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1 <!doctype html> 2 <html lang="en"> 3 <head> 4 <meta charset="utf-8"> 5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> 6 <title>Ride to Okutama-ko and back - Chris Bracken</title> 7 <link href="/css/site.css" rel="stylesheet"> 8 <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png"> 9 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/favicon/favicon-32x32.png"> 10 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/favicon/favicon-16x16.png"> 11 <link rel="manifest" href="/favicon/site.webmanifest"> 12 <link rel="mask-icon" href="/favicon/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#140f42"> 13 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon/favicon.ico"> 14 <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#603cba"> 15 <meta name="msapplication-config" content="/favicon/browserconfig.xml"> 16 <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"> 17 </head> 18 <body> 19 <header id="header"> 20 <div class="site-title"> 21 <h1><a href="/">Chris Bracken</a></h1> 22 </div> 23 24 <nav class="site-navbar"> 25 <ul id="menu" class="menu"> 26 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/">Home</a></li> 27 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/about/">About</a></li> 28 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/code/">Code</a></li> 29 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" rel="me"href="https://bsd.network/@cbracken">Fediverse</a></li> 30 </ul> 31 </nav> 32 </header> 33 <main id="main"> 34 <article> 35 <h2 class="post-title"><a href="https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/10/ride-to-okutamako/">Ride to Okutama-ko and back</a></h2> 36 26 October 2008 37 <p><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1qLR0za_apX5qMJi32cqDoNYESRI&ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=35.67441532772013%2C139.44887900000003&spn=0.214689%2C0.47083&t=p&source=embed&z=9">View map</a></p> 38 <p>I haven’t ridden a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_ride">century</a> since I moved to Japan but with a bit of 39 spare time on my hands before baby number two is due, I decided I was going to 40 get back into decent enough shape that I could pull one off. I’ve been using 41 mornings and weekends to get back into riding longer distances, and slowly 42 building up toward the goal of 160 km by riding further and further up the Tama 43 river every weekend.</p> 44 <p>Five minutes looking at Google maps yesterday morning at 6 am convinced me that 45 Lake Okutama was exactly the necessary 80 km away, so without a minute to lose 46 I got dressed, headed out the door and rode north up the Tama river. Here’s 47 the <a href="https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/18311395">activity report</a>.</p> 48 <p>The ride along the river is gorgeous, one of the few places in Tokyo you can 49 ride uninterrupted through a green belt that runs from the ocean at Haneda 50 airport all the way into the mountains in the northwest corner of Tokyo. The 51 bike path ends at the south Hamura dam, but by then it’s pretty <a href="http://www.ehimeajet.com/inaka.php" title="Inaka: rural Japan">inaka</a>, 52 so you can continue by road from there without much worry about traffic. At 53 the north Hamura dam, I crossed over to the west side of the river, to pick up 54 Route 411 through the towns of Oume, Sawai, and Mitake before leaving the city 55 completely and starting the climb up into the mountains.</p> 56 <p>The trip on from Mitake is a long, slow ascent along a narrow, winding road 57 through small towns and villages while criss-crossing the river. Particularly 58 this time of year with the leaves changing colour, the trip is visually 59 spectactular, with the mountainsides lit up bright orange and red. Okutama is 60 the last major town before the final hill-climb up to the lake. At its 61 westernmost edge is the world-famous Tokyo <a href="http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/feature/feature05.html" title="Conbini: Let's enjoy convenience store life!">Conbini</a> Shuten—the final 62 convenience store of Tokyo. Complete with latitude and longitude figures on its 63 sign out front, it is a site of pilgrimage for cyclists headed up to the lake 64 and the border of Tokyo and Yamanashi prefectures. Too bad it’s a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Yamazaki">Daily 65 Yamazaki</a> and not a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilyMart">Famima</a>, but either way it’s got 66 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat">Pocari Sweat</a>!</p> 67 <p>From the town of Okutama to the lake is a 13 km hill climb up through tunnel 68 after tunnel to the dam at the edge of the lake. My the one route change I’ll 69 make the next time I do this is to go <em>around</em> the tunnels instead of <em>through</em> 70 them. I can’t possibly imagine why someone felt the need to put (very 71 expensive) tunnels in on this road given that almost every single one can be 72 bypassed on the road. I can only assume that this has something to do with the 73 government trying to buy the powerful rural vote with thousands of unnecessary, 74 environment-destroying <a href="http://www.iwanami.co.jp/jpworld/text/publicworks01.html" title="The LDP and pork-barrel politics">construction projects</a> per year.</p> 75 <p>The good news is that once you hit the top, the views are spectacular, the 76 roads are flat, and you’re back in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68908288@N00/141327403/" title="Jidohanbaiki: Let's vending machine!">jidohanbaiki</a>-land where 77 Pocari Sweat and Aquarius are available in abundance! I’d accidentally left my 78 cycle computer off for a 3km stretch out of Okutama, so I cycled 3 km down the 79 road to make up for it and be able to claim a <em>recorded</em> 160 km. I ran into a 80 German cyclist named Ludwig who’d also ridden in from Tokyo; he had a 81 drool-worthy Canyan carbon-fibre bike, and interestingly, it turns out he’s 82 part of the <a href="http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/">Positivo Espresso</a> cycling group whose blog I’d 83 been reading for a couple months.</p> 84 <p>Ludvig continued on up towards Yamanashi-ken with the plan of packing up his 85 bike and taking the train back when he got as far as he wanted to go. Good 86 plan, and something I’ll give a try next time. I turned my bike around for the 87 long trip back home. The best part of that trip was the 30 minute descent back 88 down out of the hills at car speed, before hitting Mitake, and heading back out 89 to the flat cycle path along the Tamagawa.</p> 90 <p>All in all, a pretty awesome day of cycling and a trip I’d definitely do again. 91 While the trip included a nice hill-climb, it wasn’t severe, and didn’t last 92 more than 15 km. I’ve included the GPS map—there are a couple errors where I’d 93 accidentally switched it off for 3 km near Okutama, and for about 5 km near 94 Hamura on the way back.</p> 95 </article> 96 </main> 97 98 <footer id="footer"> 99 <div class="copyright"> 100 <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"> 101 The content of this site by 102 <a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://chris.bracken.jp/about"><span rel="cc:attributionName">Chris Bracken</span></a> 103 is 104 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">CC BY 4.0</a>. 105 </span> 106 </div> 107 </footer> 108 </body> 109 </html>