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.