Inspection Tour Reports Life in Most of Japan Proceeds As Usual

With trains disrupted Friday evening and my Brevet cancelled, I had planned to ride on Saturday, but put off any plans as I was glued to the television, watching reports of horrible devastation along the coast in Tohoku, visible for the first time after a long dark Friday night.

And then there were concerns about the nuclear power plants in Fukushima, not so close to Tokyo, but not so far either, with a lot of confusion in the hours following an explosion that blew the roof and walls completely off of the building that houses (housed?) reactor #1.  The huge explosion was visible via some media outlets (I saw one broadcast that had been posted to youtube and linked from U.S. aggregators like Business Insider), while on Japanese TV I could not find any footage, and the government reported that the "roof had collapsed" while at the same time asking people to evacuate within a 20 km radius.  I think "roof had been blown to smithereens" would be a bit more accurate, even if this did not ultimately coincide with a major radiation release (and who really knows, yet?).

So I put off any ride until Sunday, awoke, quickly checked the news (no meaningful news updates) and decided to head to the west, as usual, and even further away from the disaster zone.  I was hoping to get over Sasago Pass and then try Kamihikawa, or maybe head up the first part of Odarumi and along the Crystal Line, inspecting for quake-related damage.  But I planned to go at a leisurely pace, as my legs were so stiff when I awoke that I could barely walk -- the result of descending 29 flights of stairs in my road cycling shoes on Friday end of the day to get out of my office building (note to self -- next time, walk down in your normal shoes and change at the bottom, even if it requires bring them home in the rucksack).

What I found was, well, normal.  There were significantly reduced volumes of traffic as compared to a typical Sunday, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary.  Life goes on.  And the further west of Tokyo, the more normal things are.  The main disruption that I found was at the 7-11 in Takao, where there was no 2-liter private label bottled water available, though everything else could be had.  Further away from Tokyo, at the 7-11 past Otsuki, even the 2 liter bottled water is available.  And baseball practice is proceeding as usual, along the Tamagawa and further out west.

The Chuo Line runs normally between Fujino and Uenohara, no damage to houses, roads, bridges or train lines.

The Katsuragawa flows normally toward Otsuki, from Tsuru, on a late winter/early Spring day.  Observe the non-landslide on that steep hill along the western (right side) bank of the river.

Traffic crosses the undamaged bridge over the Katsuragawa on Route 20 as people go about their Sunday morning business.   The "Gusto" restaurant that sheltered Jerome, Yutaka and me on December 30 has been serving food without a break since our visit 10 weeks back (still open 24-7!).

At Otsuki Hatsukari Elementary School ... Baseball practice must go on!

I headed up the old road toward Sasago Pass, but was quickly met by snow and ice on the road in the shade -- a bit of a surprise given the lack of visible snow on the lower hills to that point, and the warm temperatures (by now over 10 degrees celsius and climbing to the mid- or upper-teens).

I dismounted and walked through the patches of ice, since I remembered that the road would soon climb along a sunny, much more exposed slope, where I expected any snow would have long since melted.  This worked well at the lower elevations and until I got much closer to the pass, when I began to run into some deeper drifts across the road, even on the sunny slopes.  I pushed my bike through a few of these.

I gave up, 50-75 meters or so elevation below the tunnel, when I reached a patch of snow that continued around the corner and as far as I could see beyond, and also as I realized that the opposite slope of Sasago is mostly shaded and so probably in far worse shape.

After a quick trip back toward Otsuki, I made the left term at Magi and started the climb up to O-Toge.  The Sasago climb on the old road starts at 700 meters elevation, whereas the Magi traffic light is below 450 meters, so at least I would get some climbing before encountering snow.  And the climb is all on the South slope of the mountain.  I made it up to the gate, and around the next corner, before I found the first stretch that would require dismounting.  Realizing that this was the first of many and that I still had 500 meters of elevation gain ahead, I turned around and headed for home.

The O-toge gate, approximately 975 meters elevation.

O-Toge Southern approach at 1000 meters elevation.

At this point, it is still too close to the event to know with any certainty the medium and longer term consequences of Friday's earthquakes.  But as I descended back down the road, still free of cracks, potholes or obstructions, and looked out to the South at the next line of mountains, over the roof of an undamaged house, I knew that much of Japan -- indeed, where 90% of Japanese reside and the vast bulk of Japanese industry and commerce -- is still just fine.

Another undamaged farm house on a smooth road -- Magi, on the climb toward O-Toge, about 75 km west of Tokyo.

I had a quick trip back toward town and, having ridden just under 190 km (10 km with my Garmin GPS turned off), I hopped an uncrowded but otherwise normal train at Hashimoto (Yokohama Line, then Denentoshi Line) and was home for dinner.

Map:
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/190306/full.gif

Elevation Profile:
http://ridewithgps.com/photos/snapshots/trip-histogram-190306.jpg

And today, from my office a photo of a few of the many buildings in central Tokyo that did not fall down on Friday:

The North Approach - Twice

Perfect weather today: no clouds, very clear air. Fuji-san was dominating the scenery wherever I went. And koyo added for more spectacular scenery, at least below 1,000 meters.

Today was the day to go high, and to try out two north approaches which were new to me: Wada (completely new - Tom has blogged about it, so have TCC folks), and Otoge (have done it only from the other side).

The newly discovered north approach of Wada Toge is nice. Especially the lower part with the farm houses is very picturesque. Quite wet though after all the rain and on the fallen leaves, this can be treacherous. It meant I had to stay in the saddle whenever going over wet leaves, to avoid slipping.

I then headed via the old Koshukaido to Sarubashi, and from there climbed up to Otoge, which was in places in similar conditions as the north approach to Wada, though much, much longer... Very nice views of the distant mountains, including Matsuhime Toge. But no more koyo above 1,000 meters.

I then took Akiyama Kaido and various backroads to Hashimoto where it became too dark to ride on. 200km and 3,000 meters of climbing. Mapmyride will no longer show my newly imported routes (old ones still work), so no GPS trail for now.

Nice coincidence to meet Tom, Nishibe-san and David at Sekidobashi (see also Tom's blog) - if only David had worn our uniform!

I also wore a long jersey on top of the short one, which proved just right for today's weather: starting at 14 degrees from home, 9 degrees on the ascent to Wada, 20 degrees in Sarubashi, 12 degrees on top of Otoge - you get the picture...

Can anyone remember such a stunning view from just below Wada Toge?

Koyo on the descent from Otoge, somewhere below 1,000 meters.

Firemen everywhere in the villages, hunters everywhere in the mountains. Fortunately nobody threatened me unlike David - see Tom's blog.

S C A R Y T W O

Last night I dreamt that my father was checking my body temperature. I had a high fever and so I called Tom, who had taken a day off from work, to cancel the planned North side Ootoge ride. That was how I scared I was.

Of course I had no excuse not to come and to undertake a renewed approach on this monster of a climb in the middle of nowhere, with hornets big as A380s, bears on amphetamine and silent strangeling monkeys.

So I dressed up in complete Positivo Espresso wear, kissed my sleeping wife and children, put the files with the life insurance policies on my desk so that my wife would find them easily, deleted the history of my web browser and left for the station.

As usual Tom was riding out on his bike while I took the train and we met at Saruhashi Station. Then we proceeded quickly up the slopes in direction of Matsuhime Toge until we reached the picnic place and tunnel at elevation 650m that is the entry to Ootoge. Riding up as a pair is much less scarier than riding up alone. Although Tom was as usual in good form and went to ride in front which I thought was OK because then the bears wouldn't be so hungry when they met me and might be content with an arm or (worse) a leg.

Luckily we went up on a weekday, when the road is not that crowded by monkeys, snakes, deers and foxes driving with their families to the river in the valley. Also the trucks driven by bears, transporting food for the hibernation period up on themountains can be a real hassle.

And so Tom and me were completely alone.
We climbed up the first 600 meters until we reached the gate and we started to discuss how to proceed, left or right. Tom was in favor of going left, I was also in favor of going left because going right is definitely very scary; but the map mounted at the side of the road clearly indicated right. Then suddenly we heard a noise: No, not bears raping Japanese hiking groups or a swarm of hornet in low flying attack formation, but the sound of a car. A Tokyo Power (Tepco) 4WD was moving down the road in our direction and stopped at the gate. So we asked one of the guys where to go and they said that going right was impossible and that we should turn left. This used to be the right information at precisely the right moment, almost like a miracle. Thank you TEPCO. I will take care from now on to pay my electricity bills in time.

Then the rest of the climb was a piece of cake, only some 250 meter up with a splendid view on the mountains in less than 30 degree temperature before we reached the gate at the top of Ootoge. We had made it. By the way, there are no "semi" (cicada) up there so the noise environment is completely different than on the normal lower climbs.
We went down on the South side where the road is in much better shape and also much wider, also like a race track. But definitely is the North approach the more beautiful one.

After a lunch of cold Soba in a nice traditional restaurant close to Otsuki station (The type of restaurant where they have photos of the emperor in his car .. driving by) we continued on Route 20 and then climbed up Suzugane Toge and Hinazuru Toge following road 35 and 517 all the way to Hashimoto. As I said, Tom is really in good shape and he had to wait all the time for me, but it wasn't that long that he had grown a beard or so. I mean, this is the pleasure of riding out with friends one knows now for so long, such as Tom, David, Jerome and Ludwig.
As a final piece de la resistance we added a North Tsukui lake ride before coming to Hashimoto where I took the train home and Tom made a final run on the One Kan.

More than 200 km for Tom and slightly more than 100 km for me, but close to 3 km of climbing up for both of us in the sun made this a very exhausting and happy day.

Once home, I put the insurance files back in the shelve and called my father.

A more factual account of the day is written here.

Also Tom and me had the same idea, that we should make some investment to enjoy future trips by having something like this. I heard that every Belgian has one, it is like Takoyaki grilling pads in Osaka. As I have studied in Aachen, city borders touching Belgium, I might also be eligible to buy one.

S C A R Y

I tried a longer ride yesterday from Uenohara station over Tawa and Tsuru pass, then over Imagawa to Ome Kaido (411) and then looping back to Matsuhime pass. All in all mid-range distance (120 km) but more than 3,000m of climbing. Why?

Because I had the wonderful idea to add the climb to Otoge from the reservoir on the road to Matsuhime. That means the backside Otoge approach and not the front side from Magi intersection at Kokudo road #20.

The road starts at a gated tunnel close to a picnic area at the lake and is in fairly good shape as long as it leads to the facilities of the dam. There are a amazing number of inspection tunnel entries, transformer stations and power lines in the vicinity of the dam - a true feast for the civil engineer in all of us, but especially inside myself.

There are also a lot of animals: I almost run over a snake curling on the road. Then the conditions of the road are becoming worse but some stretches have been repaired recently so it is possible to continue to climb.

The climb is very long, almost 900 meters to the top from elevation 600 to 1.500 meters. There was a second gate at 1.250 meters elevation and then the road forked into two with no indication where to go. This happened two more times and I had no idea if I was still on the right one. Going over 1.400 meter I was also in the clouds and visibility was very poor.

Then I arrived at a tunnel, perhaps 300 meters long, no light. There could have been an army of bears sleeping inside and I wouldn't have noticed it. I saw some bats later. Scary, no idea where I was going and how the surface was and only a faint light at the end.The photo was taken almost at the end of the tunnel.

More mist after the tunnel and then a landslide that delivered half of a shotcreted rockface on the road below. Must have happened recently - perhaps because of the series of earthquakes. Another landslide, now I had to take my bike in both hands and start to climb over some really big rocks.

Another landslide. Hey, am I really on the right road or have I found my way by chance to the Tomei? I cross this one as well.
Another one. I can not even see how the road continues on the other side. So I lay down my bike on the right and start to climb and explore the area. The guiderails are handing free-fall in the air, but there seems to be some road on the other side ... I go back to my bike and try to pick it up, when I feel a sudden strong pain in my left hand .... hornets are flying around me (I assume that they were hornets because they were bigger than mosquitos and had orange/black stripped bodies). They were attracted by the orange handlebar tape and they also seem to like my Positivo Espresso jersey very much.

That finally broke my spirit and I went down the same way I rode up. I am still not sure if I went up the right road; Google maps is of no help as it doesn't indicate the tunnels in the area. Has anybody any experience?

Anyway, that was one of the most scary rides I did - much scarier than crossing Sasago tunnel with Tom - and I shouldn't have done this alone. Next time I will ride out on a double love suicide mission with Tom, Ludwig or David.

Otherwise the trip was very pleasant. Here are some important updates:
The roadworks at the Matsuhime / Tsuru intersection leading to the brand new tunnel are almost finished. In future, busy cyclist and drivers will be even more faster travelling between nowhere and next to nowhere, at least by the fraction of a second. As the shortcut has been built in a place where another road intersects the old one, I can only assume that the old road will be kept as well, leading to the slow but complete asphaltation of the village and huge budgets for road maintenance (which seems to be more required at Otoge), therefore many jobs for years to come.
Here is a picture of the responsible politician from Kosuge village. Much to my surprise it seems that the glasses which used to be worn by EVERY president of a traditional Japanese company in the Nineties are still very much in fashion out there in the country. They were also OK for department heads of bigger organisations, but definitely out of question for section heads (McArthur rayban likes were OK) or for rank&file salaryman (contact lenses).

How I wished times would never change.