It's almost Golden Week in Japan. I've been eyeing this route for quite a while but can't find a perfect time to do it since I know I'll get exhausted by this ride. A normal weekend wouldn't be enough to recover to get back to work.
I've been training almost everyday for a month and I even had a diet plan for 2 weeks before the ride. Then comes the perfect day to do it. The weather forecast is sunny and a good 18°c peak temperature—a perfect spring day for a 300 kilometer ride.
I slept 5 PM and woke up at 12 AM. I ate my first meal, a boring chicken breast and rice meal I've been eating for 2 weeks. I started the ride from my apartment in Ota-ku, Tokyo. Along with me is my road bicycle, GoPro, cellphone, 20,000 mAh battery pack, 1 small lunch box with some chicken breast-egg-rice combo, 10 Snicker bars, and 2 water bottles. I didn't bring a bag and travelled as light as possible, everything was in my bib pockets and bicycle mounts.
I left my apartment at 1 AM. It was a pretty boring ride until I got past Kanagawa's urban area at around 40 km. While the dawn was breaking, it got so cold that I was hesitatant to eat breakfast at a konbini but I did so. If you stop moving, your body cools down and you get to feel a lot colder. After the short break, I continued the ride and I indeed felt colder in the bicycle. I was shivering but I had no choice so I stepped up the pace to generate more heat. When the sun has fully risen, the temperature went to a comfortable range and I was able to conserve my energy again pacing myself at 25 km/h.
I arrived at the foot of the Hakone climb somewhere around 6:30 AM and immediately began the climb. It's an 800 elevation gain climb but it felt easy. I felt that I can go faster but I had to pace myself since I have a long way to go.
I got to the top at around an hour and there seems to be nothing but the road at the top so I descended for a bit. I arrived at Lake Ashi, greeted by a giant torii gate.
I sat around the Lake Ashi park enjoying the scenery with another torii gate in the water with Mt. Fuji in the background. I ate some Snicker bars, drank, and refilled water from a convenience store.
I then began my descent. This was one of the best descent I ever experienced. There were almost no cars, the sky is clear, you can see Mt. Fuji and its surroundings at the background, its so beautiful. It was a very fast downhill.
I peaked 70 km/h but I held back going faster for my own safety since I'm pretty faraway from home. I'm pretty experienced with steep downhills and curves since I used to train daily at Timberland Heights when I was still in Philippines—a famous steep 300m hillclimb route near the metro.
After the descent, I stopped by another konbini for another break, ate some chocolate bars and drank water. I started the ride again in the flatlands. It was boring again until I reached the coastline. I saw that there's a cycling path at the seawall, similar to the riverwalls in Tokyo, so I went there and it was well worth it.
It was about 20 km long before I hopped out and it was so beautiful. A few hours ago I was shivering in the cold, up in the mountains and trees, and now I'm at the beach!
Too bad I have to get off so I could start my climb to Mt. Fuji lakes. I was back again at the urban area but it feels a lot different here than Tokyo. In Tokyo, almost every city looks like the same. You get the same vibes when you get on and off train stations even though you're in a different city already. Here, it's easier to remember places since it looks different, less crowded, and the downtowns are smaller than Tokyo cities.
The climb started before I even realized it. It felt endless and one of the most boring parts as I was just in a highway. I'm also starting to get disappointed because Mt. Fuji is blocked by clouds which I think is coming from the mountain since there's almost no clouds in the other parts of the sky, but I'm not a 100% sure. At some point I had to change my route because bicycles were not allowed in that part of the highway. I took some rest first at a konbini and ate my lunchbox with some cola and nikuman from the konbini.
I continued the ride through the detour and it was much better since I got into nice sceneries, forests, and fields.
Bit by bit the houses and establishments are starting to disappear. Mt. Fuji is getting nearer and its clouds are about to be gone, finally. It came into a point where I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.
Its just a road, some grasslands in my sides and Mt. Fuji watching me pedal. Then suddenly I can see cars again. They were parked at the sidewalks and
seems like a group of people were taking pictures. When I got closer I saw something really cool.
It's the first time for me to see cows with black and white colors, like the one you seen in cartoons and milk boxes. They were so cute chilling around with Mt. Fuji at the background.
I continued riding again and made it to the first and second lake, Motosu and Shoji. They are just a few kilometers apart. I am trying to rush and Shoji is just a really small lake so I decided to just pass by them since I'm a bit behind schedule. I then was able to reach Aokigahara or the famous suicide forest.
It feels weird being here despite seeing nothing special, maybe just because I've watched a lot of documentaries and movies about it. It was just a long stretch of trees.
I was able to reach lake Saiko following the road. In this lake, I encountered my first and last flat of the ride. I stopped by an empty car parking lot to change my rear wheel's inner tube. I also found the culprit—a sharp metal thorn that pierced the tire. After the ordeal, I continued the ride and saw some Sakura trees in full bloom. I was lucky to see those since Sakura season was supposed to be over. I even forgot to take a video of it and only captured the end part.
It was a whole curve at the lakeside and everything was pink. After a few kilometers I arrived at lake Kawaguchi. There were a lot of people and cars in this area. I think this is the most famous lake for tourists so I decided not to stop again. On my way to lake Yamanaka, there were a lot of really nice places.
I came across a tulip farm and it's so cute with all the different colors. It's very peaceful in this area. It was way less crowded despite in my opinion, this was the best out of all the 5 lakes.
I took a rest and ate some Snickers here. After the quick rest, I started riding again and felt the exhaustion. I believe it was around 200 kilometers or more at this point. Usually, I get tired at around 100 to 120 kilometers. But this time, I just started feeling it and it's far from the feeling of bonk-ing. I guess all the prep I did actually worked.
I thought that at this point, I am about to start descending since I almost circled the entire Mt. Fuji, but I was wrong. I did not expect to climb another hill. But after a few meters of elevation, I reached the top. It was also sunset so it's the perfect time to finish climbing. I started descending and it was a very long descent. I was able to rest for hours freewheeling. I then reached an area where it was so dark.
There were almost no street lamps and the scariest part is that there were no people or even cars in the area so I had to rely on my lights. It was this road. My bike is fully equipped with lights and I always bring a spare for both the head and tail lamps. It was also flat so I had to pedal through it. After a few kilometers, I reached the end and went back freewheeling. I made it to the start of my loop in Odawara and started going back to Tokyo.
The journey back to Tokyo was a bit boring until I got stopped by a policeman because bicycle wasn't allowed in that area. He was chill though. He even chatted for a bit and I told him I looped Mt. Fuji today. He was so surprised and was even asking if I want a ride or something but I told him I'm good and want to finish the whole thing by bicycle.
I got home at 2 AM and was so tired. I was pedaling at around 15 km/h on my way back to Tokyo. But I didn't bonk. I never felt the feeling that I have to stop because of exhaustion, I just had to slow down and use lighter gears. The training and diet surely worked. But I was so tired that after I took a bath, I couldn't eat the gyudon I bought for some reason. I tried to lie down and close my eyes but I also can't sleep. I was able to pass out at around 5 AM after watching some Youtube videos about space and woke up at 2 PM. I was expecting for my body to hurt but it didn't as much.
This is surely the best bicycle ride I have ever done and will never forget this for the rest of my life. I went through all the seasons—from cold mountains, forests, the hot beach—even urban and rural areas. It was so fun and rewarding and watching the videos I took from my GoPro makes me wonder if everything is real.
I wonder which ride should I do next to topple this at the top of my best bicycle ride?
Here's a link to the Strava activity if you want to check the entire route.
And here's a compilation of the videos I took while on the ride, it's may not be in perfect order though!
