AlanW
Maximum Pace
- Jan 30, 2007
- 1,215
- 440
Early in Golden Week this year, Naomi-san and I decided to do a couple of days cycling near Mt Fuji and the 5 lakes. Luckily for me, the Friday before Golden Week was a Company holiday, so we were able to leave Tokyo on Friday and avoid the hellish traffic jams that begin as soon as the official holiday starts 
Our plan was to have an easy, cruisy first day and then on the second day, complete a circumnavigation of Fuji-san. This route was recommended in the "10 of the best rides" book, and we planned to follow the suggested course almost exactly.
Our easy day was just that, we did a quick loop of Yamanaka-ko, stopping many times along the way for photos. Most of the lakeshore has a smooth cycling road, wide enough to zip along nicely.
We stopped for a while to play with the swans...
And Naomi-san got this great shot of one with Fuji-san....
We had time for a visit to a local onsen and just as dusk was falling, we drove back to the lake for a sunset view of Mt. Fuji
We returned to the pension where we were staying, and had a delicious dinner made from all local ingredients from Yamanashi-ken, except for some salmon, which came "from the sea" according to the owner! Her little daughter Moe-chan was very interested in us and kept us entertained by playing the piano, drawing, climbing up parts of the building I think she had not seen many foreigners before.
The next morning was bright and sunny, although the air was still cold, as Yamanakako is at 1,000 m elevation. After breakfast, we were soon ready to go. Naomi-san suggested we run the loop clockwise, the opposite direction from suggested in the guide book, since the road to Gotemba gets really busy during the holidays. This turned out to be a great choice, as the trafffic was already building on the Gotemba road (we were able to slip by on the path) but the rest of the way we were never balked by traffic at all
Doing the ride this way round meant we started with about 10km of smooth downhill, which was a fun start to the ride! Navigation was simple, just keeping Fuji-san on our right meant we were heading in the right direction.
The road around the south side of Fuji was really varied, from the mountain pass terrain coming down from Yamanakako, through open pasture and then into a Japanese Cedar forest.
We passed by Fuji Children's world which had these fantstic stone heads outside the entrance
The highlight of the loop, for me, was our stop at Shiraitonotaki falls. These are a spectacular set of waterfalls, some from surface water and some bursting out from porous rock. It is a truly spectacular area. There were plenty of people around but we were still able to get up close to the falls and feel the spray.
Rainbow formed by spray:
Looking skinny
Base of the falls
Naomi at the falls
We stopped for a light lunch of roast sweetcorn followed up by ice cream and cappucinos, truly a civilised lunch-break!
From the falls at Shiraitonotaki, we were faced with the longest climb of the loop, with 20km of uphill. Fortunately the gradient was gentle and the wind was blowing us up the hill. It was still a long drag, but we made it to the summit at Zyukai lookout.
A long, long downhill followed; the roads were still quite empty and we zoomed down towards Saiko before skirting its south shore.
We were flying along around the snaking curves with a strong following wind...
At the east end of Saiko lake, Kawaguchiko began almost immediately, and the road followed the northen shoreline. We could see people boating, fishing and windsurfing.
We managed to avoid most of the busy roads through Fujiyoshida city, and had enough energy for a final lap of Yamanakako, going the opposite direction from our short tour the previous day.
We arrived at the end of the ride early enough for a second visit to the onsen to loosen up our muscles, and stuck around there for supper which was a local speciality called Houtou. It certainly was "hot-o", but also very tasty with local mushrooms and vegetables.
All in all, a superb ride and highly recommended.
Our plan was to have an easy, cruisy first day and then on the second day, complete a circumnavigation of Fuji-san. This route was recommended in the "10 of the best rides" book, and we planned to follow the suggested course almost exactly.
Our easy day was just that, we did a quick loop of Yamanaka-ko, stopping many times along the way for photos. Most of the lakeshore has a smooth cycling road, wide enough to zip along nicely.
We stopped for a while to play with the swans...
And Naomi-san got this great shot of one with Fuji-san....
We had time for a visit to a local onsen and just as dusk was falling, we drove back to the lake for a sunset view of Mt. Fuji
We returned to the pension where we were staying, and had a delicious dinner made from all local ingredients from Yamanashi-ken, except for some salmon, which came "from the sea" according to the owner! Her little daughter Moe-chan was very interested in us and kept us entertained by playing the piano, drawing, climbing up parts of the building
I think she had not seen many foreigners before.
The next morning was bright and sunny, although the air was still cold, as Yamanakako is at 1,000 m elevation. After breakfast, we were soon ready to go. Naomi-san suggested we run the loop clockwise, the opposite direction from suggested in the guide book, since the road to Gotemba gets really busy during the holidays. This turned out to be a great choice, as the trafffic was already building on the Gotemba road (we were able to slip by on the path) but the rest of the way we were never balked by traffic at all
Doing the ride this way round meant we started with about 10km of smooth downhill, which was a fun start to the ride! Navigation was simple, just keeping Fuji-san on our right meant we were heading in the right direction.
The road around the south side of Fuji was really varied, from the mountain pass terrain coming down from Yamanakako, through open pasture and then into a Japanese Cedar forest.
We passed by Fuji Children's world which had these fantstic stone heads outside the entrance
The highlight of the loop, for me, was our stop at Shiraitonotaki falls. These are a spectacular set of waterfalls, some from surface water and some bursting out from porous rock. It is a truly spectacular area. There were plenty of people around but we were still able to get up close to the falls and feel the spray.
Rainbow formed by spray:
Looking skinny
Base of the falls
Naomi at the falls
We stopped for a light lunch of roast sweetcorn followed up by ice cream and cappucinos, truly a civilised lunch-break!
From the falls at Shiraitonotaki, we were faced with the longest climb of the loop, with 20km of uphill. Fortunately the gradient was gentle and the wind was blowing us up the hill. It was still a long drag, but we made it to the summit at Zyukai lookout.
A long, long downhill followed; the roads were still quite empty and we zoomed down towards Saiko before skirting its south shore.
We were flying along around the snaking curves with a strong following wind...
At the east end of Saiko lake, Kawaguchiko began almost immediately, and the road followed the northen shoreline. We could see people boating, fishing and windsurfing.
We managed to avoid most of the busy roads through Fujiyoshida city, and had enough energy for a final lap of Yamanakako, going the opposite direction from our short tour the previous day.
We arrived at the end of the ride early enough for a second visit to the onsen to loosen up our muscles, and stuck around there for supper which was a local speciality called Houtou. It certainly was "hot-o", but also very tasty with local mushrooms and vegetables.
All in all, a superb ride and highly recommended.
