This cycling segment was focused on reaching the port town of Maizuru where we are scheduled to take a 11:50pm ferry along the western coast of Japan to the northern island of Hokkaido. Although we had heard many nice things about Hokkaido, we were very anxious about our journey north. First and foremost, when we tried to find some hotel accommodation spanning a weekend in Sapporo – Hokkaido’s largest city – we could not find anything. We had to resort staying in our ferry arrival town – less than ideal. It seemed many of the (affordable) hotel chain accommodations we have relied upon up-to-now during our travel in Japan, showed up as sold out during the weekend prime period.

2024.06.13 – [JP] Kyoto ==> Kusatsu (22 kms | Total: 1694 kms)

We had our hotel breakfast at the usual time. For some unknown reasons during our check-in, the reception desk agent recorded our check-out at 12pm, we actually re-confirmed this information before our breakfast. Hence we took advantage of the late check-out to finalize and post our latest blog entry before leaving our hotel. We did not mind leaving Kyoto late morning as we had a very short cycling distance to our next town. We left our hotel under a sunny sky but the temperature did not appear as hot as yesterday. To our surprise, we managed to navigate fairly well the streets of Kyoto which led us out of town. Although our cycling distance was short, we had to tackle two hills/humps along the way. Near the end of our day’s journey, we finally came across lake Biwa – Japan’s largest lake – 64kms long and considered the 13th oldest lake in the world. At the hotel, we sadly had to wait for 5 minutes for our official check-in. Jenny as usual kindly hand washed my cycling clothes as they were completely wet from perspiration. In the evening, we visited a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a feast of different plates.

2024.06.14 – [JP] Kusatsu ==> Hikone (62 kms | Total: 1756 kms)

As we had a longer cycling day ahead of us, we had our hotel’s breakfast at 8am. We left the hotel shortly after 9am. After 1-2kms of cycling, we had to turn around as Jenny had lost one of her cycling glove while putting sunscreen. We found the glove on the ground nearby our hotel and resumed our cycling. We benefited of cycling throughout the day on a dedicated cycling path. We got to enjoy the views of lake Biwa while feeling a slight cooling effect. The sun was strong and the temperature reached over 30C. We stopped often for water and short rest. At a farmer’s market building, we purchased a few snacks (cherry tomatoes, oranges, cookies and ice cream) and savored a longer rest. We stopped at a convenience store for refreshment before reaching our hotel. At the hotel, we were asked once again to wait for 5 minutes for the official check-in time. Jenny once more had to hand washed my soaked cycling clothes. In the evening, we had dinner at nearby restaurant and later took a stroll around the Hikoke Castle site.

2024.06.15 – [JP] Hikone ==> Tsuruga (59 kms | Total: 1815 kms)

After leaving our hotel, we cycled over 7 kms through the streets and alleyways of Hikore before rejoining the bicycle path along lake Biwa. The sky was not overcast as we expected but the temperature was slightly cooler than yesterday. As we left the bicycle path and lake Biwa behind us, we encountered two tunnels (860 and 980m), the first one offered only a narrow sidewalk hence we reverted to walk the entire distance. Thankfully we managed to cycle the second tunnel as it offered a wide sidewalk on one side. After crossing the tunnels, we started a 7kms slow climbing. The heat made the journey quite demanding. Once we reached to the hill top, we enjoyed a long descent into town. We checked into our hotel for two nights. It was comforting to wait in the hotel lobby for 5-10 minutes with other guests before the official check-in started. After a well-deserved shower and some clothes washing at the hotel’s laundromat, we headed out to a grocery store for some snacks and dinner staples. After a fairly difficult cycling day, we felt glorious knowing that we had a day of rest tomorrow.

2024.06.16 – [JP] Tsuruga ==> Tsuruga (0 kms | Total: 1815 kms)

We enjoyed a relaxing time during our hotel’s breakfast. We headed out at mid-morning for some modest sightseeing of the town’s main attractions. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a shopping mall to cool down and enjoyed some Baskin Robin’s ice cream. We relaxed in our room for the remainder of the afternoon. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby as we celebrated Father’s Day in Japan. Back at our room, I received a Father’s Day video call from both Victoria and Jessica.

2024.06.17 – [JP] Tsuruga ==> Obama (48 kms | Total: 1863 kms)

We both had a good night sleep. After our hotel’s breakfast, we loaded the panniers on the tandem and started cycling out of town. The sky was covered – just like we likeed it – and the temperature was lower than yesterday. The stretch of road between Tsuruga and Obama was probably the nicest we had experienced during our cycling in Japan. The local road with clear bicycle route signage and very little vehicle traffic were often hugging the coast along the Sea of Japan. And when we expected some serious climbs based on our route profiles, we were blessed with a tunnel to circumvent the hill. In fact, we passed through 11 tunnels during our day’s journey – with our longest tunnel to-date at 1.8km. As we cycled along a series of plum orchards, we decided to buy a small bag of plum even though they were quite expensive. After arriving in town, we stopped at a grocery store for some water and snacks. Jenny and I were both a bit anxious as we had not managed to reserve a hotel in the town of Obama as none of the hotels were showing up on hotel booking sites. Our first targeted hotel was too expensive. We luckily managed to secure a room at our second hotel visited near the train station. Originally the hotel manager had told us that all of their rooms were sold out but he later managed to find us a room. We had never quite expected any difficulties in finding a hotel room during the weekday but there was always a first time for everything. After settling in our room, we took advantage of the hotel’s onsen. We were deeply disappointed with the plums we had bought earlier in the day on the roadside as these were preserved plums. They tasted very salty and we only managed to eat one or two each. For unknown specific reasons, we both felt tired from our cycling day. It started to rain in late afternoon. In the evening, we had dinner at nearby cafe/restaurant. Later we visited a pharmacy for dental care supplies followed by a grocery store visit for water and snacks.

2024.06.18 – [JP] Obama ==> Maizuru (37 kms | Total: 1900 kms)

We both had a very deep night sleep. In the morning, we had our hotel’s complementary breakfast which offered a very typical of Japanese breakfast staple. The weather forecast called for light rain until 1pm. Before checking out of our hotel, we gave the remainder of our preserved plums to the hotel manager who kindly helped us find a room yesterday. We checked-out of our hotel at 10am as we had a very short cycling day. We cycled on a busier road than yesterday but it was still very manageable. We passed through 3 more tunnels before arriving to our destination town of Maizuru. As we arrived at 1:30pm at our hotel, Jenny tried very hard to have the reception desk folks to offer us an early check-in. In the end, we left our luggage with the reception desk and cycled to a McDonald’s for some coffee and snacks. We finally check-in into our room at 3:00pm. In the evening, we purchased some dinner staples at a nearby grocery store. Later, we walked to the ferry terminal across the river from our hotel in order to get familiar with the directions.

2024.06.19 – [JP] Maizuru ==> Ferry to Otaru (0 kms | Total: 1900 kms)

Our night sleep was much less restful than our previous night. We relaxed in bed until 10am after which we had breakfast in our room. Jenny repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to take a nap throughout the day. In the afternoon, we visited a grocery store for food staples for our long ferry ride to Otaru (Hokkaido). In the evening, we visited a few restaurants before finally stopping our choice on a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We planned to leave our hotel room at 10:15pm for a short 1.5.km ride to the ferry terminal building. We hope the embankment process will be efficient and we will be able to gain access to our private cabin as early as possible. The ferry is scheduled to depart at 11:50pm and arrive in Otaru at 8:45 the following day.