I finished off the last bit of bacon and eggs and enjoyed the cruisy ride, almost entirely downhill to Matsumoto. I cycled through twelve tunnels and luckily there was maintenance occurring on the fourth tunnel, which meant only batches of cars could go through at once. The tunnels were much busier, longer and bumpier than … Continue reading Japan Day 43-46: Riding Norikura Kogen to Matsumoto and Exploring
Today's ride was rough, but unfortunately my Garmin bugged out and I couldn't get the stats for my efforts, but hopefully these snippets should tell the story. The 1000m of elevation was split into two parts, the first 500m at the very start, across 8km before the insane section with 11 consecutive hairpin turns. With … Continue reading Japan Day 40-42: Riding Hirayu Onsen to Norikura Kogen and Exploring
The Norikura Skyline is the road leading up to Mount Norikura from the Gifu side (west) and it opens mid May, while the Norikura Echo Line is the road on the Nagano side (east), which opens start of July. Since it was late May, there was still heaps of snow at the top and there … Continue reading Japan Day 39: Cycling the Norikura Skyline
After listening to thunderstorms and rain last night, I was pleasantly surprised by the clear weather this morning. My mission was to ride up Norikura Skyline, a 14km stretch of road that rises 1000m up to the 2700m point, making it the highest road in Japan. It was an epic ride and it's in a separate … Continue reading Japan Day 39: Riding Honokidaira to Hirayu Onsen
Today's ride was short, but I chose the Honokidaira Ski Area because it's close to the Norikura Skyline, the highest road in Japan, peaking at 2700m above sea level. Assuming that the weather is okay, I plan to ride my bike up to the top tomorrow and see Mount Norikura for myself. However I had … Continue reading Japan Day 38: Riding Takayama to Honokidaira
The weather wasn't looking great in the morning, lots of grey clouds and a fair amount of humidity, like it wanted to rain at any moment. My weather forecast said that the rain wouldn't start until the afternoon, so there was enough time to make it to Takayama without getting soaked. After getting up a … Continue reading Japan Day 36-37: Riding Shirakawa to Takayama and Rest Day
Today's ride was surprisingly easy, it was mostly downhill with a few tunnels along the way and hardly any traffic. I just rode along Route 156, which took my along Miboro Dam, part of a hydroelectric plant, however after it was built it flooded some villages and shrines. Two giant cherry trees were taken from … Continue reading Japan Day 34-35: Riding Hirugano to Shirakawa and Rest Day
Before my actual ride out of the city, I went for a morning guided tour of Nagara River with cycle-cruise and had fun riding downstream, seeing cedar forests and rafts on the river, eating icecream, skipping stones and trainspotting. It was nice to ride without all my gear on the back and to have my guide, … Continue reading Japan Day 33: Riding Gujo Hachiman to Hirugano
I reluctantly left my lovely airbnb place and headed north towards the mountains. My host already had some eggs ready for breakfast and I bid them farewell and signed their guestbook before getting on my bike. The first 10km were very flat and afterwards the incline was fairly gentle, aside from a steep part with … Continue reading Japan Day 32: Riding Gifu to Gujo Hachiman
