The road leaves Rte 20 and goes under the Chuo Expressway and up a valley, past bi-jyo-tani onsen (the "valley of the beautiful women" hot spring resort), and climbs up to around 600 meters elevation. Unfortunately, we did not see any beautiful women -- no women at all in fact once we got into the valley.
There are lots of hiking trails through the area.
The road is passable by road bicycle, but there are stretches where it is getting overgrown, with no traffic, cars blocked by gates at either end.
Michael's Kanji reading skills failed him, as he was completely stumped by the sign at one end of the closed road:
Michael and I headed back over Ura-Wada. I stopped for a conference call from a 7-11 on Jimba Kaido and hopped the train from Hachioji to my office for a late-morning arrival.
TOM: It is a nice alternative climbing route, moreover it is so "close to town"...some more related reading here. Thanks Hiroshi for introducing this one!
Tom: Thanks for adding a link to your much more detailed report on Bijyotani from last year and for crediting Hiroshi for showing the way.
ReplyDeleteThe brand new rindo between Naguri and Hanno reported on your blog recently (call it "Spring marketplace Naguri")
http://vlaamsewielrenner.blogspot.com/2009/08/haraitibanaguri.html
looks really great -- deserted, in decent condition, and with the added benefit that it is relatively close to Oume.
We really need to organize our rides/routes into a better collection on the web ...