October 10, 2024
Day 15: Yamagata to Fukushima
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I normally try to limit each day's journal entry to about a dozen photos. Sometimes there aren't even enough keepers to manage that. Today isn't one of those days. I apologize for the clutter.
This implies that today was filled with beauty and wonder, and in fact it was. In many ways, it fulfilled my personal expectations as to what touring in Japan would be like. I'll elaborate below.
First, we had to fetch our bikes from the train station. As we entered, there were scores of high school students leaving with their bikes -- all mamacharis, of course. We concluded that they must use this bike parking garage for long-term storage. At 50 yen per day, it works out to about $10 per month. A pretty good deal.
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We got off to an early 7:20 start. Urban scenes turned to industry turned to orchards. One path literally took us straight through orchards of apple, pear, and persimmon.
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As you may know, I constantly second-guess Komoot's routing decisions. Towards the end of the foothills was a shortcut from the main road that was not only an actual shortcut, it also took us through a very picturesque village that we would otherwise have completely missed. Thanks, Komoot!
We finally reached the dreaded fork in the road, the one that means we're really going to start climbing now. To be honest, I was more nervous about the quality of the road than its slope. We had nothing to worry about, however. This was the best-maintained little mountain road I've ever ridden.
Even better was the lack of traffic. During the 350-meter climb, we encountered two cars, both going in the opposite direction, each being driven slowly and carefully.
The slopes were nothing to sneeze at. They were often at 8%, with sections at 10% or more. The cool air and cloud cover kept us from overheating. The scenery made the climb well worth every huff that we puffed. It was simply magical.
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As we were cruising down the back side of the mountain pass, my bike computer began to raise a fuss. I stopped to investigate. I had missed an important turn. I tell my wife to stop where she is, and she replies, "Are you hungry for soba?", and points across the street. Before you know it, we're paying 1800 yen for two servings of handmade noodles, tempura, and side dishes in the most aesthetically pleasing shop we've visited yet. The owners were super friendly and asked us about our trip. Good food, good vibes, good stuff.
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There was a second climb, shorter but less magical. One thing that broke the spell was a gaggle of guided bike tourists coming our way as we started the ascent. The cyclists were fine, but they were flanked by two large vans that served as sag wagons. Later, I looked up the touring company's web site and found that it was a group of Thai cyclists doing an onsen tour. I hope they had a great time today!
The climb was consistently steeper here too. A lot of 10-12% grades. We slowly cranked our way to the summit, then enjoyed a milder descent for 4km to the next junction.
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I spotted what I at first assumed to be a bear cub at the side of the road. Countless roadside banners warning of bear sightings had conditioned me to think only in those terms. After stopping and relating this news to my wife, it finally registered that it was in fact a monkey. I knew from our internet research-tainment that they were pretty common in parts of the country. I'd never seen a monkey in the wild before, and I didn't expect to see one in Tohoku.
Next thing you know, we were seeing them all over the place. As soon as they heard us, they scurried off into the woods. Later, a car was stopped on the side of the road, and we discovered why: at this location, the monkeys had become habituated to seeing humans, and paid us little attention. I don't know whether to be happy or sad about this. We snapped our photos and moved on.
We chose to take a break at a large dam. The blustering wind forced us to take shelter next to the information center. Within a few minutes, a docent came by and invited us in. We guess he was bored. Since we were running ahead of schedule and had some time to kill, we took him up on his offer. He asked us about our trip, and he explained some things in Japanese about the facility to my wife, who then explained them to me in English. I've seen a lot of dams in my day, and this was one of them.
There's nothing much to say about the rest of the ride. We did stop at a konbini to warm ourselves with some spicy ramen. And there's this auto tunnel, which at first worried us and then amazed us with its little cousin, the bike/pedestrian tunnel:
We reached our guesthouse, which is in a very shop-filled, pedestrian-friendly area. We settled in, showered, then ventured out to find a good meal. We balked at the Thai joint around the corner, then wandered for a good half hour, only to find no better options. The Thai place was pretty good, after all!
This upcoming Monday is Health and Sports Day, a national holiday. This is wreaking havoc on our plans. I searched high and low for lodging in Nikko on Saturday night, only to come up empty-handed. We seriously discussed abandoning the alps in favor of Tokyo and a coastal route. I decided to look at Nikko one last time. Suddenly, miraculously, I found something. Someone must have canceled at the last minute. It's not cheap, but it's reasonable, all things considered. We still have Sunday night to figure out, but for now we're just taking things two days at a time. That's still twice as many days ahead as we're used to.
Tomorrow we'll be camping again. That's something to look forward to!
Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,011 km (628 miles)
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