Sunday ride with the next generation

Today was probably the nicest weather for riding in the Tokyo area since May.  My son Henry (not to be confused with other PE founding members' sons Henry) is visiting home before returning to the U.S. for Fall quarter of university, so we took a Sunday ride.

Henry has done the Hakone Ekiden ride as far as Odawara several times, and last year we did a climb from Chino through Tateshina then down to Ueda, but never gone over 100 kms by bicycle, and he has no bicycle in Chicago at university though he does plenty of other exercise.  Yesterday he rode to Yomiuri Land and back, and did a couple of repeats up Yomiuri V Dori.  Today, we decided to head toward the Akigawa and Tomin no Mori.  It has the benefit of being only a single climb, so possible at any point to bail out and return home if it proved too much.

The traffic -- both cars and, on the Tamagawa path, bikes/pedestrians -- seemed heavy as we headed up the Tamagawa.  It got even worse as we headed out toward Musashi Itsukaichi.  Places where Tokyo Route 7 normally clears out completely instead were full of cars.  Going through Itsukaichi there were preparations for the Aki-Matsuri (fall festival).  And more traffic.  There was a line of cars several hundred meters long waiting for the traffic light at Tokura, the last 7-11 before the climb up the Akigawa really starts.

At Motojuku / Hinohara Town Office, we decided we would be better off to avoid the traffic of the climb to Tomin no Mori.  Instead we headed for Tokisaka Pass -- my third trip in the past several months.

View from the Tokisaka Toge no Chaya

Henry at the pass

As usual, there was almost no traffic on the climb, and there were a few hikers and motorcyclists at the toge-no-chaya.

We decided to head for the main soba restaurant -- Michiko no soba tei -- in the woods.  I could practically taste the delicious tempura and soba as the building came into view.  But it was closed! Perhaps the staff were part of the Aki Matsuri going on down the hill?

We decide to head for the "main house" (本家) soba place and Edo period magistrate's resting place.

The spectacular old building comes into view.

But it is closed!

In any event, we got soba at a restaurant off the main road and across a bridge on the way back to Tokura/Itsukaichi.

Bikes at the soba place where we ended up.

Where we ended up eating lunch.

The matsuri was almost ready to start as we passed through Itsukaichi.  And we could hear drums beating and traditional instruments at various places along the ride home.

Matsuri!  Henry's PE jersey still looks like new.

Flowering trees .. as I manage to catch a break in the line of cars to snap a photo.

Then a nice -- if slower than usual -- ride back into town, the weather still pleasant, the roads still crowded.

Into the Clouds While Avoiding Karuizawa

Tokyo has been unbearably hot the past few weeks.  Sunday brought brief respite, with clouds and drizzle bringing slightly cooler temperatures.

My younger son Henry and I had planned to escape the heat by head a one-day trip to Nagano, hopping an early Chuo Line express, riding up the hill from Chino through Tateshina, and then on to Sakudaira or Ueda for the train home.  Nagano at least would be cooler and less humid than Tokyo, and our route would take us into the upper reaches of Tateshina/Yatsugatake area -- at the least we would climb to over 1750 meters elevation.

We saw lots of groups of deer roaming the forest.

We pull off for a stop.

Starting to get wet!

Me too.

Indeed, the heat was no problem, as we climbed the Venus Line in a very gentle, misting rain.  By the time we got to 1500 meters elevation, however, the mist had turned into steady rain.  Even at this elevation, however, it was a warm, summer rain.

After one stop, we debated our course, deciding not to try Mugikusa Pass, but instead head north over Suzuran Pass, then down to Shirakaba-ko and Daimon Pass, then the 35+ kilometers down to Ueda to hop the Nagano Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

As we climbed toward Suzuran Pass, a familiar rider with Saitama Audax vest descended by us, moving too fast for any greeting, and looking as if he had not shaved in a few days.  This made me realize that we were on the SR600 course now, working backwards along the route Jerome had ridden less than 3 days earlier.  The Saitama rider must have on the same route.

A rider approaches out of the clouds. 

Henry!

At Daimon Pass, just about Lake Shirakaba.  Right turn for the descent to Ueda.

At Ueda Station, we saw that the reserved seats (shi-tei-seki) were sold out for the next 4 hours or more -- the electronic display a sea or red "x" marks, even the more expensive "green car" tickets.  We booked unreserved seating tickets (jiyuu-seki) and joined the snaking line on the platform near one of the boarding spots at the front end of the train.  Cars 1, 2 and 3 were unreserved and 4 through 8 were reserved.

Of course, Ueda is only the 2nd stop for Nagano Shinkansen trains headed to Tokyo, after the start in Nagano City.  We need not have worried -- this train line has been running since the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and not since February 22, 1998, the day of Closing Ceremony, has anyone boarding at Nagano or Ueda has ever failed to get a seat in one of the unreserved cars.  Passengers boarding at Sakudaira (3rd stop) also managed to sit down, though some were separated from their traveling companions.  

Only at Karuizawa (4th and last stop in Nagano) did people not find seats.  One lucky and aggressive male traveler at the front of the line managed to grab the last open seat in our car, and the other 20 or so who boarded our car from both ends stood in the aisles or in between the cars.  So if you visit Karuizawa and want to come back to Tokyo on a summer Sunday afternoon, you must get a reserved seat and be sure to catch your train ... or you will be standing for the 70+ minutes journey.

This I can add to my list of things I do not like about Karuizawa.  What else is there, you might ask?

Well, my last complaint was during the SR600, when I arrived at the top of Usui Pass and entered the town from the East at around 5:20AM, looking forward to some breakfast -- at least a convenience store, maybe more -- a Gusto family restaurant or Mc-Cafe.  Unlike EVERY other place I have been in Japan, it seems in Karuizawa even the convenience stores are shuttered until 6AM.  There was no Gusto in town, and the McDonalds I passed had a sign that it opens only at 6:20AM.  I rode through to Naka-Karuizawa and turned onto the Nihon Romantic Kaido, found a 7-11, and took a forced 30+ minute nap, hungry and slightly cold, as I waited for the opening hour.

These just add to the opinion formed when Jerome and I rode to Karuizawa from Tokyo in 2010, and arrived from the south having seen some spectacularly beautiful valleys, streams and mountains, only to join a sea of cars, sitting in the heat, full of people -- even leaving their cars to buy ice cream for the wait.  My wife tells me that Tokyoites like Karuizawa because it offers an opportunity for a "big city lifestyle in the countryside".  Indeed, if the traffic jam I witnessed was at all representative, it does just that!