An Exciting 10-Mile Ride Along the Side of a Steep Mountain, Overlooking the Sea of Japan

Our 53-mile ride today was entirely along the Sea of Japan on the northwestern side of Honshu Island (the main island of Japan). The first 40 miles were on a flat plain, biking through a continuous string of agricultural and fishing towns. We then reached the point where the towering Japanese Alps meet the sea. Looking inland, we saw numerous snow-capped mountains, where our ride tomorrow will take us when we head away from the sea.

The last 10 miles of our ride were on a remarkable stretch of road overlooking the Sea of Japan that is built on a steep, often cliff-like mountainside called Oyashirazu-Koshirazu. The road over these 10 miles was constructed by cutting into the mountain in some parts and creating an overhang in other parts. Almost the entire 10-mile length of the road was a string of open-sided tunnels: open on the side facing the sea and closed on the side facing the mountain (see pictures below). It was an exhilarating ride, though it's always a little dicey cycling in tunnels with large trucks whizzing by.

Pictures from the flat part of the ride:

The Alps came into view at about 40 miles into our ride, with a  massive snow-covered peak seen faintly through the haze. When we leave the coast tomorrow, we'll be traversing these inland mountains.

The beginning of a 10-mile stretch of nearly continuous tunnels

A long stretch of tunnels is visible

Biking in an open-sided tunnel: the side facing the Sea of Japan is open, so that we could look down 300 feet to the sea

On a stretch of the road without a tunnel, the steep cliff leading down to  the sea is evident

Food as Art

Today was a rest day (the last of our trip), spent in the city of Toyama. It was a day to run errands, go to the barber/hair salon, and catch up on email and related tasks.

Our lodging during the trip has been at traditional Japanese inns (ryokans) on some nights and Western-style "business hotels" on others. The ryokan stays all include breakfast and dinner, prepared and served in traditional style. The dinners always include miso soup, rice, sashimi (slices of raw fish), and a variety of other dishes generally involving vegetables or sea food. There is rarely chicken or meat. The dishes have little or no fat content, other than an occasional serving of tempura.

The food is quite unlike what we have had at Japanese restaurants back home. In particular, we have had very little sushi (raw fish combined with rice) and have rarely seen sushi rolls. We often have no idea what a particular dish is, and are even uncertain at times about whether a dish consists of a vegetable or sea food.

Each dish is served as a small portion in its own plate or bowl. The food is interesting and usually pleasing to our taste. It is always artfully presented, with great attention paid to the layout and the choice of dinnerware.

Several examples follow of food as served to us:

Breakfast buffet

This is not artistic, but the Coke machines found everywhere along the roads (including in the middle of nowhere) have been great for us

Japanese Media Stars (Part 2)

In yesterday's blog post, we indicated that a reporter had interviewed us for a newspaper story about our ride. When we woke up this morning, our hotel managers excitedly showed us the local newspaper with the article about us. They cut out the article and gave it to us, and took their own picture of the two of us.

Today was our last of four days cycling on the picturesque Noto peninsula. The endpoint of our ride was Toyama, a city of 415,000. Toyama is a very industrial city that was heavily bombed on August 1-2, 1945, just a few days before the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The bombing of Toyama was so intense that 99.5% of the city's urban core was destroyed. [Aside: what a stupid, destructive way to resolve a conflict.]

Newspaper article

 Scenes from our ride today:

Even the road construction barricades have a sea motif

Entering Toyama, with all the other local cyclists

Getting work done on the floor in the hotel room at the end of our ride today, Japanese-style

We're Japanese Media Stars!

During our lunch break today, on our ride from Suzu to Wakura Onsen on the Noto peninsula, a newspaper reporter was struck by seeing two non-Asians on bikes. He spoke enough English (a rarity here) to ask about our trip, and when he heard what we're doing he interviewed us for a story in the local newspaper. That will be our second appearance in Japanese media. A couple of days ago, we stopped at a bike store for minor repairs and our story interested the owners to the extent that they took our picture in front of their shop and put it on their website (http://umeda1912.net/umeda1912_news/cat10/).

Part of their interest in a bike trip by Westerners likely relates to the extremely homogeneous nature of Japan, whose population is 98.5% ethnic Japanese. We've seen only a very small number of non-Asians in the big cities and absolutely none elsewhere.

Wakura Onsen is a major onsen (hot springs spa) tourist destination. It has several large lodging sites, including ryokan Kagaya, a 20-floor hotel that can hold approximately 1,300 guests. It has existed as a resort for 1,200 years, ever since a priest traveling in this area noticed an injured crane bathing its wing in the warm water.

Newspaper interview

On the web

Scenes from today's ride:

Some of the many fishing boats we saw today

Steam rising from the ground in Wakura Onsen. A couple of large resort hotels with hot springs are seen in the background.

Semaida Rice Fields on Noto Peninsula: Beautiful Place for a Wedding

Today was the second of our four days biking on the beautiful Noto Peninsula, which juts out like a bent finger from the north shore of Honshu. While the views all day were incredible, one of the most fascinating sights was the Senmaida Rice Fields (or "1000 Rice Fields"). There are actually 1004 rice fields terraced on the side of a mountain, all owned or tended by locals. Each September two couples are selected by lottery to have their wedding ceremony take place at Senmaida, in events that are open to the public.

After a scenic, hilly 60 mile ride, we arrived at our lodging, a ryokan adjacent to Battleship Island (so named because it is shaped like a battleship). A wonderful feature of our accommodation was that we had our own onsen on our private deck, which was ideal after a challenging biking day.

The pictures from today tell the story best:

Wajima morning market, specializing in seafood, lacquerware, and handicrafts

Senmaida Rice Fields: 1004 rice fields terraced on a hillside

Overlooking the Senmaida Rice Fields

View from a lookout high above the Sea of Japan.  We cycled up that road in the distance to arrive at the lookout.

Battleship Island, adjacent to our hotel

Our own private onsen (hot springs bath)

In the dining room, overlooking the sea

Biking on Noto Peninsula: Another Day of Spectacular Views

When we left our hotel in Kanazawa this morning, we stopped briefly at the train station located about a block away. Like several train stations in towns we've stayed in during our trip, it's a beautiful building full of very high-end eating places and stores. What makes Kanazawa's station especially impressive is the Tsuzumi Gate, built in 2005, that serves as the entranceway to the station.

Today was the first of four days that we'll spend biking on Noto peninsula. This peninsula, which is shaped like a bent finger, projects 60 miles into the Sea of Japan from the middle of the northern shore of Honshu (Japan's main island). It is noted for its coastal scenery, and the rugged coast that we cycled along today was incredibly beautiful.

At the end of our ride, we arrived at our lodging, which is an "onsen", or facility with a natural hot springs bathing facility. Japan, which is a volcanically active country, has thousands of onsens. These are major tourist attractions, in part because the chemicals in the hot springs are felt to have medicinal properties. Onsens usually have separate pools for men and women, and nude bathing is the norm, with bathing suits not allowed in many onsens. Interestingly, many onsens ban bathers with tattoos, which in Japan are traditionally viewed as a sign of criminality. Like other things in Japan, there is a well-defined set of rules guiding etiquette in and around onsens.

At our hotel today, we visited but did not bathe in the hot spring pools.

The entrance gate to Kanazawa train station

The cool fountain in front of the train station, which displays the time and other messages via sprayed water (click to play)

Leaving Kanazawa

Our mid-morning break

Several images from our ride on Noto peninsula:

Carol entering the hot springs building at our onsen: