October 14, 2007
Day 6 : Oigami to Kusatsu: Hot spring heaven
This was another very beautiful but challenging ride, with over 6000 feet of climbing. The day began by following along the river valley to the industrial center of Numata. Until we neared the city the ride was quite beautiful and quiet, along a minor road that closely followed the river.
To be honest, we found biking near Numata to be a bit frustrating, with significant traffic and not the best cycling options. As we were to find throughout the country, the urban areas in Japan generally have done little to accommodate bicycles, and navigating the main routes involves a steady progression of detours on and off of sidewalks, dismounts because of the lack of curb cuts, and detours to pick out residential streets where we could find them. Our GPS's were a huge help for us here, in that we were able to scope out alternative routes quickly and easily. I'm convinced that we enjoyed our tour much more than we would have without them because we were able to spend so much more time cycling on quiet side roads.
From Numata, the rest of the ride was basically uphill to Kusatsu Onsen, one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts and among our favorite stays of the entire tour. This was probably our most significant planning error - if we were to ride this route again, we would have stayed two nights here to allow more time to enjoy its sights. It's a truly amazing, very colorful place. If I could be dropped into Japan again for a single night's visit, I could easily choose it to be here.
The heart of the town is the large Yubatake hot spring, the source of steaming water that is piped into hotels and bathhouses all over the neighborhood. It's a very colorful place to walk around, enjoying the sights as well as the tourists and bathers.
This was another place where we felt quite foreign and conspicuous - I don't recall seeing another Caucasian here, and certainly no other cyclists; and our hosts at our hotel spoke very little English. It reinforced for us how grateful we were for the GPS, and our advance planning: our map led us almost directly to our hotel, and we were able to match it to its picture that we had downloaded from the website as part of our preparations. I'm sure it saved us from great frustration and loss of time trying to find our way to our room.
We arrived late in the day and spent the rest of it at our inn, Matsumuraya Ryokan, testing out our bathing etiquette in its shared facilities, lounging around in our yukatas and slippers, and enjoying another elaborate feast. We decided to wait until the morning to walk around the town, but in retrospect I wish we'd have put on our clogs and walked around in our yukatas with the other tourists to see what it looked like after dark.
One of our favorite memories of the stay though was of the hospitality of our young female server at dinner. Although she seemingly spoke little English, she took pains to draw out a food map of the dishes laid before us, together with instructions on how to eat them. Really a very lovely, and much appreciated gesture.
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Today's ride: 54 miles (87 km)
Total: 249 miles (401 km)
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