto and the Emperor in Edo.

Narai-Juku was a post town where people would rest before crossing a border into a neighbouring prefecture. As such, the town is filled with lots of classic Ryokan (a kind of historic travel lodge if you will). It is a stunning place, and other than the odd parked car and the occasional tourist, you feel like nothing has changed in the hundred or so years since its heyday on one of the busiest routes in Japan.

Hard at work while I’m playing at photographer

After a lovely day chatting and enjoying the comfortable silence of friends driving through the countryside, it was time to head back to the garage and say goodbye to Hide. We parted ways and I sat down to relax and edit a few photos.

The next couple of days were spent helping out in the garage where I could, and generally settling into the routine of life in the garage. There was talk of my route south, and after looking at the route, Mitsu offered to take me and the bike over the nearby pass into the Kiso river valley that heads south to Nagoya. There was snow coming, so Mitsu and Kyle very kindly agreed to let me stay a couple of extra days to miss the worst of the weather.

Soon enough, the workshop day off arrived. It started with a spot of spring cleaning. Mitsu is a collector, a true enthusiast of classic cars, and as such has amassed a large amount of books, cars, films, magazines, parts, etc, so we spent the morning arranging a small part of the collection now that there were three of us staying in the apartment.

Once this was taken care of, it was time to head out, visiting a nearby ruined castle that is famous for its Sakura in springtime. We were a week or so early so we didn’t see the famed Cherry Blossom, but it is a beautiful place with great views over the valley below. After that we popped to a local tourist information spot, sadly the croissant shop that Mitsu wanted to visit was shut, but after a suggestion from Kyle it was decided that we would head up a nearby mountain pass to try to find some snow and wildlife.

No Sakura, but the view was great

Kyle is Japanese born but has lived most of his life in New Zealand and is snow mad; I have never seen somebody so excited about the stuff and his enthusiasm is infectious. We were soon heading up an increasingly twisty, narrow and rock strewn road leading us up the mountain. Mitsu was undeterred by the challenge and my growing terror as he flicked the car up each hairpin and eventually into then above the cloud level. Once the majority of the clouds were below us the visibility improved and we were treated with the sight of what I think was either a Serow or Shika Deer; whatever it was, it was beautiful, and the sight of it wandering through the trees was a real thrill.

We soon arrived at the top, and to the delight of Kyle we found it covered in snow. It was beautiful there, with the trees literally dripping in lichen as the fine mist of cloud swept through them.

We had a quick look around, and after Kyle built a snowman we headed back down the mountain, our eyes peeled for wildlife along the way. Sadly our rather spirited drive up the mountain must have alerted them all as we didn’t have any more sightings until we were off the mountain and on the other side of the river, where we encountered several families of Japanese macaque running across the road. I attempted to take a photo but the excitement got the better of me and I missed the shot.

After a nice drive around the area and a few errands for the garage, we popped into a local place for dinner and I enjoyed trying the local dish of Romen (a mix of mutton and vegetables stir-fried) and Sauce Katsudon (a different take on Katsudon, replacing the usual egg with a coating of a deliciously sweet sauce).

The next day we were greeted with snow, first a small amount then increasingly thicker. By dinner time it was snowing hard and Kyle was merrily shovelling the road and paths, a large smile on his face, while I and Mitsu were feeling the cold somewhat. Thankfully the snow eased and turned to sleet with the roads clearing by the next morning.

My last day in Ina was full of mixed emotions. I was looking forward to getting on with my journey, but I had grown very fond of everyone there and was sad to be leaving my new friends. Once the day’s work was finished I was treated to a lovely meal of Gyoza and a cake for dessert.

We were up early the next day and I loaded my bike and bags into the back of the shop pickup, a two-seater ‘Kei’ Subaru. After Mitsu and Kyle obliged me in posing for multiple photos of them in the workshop and surroundings, it was time to go.

Much to my surprise, Mitsu had decided that all three of us would be going in the pickup, himself and me in the front and Kyle in the bed of the pickup holding the bike upright between some spare wheels from the workshop! The life of an apprentice isn’t an easy one, but Kyle took it in his stride and was laughing at the situation.

After a short ten-mile hop over a high pass with snow, we were through the last tunnel and parked up ready for me to make my way on the road.

My time in Ina was an amazing experience with lots more stories than are written here, and the generosity, warmth and friendship I experienced from everyone is something I will always remember and cherish. It was very hard to leave and I hope that one day I can repay their kindness to me.