Mitake-san (Japan) – Flashback #17

Excuse the redundancy, but having found the secret to fixing my scanner I find myself needing to ‘re-package’ a few of these old ‘flashbacks’.

I lived near a river called Tamagawa for most of my 9 years in Japan. Without too much of an exaggeration, this long strip of cycling bliss probably saved my sanity on more than a few occasions. Living in Tokyo can be tough for a hick like me.

The cycling path along Tamagawa starts right at Tokyo Bay, near Haneda Airport, and runs up over 50 km to around the city of Ome. From Ome you’ve got relatively quiet roads to bring you into the low mountains at the western edge of Greater Tokyo.

In these mountains, perched 900 meters up on top of one of them, is the isolated village of Mitake, filled to the gills with quaint inns, a very famous shrine, and one youth hostel, which I used a couple of times, hoping they wouldn’t ask me for ID!

Here is the first time I went up, evidenced by The Emperor, in all his shit-brown glory.

The sign says 44 km from the sea, by the way, so this is pretty far up the path. The next one is a random photo a little farther up, only of interest because it shows how the path gets more ‘natural’ and rural. Admittedly this isn’t very illuminating if you don’t know how utterly urban the scene is 20 km down river.

Here is where I had lunch. This is a bento shop, a little place that sells already-made meals to go. Bentos, although probably not very environmentally friendly, are one of the things I miss most about Japan, especially now that, being in France, all I can get quickly are sandwiches and kebabs.

Well, that was my first trip up there, probably in around 2003. Following is the next one, with Nigel. I think this was in the spring of 2005.

Here we are on our way to Mitake-san. Me tempting fate to get a shot of Nigel…giving me the finger? And next, one of the hundreds of plum trees that were in full bloom that weekend.

In the village of Mitake -san now. An amazingly thick thatched roof.

Above: Mitake-san. Accessible by cable car or stupidly steep road. Two tickets, please!

This is Nigel the next morning, choosing his Cannondale for the ride home.

Next, a restaurant I think you’d have to be pretty damn hungry to stop at.

Following are a few pictures near the end of our ride, at a beer/sake maker on the edge of Tokyo.

I guess that last picture is a good way to finish off. Anyway, I don’t remember anything after that last round..!

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Nikko (Japan) 2005 – Flashback #16

The scanner is back from the dead, so here is another older post beefed up with new pictures.

Cycling buddy Nigel and I did a couple of rides from Tokyo over the years (if you just can’t get enough of him, fret not! He is prominently featured in Flashback #5), starting with a 400 km loop up to Nikko.

Tip#1 – if you want to ride for any distance in and around Tokyo without traffic, find a river. If you are lucky it’ll have a cycling path. We were, and this one did (Tonegawa), which was nice but it kept stopping, then starting up somewhere further down or even on the other side of the river. Anyhow, it got us up to the relative quiet of the hills on the edge of the Kanto plain. Here is Nigel at lunchtime, proving he can use chopsticks.

And our bikes at the noodle stall.

This is Toshogu shrine , part of the UNESCO-protected temples and shrines of Nikko, and the one with the ‘hear no evil, see no evil, say no evil’ monkey carving, if you’re into shrine trivia.

And a bunch of sake barrels at the same temple. I’m sure they’re used for religious purposes…

The following day we threw ourselves at irohazaka, a winding climb of 38 hairpin turns (I didn’t count…it just seems to be a well-known fact) that is steep and full of cars, but makes it all worthwhile by selling soft ice cream at the mid-way point. Here we are sweating – proof of the struggle this hill demands.

Thinking we had the worst behind us, Nigel and I relaxed at Lake Chuzenjiko, even taking time out to photograph some of those ridiculous Japanese swan boats you can find on just about any lake in the country.

But it wasn’t over. We still had another few hundred vertical meters to go up, but luckily after the lake the traffic thinned out and it was a really pleasant ride to the pass. The rest was a fast downhill to Numata City, and some re-hydration.

The following day, our last, was insane. This was a 3-day weekend and we had to get back home for work the next day. But there was a slight problem; we were very, very far away. I can’t speak for Nigel, but I was afraid to know how far exactly, so we just got up real early and blasted off towards Tokyo.

This is one of the only shots I have from that 200 km day. I look quite fresh, I think, at least when compared to the crumpled heap of jelly I was at home some 12 hours later.

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Eastern Hokkaido (Japan) 1999 – Flashback 15

This entry is actually from a while back, but I’ve slapped a couple of photos in and added some more content.

I lived in Japan for nearly 10 years, and rode a lot. Unfortunately, I only did a few ‘real’ trips, the rest being up and down (and up and down, and up and…) the Tama river near our place in Kawasaki. Japan, at least where I lived, was less than ideal for cycling. Chiba, Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama (really just one immense city) have a population of over 30,000,000, or around the total in Canada. That should explain it. But once you do get out of the urban sprawl (get up early!) the countryside is pretty nice, and the roads are excellent, if mostly shoulderless.

In the fall of 1999 I took a ferry from Tokyo to the northern prefecture of Hokkaido, for a 700 km circuit of the east side of the island. Unlike Kanto (where Tokyo is), Hokkaido is very cyclist friendly. Lots of space, lots of nature and not lots of cars (at least in September..). It’s like a mini Canada only with better food. And for those who think Japan = $$$, check this out. I stayed at these things called Rider Houses; very basic accommodation (really just a space on a tatami floor) mainly used by motorcyclists. The most I paid was 800 yen, and the cheapest was 500; or max $10. This is what you get at a Rider House. Pretty spartan, but always clean and always cheap.

The food was amazing, as is typical all over Japan, the scenery really is spectacular (Shiretoko is a World Heritage area), and most nights I had a hot spring bath (each municipality seemed to have one) waiting for my aching legs at the end of each day’s ride.

But it’s not all fun and games. The islands lying off the coast where I was riding were taken by Russia after WWII and Japan wants them back.

Er…Japan, maybe if you yelled at them in their own language you’d get someplace?

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Flashback #14 – Helambu and Jomsom Treks – Nepal 2000

In 2000 I made it back to Nepal (click here for my first trip) and much had changed. In ‘95 Durbar Square, the ancient heart of Kathmandu,  seemed to be a forgotten (or yet to be discovered?) area of the city, and in the mornings and evenings was virtually deserted, at least by travelers. Freak Street was still pretty freaky, and you could find places to stay for $2 a night. 5 years later my $2/night hotel had morphed into something prohibitively expensive, and even the apple pie was getting pricey!

Oh, and the cows had moved on to greener pastures, it seemed. When I first went the whole old city (particularly at night) was taken over by roaming bands of holy cows and wild dogs. Traffic, awful enough without livestock, was often gridlocked. Cows, being sacred, were rarely kicked or shoved, so they presented a real obstacle course along the narrow streets of medieval Kathmandu. But in 2000 they were mostly gone, due, I think, to a government policy to make the place a little easier to get around, and more hygienic to boot.

But we went to Nepal to trek, and ended up doing two, after I recovered from an evil bout of bacterial diarrhea (speaking of hygiene!). I’ll spare you the gory details, but if you’re ever in Kathmandu with health problems (chances are reasonably high) the place to go is the CIWEC Clinic, curing incontinence since 1982!

The first trek we did is called the Helambu Trek, the only major one in Nepal that actually starts in the Kathmandu valley. It’s just a taxi ride out of town, then you hit the trail where the flatness ends. Too simple.

Well, not really. This ‘moderate’ (proof once again that Lonely Planet writers may not go everywhere they write about) trek turned out to be just about the toughest one I’d done. Since you are going north, cutting across east-west mountain ranges, and without the aid of giant valleys like the Kali Kandaki of Annapurna fame, it is an endless trek up and down and up and down…steeply. I would recommend this one though, if you only have time to do a one-week trek, since you start close to the city and easy to get back as well. You also have the choice to hook up with another trek right in the Himalaya, called Langtang, which together would be nearly 3 weeks, I think.

I don’t remember what happened, but there are no pictures from this trek. Probably we had no time to stop to enjoy the view, or in the last few days, our fingers where too frozen to press down the shutter button.

But somehow we’ve got pics of our next trek – Jomsom. Jomsom is actually the 2nd half of the Annapurna trek, done backwards, and therefore pretty well known to me. But Shoko had never been to Nepal, and as far as I know, the Jomsom trek is just about the best intro to hiking in Nepal that there is.

The walk takes about a week, and cuts up one of the deepest valleys in the world. If you are there in the right season (Oct-Feb) you have outstanding views of 8000+ meter mountains on both sides of you. And, like any trek in Nepal that starts low and finishes high, it’s really interesting culturally. Hinduism predominates in the lowlands (were rice can be grown it seems) and Buddhists rule the sparsely populated higher elevations.

Following are a few random shots of said higher elevations. This first one is walking up the Kali Kandaki, probably around 2000 meters up.

This one is much higher, as you can see from the total absence of trees. I think this is even past Jomsom town itself. The wind is wicked here, by the way, and whips down the valley like clockwork, starting up in the late morning,and in full rage by the early afternoon.

Here is more wind, this time on top of the gompa (monastery) in Kagbeni, an amazing medieval village on the doorstep of  ‘forbidden’ Mustang. It’s not actually forbidden, but independent trekkers are. You need to take a tour to get in there. This is looking north into this mysterious and expensive land.

And a little higher up the trail from Kagbeni, now near Thorong la, the 5500 meter pass that I crossed the other way in 1995. The scenery up here is other-worldly and, especially after 7 or 8 days walking to get here, you really feel the isolation. But you are never far from civilization really, if you call cold Heinekens civilization!

Back in Kathmandu after the trek we had lots of time to sight see while we waited for India and Pakistan to give us visas. Here is Bodnath, the place where much of Little Buddha was filmed…and incidentally one of the largest stupas in the world and one the holiest sites in Nepal.

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Cirque de Navacelles

We woke up to sun today, happy that The Weatherman still can’t get it right even in the 21st century. A day of hiding from the elements quickly transformed into this little journey.

I’d been meaning to get up to this area for a long, long time, but until now the dreaded crowds kept me away. Well, luckily the French are much like the rest of the world and do their sightseeing when everybody else is doing it – namely, not on November 1.

This is looking down at Navacelles, the mediaeval village where we started our hike. The geology of the area is interesting, and you can educate yourself here, if you want. This gorge is super isolated, mainly due to the terrible condition of the two roads coming into it. They are both basically just paved donkey trails – lots of fun on a motorcycle, but thankfully impossible for tour buses.

It was a beautiful late fall day today, as evidenced by these pictures, I hope. Last year it was the vine leaves that shocked me with their multitude of vibrant colors. This year it is the garrigue, the predominant type of vegetation around here.

The hike we did today wound its way along the river valley to an ancient, unused mill, which had really informative signs in French, and really humorous ones in English…here I thought the Japanese had a monopoly on screwing up our language. France is proving me wrong.

Here’s the tightly-crammed village of Navacelles as we were leaving.

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Tips on Watching the Tour de France

With the Tour just 8 short months away I thought I’d jot down a few pointers for those who might be considering a trip over here next year.

1. Don’t rent a camper van! OK, this one is just a personal pet peeve, and you are more than welcome to fill up the narrow roads of France with these totally unnecessary machines.

2. If you do rent a camper van, take plenty of vacation time. When driving through the Alps a few years back I was a bit surprised to see camper vans lining the steep climb above Val d’Isere, ONE WEEK before the Tour was going to pass that way! You’ve been warned.

3. TV (or Internet) is really, honestly the best way to see the Tour. The excellent thing about an event 3 weeks long is you can see some of it in person and most of it on the tube. If it’s Internet check out Steephill and Cycling Fans for coverage details. In the past few years I’ve been able to watch it all live with actual sound…a long way from the days I spent (really, I did this) reading text updates from Eurosport, who by the way, have excellent commentary throughout the race.

4. Get drunk AFTER the finish of each stage. Riders slogging up a 15 km mountain at 12% gradient don’t need dicks slapping them on the back or slobbering in their faces…but who knows, maybe they really like it!

(property of http://www.strummernews.websitetoolbox.com)

5. Check out some unpopular stages. Part of the magic of the Tour is the festival atmosphere that lights up every miniscule hamlet along the route. Find one of these on a stage nobody can make it to (for next year maybe stages 11, 12 and 13..?) and soak up the atmosphere.

6. Book early. Hotels actually book out BEFORE regular folks even know where the Tour will be going, so once the official announcement is made (already done on Oct 14) better be quick.

7. Get there early. The caravan, a totally unique, hour-long moving advertisement, precedes the riders by about an hour. The roads are closed at least an hour before the caravan (much, much earlier on mountains stages), so if you want to get where you’re going, make sure you are there 4 hours before the riders are expected. This information is easily gotten at the TdF site.

8. Time trials are more bang for the buck! If there is one type of stage, other than the obvious high mountains, that should be seen in person, it is a time trial. Since the riders leave (and finish) in 2, 3, or 5 minute intervals, you get plenty of action – you get a whole afternoon of racing. Even better, if the course is designed viewer friendly you can seem them going…

And coming! Admittedly, you have to run back and forth, but this year in Monaco the toilets were near the start anyway, so there was a good reason to check the riders taking off.

9. Do some research. Know your Cancellaras from your Schlecks. Having some previous exposure to the riders on the Tour will make your experience much more rewarding. Also, watch a few races before the Tour (le Giro is an obvious choice, and available on the links above) so you have an idea of race rules, conduct, etiquette, etc.

10. If you need to see riders up close, install yourself near your chosen bus a couple hours before the start for warmups. Imagine the scene below with a team of sweaty cyclists of your choice and you’ll get the idea.

Oppidum d’Altimurium

For the few of you out there who don’t know latin, the name of this post refers to the ‘main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome’, and the one I rode by today is one of only 10 in France according to the know-it-alls at Wiki.  This actually dates from the 2nd century BCE and is one of the largest in the area. They chose a good spot since, at 190 meters, nothing else is higher and I could see right past Montpellier to the Mediterranean. But the thing is, I couldn’t really find much, except for these wall portions near the road.

Both Wiki and another site I found in French suggest that this is a major tourist attraction for the area, but today the parking lot was empty and I was the only one walking around…totally lost I might add; as is often the case around here the signage is pathetic. But I gather from the French site that it is being developed and excavated at the moment, so I’ll cut them some slack…for now. By the way, for those in the area, the French site has plenty more photos of lots of stuff I didn’t find today, and it looks like it might be a good place to explore.

Other than this little trip back in time, it was just a fabulous autumn day in the south of France.

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Mauguio

I went east today, which I nearly always avoid due to the autoroute, national highway and train line. Generally not a very bike-friendly experience. However, I happened upon a ‘back door’ into the area the other day and decided to explore some more today. On my way out of town this morning I stopped at this replica (or far from accurate representation, according to Ed Ward) of the Berlin Wall, soon to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of its demolition. Read more from ex-Berliner Ed.

Then it was through the back door, which turned out to have a new cycling road going through it (added to my cycling path map for those who might like to know where it is)!

A while later I came to Mauguio, a small town with fews surprises, east of the airport. There was a nice flower market on today though.

I turned north after Mauguio, riding through pretty unremarkable scenery, till Castries, with its dominating chateau.

Then it was familiar territory the rest of my way home. I had my apple at a frequent guest star in this blog, 2000 yr old Pont des Tourilles.

Finally, a picture that was just begging to be taken. How much more French can you ask in a shot?! Baguettes sticking out the trunk maybe, but I think this says ‘France’ pretty effectively.

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Aqueduct

Some of you may think I’m milking this aqueduct I ride by occasionally pretty heavily, but I’m taking a gamble that there aren’t many of you out there that read all my entries. Here goes another one!

Today’s ride was a now-regular excursion, north of Teyran into the bliss of vineyarded hills. For a little background on what I found today, check out these posts. There you’ll find a couple pictures of an aqueduct built in the 1600s, unused and unloved today.

http://gerrypatt.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/another-roman-bridge-interlude/

http://gerrypatt.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/speaking-of-headwinds/

Here’s what I happened upon today.

I never put too too much thought into this before, but what we see of these constructions today is usually the ‘bridge’ part of the aqueduct, but presumably a large part of them were just little like drainage pipes on, or maybe even under, the ground.

This small section, on the other side of the road I was on, looked more aqueduct-ish.

The only other thing of note (other than the glorious weather) was this field filled with piles of pulled-out vines, ready to be burned. I wonder why this needs to be done. disease? Changing variety? Going ‘bio’? I’m open to suggestions.

Cycling Paths, Around Montpellier / Pistes Cyclables Autour de Montpellier

I’m sure I’m missing a few, but below are the routes I have ridden (and remember) around my home of Montpellier, France. All these lines represent a place you can ride free of auto hassles. Most of them are dedicated roads for bikes, i.e. totally separated from cars. But some are lanes next to the road, although clearly marked or with a barrier of some sort.  Oh, and most of them are outside the city, simply because there are too many inside to put down on a map…at least for me.

Je suis sur que j’en ai manqué quelques unes, mais voir ci-dessous pour les routes sur lequelles j’ai roulé. Toutes ces lignes montrent un lieu où l’on peut rouler sans les histoires des voitures. la plupart d’entre eux sont des pistes seulement pour des velos, mais certaines sont a coté des routes, marquées clairement. Au fait, la plupart sont à l’extérieur de Montpellier parce qu’il y a trop dans la ville pour noter ici.

I hope this is a map in progress, and from the looks of the rapid developement in this city, I am sure it will be. Also, if anyone knows of others, let me know and I’ll add them.

Si quelqu’un connaît d’autres, dites moi et je les ajouterai.

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