As I wasn't able to drive my bike back to Tokyo on the last trip, I had to go get it back. I picked the next available weekend (meanwhile I had been in Portland on business trip, so this took a while) and tried to remember the name of the station where I left it, hoping it's still there...
After 1,5 hours in the train I found my bike where I left it in perfect condition - and even more important, without a parking ticket. I didn't park it where it in an obvious "no parking" area, but somehow I have a feeling that in Japan everywhere where parking is not explicitly permitted, it's forbitten.
Of course I didn't want to go directly to Tokyo but use this chance for another nice tour outside of the city. Chichibu, one of the mountain side areas close to Tokyo, was near anyhow so I dedicded to go there first and head towards Tokyo later. The first part, the road was mildly crowded, but it was really beautiful. It meandered along a river, creating some really nice curves as well as a great view.
After a while, I left the river behind and took a turn into the mountains, driving on the mountain pass to the next valey. Here, I was completely alone on the street with the curves, the landscape, the view on the valey below, the trees with the beautiful changing of the colors and more curves. And the cold. Even though the sun was shining, temperatures, especially in the mountains, were rather low so finally on the other side of the mountains and having done a small detour to visit on the dams here, I decided to call it a day.
So I looked for a suitable train line and a parking space for my bike and found both in Yokoze. So I left my bike behind and had a comfortable 1,5 hours train ride back to Tokyo...
(Considering 1,5 hours versus 1,5 hours, I did a really poor job bringing my bike home. ;)
Kan'nagawa with low water level (dammed up)
Kaki (persimmon fruit)
Arakawa river when it's still very small - from very high above.
View from Urayama dam on Chichibu
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