Fascinating Japan - 8JA2601
And we are on the way! Not just by bicycle, but first by subway, train, cable-car and finally the ropeway. Even though Fuji-san is usually quite shy, we already got to see Japan's iconic mountain from the train - and many times more during the bike ride. We stopped for a wonderful Japanese lunch before we started our ride. The scenery had changed quite a bit since Tokyo, and the riding was spectacular. We climbed two mountain passes, thanks to our powerful e-bikes, and rode on parts of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic road cycling course.
Sunshine is always important when you are on a bicycle ride, but even more so if you want to get great photos or Mt. Fuji...and that's exactly what we got this morning. About 100 pictures later, we were on our way, on a scenic cycle path along Lake Yamanaka. From here we climbed over our first ridgeline to Lake Kawaguchi. Here we visited the very impressive Asama Shrine. We had to put the bicycles into the van for a short section, as the pass road that we had planned to ride was still closed for winter. After unloading the bikes, we could enjoy an endless decent into the town of Kofu. We spent an hour here before we boarded the train to today's destination, Matsumoto.
Matsumoto - what a great experience for us: yesterday we had a very authentic Japanese dinner, followed by the first glimpse of the famous castle, which we explored this morning. Afterwards we followed quiet and scenic backroads to the world's largest Wasabi farm. You should try the Wasabi ice cream! The next stop was Hotaka-Jinja, a beautiful shrine dedicated to nautical gods. We stayed on small roads to the Azumino Alps National Park, where we saw two monkeys and a "Closed" sign. Instead we had a great lunch at a small roadside restaurant. The afternoon brought the first rain, and after putting on our rain gear we just continued as planned. Wet but happy we arrived at our hotel, where a beautiful Onsen and Happy Hour at the bar waited for us.
After yesterday's rain we were very happy to see the blue sky this morning! The perfect background to the spectacular panorama of the Japanese Alps. We had to change our route a little bit, as the rain had caused a roadblock on the original route. The detour led over a very scenic, but also long and exhausting mountain pass - we were very happy to be on e-bikes! After sampling a few traditional Japanese dumplings, we continued to the Olympic city of Nagano. We visited our first Buddhist temple, Zenko-ji. Afterwards a special highlight waited for us: a ride on the Shinkansen train. 150 miles in one hour - we reached Kanazawa in no time!
For a change, we started the day with a walk: one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan was our first highlight of the day. Afterwards we boarded the Shinkansen once again, this time it brought us further south. Our destination for the day was Lake Biwa, Japans largest lake. After another remarkably good lunch we followed the western coast line all the way to the Biwako-Ohashi-Bridge, which led us to our hotel for the night. We just finished a great dinner with sushi, a large starter buffet, a main course of delicious fish and meat and a wonderful dessert buffet - now we are getting ready for another great day tomorrow!
After a very tasty breakfast buffet, a short stop at the local bike shop and a foto shooting at the beach we continued our discovery of Japan. We cycled back to the western shore across the bridge and then started our climb into the mountains. With the help of our powerful e-bikes we quickly reached Sanzen-In, the famous Buddhist temple near Kyoto. From here on, is was an easy cruise downhill into Japans former capitol. We stopped to visit the Silver Pavillon, Ginkaku-ji, and after a tasty afternoon snack, we arrived at our hotel. It's hard to believe, but we are already half-way through our tour...
A typical Edelweiss rest day: nobody rests... We met a little bit later this morning, after six days of cycling we deserved some extra sleep. But then we took our bicycles and went for a bike ride through Kyoto. The bicycles gave us the chance to see the hidden beauty of Kyoto, not only at our main highlights Kinkaku-ji, the Imperial Palace or Fushimi Inari with its many Torii gates. We also saw the little backroads, a very popular river walk, and many other little details that you don't see along the beaten path.
In Kyoto, one day is not enough to see all the beauty - by far. Fortunately we have two days in this magical city. Today we leave the bikes behind and explore the city on foot. Gion, the historic Geisha and entertainment district was our destination. We started with the huge Yasaka-Shrine, then we visited the Bamboo forest. And then we just crisscrossed through the small roads, until we reached the Kamo River again. The Nishiki Market was our last sight of the morning, before we visited a small restaurant for a very tasty lunch. From here on we split up for shopping, more sightseeing, watching a Geisha performance, tasting the local products (Whiskey;-) and so on...
After two days in Kyoto it was time to move on. The Shinkansen bullet train brought us to Himeji, where we visited the famous castle, probably the most beautiful castle in Japan. We strolled through the gardens and climbed the stairs to the very top. After a light lunch, we continued our Shinkansen journey to Fukuyama, where our e-bikes were waiting for us. Now we enjoyed a very relaxing trip along the coast line of the Seto Inland Sea, a little appetiser for the great ride which waits for us tomorrow!
Onomichi to Imabari, not really places that everybody is familiar with. But the magnificent cycle route that connects these two cities is well known in the cycle community: The Shimanami Kaido, Japans Number One cycle route! We cycled it from the beginning to the end, almost 50 miles, crossing 6 bridges and 6 islands. It was sometimes quite hard to concentrate on the road - beautiful beaches and bays, orange and lemon trees, small but well maintained gardens, little shops, ice cream places...it was very easy to get distracted. But we made it, and after crossing one of the world's largest bridges, we cruised down into Imabari, ready for a relaxing bath in the hotel onsen!
After 10 days of almost continuous sunshine, we finally woke up to a cloudy sky and rain. Of course that didn't keep us from cycling, especially as we had an extremely scenic route planned for today. After taking the ferry to Okamura, we cycled the Tobishima Kaido. This cycle route is not as famous as the Shimanami Kaido, but at least as beautiful! We enjoyed the beauty of the islands and the lack of traffic, as we crossed the seven bridges and seven islands. Back on the Japanese main island, we boarded the train to Hiroshima and on to Miyajima, where we will spend the night.
Time was flying, once again - it feels like we had just started a few days ago and here we are at our destination, Hiroshima. We started our last day with a visit to the famous Floating Torii in front of Itsukushima Shrine. Then we took the fast boat to Hiroshima, where our e-bikes were already waiting for us. Our last miles on the bikes took us through the beautiful city of Hiroshima. After a little Udon noodle lunch we visited the very well made Peace Museum, and then we split up - more sightseeing, last minute souvenirs,... The tour is almost over, it was the perfect way to explore this magical country - in a small group with wonderful people, interested in seeing the world! The tour went by too fast, the memories will last a lifetime!