Our trip to Hakone!

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



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.



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.



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.


Another view with Hakone which is where we'll be heading.


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).

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.


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.


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


It got dark pretty quickly and it was time to go back for dinner.


Lovely, isn't it?


Hungry?

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.


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.


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


Then we went and checked out a couple more places like the Tamadare waterfalls,


and the Zeniarai Benten shrine,

then headed back to Odawara.

We went to the fishing port in Odawara and went to the Fish market restaurant.

Lunchtime!


Yay!
It was indeed as delicious as it looked.


Yes, it was well worth the trip, thought Kao.


"smoking is bad for you!" said the Octopus.


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.

Touring in Japan - Shimanami Kaido

One of the nice things about starting a new blog is that you have an excuse to get in contact with other bloggers. Of course, you can do that even if you don't have a blog, but if you have a blog, the person you contact can see what you are about and so you are on a more equal footing.



When we started this blog, I emailed a bunch of blogs we've been fans of just to say hi and that we've added their links to our blog. One of the blogs I contacted was Candy Cranks. Candy Cranks is a blog written by women from all over the world. I'm not all that into the fixies thing which Candy Cranks often write about, but there is something about them that's different. I think it's that they have so many different perspectives and their love of the bike come across as very genuine. So when I emailed them, I got a very nice and quick reply from Meg in Sydney who I assume is the brains behind Candy Cranks. She was very complimentary about our paper mache bikes (she did a nice post for us!) and also told us about her plan to tour in Japan on a tandem with her partner and asked us if we knew of some good routes there. I replied that I haven't really toured much (or at all) in Japan, but we'll look for information and get back to her, maybe even do a post about the findings on our blog.

Well, that was a couple of months ago, and we still hadn't done the research and the post. I knew her trip was coming up soon and then I saw this article of her trip there so far over at Candy Cranks. I'm glad to see that they are having a great time. How cool is their custom tandem bike(aka WASP)!

I left a comment there and suggested a route called the Shimanami Kaido. It's a route which runs from the Island of Shikoku to the main island of Honshu which goes over the numerous small islands in between. I have of course never been there, but it's definitely a place I would love to ride one of these days. I don't know if they will see my comment in time or if they will ride there anyway, but I thought I would write about the Shimanami Kaido route for this post.



Here's what city of Onomichi says about the Shimanami Kaido:

The Shimanami Kaido (“kaido” - literally means “sea road”) is an expressway which links the main islands of Honshu and Shikoku through a series of bridges and islands. It spans the 60km distance between Onomichi City, in Hiroshima prefecture, and Imabari City, in Ehime prefecture. (Please note that the total cycling distance is 70km, including bridge access ramps.)

Thousands of people flock here annually to enjoy a fun bicycle ride in a great environment. Some cyclists complete the full trek in a matter of hours, and some take a more relaxed pace and spend the night in one of the accommodations along the way. And while a few people actually make the return trip by bicycle, many opt to make the trip back by bus or ferry.

Without having the experience of being there ourselves, the best I can do is look online for information. Here's a blog post from Francois' Japan Blog about his experience biking the route.

Just for perspective, you can see in this map below where the route is located within Japan.

View Larger Map

City of Onomichi which is at the Northern end of the route is located roughly 60km East of the city of Hiroshima and it's quite far from other major cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and especially Tokyo.

Anyway, congratulations to Meg and Tarn for taking on such an adventure; traveling internationally with a tandem bike and touring/camping in a strange country! When I move back there and we both have our "good" bikes, we will definitely venture out into the Japanese countryside. Thanks for inspiring us!