Friday, October 8, 2010

Our trip to Hakone!

As I wrote in the last entry, we went on a bike trip to Hakone and came back yesterday.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

It was just an overnight trip, so we didn't need to bring a ton of stuff, but still we had a bit more luggage than usual. My new Ostrich pannier bags were put into good use.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

Kao was quite excited about the trip as this was our first real vacation in a while. Now that Summer is over, the weather is much more comfortable and is just about perfect for a long rides on a bike.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

It took us I think about two and a half hours to get to Odawara. We were quite hungry when we got there, so we ate lunch near the Odawara train station and looked around a bit. Odawara is quite a big city compared with Chigasaki or Oiso and it's a very Japanese city as there is the Odawara Castle, so it's somewhat tourist-y with lots of shops catering to visitors. After walking around the station area looking at mostly delicious looking foods and sweets, we rode over to the Odawara Castle. These iconic Japanese castles were all built within a period of half a century during the era just before the Edo period if I remember correctly. Not all of them still exist today and of ones that still do, many are ones that have been re-built after they were destroyed in earthquakes and fires. I believe the Odawara castle has been re-built. It stands wide and not as smart looking as some other castles, but when we went inside it was very roomy and it went up much higher than I expected.

Here's a view from the top of the the castle.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

Another view with Hakone which is where we'll be heading.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

From Odawara to Hakone Yumoto, it was surprisingly close. Here I am (I didn't even notice when Kao took this) looking at directions to get to our ryokan (inn).
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
It was exactly there that I made a wrong turn. If we had kept on going straight, it would have been just a gradual climb to our destination, but it looked like an easier route on the map to turn there. Unfortunately for us, that route turned out to be a series of pretty steep climbs followed by a very steep downhill to get to the ryokan, so we ended up doing more climbing than we needed.

But we made it and we were ready to rest and relax.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
Our room at the ryokan. That's just by the window and there's a lot more to it. There was probably enough room to sleep 6-8 people.

The river just outside the window looked like this.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

We took a bath (hot spring water) and then changed into Yukata (light kimono) and went for a stroll around the area.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

It got dark pretty quickly and it was time to go back for dinner.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

Lovely, isn't it?
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

Hungry?
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
Mmmmm! It was all so good after a day of bike riding (and sight seeing). There was even more than what's shown in these pictures, but we were too busy enjoying the food to take pictures of everything.

More dinner? No, this is breakfast actually.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

We took full advantage of the rare opportunity to indulge not just in eating, but we also took another bath after dinner and then one more before breakfast. As you may know, the Japanese love taking baths, but onsen(hot springs) baths are special as the onsen water is rich in mineral with various health benefits. For example, a bath of regular water does warm the body and is good for blood circulation, but after this onsen bath we were very warm for many hours, much longer than usual. A stay at an onsen ryokan may not be super fancy, but for me, it's a perfect luxurious experience. You get to take as many hot springs baths as you like and then they bring you delicious food right to your room. After dinner, they even set the futon for you and you can just relax and fall asleep if you want. When you wake up, they clear the futon and bring you breakfast. What's not to like about that? Of course it costs a little more than a stay at a simple hotel, but when you consider all the extra things you get, it's not all that expensive. For us, it's not something we can afford too often, but it's really worth it on special occasions.

After checking out of the ryokan, we rode around the area for some more sight seeing.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

There was this really old path of cobblestones which I think may have been a part of the foot path from Tokyo to Osaka.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

Then we went and checked out a couple more places like the Tamadare waterfalls,
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto

and the Zeniarai Benten shrine,
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
then headed back to Odawara.

We went to the fishing port in Odawara and went to the Fish market restaurant.
bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
Lunchtime!

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
Yay!
It was indeed as delicious as it looked.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
Yes, it was well worth the trip, thought Kao.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
"smoking is bad for you!" said the Octopus.

bike trip to Hakone Yumoto
After all that fun, it was time to ride again. And we rode somewhat more slowly for a good 3 hours. Took some shots of the Surly on the Chigasaki beach front almost near home for good measure. The bikes rode great. Thanks bikes. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to the next adventure with you.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

We're ready for our Fall bike trip

Kao w/ her bike
It's been quite a while since the last post. I guess there haven't been that much to write about. I've been riding my bike around daily, but haven't been on any epic rides to write about. The weather here has been quite strange. We had a super hot Summer here and then in a matter of a few days, the temperature had dropped like 10 degrees(celcius) and it felt like we skipped fall altogether and gone straight to Winter. That didn't last too long fortunately and now it's neither too hot or too cold, just about perfect weather for bike riding.

We are actually going on a "long ride" by our standards tomorrow. We are going to Hakone and spend a night at a hot springs inn and ride back the next day. Hakone is the first real mountain on the coast from Tokyo to Osaka. We're actually going to Hakone Yumoto which is at the foot of Hakone, so we won't really be climbing up the mountain. It is a long ride compared to what we'd been riding, but there are plenty of people who would ride from Tokyo to Hakone and back all in a single day. We're not one of those people. We're just gonna enjoy a long ride at a leisurely pace and then enjoy a hot bath and some good food. You all know what I'm talking about if you'd ever been to an Onsen in Japan.

The picture at the top is Kao with her bike. We got some slightly fatter tires for it. Kao says that the bike with these 700 x 28 Panasonic Pasella tires are so much more stable and easier to ride.

Kao's bike

I put the tires backwards as some of you may have noticed, but that's been corrected. I also got the Ostrich pannier bags for my bike as we'll need to carry more stuff than usual for an overnight stay. These ones aren't those nice canvas bags, but the ones made of nylon that's a lot more reasonably priced. They seem a little more flimsy than my Minnehaha bag, but we'll see how they'll work out.. I didn't get any pictures of them, but I'm sure we'll take a lot of pictures on this trip.

I'll leave you with this picture of a miraculous encounter I had with a fairy on the Fujisawa-Yamato cycling road.

Fujisawa-Yamato cycling road