Robot restaurant

One more thing crossed off the list after we visited the Robot restaurant in Shinjuki. Very, very Japanese would be an accurate description I would say, only thing was that ear plugs would maybe have be nice, a bit too loud in some sections. But great fun!

Fuji-san

As a relaxing time after the bicycling, we climbed Mount Fuji. We did it also from the bottom at Fujiyoshida (800m above sea level), and not like 95% of all people from 5th station (2400m). Exciting experience, nice weather, nice sunrise, but quite tired legs after climbing down again.

Tokaido, day 5

Comments to added.

In short, starting the day with last half kilometre climbing last part of hill, followed by loooong downhill with nice views, then rest of trip was more or less city bicycling. ~510 km in total in the end, plus 35 km extra to go to Kunitachi after the trip, making today longest distance in a day at 144 km, but somehow felt like the easiest day of the week. Hilliest part today was probably actually Roppongi and Shibuya when going to Kunitachi.

Tokaido day 4

More comments to be added later. In short; punctured tires, looooong hill (15km with 2 x 100m flat parts), and today's surprise: huge sticky spider web covering face and bike, including the web owner him self...

Tokaido day 3

Comments to be added later. In short; ferry, stunning Pacific Ocean view, up-and-down road first part flat middle, mountain climbing last part.

Tokaido, day 2

Late arrival means late to morning, but got started just before eleven at least. Did a quick look for the castle (picture), and the Ninja museum (Iga is known as the origin of Ninjas), but but did not feel like sightseeing and spend too much time on that so skipped both.

Getting away from Iga proved to be a challenge, tired legs from hills yesterday; less hilly today but bad enough to prove a challenge. Nearly cut the first pass, to Tsu, short, but when looking for a appropriate resting place found some 15 km mostly downhill instead, so ended up taking a break in Tau after all, after 40 km.

After the miso ramen lunch it was a flat ride towards Ise and Toba, but had to one more pause for resting, shoulders and back mostly though actually. Tried catching Ise Grand Shrine before closing time, but turns out no bikes were allowed anywhere near the temple, including the car parks (was told when arriving), so I decided not to be bothered with that either - not a sightseeing day today in short words. ;-)

After a hilly 10 km after that I finally arrived at the booked onsen, end even though on the top of a steep hill, very nice place with great view from both room and bath.





A nice dinner with Sashimi, and Japanese practice, at small (8 seats) local Izakaya before bedtime.

Tokaido, day 1

Tokaido, day 1, Kyoto to Iga (65km).

First train from Kunitachi to Kyoto via Tokyo; this part was a bit more troublesome than I had imagined, in hindsight I could have prepared (=bough) something to make it a bit more easy to handle all luggage besides the bicycle in its separate bag. Lightweight 50L sack is good for minimising packing and weight for the bicycle ride, but it was a bit too cumbersome to handle walking any longer distances - meaning anything over 100 m.

Arrived in Kyoto it took some time to change clothes and move to somewhere to assemble everything (again, same as above); it would be a 10 minute thing without the bags, including change, now it was close to an hour. In the end I left Kyoto just before 17 instead of planned 15 (originally 13 though, but late morning pushed that 2 hours). But, I did managed to meet up and have a nice chat to a Swedish friend on honeymoon in Japan, so anyway no problem.

Just when I started bicycling; clearly visible lightning and thunder with a very dark sky appeared in the planned direction. Combined with northern wind, and the late departure, I decided to bicycle a slightly longer route around the thunderstorm using route 1 and 24, this being a flatter course with the wind in my back the first hour or more - safer and easier, and it indeed turned out to be a comfortable ride south.



After turning east from the road towards Nara onto 163 towards Iga, I made my food break for the day at first conbini I found, this being about half way, and light was starting to fade, i.e. time to "light up" the bicycle.

Rest of the ride was on smaller roads, but cars and trucks were respectful and I felt fairly safe even though it was pitch black by this time. First part was completely flat except the occasional bridge; but from here on it became hillier and hillier the closer to Iga I got. Road quality was generally good, but a few potholes the last 10 km or so.