Tour on Nanikore

A Rainy Day in Shizuoka

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 01:57:46 +0000

Shizuoka prefecture is mostly famous for being the geographic home of most of Mt. Fuji, and then for its tea production, and both of those are worthy claims, but I thought I’d spend a day just riding around and seeing what else was up in the prefecture next door.

I think I’ve mentioned on some of these ride reports that weather on the day doesn’t matter much - I’ve got the day off so I’m going. This day the local weather was due to be fine, but later on in the afternoon I knew there was a chance of rain in Shozuoka, and certainly likely in the more mountainous areas I was looking for. It was also late July, so still hot and humid down by the coast, so I took the liner out of my jacket, opened some of my vents, and opted for riding jeans over the all weather trousers, but stuck my rain gear over-trousers in the top box, just in case. For footwear, I stuck with my Forma Swift Dry boots, which have proven to be very waterproof already.

The ride to Shizuoka is essentially a simple run west. I could have taken the expressway and saved some time, but I thought I’d go through the Hakone mountain area on Route 1. It’s a nice winding road, and fortunately the morning I went, there wasn’t too much traffic - it can sometimes backup a little behind delivery lorries and commuter traffic. It was also fortunate because there was a light drizzle towards the top, and visibility was about 10m thanks to some mist and low cloud, meaning riding with the visor open for one section as the mist was just settling on the visor and reducing visibility still further. Of course, this also mean’t my face got wet, but I’ll take that to let me see a bit more of where I’m going.

There wasn’t much traffic on the road that morning and fortunately the cars there were had slowed too, which isn’t always the case. There are always people who seem to believe they have superhuman reflexes and F1 level cars even in these conditions. Coming down out of this cloud bank and into the town of Mishima, things were still overcast but at least dry. I stopped off for a quick cup of tea, and check the weather. Maybe a little rain apparently in the hills, and maybe in Shizuoka City. Well not too bad. I should also say that just outside Mishima is the Mishima Skywalk, which is worth a try.

To be fair, the rain was sort of holding off when I arrived in Shizuoka City, and stayed at a polite occassional drizzle. I found a small motorcycle and bicycle parking area near the Sunpu Castle park, one of those places they made from an odd ‘L’ shaped piece of land left after developments, meaning it wasn’t easy to get the Tracer in, and it looked somewhat out of place next to bicycles and small 50cc scooters.

From the outside, Sunpu Castle Park looks like a fairly typical Japanese castle park. The walls aren’t super impressive, though the moat looks nice and might have been stocked with koi or other fish - it was too murky and rainy to tell. Though many castles have heritage status in Japan, most have been rebuilt extensively - and recently - rather than be left as ruins, which is good in one respect, but it leaves the historical significance somewhat lacking for me. We’ll come to and example of this soon.

The park was relaxing, even in the humid drizzle of late July, and it pushes its history quite well, especially its connection to one of Japan’s major historical figures, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was linked to the castle and area throughout his lifetime.

Sadly, whilst the watchtower Tatsumi [yagura](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagura_(tower%29) looks beautiful over the moat, the main castle was under excavation and rebuilding when I was there, which wasn’t mentioned on the couple of sites I looked at, so this is what I actually got to see of Sunpu Castle:

After a wander around, I decided to head off, especially since there’s only so much earthwotrks you can look at through construction wall windows. I will say though on a nicer day, the park would be nice to stick around, and there other things you can go in and have a look at if you have the time.

For me, this was a rest stop, not a destination, so after getting the bike out of the weird parking area, it was time to head north and up into the mountains.

The rain respected my dedication, and came down with more enthusiasm once I got out of the suburbs of Shizuoka City on Route 362, the roads narrowed, and the only camera I wanted to get out was the GoPro. It’s a great road though, a mix of curves and twisties through the mountains, until I hit the town (village?) of Senzu, then turned on to the much smaller road 77.

As I climbed the number of vehicles became fewer, the roads innevitably got narrower, and I had to keep an eye on my navi(satnav) as it would be easy to miss a turn, and I was looking for the Yume no Tsuribashi (Bridge of Dreams) suspension bridge.

The rain was very heavy by this point, and the riding jeans had begun to look like a bad choice. The road’s asphalt was quite broken in places, the steep inclines and slopes were beginning to resemble streams and I decided I needed to put the light rain trousers on in the near future!

I should say though, I love this type of riding - poor asphalt, rain, stunning views down the valleys, mental fuel calculations, and wondering how many more blind corners to a destination is actually things I love about riding here.

As it was, I did stop now and then just to take in the dense foliage interspersed with small tea plantations clinging in terraces and small slopes in their neat rows.

Eventually, I ran out of road - some barriers in a village a few kilometers from the bridges and dam area said the road was currently closed. Yes, I could’ve ridden around them, but given the weather, and literally no one around to ask, I decided to head back to a car park a few hundered metres away, and get my rain trousers on and have a cup of tea.

The car park was empty, impressive considering there were spaces for a few hundred cars, save for a lonely white SUV, parked across about three spaces whose two occupants were watching the rain like it was a meteor storm. Eventually, umbrellas in hand, they made a dash for the toilet block, then back, and left.

I took shelter at the bus stop put my rain trousers on, and tried to figure out how far a walk the bridges were. I wasn’t dedicated to doing the bridges, this was more a scouting out for a possible family trip, but since I was here, I wanted to know if it was do-able. After a few minutes an empty bus pulled up, and I was asking the fairly miserable driver how far it was to the Bridge of Dreams. It seemed that due to Covid and other things, they’d closed the roads, the minibus wasn’t running, nor were taxis, and to walk it would take about 40 minutes each way. A quick calculation showed there was just not enough time for me to do that and be home anywhere near plan, so I had a rest and a look around and decided to head back, and get some petrol on the way. Definitely one for a future trip.

On the way back down the 77, I stopped for fuel at an odd little place who unusually weren’t interested in any quick conversation. In these kinds of places, with few customers, I’ve often found the staff quite chatty as a bit of a break, but the tone here was as dour as the rain I suppose.

On the ride back, I’d become interested in at least walking one bridge over the winding river, and saw one from the road which looked nice - a simple suspension bridge, so I did a quick u turn, found the entrance, parked up, and went for a walk.

It was great, this narrow little bridge, little used or even known about judging by all the moss on it, joined at each side to roads verging on cycle track size. It was a great walk over a swollen and fairly angry looking river (the Oigawa?) full of the mountain rain higher up. Whilst I was there a couple of locals passed and at least returned a hello, and the place was really quite nice, especially since there was a break in the rain for a few minutes. Yes, I did wonder if I could get the bike across it, and decided very quickly it wasn’t a good idea to try - definitely possible, but ill advised.

Back on the road, and generally on downward slopes, the rain picked up again, but spirits were high, the road quality gradually increased, and before long I was down onto the coastal plain area, and heading east on the expressway this time, quite a bit behind schedule, but pretty happy with the run. I find little to write about with expressways. You do get the odd unusual service area, but on this one, it was pretty generic, though I was able to get a very reasonably priced cup of coffee which actually tasted decent.

All in all, a great ride, and also something to put on the list for next time to see the bridges in that area as it is truly beautiful. You can also do some tea picking at certain times of year, so that’s something to look into also.

Riding Fuji's Five Lakes

Sat, 18 Jul 2020 11:31:39 +0000

Once the COVID-19 ‘State of Emergency’ allowed general travel out of prefecture in mid June, I decided I’d do a short day trip, and do a run I hadn’t done before - to visit all of Mount Fuji’s five main lakes. Admittedly the weather forecast was for overcast moving to rain, but when you have a day off, fresh out of travel restrictions, you just take the opportunity to ride.

The area of the Fuji five lakes (富士五湖 - Fujigoko) is broadly around the northern base of Mount Fuji at about 1,000 meters above sea level. The five lakes are: Kawaguchiko, Saiko, Yamanakako, Shojiko and Motosuko. The ‘ko’ on the end designates ’lake’ in Japanese. There are a few other lakes in the area, but these are considered the ‘Five Lakes of Fuji’.

I kicked off at the east end of the Doushi road, fresh off the Ken-O expressway, and ready to get around some corners. It’s a nice road, winding, but not full on twisty, with farms, mountains and small towns along the way. One of the decent places to stop along the way is the Michi No Eki, you know I’ll be making a stop there. The place was quite empty as expected, but there was an old Honda NM4, with some manga vinyl wraps applied which was getting some attention. I also saw a stuffed deer head in the back of a small kei van, which you don’t often see. I did take a photo, but I’m not sure some people may want to see it here! OK, a commenter (Touge!) did ask, so I added it to the gallery at the end.

Back on the road and en route to to the first lake on the list, Yamanaka-ko. It’s a large lake, and as such, has quite a bit of formal parking around, and on a clearer day you get much better views of Mt. Fuji. Today, the car-parks were empty, the sky was grey and the cloud was low. But hey, I’m still out on the bike, so that’s all we need. Social distancing was not an issue for most of the day, and whilst I did see a tea shop open, I went for my flask.

Next up, lake-wise, was Kawaguchiko. It’s a nice open lake and one of the more tourist friendly with its various attractions and nearby town, so if you want to make a stop for things such as museums and ropeways on the route, this is the place. When you have a lot of hills and mountains like Japan, that’s a lot of excuses for ropeways. I approve. I’ve ridden around here quite a few times, and once again took the bridge over, giving me a look around for a minute before hitting the north shore, taking a left and then a small road to a boat rental place overlooking the lake, just a stone’s throw from the ’ Music Forest Museum’, which I’ve never been to myself, but I’m told is very good.

Watching a lake is quite therapeutic as it happens, perhaps even more so after riding, and with tea in hand, the stillness of the place after all those curves and corners was a nice contrast. Again, helped by the fact that it seemed virtually no-one else was around. The last few kilometres had been mainly urban through the town, but from here out, it’d be mainly backroads.

The next lake, Saiko, is a very short hop from Kawaguchiko. Its name means ‘West Lake’ and to get away from car parks, I pulled over at a fishing spot and went down a gravel road to the shore. In more normal times (or in better weather) you can rent a small row boat to go and fish. As, it was there was a couple of fishermen and a couple of photographers setting up for shots over what really was a great vista. I stayed for a bit, chatted at distance with a photographer who clearly knew what he was doing, whilst I snapped away like a lunatic. I’d stopped at the very west end of the lake, and made up of a small cluster of houses, a hotel and some fishing gear rental places, was Saikonishi, which means West Lake West. They nailed that name for sure.

The next lake was also the smallest, Shoujiko, and since Route 139 also bypasses the lake itself, it seems to be one of the less commercial. It’s got that ’left out’ feel to it. The few fishing areas are smaller, less developed, but I will say, it’s got the better shoreline to ride around in my opinion, even if it isn’t that long. This is also where I almost made a mistake. Well, I did make a mistake, but I managed to avoid disaster. I decided that like at Saiko, I would ride down to the shore and take some photos. However, this was not Saiko’s even gravel, too late I saw it was basically rocks, and the descent was a mite steeper than expected too. I decided it was better to go with it rather than try to change line mid way, and I managed to keep the bike upright, but it was a little wobbly there for a second, I won’t lie. My mistake - I’d misread the line, the Tracer isn’t a dual sport, and I’m not an experienced off-road rider, but we made it. That aside, the lakeshore was calm and quiet, with row boats up-ended as if off season, and whilst being small it doesn’t offer the panorama the other lakes do. It did though pass the test of being a nice place to sit and have a cup of tea (again).

Going back up the track though, I walked it first this time, picked a good line, got on top of the revs a bit more, stood on the pegs, and made easy work of it. A reminder for sure. To add to it, I didn’t get much in the way of even a half decent photo.

The last of the lakes is Motosuko. This is another which is more low key it seems, though riding around it was quite relaxing. I stopped at a small car park because there was a toilet near by (if you just had to know), and chatted with the owners of a nearby kiosk which was old style place, selling various buckets and spades, drinks and ice cream, but it really wasn’t clear initially if it was open or not. The shoreline near where I stopped was part sand, part wetland, with some birds patrolling for food. Taking a bit of a walk, I did find the above boat, which I took as a homage to the Yellow Submarine song, but it may also have been influenced by a million childrens bathtub toys. Either way, it wasn’t in usage the day I was there, and yes, I was a bit disappointed. Next time perhaps.

After yet another cup of tea, it was time to say goodbye to the lakes, and to head home. I don’t like retreading ground if I can avoid it, so I headed south around the west side of Mt. Fuji, more meandering roads, and so little traffic, and even when I’d reached the 138, cutting further down through Hakone, there was just local traffic and by then it was quite relaxing. It had also started raining a little since I left Motosuko, so in some ways I was glad I hadn’t opted for an expressway to eastern Kanagawa, but it meant no sunset in the mirrors, which for some reason seem to look nicer than normal.

I enjoyed the day out, loved the lakes and the riding in between. However even being out of State of Emergency, the places were empty, which robbed them of a certain atmosphere, with few people or shops open. That’s a shame, since random meetings and conversations are often nice interludes on a ride. As it was, I’d planned the day to be done on a single tank of fuel to reduce the need for interactions on fill ups (my local place is self service) for social distancing.

Whilst it’s good riding is back to being more open to longer runs, social distancing and other measures will be around for a while, so it’ll be interesting to see how these interactions evolve. Knowing how friendly people are, I expect it’d get back to as it was to some extent, albeit it 2metres apart, and with face masks.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Touge — 2020-08-15

Good stuff as always. 👍 Though I do want to see the deer head and the Tracer in the lake would’ve made internet gold! Good riding.

gurahamu — 2020-08-16

Deer head added!

Ride Report: West Izu

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 07:53:49 +0000

I know it has been a long time since I wrote up any ride reports. In truth, the first half of 2019 was bad for ’long’ rides for me for some dull medical reasons which I’ll skip here as it’s not an exciting story. Anyway, it was late July 2019 and the road was calling.

Since it had been a while since I did anything more than running some errands, and I was planning to go a little over 350Km., I went over to Kurviger, and started to plan a route. I had a look at a route TougeExpress had put together a few years back, and merged it with some roads I wanted to check out, along with some actual expressway riding up front, since I don’t especially like it, but it is a necessary skill and I avoid it perhaps too much.

So there I was, a whole day booked off work, and a gpx route all ready to go on my phone. That is a solid start to a day. On the map above, have a look at the altitude graph at the bottom - from sea level to 1Km high, and back again, several times.

I left the house just after 6.30am, so not super early, then made my way on to the Tomei Expressway west bound, away from Tokyo. Traffic wasn’t heavy and it was warm, so it was a nice easy bimble to the exit I needed, 7-2 Susono, and head into the Izu pensinsula, initially via route 337. Before that excitement though, let’s just stop and take a minute at the Family Mart for the obligatory onigiri (rice ball) breakfast. That morning’s was barley, beans and cheese - a first. It wasn’t bad.

The road from there starts nice and gentle, then suddenly turns into one car width twisty inclines, which isn’t too bad when you’re expecting it.

It wasn’t long before I was on the Ashinoko Skyline, a toll road which climbs to the ridgeline of some small mountains, and has several stopping areas for people to take in the views. Cloud had moved in though, and visibility was way, way down. Still a great road, but care was taken since my visor was getting covered in droplets, so I had to open it. It wasn’t much better with it open and now my face was getting wet instead. Fortunately there wasn’t much traffic and the road as far as I could see for about 40m was great. Fortunately I roughly remembered where the toll gate was, because it emerged from the mist seemingly right in front of me!

Fortunately that mist began to clear somewhat as I headed south on the venerable Izu Skyline, and then jumped off to a local forest road a kilometre or so from the southern exit to head west on the Ito-West Izu road until I hit the coast, through wonderful rural farmland, then a left turn south, to take in the mostly commercial fishing areas. I was planning to get some fuel on this stretch, but oddly, the JA station I’ve often used was fully closed. I’m not sure whether it’s closed for good, or being refurbished, but it definitely looked out of use when I passed. It wasn’t a concern, as I had a backup fuel stop, so it was East again for a short while, and back into the farmland.

On the 410 eastbound there are sections of steep winding turns, and I’ll confess that I had a misshap. I love this road, but for reasons beyond explanation I came to one corner, stalled and ended up dropping the bike. Yes, very low speed, bordering on stationary, but kind of embarrassing, as I should know better and took a terrible line. I picked it up, uttered quite a varied selection of profanity at myself, and as there was no traffic either way (and I had only seen a few cars for quite a while), I walked it to the other side of the road and had a nice cup of tea.

After a bit of a rest, I decided it was time to be off, but easier said than done. The flat area at the side of the road I’d chosen to take the break at, was covered in moss, which was incredibly slippery on such a humid summers day, and with my riding boots on it took a few attempts to get on the bike. Finally, I was off again, and was reminded about how much I really do like this part of the world - it’s a lot of uphill fun. I do like uphill roads.

Up on to the 411, that’s a pretty fast winding road at elevation, which has great views, though there can be road water if you’re riding after a lot of rainfall, which transitioned into the 127 for more of the same, before a turn again, back down to head to the coast.

One the way, I stopped in at Kurura Heda no Eki. To very quickly recap, they are rest areas which aim to promote local produce and sights, and generally I find them to be fun little places to chat.

It being late July, down by the coast was hot - quite a bit hotter and more humid that it had been during the more mountain stretches, so it was nice to take a break and have something to drink from my water pack.

This is one of the newer ones, and inside were the usual selections of local gifts and food, some images of local comedians, and a brief exhibit about local fishing, and certainly there was a sea faring theme to much of the place. Further down the road, I got the fuel I needed, and had a short chat with the owner about bikes - it’s amazing to me still how many people used to ride bikes, or have a bike still but dont get out, and work at petrol stations. Get out and ride!

As suggested at the Michi no Eki, I took a stop down by the quayside to look at the boats which were a collection of small inshore fishing vessels and a few pleasure craft. The place was pretty much empty, so I stopped and got some looks from a nearby workers cafe as I took pictures of the bike.

The road from there to the north western corner is narrow and winding, but a procession of beautiful views over the ocean on one side, then hills and trees on the other, passing through small village communities, some tiny beaches with local families on then, and the odd convenience store.

You can have enough of a good thing though, and mountain twisties were calling, so I turned inland once more, and climbed back up, before heading east for the last time on the 18, crossing the peninsula, and it is a great traverse, passing some local attractions, some farming communities and passing through the city of Ito, as it hugs its river. The town is quite nice and itself has been a tourist draw, meaning the roads are quite tight, and unforgiving if you miss a turn.

Then it’s back on these wonderful sweeping roads, passing golf courses, solar panel ‘farms’, and a few other bikes. Usually I would take the 80 down to the eastern coast, but if you take the real 80, you end up doing an fun, steep, narrow, declining road through a lightly residential area, under the train line, before seeing the ocean again - it’s more fun that the more relaxed other 80. Then it’s that usual ocean view ride, before indulging yourself in the twisty goodness of 75 near Hakone.

Overall, a great day, and for me, after 6 months of being limited to short hops, it was nice to ride for a couple of hours without stopping.

(As ever, it’s worth remembering that petrol stations are often closed, and it’s a bit of a gamble sometimes, so make sure you have a backup plan!)

Out in the Hills

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:42:47 +0000

As it was a national holiday here in Japan ( Coming of Age Day I believe), a few of us headed up into the hills of Izu and Hakone and spent a few hours riding the twisty roads and taking in the sights. I have to say it was quite cold up there, especially on the bike and when out of the sun, but it was a good ride with clear skies, and not many people on the road. A great day out, and I clocked up 187Km door to door, which is not too bad for the first run of the year.

Bike Trip: Hakone and Ito

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:01:43 +0000

Yesterday, DG and myself got on the bikes for the first day trip of the year, clocking up 290Km (180miles) door to door, which was a fair distance given we barely hit an expressway - just small local roads on a bike trip to Hakone and Ito.

We went from Fujisawa peninsula, before the long haul back up the 135 coastal road. We actually headed to a bar a friend of mine owns for a soft drink, but unfortunately he seemed to have shut it for the night.

I was pretty pleased with the day’s ride - I think my riding’s getting better especially on the corners and inclines which is good, staying on top of the throttle a bit more, and keeping the bike lower when I need to in corners.

As always, there were great moments and views you wish you had a helmet-cam for, but there were others - a parade of about 20 very expensive sports cars (Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini) and customs, a lot of very nice ‘bikes - which we did get some photos of. It was kind of ironic, as we sat in the tea lounge of the Toyo Tires Turnpike Cafe, we saw a woman posing (for want of a better phrase) who might have been a model of some kind being steadfastly ignored by all the men around as they gawped over the expensive car show. There’s no accounting for taste I suppose. Finally she gave up and got back in the Ferrari she arrived in.

Other interesting notes were route 102 which where we joined it had a very impressive incline for a few kilometres, and about half way up, a set of traffic lights, which mercifully stayed green, and a fully automated self service petrol station, which had us a bit confused for a couple of minutes.

I had to avoid a bat of all things on one road at about 70km/h, and avoid a moron stepping in the road just a kilometer from home, justifying again the concept that the most dangerous part of a bike trip is in the last few miles. Fortunately, neither flying mammal nor walking mammal were hit (although why the guy was walking around in the road I have no idea).

As soon as I have the route plotted, I’ll put it up on brightblack, as much for my own benefit, but I hope someone finds a new, great road for them.

Update: Finally got it into Google Maps here (Aug. 10th).