Крупнейшее озеро Японии. Национальный веломаршрут. | Пол-Японии и Кюсю-иссю на велосипеде. Часть 13

Крупнейшее озеро Японии. Национальный веломаршрут. | Пол-Японии и Кюсю-иссю на велосипеде. Часть 13

October 30th, 7:00 AM. The rain has stopped. Hopefully the weather holds today, and I’ll ride along that side of the lake, following the shoreline all the way. Then over the pass to Kyoto, and probably Osaka after that. What’s next? Himeji, Okayama and so on. But today I’m just aiming to reach the end of the lake. Just as I was about to leave, this huge dark cloud appeared over there. I’ll wait another 5 minutes to see how this plays out. Doesn’t seem to be coming my way, but it looks pretty dark over there. Well, the cloud doesn’t look too threatening, so I’m heading out. If anything happens, I can always find some shelter. Stealing electricity (using outlets without permission) is a criminal offense! Got it? This is no joke. And here’s a standard Japanese toilet. There’s a fan, and an outlet over there. So remember: stealing electricity is illegal. The path runs along the lake and both sides, at least the left side, are planted with cherry trees. In spring, this must be a nice ride under blooming sakura. Anyway, about 70km ahead, and I hope the road stays like this! They’re also predicting a bit of tailwind today, or at least some favorable wind. Oh. Everything’s set up for relaxation. First time I’ve ever seen an official campground in Japan. In all my camping experience, I’ve never been to places like this. Everything’s marked and labeled. I bet you even have to pay money to pitch a tent here? [p.s. looks like this one might actually be free] In Japan they like everything official and by the rules. Where it says you can camp, that’s where you pitch your tent. If it doesn’t say so, then you don’t. Check this out. Road sprinklers. I think these might be useful in winter to wash away snow and ice. Wonder why they turned them on today? Some workers are doing something. Is this related or not? But they’re working on the roadside. Some beach and camping area. Kon’nichiwa. Excuse me, is this a paid camping ground… OK, I won’t camp, just looking around. No entry allowed Understood… okay… Damn, all these paid services have taken over the whole lake. Well, enjoy your stay… Oh, nice path. Beautiful. There’s some… torii gates standing right in the water. Let’s take a closer look. Oh, turned onto this small parallel detour. Ah, less traffic here. Better to ride this way. Not far though, but still. They’re building another tunnel. Soon there’ll be another road here. Then the traffic will be calmer. Great. Why go over there when I can stay by the lake. Let’s turn here. Okay, we’ll go through here. The road. Ah, well, that’s enough riding along the lake. Time to turn back. Not very interesting. Okay then. So what about local art installations? Shigacho. Well, good enough for my collection. Though it’s not entirely clear what they were trying to depict. Something local, I guess. Election posters still hanging around. The election’s already over. Is there a road here? This way. Good. Here we go. This is right. Alright, let’s ride with the wind. The main highway stayed off to the side. Wish it was always like this. 2:00 PM, stopped to rest at a lakeside park. People fishing over there. Haven’t seen them catch anything yet. Well, I’ll keep riding now. Better to keep moving and see the sights… I’ve done about 55km today already. Let me check… ah no, 51. Well, decent. Still about three hours until dark should be about 70km, almost to the end of the lake. I won’t go further today. I’ll camp somewhere by the lake, and tomorrow morning I’ll make my way to Kyoto. Need to cross over a small mountain pass. What day is it today? Wednesday. Better not go to Kyoto on weekends, there’ll be twice as many tourists. Where have I ended up? Let’s check it out. This is unprepared. Need to find something ready-to-eat. Okay, various sashimi, but no discounts. This stuff has no discounts either. They’re putting out something over there. Discount stickers, discount stickers. Let’s see. Nothing special yet. Should come back after 5-6 PM. More interesting discounts then. Not many discounts yet. Well, I’ll stop by somewhere later when I find a place. Might even sit down to eat. ATM… Where’s the outlet? None… No outlet. They don’t want to share. Free water but no electricity. Alright, we’ll find some later. Can ride for another hour. Next is Otsu city on today’s plan. And I’ll start looking for a place to sleep there. I’ll check the supermarket too, maybe some discounted items by then. You know why I parked here? Not over there, but right here. Because… there’s what I need here. There’s something to plug into. Plug in the cable and charge up. And nobody can see. People can sleep peacefully. They won’t think someone’s stealing all their electricity leaving them powerless. Gates. Sign says “No Entry” but the guy is fishing there anyway. I see people fishing. Doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Evening already, sun’s hidden behind the mountains. 4:37 PM. Still decent. Can ride a bit more. Yeah, about an hour of light left. At least half an hour for sure. After that it’s neither here nor there. Alright, let’s go. Some military base with a helicopter parked. Won’t take photos though, with those green guys carrying rifles around… Might catch a foreign spy. Whoa, look at what they’ve built here. What is this? Hotel, restaurant, inn? Restaurant, cafe, souvenir shop… Yeah… They really went all out. A palace. Some guy even came to take photos. Well, I’ll take one too, why not. Don’t think it has much cultural value, but looks epic. Okay… this way… Great thing about bikes: can ride on roads, sidewalks, anywhere, can even cross streets wherever. Nobody says anything. Though I hear Japanese police don’t bother pedestrians much for jaywalking. To avoid wasting time standing around, let’s make good use of it. Set up like this. Oh, take out two cables. One cable here, another there. Already got the setup ready. Just need to plug in. Bam, plugged in. Check. It’s working. Alright, can go see what’s around. Well, here if anyone’s interested, 300 yen, 500 yen items. five hundred yen, here. if anyone needs, dunno who would… but I don’t really know these characters anyway. Anyway… this looks familiar. Ah, forgot the name. Nothing interesting here for me. Okay, time is 6:49 PM. I’m in Otsu city, southwest shore of Lake Biwa. Bought discounted pizza at the supermarket. Discount isn’t huge, but with these prices it’s not really needed. With discount it came to what? 430 including tax. In our money that’s like maybe 10 rubles. Not bad by our standards. Some beer, Sapporo. Went for the cheapest. Though they all cost about the same. Well, Sapporo is considered decent among budget options. I’ll pitch my tent here. Can you see? Or not? If only they’d turn off those stadium lights over there. Well, they’ll turn them off later. Stadium operates until 9:00 PM. Pretty late. Well, they do their thing, I’ll do mine. There are some strange structures here I’ll show in the morning. How far did I ride today anyway? Ah, it was written here, I missed it. 79 km. Thermometer shows 15.6°C. No wind, so quite comfortable. Alright, time for dinner.

Nagahama – Otsu. 79 км. Национальный веломаршрут вокруг озера Бива. Попробуем немного timelapse.
День 22 (30 октября 2024).

Велопутешествие по Японии. Из Токио до Кюсю и вокруг Кюсю. 8 октября – 27 ноября 2024.
Продолжительность = 50 дней;
Количество участников = 1;
Общее расстояние = 2895 км;
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Отчёт по походу 2023 года: https://forum.awd.ru/viewtopic.php?f=308&t=427989&start=0