Day 4: Shinjuku to Shimobe Onsen

After a very late night attaching various cameras to our bikes, syncing GPS's to headsets, refining and downloading routes and finally packing/re-packing our panniers, we woke up to the alarm at 6:30am and said goodbye to N.U.T.S Shinjuku. Our first day on the bikes actually begins!

Ready and keen to get going.

By 7:30am we were on the road and heading for Hachioji and the Chuo Expressway. The first step was to jump on the famous Shuto expressway that circles Tokyo, and thereby link up with the Chuo. We descended into the bowels of the earth and roared through the Shuto's endless tunnel. Problem is, the GPS doesn't work in the tunnels, does it? No it fucking-well doesn't. By the time we missed our exit and got out of the endless tunnels we were heading for Yokohama.

The long-dark of the Shuto ring road.

Long story short, through dint of basically Brownian motion we ended up on the Tomei Expressway, heading back into the city. As luck would have it, our path took us over the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge on what was fast becoming a beautifully sunny and clear day. Spectacular! Here's what it looked like from the bike..


When it appeared that we were almost back to Shinjuku, we stopped at a layby on the side of the Expressway, trucks and other traffic roaring past us, as we 3 stood trying to revise the route that the GPS had obviously screwed up in google maps.

*Gulp* Google Maps on the side of the roaring Tomei Freeway.

After much deliberation, we decided to continue on the Tomei, (many tens of kms out of our way) until Atsugi, and then up the 412 to the Doshi Road - our original intended route. The 412 ended up being quite a nice ride in the end, so although we cost ourselves a bit of time, we finally made it to the Doshi Road with a semblance of a smile.

Turning on to the Doshi road we proceeded to ride out through the high wooded valley, filled with trees that were just starting to change colour. At times Mt Fuji peaks it's head between the valley walls directly ahead of you. In the end, the road comes out to the north east of Mt Fuji and is a beautiful ride through farmland and tiny villages, following a fast flowing stream for much of it's length. Trouble is, the speed limit is 40 km/h for its *entire* length. Jesus it's hard to ride a bike for long stints at just 40 km/h.

Riding on the Doshi Road towards Fuji.

And so it came to pass that Lucas (leading at the time) was waved into a layby by a gaggle of police officers for doing 58 km/h. With an innocent face and a mouth that butter wouldn't melt in, he was let off with a warning and we were finally able to continue on our way. Chastened and having learnt a valuable lesson on the possibility of actually being caught speeding, the rest of the Doshi Road continued at a slower than snails pace.

The Millicents caution Lucas on his 58 km/h Doshi speedfest.

Requiring a quick rest stop to feed and water the horses, we stopped for a few minutes in Wade village on the Doshi Road for a drink and toilet break. There was actually nothing there but a toilet and a single store (plus ubiquitous vending machines) so after a coke we were back on the road.

Quick stop at (tiny) Wade village on the Doshi Road.

From Wade we rode straight to the Mikuni pass, a popular Fuji viewing position. From here you get a nice view of Fuji-san across lake Yamanaka. We snapped a spectacular, if a little hazy, view of Fuji. Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong position to get ourselves in the photos, but they still came out pretty well.

The view of Fuji-san from the Mikuni pass.

From Mikuni we continued around the north end of lake Yamanaka on route 729 with views of north-side of Fuji-san. Even from the road the views of Fuji were amazing!

Great views of Fuji-san from route 729 along the lake.

With some time lost in the morning, we forwent lunch (added to no breakfast!! ) and kept on past some of the points we had planned on seeing. With these changes to our route, came more routing and GPS challenges, but a few hits and misses later we soon found ourselves at the north side of lake Motosu and route 300. Here, still on the north side of Fuji, we were able to snap some more amazing views of Fuji-san across yet another lake; helped by a cool Japanese biker who was more then happy to snap a group photo for us. Turns out that this view is the exact view of Fuji that appears on the 5,000 Yen bill.

Japanese bikers are cool people, and so are we.

The 5,000 Yen view.

It was then only a relatively short hop to Shimobe Onsen - our destination for the night. With Richard and Lucas running on fumes, we traversed switchback after switchback on route 300, descending into another deep valley covered on all sides by the first hints of autumn colours. A really amazing ride.

Our ryokan "Daikokuya" at Shimobe Onsen.

Finally we found ourselves at Simobe Onsen just before the sun went down. Our destination was a really beautiful traditional ryokan "Daikokuya" (大黒屋) with its own onsen. With no food all day we were desperately hungry and couldn't wait for dinner. At 6:30pm, yukata donned in eager anticipation, we finally sat down at the dinner table for an amazing Japanese meal.

Food at last! After 12 hours on and off the road.

In these ryokan yukata we look like jersey cows.

With full bellies, and as the well-planned end to a wonderful day, we hit the onsen for a long hot soak. A very welcome and relaxing end to the day.