A Cyclist's Late Afternoon Delight - Hakone/Tsubaki Line Loop

Today I wanted to swim in the morning, then get in a decent bike ride.

But I got out of bed a bit too late for Wednesday morning Masters' swimming. And I needed to post some materials for students and send a couple work emails ..,  The work took much of the morning. Then I called to wish my father a happy 86th birthday, and started various other tasks that kept me sitting at my desk until mid-afternoon.

So it was after 345PM when I got to Shinagawa Station, way too late to actually ride out to nice territory before dark. I was on the 4:04PM Kodama shinkansen to Odawara, and on my bicycle by 4:45PM, heading up Route 1 to Hakone Yumoto.

As with last week, I took the old road, Route 732, from Yumoto up the hill toward Moto Hakone. Again the road was nearly deserted. I cannot imagine why I did not take this route regularly years ago, instead sticking to heavily travelled Route 1 -- the ekiden route, not to be confused with the Bypass version of Route 1 that does not allow bicycles. Route 1 traffic is so awful that I generally avoided Hakone.  But Route 732 is really nice, based on two different rides up, different days of the week and times of day.

The upper slopes of the hills were full of flowering sakura, even if the lower elevations are now "done" for this year.

By the time I got to Moto Hakone, it was near dark, and the temperature had fallen from 18 degrees C at the bottom of the hill to around 10 degrees C at the top. I could see Mt Fuji peaking through the clouds just over the trees of Hakone Jinja.

Mt Fuji peaking out from behind the Torii of Hakone Jinja

There was cloud cover and the forecast did not suggest it would get much colder at night, so I decided I could climb a bit higher. I rode to the southern end of Lake Ashinoko, then climbed a road up toward the Kanzansan Observatory, I think Route 75.

Another view of Fuji from early on the climb above Ashinoko

The "observatory" looks like a sightseeing location, and no doubt has a spectacular view in the daytime, something like this:

Someone else's photo from Kanzansan observatory

But at night in the clouds, there was no one in sight. There was a sign that said the temperature was now 5 degrees, and I put on my jacket and arm warmers for the descent. I probably could have made it past a sleeping toll booth operator and ridden down the toll road turnpike straight back to Odawara, but I did not want to push my luck. Instead I headed down the Tsubaki Line, a soaring 16 km descent to and then around the edge of Yugawara.

What Kanzansan Observatory looked like to me

I thought about hopping a train from Yugawara -- the station looked bright and cheerful after the dark, solitary descent. But the next local train to Odawara was not for 19 minutes -- and Odawara was less than 20 km away. So I rode my bike. I took Route 740, the "high road" from Manazuru to Nebukawa, passing and being passed by only a few cars over this 9km stretch. Even the last few km in to Odawara were nice.

The ride was only 60km, but it included over 1200m of climbing, and took me up over 1000m elevation. This ride should be great in Fall and Spring, a nice option for someone who lives near Shinagawa Station.

Strava info is here.

Yugawara

My wife planned an onsen ryokan (hot spring inn) trip for our family, just an overnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning with our two sons back in town from university for the holidays.  She found a place in Yugawara.  Yugawara is a town on the coast between Odawara and Atami, just at the gateway to the Izu Peninsula from the eastern (Tokyo) side.

As the weather was nice, and I needed to stop back at the Keio SFC campus to teach a class on Wednesday afternoon (Christmas is NOT a public holiday in Japan), of course, I decided to ride my bicycle.  I had wanted to take Yabitsu Pass, but my start was delayed until just before 1PM, so I headed straight out Route 246.  This meant I would traverse the entirety of Kanagawa Prefecture and its sprawl in each direction.  Not my favorite place for riding, but if I need to do it, best in winter.

I turned south off Route 246 somewhere around Yamato as 246 got completely clogged up, with the shoulder too narrow at places to pass the cars and trucks at anywhere near full speed.  I hunted and pecked my way to the coast, through Samukawa and to Hiratsuka, names I recognize but cannot quite place.

As I rode along the coast, at one point I saw a sign for the "Pacific Coast Bicycle Path" and headed about 200 meters off Route 1 to find a bike path adjacent to the Seisho By-Pass.  I had seen the sign before, on ekiden rides, but never tried it.  The bike path was passable, but only continued for 2 kms and ended in a sandy cul-de-sac.  I needed to dismount through the sandy patch, then remount and head back up a neighborhood street to Route 1.  (On the way back, I also took this path, and managed another 500 meters or so in the eastern direction to confirm the entire length.  The eastern end also dumped out into a bit of sand.  Slower than Route 1, pathetically short, but good to know of.

Mikan orchards between Odawara and Yugawara

Route 135, the coastal road from Odawara to Yugawara offered its benefits, despite the traffic volumes.  The fresh air and views were a relief, both in late afternoon and the following day.

The last surprise was finding the onsen.  I got to Manazuru, just north of Yugawara, around 430 or 445PM.  Only then did I try to identify the exact location of the onsen.  It was not in Yugawara, but at the far edge of "Oku Yugawara", more than 5 kms beyond Yugawara station and at several hundred meters elevation.  I arrived in the dark, after 515PM.  The attendant took my bicycle inside and to a luggage room, no questions asked.  I wanted to go straight to the room and meet my family, but was told "no", the correct order was that I first rest in the lounge and be served a bowl of "macha" tea.  This happened very quickly, I downed it in one gulp, and was led to the room.  Greetings, then off to a hot bath and a gorgeous meal.

Trying to get a photo without a car in it ...

Was a bit of a challenge.