Riding to Mt. Fuji

Another spectacular day of riding

It is Sunday, which means that the roads will be extra busy with families enjoying Golden Week as well as the usual groups of motorcyclists who will be out in full force. Staying at Route Inn Hotel, we are located across from the Toll Booth for the Expressway. This gives us a bird’s eye view of huge groups of motorcyclists who have arrived via the Expressway and will be riding the roads that we will be on. 🥴

These guys love to ride fast and unfortunately, some of them have fine tuned their motorbike to be as loud as possible….not our favourite thing.

In watching the busy toll booth, we seem to be seeing more motorbikes than cars.

Our home for the night. It was a challenge finding accommodation due to the huge number of Japanese families travelling during Golden Week. We had to get 2 single rooms which worked out fine as we were across the hall from each other. We saw other couples doing the same thing.

Route Inn Hotels is a Japanese chain. They are all pretty much the same and offer good perks with free coffee in the lobby, a complimentary breakfast buffet and Onsens for the guests. A good value.

We were making our way out of Yaizu and a car slowed down. The woman leaned out of the car and called out, asking us if we could follow them to the next Konbini. Knowing that we have a long ride ahead of us, I thanked her but said we were turning at this intersection. Next thing we knew, they pulled their van over into the wide sidewalk beside us. Wow! It turns out that they had seen us when we left the hotel and had rushed to a Konbini to buy us water and energy drinks.

This family were so nice to chat with and they were very interested to know what we are doing. The husband loves to cycle and was fascinated by our trikes. She is from Brazil and her husband is Japanese.

At first the child was happy to have a seat on my trike, but then it quickly got overwhelming… Dad to the rescue.

We felt badly that we hadn’t gone to the Konbini as she had asked. What a thoughtful thing to do for us on this hot day….energy drinks and cold water.

Some young local guys taking it easy by the river.

The day is starting well with a paved, dedicated path for cyclists.

Our trikes and being open to conversation with locals really breaks the ice.

We had only been riding for maybe 5 km when we saw an event in a local park to honour children’s day. We had promised ourselves that we wouldn’t stop until we had ridden about 20 km, but we are glad we did. Not only was there a fun event taking place for kids, the community had pulled together lots of fun things.

The kids were loving their balloon creations. A woman had a booth of swords made from newspaper that she was giving away. They were surprisingly sturdy. It is fascinating what we have seen in Japan that is made from newspaper….little boxes, files, containers etc.

This magnificent display of Koi Nobori suspended across the field is what originally encouraged us to stop and enjoy the festivities.

A group shot of the children of this village who had come to enjoy the day. We have started posing for photos the way the Japanese people do….that is with 2 fingers forming a “v”.

The proud families (or paparazzi) of the little guys.

Barry enjoying children’s day. As a retired teacher, he gets to enjoy it without being responsible for the day.

Someone really worked hard to create this arch made of balloons. Looking at this photo, I can see that my right leg is still healing from the fall weeks ago…discoloured and tender.

We were about to leave and continue on with today’s ride when we left the playing field and entered a courtyard with traditional buildings and a museum. The ride will have to wait!

There was a display of traditional kimonos in the area by the museum.

This museum, Okabe shuku Onatago History Museum, is a delight and a bargain at 300¥. This building was an Inn for travellers and the museum has been created to describe life, the culture and the times of this period.

This is the kitchen area in the Edo era inn.

Kashibaya Boys Festival. This is a samurai doll and these are typically in the home with Koi Streamers outside on Boy’s Day. Samurai dolls are meant to give a boy good luck.

Coins from the period which are carried and strung on a piece of twine.

A paper lantern which compresses to a small circular shape….perfect for travel.

Compact pieces for travel…a folding chair on the right and a compact pillow on the left.

Travel knife, shears, etc as well as a miniature sundial, top right.

Woodblock paintings depicting life in this period.

A typical gathering in the square of travellers and locals, all attired in clothing representative of the time.

Looking at this board welcoming travellers, we are excited to see that we have visited many of these places.

This board is very interesting detailing the history, importance and style of bathing in Japan as well as in Western countries. In the west, bathing originated in Mesopotamia about 4,000 BC which then spread through Greece and Rome. Christianity changed the style of bathing in the west. In the 19th century showering became commonplace and continues today.

It is interesting how the ritual of bathing developed in Japan. With the spread of Buddhism, the ritual of bathing was imported from Asia in the 6th century. It began in Japan with Buddhist temples providing a place to bathe until the Edo period, when public bathhouses for all and private baths in the homes of the wealthy were becoming the norm. Today, all homes have a private baths…the tradition continues.