Part 3 of 10: Fuji to Lake Biwa

A blown tyre, and Ichi Coffee

All good, though it was getting pretty dark. Then I noticed a recurring sound coming from my bike, you can actually hear it here, earlier on.

I thought nothing of it, but it kept getting louder and worse. It sounded like someone running beside me. Certainly nothing good.

Will need some research tonight, after I get some food.

So, what was it? After some research it turned out to be a “tyre blister”: the layers of the tyre had delaminated, trapping air between the tread and the casing, which is what made the running sound as it went spongy. It’s somewhat hard to see in the photo, but for such a new-looking tyre it unfortunately had to go straight in the bin.

However! I did bring a spare tyre, as the well-prepared person I am, so on the bike it went. Shame it doesn’t look quite as nice.

Onwards. After some more classic views of cherry blossoms on rivers:

I reached another planned stop: a really, really long wooden bridge.

Pretty cool, and it dropped me off on a lovely road beside fields of green tea.

I was wanting a coffee stop, and found a lovely spot with a lovely owner: Ichi Coffee Roastery. It’s generally a bit of a hack when travelling: if you want good coffee, a Google Maps search for “coffee roastery” is usually pretty good. The owner’s Instagram is just lovely vibes, and he really treats his customers well; give him a follow. Or just enjoy the picture he took of me when I visited.

Now, castles. Everyone’s seen them in the movies, but they really are everywhere in Japan, and some of them are lovely. Very different from European castles, being made of wood, but a lovely aesthetic.

One thing you notice cycling in Japan for a while is just how quiet it is. I think it’s because of some pretty aggressive town speed limits, generally around 30km/h. So there’s just so little car noise, and it makes cycling on the road feel really safe: that’s about the speed a bicycle can go anyway, with a bit of effort, so cars aren’t much faster than you are.

After passing a factory that produces the best soft drink in the world (Pocari Sweat, apparently), I arrived at some excellent views to end the day.

Castles and quiet towns to Lake Biwa

The next day was pretty uneventful, I was starting to get fatigued by this point. I don’t know if you noticed in the previous recordings, but it was a pretty constant headwind from the start! So it was building up for sure. One more day after this until a rest day, though.

Didn’t stop me having a weird dessert and a Nagoya classic along the way.

Finally the rest day was coming up! But I was treated to a lovely short ride first, through some fantastic roads. A pat on the back for the route planning! A thing I noticed on this trip was just how wonderful the view was while cruising over a bridge, I’m not showing all the videos of these in this post, but they always had me in awe.

But a bridge is a bit of a cheat code for a great view in Japan, sometimes it’s just the road ahead that delights. I can never get enough of hills on quiet roads, or quiet roads with cherry blossoms.

To top it off, a rest day at a beautiful spot on the coast of Lake Biwa. It was actually really cheap to stay, with a nice small town and great food options. Hard to beat.

The rest day took me on a short adventure to see yet another castle. This one had a few “samurai” firing guns, which was fun (and loud!) to see. Some lovely views, and the day ended with unagi: so damn tasty.