Writing on the road has been a bit of a challenge for me I’ll admit, with days blurring into one another, riding, resting and riding again but, after much kind harassment from friends and family wanting more of this sort of thing, I have finally sat down with the laptop to look through my logs and see what actually happened since my last update.
When I last updated you I had just left Mitsu and Kyle near Kiso and was headed south on route 19 following the Kiso river. I was more than a little rusty after a week off the bike but thankfully the route was mostly downhill and at times incredibly scenic in between the bouts of busy traffic around me.
The Kiso River, my travel companion for a few days.
The river starts reasonably narrow with fast-moving white water but slowly picks up more and more tributaries until it becomes a wide slow moving flow, heading its way to Ina bay on the other side of Nagoya. My plan was to work my way north of Nogoya heading towards Sekigahara and Lake Biwa while skirting the main cities and getting some proper miles under my belt after my stay in Ina.
After nearly 30 miles I had descended nearly 2000ft and was starting to feel a little pain from the knee. I pressed on and managed to reach 41 miles before finding a suitable place to stay the night in Nakatsugawa and devouring the Bento very kindly made for me by Mitsu before I left.
The next day was a short ride with me suffering some knee pain. I only managed around 22 miles before having to stop and rest, I found a cheap hotel with an onsen and settled in for an early night after a long soak.
I was refreshed and back on the road from Toki at 9:30, starting out pushing the bike to try and stretch out the legs as well as avoiding the short nasty climb up the back road out of the town. Up in the hills of Toki I was finally away from the traffic of route 19 and headed north to meet the Kiso river again, following route 21 along the river I was joined by heavy traffic and eventually jumped onto side roads to try and lighten my mood a little.
I was riding through Kakamigahara when I was greeted by the sight of Sakura coming out on the trees, a lovely relaxing sight after mile upon mile of main roads, underpasses and trucks to be sure.
In hindsight I should have stayed here but I pushed on, trying to get past these densely populated areas and back into some countryside, I was missing Ina and the quiet of the mountains quite badly by this point.
I was soon losing daylight and needed somewhere to stay; with the sakura in bloom the parks became impossible to camp in, so after a quick check on Expedia I headed to the cheapest nearby hotel, a basic business hotel in Gifu-Hashima. I arrived exhausted just as the sun was setting and booked two nights to try to rest my legs that were now in agony.
Gifu-Hashima is an odd place – that is putting it very kindly. The town appears to be a collection of hotels, car parks, chain restaurants and mosquitoes, all centred around a Shinkansen station. During the daytime it felt like a ghost town, no local population, no wildlife with the exception of the aforementioned flying, biting kind, a very unsettling place and not one I was pleased to realise I had to spend another night in. The majority of my stay was spent in the hotel room sleeping and I believe that was time well spent…
I hit the road at 8:30 the next day wanting to be rid of the feeling of the town, within five miles the unease had lifted and I was glad to be back in the midst of humanity once more, to hammer the point home further I was treated to yet more Sakura, wiping the grime of the previous day away thoroughly.
Refreshed, I pressed on, heading towards Sekigahara. Now Sekigahara is a significant place in the history of Japan and the battle that took place here signalled the end of the Feudal era of Japan and the beginning of the 300 or so years of rule of the Tokugawa shogunate (also known as the Edo period or Edo Bakufu). The town itself lies on the top of a long slow climb at a point where the valleys narrow, reaching a natural bottleneck, and it was fascinating to ride through the area, following slight diversions to visit the places each encampment was based.
From here it was a nice descent heading towards Hikone, and the shores of Lake Biwa. With about two miles left before the shore line I felt a weave coming from the back of the bike; looking down, I could see the wheel had buckled slightly and after a close look found a broken spoke.
Thankfully it was not on the cassette side and I had spare spokes with me so after pushing the bike to a suitable repair spot I stripped the rear wheel and popped the new spoke in. Having never done this job before I was pleasantly surprised to find it only took half an hour and after a quick true of the wheel I was back on the road and on the shore of Biwa for the evening.
I woke the next day deciding to be a bit of a tourist. Hikone is famous for its castle that initially began construction on 1603 and today it is one of the oldest original construction castles in Japan. I headed to the castle mid morning and joined the large groups of tourists wandering through the museum and castle grounds. It is a stunning series of buildings and you really get a feel of the history of the place as you walk through it.
At around Midday I headed to the shore and joined the cycle path that circles the lake, loving the absence of traffic and being able to simply pedal along enjoying the view.
At around the 25-mile mark I found a suitable spot of the lake to stop for the night and set up my tent, watching the sun go down on the lake, listening to music, until the moon shone bright enough to light the hills on the opposite shore. One of those small magic times that makes the pain all worthwhile.
Sunset on Lake Biwa
Sunrise was just as spectacular.
The next day I was up early and on the road, I had loved Lake Biwa and was looking forward to cycling along it for some more miles before a planned day off in Kyoto exploring some temples I enjoyed visiting on earlier trips. The remaining 15 or so miles along Biwa were a pleasure, watching people and birds fishing along the shore. Sadly I had to head away from the shore and start the climb over the two hills between Otsu and Kyoto, the climbs themselves weren’t too serious and I was enjoying the good feeling in my legs finally being able to get up a hill without pushing!
Unfortunately this wouldn’t last too long and on the second climb before the descent into Kyoto I had a spot of trouble: riding around a narrow bend on the climb, a car only saw me at the last minute, and due to oncoming traffic couldn’t give me enough room. Choosing between hitting the car and a wall, I decided that the wall was the better option and clattered against it in a heap.
I got up and dusted myself off, relieved to find no serious injuries other than some cuts to my legs from the spiky DMR pedals I use and a broken watch strap. The bike had fared slightly worse and along with a bent front luggage rack, one of my Ortlieb panniers was pretty much destroyed with a hole in the front and the mountings smashed beyond repair. After bending the rack back into shape and cable-tying the bag to it, I gingerly headed into Kyoto on adrenaline and parked up at my hotel.
To be continued…
Three months in japan 