Cycling food
Donuts are essential cyclists food… and you can’t tell me I’m wrong!
Cycling
Morning coffee stop..
Overnight stay in Shinagawa so we could cycle to Suidobashi. Using Japan bike we have a route to get us there.. but after 4km we stopped at Roar Coffee
The rabbits…
We set out from Setoda to visit Ōkunoshima, also known as rabbit island. Cycling towards Tatara Bridge is wonderful, as you look to your right you see neighbouring islands, and the cool breeze of the morning as you pedal along.
While we have cycled this first stretch a number of times, it’s still stunning to see the bridge. I know I’ve taken a lot of photos of the view but I always want to stop to take in the view.
Coming off the bridge we turned left to go around Omishima island towards the port for the ferry. We were nice and early bought tickets (okay I tried to give the person 10,000 instead of 1,000, they were amused), and one packet of rabbit food.
If you are cycling around the island you need to go clockwise.
We took a look around the museum of the island. Which has a focus on environment and nature.
However the island also has a dark history, as in 1925 the imperial Japanese Army built a poison gas factory. It was in operation until the end of the Second World War. Apparently it also took – full year to clean and remove hazardous items associated with creation of poison gas.
The rabbits on the island apparently are either associated from a person having them as pets which escaped or they were pets from child care facilities which were released. But as you can imagine… this is why the island has sooooo many rabbits. But it’s important to feed rabbits away from the one road which exists
We walked up to look at a view, but made it part way to the bottom of electricity towers as we decided to go back down to get the 12:15pm ferry. We had just enough time to buy a ‘small rabbit bread’. It was great to be able to visit another island in the inland sea!
Replaced by algorithm… and I couldn’t be happier
Many of you would know that I get great enjoyment out of creating bicycle routes that are interesting and safer.
One of the tools available to help me in Australia is Google Maps, but I find it makes routes that can be classified as worse or worser. So often, I am ‘hand making’ the routes with a combination of Google, Strava, Streetview, local PDF maps etc. This approach can take some time and trust me its harder in place that you don’t have local knowledge or fluently speak the language.
But what if you could bottle my spirit and then sprinkle it as required on a map to create the bike routes?
Well in Japan they have done just that with Navitime. In the past this was a Japanese only app. Now, however, they have released an English language version of their app – JapanBike – with additional popular cycling route information. It’s also available for Android.
What might take me an hour to put together now takes minutes. Find the spots I want to visit pop them in and then choose my route style. Instead of worse and worser that Google offers, I get the the choice of Recommended, Short, Safety, Few Hills, Many Hills, Main Streets, Back Streets, Cycling Road. Usefully it shows where bicycle parking and toilets are.
The gold continues – I hit the export button and it delivers me a file that I can use with Beeline! Handy navigation on my handlebars. You may have seen Helen’s post about our ride in Tokyo. The route was completely my style with shortcuts through parks and the like – there is no way I could have done better. It does have a monthly cost but it will pay for itself in one ride.
I’ll add some photos of our current view just to make this post less texty!
Relaxing ride..
After packing and leaving the suitcases behind in Tokyo we headed off on a ‘Kym special ride’ to Tokyo Train Station. He designed it using a Japanese cycling app, but he will post about that later.
After leaving the hotel the first stop was within 3kms at Takimoto coffee for breakfast. We managed to do the right thing and park our bikes next to the business while we went inside to enjoy the food and coffee on the second level. Kym had shirasu and cheese on toast, and I enjoyed a red bean paste sandwich – just the right size!
Continuing to wind our way through the back streets our second stop was Kiyosumi Garden. It was a real delight. Great to get off the bike and enjoy a pleasant walk around. Even saw a couple having scenic photos taken. Following here we made our way to the museum of contemporary art Tokyo (how have we not been here..??). After a short walk around the three exhibitions looking at the clock we decided we had better cycle back to Tokyo station to ensure we made the train. There were a number of good food & coffee stops that we passed.. but no, we resisted, although temptation was high. We made through the gates and o the train platform with 25 minutes to spare – enough time to buy snacks before boarding. It was a perfect Kym special ride.
Thankfully there were no dramas, or wrong turns. Everything on the bike seemed to be working. Well minus the squeaky pedal which has been put down to cycling in the rain to&from work. Kym had some oil in hand – so hopefully that fixes the noise in the short term.
Finally on the bikes
We enjoyed the first few days in Tokyo catching up with our friends (non Brompton riders). Now the rain has stopped we are spending today doing a Kym special planned route in Tokyo. Let’s see where the road takes us..!
Back in Tokyo
From here we made our way through a regular known route back to the hotel… now to pack…
Croissants
On the ride back to the port on Awaji island, we stopped at SaVa Bakery. Thankfully it was after the highest elevation point.. so we had definitely earned our stop.
It was great that it was open on Sunday morning… fabulous! While my reaction may of been ride impacted… the croissant itself was flaky, and butter, airy and and oh so perfect. If I lived on the island I would cycle here… better tasting than most places in Adelaide.
Cycling Awajishima…
We spent the last two days cycling half of Awaji island. I would suggest it more for experienced cyclist based on some of the roads being the main highway around the island and you need to be consistent and hold your line. The majority of the time it was great.
While cycling around the island is promoted – it’s not the same as the Shimanami Kadio. There isn’t always the space on the road and if you are not an experienced cyclist you won’t enjoy it. Although there were only a couple of spots we didn’t enjoy, thankfully they were short.
Over the last two days we really enjoyed the rides on both days, as I had planed the routes maximising the side streets which are quiet. This is where the real joy of cycling through local neighbourhoods ca be experienced. You see gardens, little shops and people going about their daily life. We stopped at a few coffee shops and places for lunch along the way. Here are photos from the two days:
Last 36 hours in Japan
Morning! – this is today’s view (so far).
Today we ride 60km to the port at Iwaya on Awaji Island. It’s a large island that we’ve only cycled part of… but we have to come home. After the 60km we catch a ferry, ride to the Shinkansen station, where we catch one back to Tokyo.
I’m guessing it’s time to get up and get going…