8JA2401 - Fascinating Japan
We're on our way! This morning our group with riders from Switzerland, the United States, Japan and Germany took the train to Odaiba, were we took over our brand new bicycles. What a beautiful sight! We adjusted the seats and then took off for a ride across the island, getting used to the new bikes and the left-hand traffic. Everybody had a great time. We then parked the bikes for lunch and afterwards returned to the center of Tokyo to do some more sightseeing.
We are leaving Tokio today - by train. It takes us into the vicinity of Mt. Fuji, into the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The last part of the trip is done by cable car, crossing the beautiful sulphur springs at Owakudani. Here we start today's bicycle ride. A long descent takes us straight to lunch in a traditional Japanese restaurant. We need a bit of strength, as we have two mountain passes to cross before we reach our destination at the bottom of Mt. Fuji, scenic Lake Yamanaka.
Waking up at the foot of Mt. Fuji with blue skies - the day started great! And it continued that way. We had to stop a few times to take fotos of Mt. Fuji - the setting was just too perfect. After crossing Lake Kawaguchi we visited the Asama shrine and the seven sacred trees. After shuttling the e-bikes through a long tunnel we could enjoy a 6 mile descent to Kofu. Here we loaded the bikes into our support van, enjoyed lunch and the Kofu castle - and then boarded the express train to today's destination, Matsumoto.
A long day (50 miles) with lots of sights today: Castle Matsumoto with incredibly steep steps, a Wasabi farm, crossing a Japanese Alps mountain range, the Olympic City of Nagano (Winter Olympics 1998) and finally a ride in Japan's famous bullet train Shinkansen - we were all pretty tired this evening when we arrived in Toyama!
After large cities, high mountains and fast trains it was time to discover something new in Japan: the ocean! We followed a beautiful cycle path to the Shinminato Bridge, where we had great views of the Sea of Japan. From there we continued on another cycle path to Takaoka, where we visited two interesting stops: first we stopped at one of the three large Buddhas in Japan, then we enjoyed a guided tour through a famous Japanese Whiskey and Sake brewery. After the mandatory tasting of both, we were not allowed to cycle any further, so we took the train to our destination, Kanazawa.
All the days so far have started with either a train ride or on the biciycle - today we started with a walking tour of the famous Kanazawa castle and the Kenroku-en garden. Then we got on our bicycles and turned east towards the mountains. We climbed up quite a bit on our way to Inami, where we first had lunch and then admired the woodcarving skills at the Zuisen-ji temple. Some, especially the Swiss, needed a liitlle extra challenge and decided to continue the climb to a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the valley. Afterwards we all took the bus to Shirakawa-go, where a wonderful hotel and an excellent Japanese dinner waited for us.
It's Sunday again - we started our adventure one week ago. Many experiences richer we start the day by exploring the historic World Heritage village of Shirakawa-go with it's beautiful Gassho-Zukuri buildings. Our next stop was Takayama, where we explored the very traditional oldtown. And then it was time for our daily train ride again, which took us to Japan's former capital, magical Kyoto.
Kyoto - what a beautiful city! Once again we had great weather for cycling today, even though there had been rain in the forecast. So we all (almost) got on our bicycles and discovered Kyoto on two wheels. The Golden Pavillion and the Emperors Palace were the first two stops. At the 1000 Torii gates, Fushimi-Inari, we spent a bit more time as it was also time for a light lunch. In the afternoon we continued to the Silver Pavillion and the Philosophers Path. Now we are back at the hotel, getting ready to find a good restaurant to end a beautiful day!
Our second rest day in Kyoto started with a bit of rain - fortunately we had planned to leave the bicycles at the hotel anyway and walk through the city. We took the Metro to Gion and discovered this beautiful part of Kyoto in detail. After reaching the Nishiki Market at lunch time, we split up, giving everybody the chance to do more sightseeing, shopping,...
The days in Kyoto went by much too fast - already we are on the way to our next destination. And we were almost flying there - the new Shinkansen took us to Himeji in less than an hour. We visited the probably most beautiful castle in Japan and then took another bullet train to Fukuyama. Here the rain finally caught up with us, so half the group decided to continue to Onomichi, our destination today, by train. The other half decided to cycle to Tomonoura - a good decision, as the rain stopped basically as soon as we started cycling. Now we are all at our beautiful hotel, ready for dinner - and looking forward to tomorrow, where a wonderful cycle path is waiting for us!
The big day has finally arrived - we are cycling Japan's most popular cycle path, the Shimanami Kaido. And if that's not enough, we also have arranged perfect weather for this day. After an excellent breakfast we start the day by taking a short ferry. And then we cycle through the magical world of the Setonaikai National Park. 6 islands, 6 bridges, 50 miles and 1000 photos later, we have arrived at our destination, Matsuyama. What an incredible day - and another most beautiful day of this tour...like so many others:-)
Just like yesterday, we started the day with a ferry ride - only this time it was a 2 1/2 hour cruise along the Boyo Islands. After arriving in Yanai, we started our e-bikes and climbed (sometimes surprisingly steep) up into the mountains. After about 20 miles we reached Iwakuni and the historic Kintai wooden bridge. After a bit of sightseeing and ice-eating we continued back to the coast. A few hills later, we have arrived at our hotel, directly across from the famous Itsukushima shrine with its floating "Torii".
It's hard to believe, but the last day of our tour has begun. 14 days have been flying by like the Shinkansen train, and we are now at our destination in Hiroshima. We started the morning with a visit to the Itsukushima Shrine. The group split up in two, three of us decided to take the long route through the mountains to Hiroshima. The other nine took the fast boat to Hiroshima and then got on the bikes one last time. We rode through Hiroshima to the Peace Park before we returned our bikes for good. Then we went on to explore the Peace Park on foot, finishing with a visit of the very impressive Peace Museum. After another great dinner we had to say goodbye to our new friends, but as the Edelweiss world is small, there is a good chance that we meet again somewhere on this beautiful planet. Bye-bye beautiful Japan, what an amazing country!