Hello everyone, it’s Taku!! I imagine there are quite a few of you who have started to remember me by now. With that said, a full four months have already passed since I joined the Circles team. As April—the start of a new life—drew near, and after graduating from my school, with nothing left to do but wait for my start date at Circles, I decided to take on the company's traditional pre-employment touring trip.
Touring Route
The plan was to ride a track bike from Nagoya to Shimonoseki, the westernmost tip of Honshu, in one week. Instead of just cutting straight across the main island, I planned a route that went through Shikoku and the Shimanami Kaido. I also set a personal rule: except for very steep inclines, I would basically maintain a speed of at least 30 km/h.
I have so many memories from this trip that I’ll be splitting the blog into several parts. I’ll be breaking it down by segment, so if you’re thinking, “I’m planning on riding there sometime,” I hope this blog proves useful to you.
With the intro out of the way, I’d like to talk about the first day’s leg from Nagoya to Kyoto.
First, I headed from my home to Circles. As soon as I arrived, the staff on duty welcomed me and everyone was so caring. Tomoda-san even crashed the photo we were taking before I left (lol). For some reason, we totally gave off those uncle-and-nephew vibes while chatting before my departure. Regardless, the tour had begun!!
The Start of a One-Week Track Bike Tour
The next destination from Circles was Sekigahara. While taking National Route 1 would shorten the distance, it would involve a ridiculous amount of climbing. Since I was on a track bike, I chose a route that avoided slopes as much as possible. By the way, the total elevation gain for this route is about 300m.
I got hit by heavy rain from the very first day. The weather forecast was dead wrong... I hadn't expected this much rain, so my bags, which weren't prepared for flooding, got soaked right away. There was nothing I could do about the things that got wet. I just needed to get to Sekigahara, so I didn't care about the route; I headed to Nagoya Station, jumped onto Prefectural Road 126, crossed the Tokai Bridge, and entered Gifu Prefecture.
As you can see in the photo, the weather was gloomy. Up to this point, other than the rain, I had no accidents and soon cleared Sekigahara. National Route 21, which passes near the heart of Sekigahara, has wide shoulders and relatively light traffic, making it easy to ride. However, most of the vehicles are large trucks, so you need to be careful.
And just like that, I entered Shiga Prefecture. From there, it was basically just riding along National Route 8. The transition from Route 21, which I had been following, to Route 8 was natural, so I didn't get lost.
After riding through the bad weather for a while, the sun came out just as I reached the mountainous area. The repeated cycle of climbing and descending slopes with a roughly 5% gradient slowly sapped my energy, but I was lucky the rain stopped. Shortly after, a series of small tunnels appeared.
The Sawayama Tunnel in this photo has a dedicated path for pedestrians and cyclists, but most tunnels don't, and riding through those was terrifying... Even tunnels I’m used to driving through feel different on a bike—without the barrier of glass or car walls, visibility is poor, the roar of passing cars is deafening, and I was constantly filled with the fear and doubt of, "Are the cars behind me going to pass safely? Can they even see me?" If you ride through tunnels, absolutely make sure you have a rear light.
The Climax of Day 1
Speaking of Shiga, there’s Lake Biwa, right? I spent the first half of the route riding mostly inland and didn't even touch the lake, but I crossed the Omi Ohashi Bridge just as the sun was setting.
I felt the night view of Otsu city was beautiful, but at the same time, perhaps because the tension had broken, I started to feel exhausted. I had nonchalantly thought, "Kyoto is just around the corner from Otsu!!," but for someone whose physical and mental energy was already depleted, it was grueling. While I wouldn't call them mountain passes, I was beaten by the sheer number of slopes between Otsu city and Yamashina in Kyoto...
The true horror of this journey lay here: a track bike loaded with luggage, coupled with the physical and mental drain of riding nearly 200km every single day. I have a reckless personality, but acting on my usual impulses is not at all appropriate for a tour like this. On this first day, I somehow managed to keep going without being so tired that I had to put my feet down.
The Joy of Touring Lies in the Food
In any case, I safely reached my goal for the first day: Kyoto. By the way, I had set a side quest for this tour: to go on a tour of Iekei ramen shops. I was hyped since Kyoto is a fiercely competitive ramen town, even from day one.
After much deliberation, I ended up eating at Yamashita Shozo, which was close to my lodging. Iekei ramen uses a soy sauce tonkotsu blend, but this place had a higher ratio of tonkotsu, which didn't make it overly salty, and the perfect amount of richness soaked into my body after the ride. As you can tell, I love Iekei ramen so much that I've toured shops all over Japan.
The Fun Part of This Tour Is Yet to Come!!
To summarize day one: frankly, other than the ramen, there wasn't much fun to be had... But the sense of accomplishment from riding all the way to Kyoto in that bad weather only fueled my fighting spirit further. It was a day where I couldn't share many interesting stories with you all. But!! I think I'll have more interesting tales to tell from day two onwards. Also, this will likely be a long, self-indulgent blog, but I’d be very happy if you just give it a quick read. I’ll be uploading these loose, irregular touring blogs as I go.
See you in Part 2!!