21 November 2008

Chichibu Trip Number Three

Autumn is here. Yesterday the Kakis were still hanging in the trees, today they are left to dry and become delicious Hoshigaki.After two weekday trips with Ludwig, I had another one with Juliane last Tuesday. Actually David joined us as well in the morning, but due to work commitments he could just ride up to Ome, buy some good pastry and the wonderful Aurora bakery in front of the station and return back to work by train. The Aurora bakery, where Positivo Espresso riders traditionally buy their pastry proviant, is really a wonderful place and one can see the delight of the things to come in the eyes of David and Juliane in the photo below.Juliane and me continues continued along road 53 up to Shomaru Toge where we exchanged our bikes against something more fast and agile for the downhill.We then rode up to Karibazaka and continued to Ono Toge, Shiraishi Toge and Sadamine Toge in a repetition of the Chichibu Two trip with Ludwig two weeks ago. Since my first trip I wanted to write something about the unnecessary road obstacles which are so abundant in Saitama. There must be a prefectural road construction guideline which advises to mount treacherous body traps in the middle of the road.And in addition one has to slalom its way down to avoid the speed traps, for example between Shiraiashi and Sadamine Toge.Then we mustered all our courage and had lunch at the Soba restaurant at Sadamine Toge. The Owneress was quite nice, more friendliness than on Wada and more water than at Shomaru in this place.They also produce a nice sake with giant bees inside there.Although I have to admit that there was not much meat in my Niku Soba, but finally with the help of a magnifying glass I was able to find it.An amazing restaurant by the way. With a lot of stuff inside. And a lot of calenders on the wall. They surely know which day it is [Note for readers of Wilson/Shea "Illuminatius" of the Seventies: " A man with one watch knows the time. A man with two watches is never quite sure."From Sadamine Toge we didn't take the right turn (road #11) in direction Ogawacho, but the left one which led as to Chichibu city. On the way down we passed another nice scarpyard which looked similar to the Soba restaurant.Finally we arrived at Seibu Chicchibu station and took the train home, app. at 15:57 hr in order to somewhat preserve our traditions (since 2006). A very nice ride in good weather conditions within a splendid setting enjoying Julianes company. I hope it will not be the last time.

1 comment:

the ups and downs of a belgian amateur cyclist in tokyo said...

Beautiful pictures Mob! Yes...it's hoshigaki season again which reminds me...we ought to do that Suzugane ride soon again - and then eat tempura soba and get our eto freebie (ushi-doshi) for next year at the "most hygienic" top-awarded eatery on the Koshu-kaido facing Takaosan-guchi...another time-honered Positivo Espresso tradition....