October 23, 2024
Day 29: Yasu to Kyoto
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Today is the first day of our second month in Japan. Pretty cool! The schedule is going more or less exactly as planned. Kansai is our designated "stop and smell the roses" stage of the tour. It feels like the halfway point, but we're further along than that. If we were in a big hurry and wanted to ride from Kyoto to Fukuoka as quickly as possible, we could easily make in in ten days, giving us two weeks to spare. Of course we're not going to do that, but it's nice to know that we could.
We actually have the next four days completely planned out. Tomorrow we go to Nara, Saturday we go to Sakai. Sunday will be an off day in which we will attend a special Halloween party (I know, right?), and Monday we head to Takarazuka to meet up with Yuta, our new friend from the first morning we spent in Japan. More than anything else, I remember the people we meet on our trips, so I'm always happy to alter our schedule and our route to turn serendipitous encounters into something more lasting. I actually contacted Yoshi, our "almost" Warmshowers host from four years ago when COVID forced us to cancel our trip. I thought it would be fun to finally meet up. Unfortunately he's out of town on business. Maybe we'll have to come back and try again some day.
Yesterday's ride was a little longer than it should have been. The upside is that it puts us close enough to reach Kyoto before lunch! Under 40km today. We're well rested, the tent is bone dry, we get off to a respectable 8:20 start. Today's going to be a cakewalk, right? Not so fast!
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So what was the big deal? Look at the elevation chart. You'll see a big sharp spike at the 3/4 mark. It wasn't the length or the height of the climb that did us in, it was the slope! Grades of 12-15% most of the way up. No wonder the "official route" avoids this pass.
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A steep descent, followed by some expressway interchange squirreliness, led us to our first taste of real city riding.
There was another hill, much milder than the first, that gave us a brief respite from the traffic.
Then it was back to crazy urban riding. Stoplights, taxis, buses, delivery vans, you name it. They were all out in force today.
We finally made it to our hotel, where they were kind enough to let us check in early. What they weren't kind enough to do was to offer us a place to store our bikes. We visited three bike parking stations before we found one that had open slots. Then we clumsily figured out how the system works. You push the front tire up against a latch, which locks it. When you return later, you punch in your slot number and pay based on how long you've parked. The first hour is free. Being the paranoid non-Japanese people we are, we didn't trust the front wheel lock, adding our own theft deterrent as well.
We cleaned up back at the hotel, then visited a nearby vegetarian cafe. It was nice to eat something out of the ordinary, and not have to think about what may or may not be in it. This area of Japan seems to understand the concept better. It might be a higher concentration of devout Buddhists. Or maybe its just one of the perks of being in a big city. I'm not sure.
Despite what we thought was an early arrival into Kyoto, we barely made it to the imperial palace in time to tour it. Did you know that they don't charge admission? That's pretty sweet!
We really love this half-on-bike, half-on-foot approach to tourism. There are some logistical issues involved, but when it works out as well as today did, it really feels like you can easily take care of your exercise, your wanderlust, and your desire to experience culture and beauty, all in the same day.
Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles)
Total: 1,831 km (1,137 miles)
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3 weeks ago