Japan Cycling – Mini Adventure near Tokyo – 88km

Japan Cycling – Mini Adventure near Tokyo – 88km

[Music] Hello. Good morning and welcome to Sacredo Station. It’s um it’s 8:00 and after all that faffing around, getting off the train, putting the bike, getting some water, we are finally ready to go. We’re heading uh to familiar area up in the mountains and then across to the river and then back home. So nice day today. Blue skies, but 26. Perfect for a ride. So let’s see. Okay, we’re off. We’re just We just left the station. What a beautiful morning. Mountains ahead of me, bumpy road in front of me. All is right with the world at the moment. Woof. Well, who would have thought Kdiva chocolate comes from a big anonymous warehouse in Saitama, but it does 15 m. It’s Cafe Knobby. Cafe Nobby actually looks pretty nice. That name intrigues me. It sounds very British, don’t you think? Hello, Nobby. Can I have a flat white, please? No. Coming right up, sir. It’s my first um you know, little veg stall. And uh okra. Ooh, I think I might have to get some of these cuz they got red okra. Follow this way for 1.7 kilome. Okay. Wow. That’s good. It’s like uh waterlies in these like ponds. I guess it’s some kind of but they seem to be deliberately planted there, don’t they? That and the he gambana. This is the red spider lily. This is such a strong sign of autumn, late September, early November. I love these red spider liies. They’re often like the side of um fields like this. They have rather a dark um kind of backstory. Um they do look like some kind of elegant, you know, dark princess. Don’t you think? I think so. Gothic. They’re very Gothic flowers, don’t you think? Oh, yes. Come on. Nice. Sometimes I do have to um take the next ride. Okay, Kimoot, thank you very much. And uh thank you for bringing me here. This is amazing. Lovely. Quiet, peaceful. H this is great. Oh my god. I mean, just being out here in a new place, kind of secret little place. Oh, I can see. Yum. Door. This, if you don’t know, is the toon dooo demo door. The dooodo demo door means that when you go through the door, you you end up in a in a new place, a secret place just like this this little valley cuz we are kind of surrounded by mountains here. There’s a woodworking place there. House here, the hills. So nice. I was thinking, you know, um last night, do I really want to go? I’ve got to pack up the bike and I’ve got to get on the train and you know, and this morning wake up, you think, do I? Soon as you’re here, it’s like, bloody hell, of course you want to come, John. What else would you do? How many summers do you have left? I learn there’s a citrus tree down here. What is it? Is it? Oh, come on. Oh, where are we going? This is more like a trail running course. I’m in the small ring for the first time in over a year. You know, things are getting serious when I have to go into the small ring. Oh, but it feels good to get into the small ring again. Follow this way for 400 m. Okay, 400 m. E. Hope there’s no snakes. Oh, I don’t think I can get a good picture here, actually. Oh, you probably just injure yourself, John. Okay, we’re on the I think the long climb now. So, there’s like one big climb in this route and I think this is it. So, just gonna grind my way up here. Oh, actually we’re going to go past there at the top of that blue cuz the road curves round. Looks like must have been a landslide. We did have a lot of rain. I wonder what this is. Is it a camera? Maybe it’s a camera. Probably a camera for um Yeah, maybe checking. Take the next left. Okay. Okay. Whatever you say. Wow. That was a bit of a climb. Oh, we got to the top. I think that’s the top. I know where we are now because this little three-way junction is I always cross when I’m doing my regular trail run route. But today, we’re going down there. I think these are to monitor the bears actually. I’m pretty sure because this year has just been crazy for bear sightings and bear attacks and bear fatalities. You know, it’s been on the news actually pretty much um pretty much every day. I mean, partly it’s because the news, TV news likes a little bit of a panic and they like a story with a similar theme and like a new another one has happened and another one. They did it with kickboards. They did it with some drug. They did it with old people uh smashing into park into convenience stores and now it’s the turn of the bears. So, but fair enough. I don’t want to meet one. What would you do? I’d pedal like boogery. That’s what I do. Is this it? It doesn’t look like it. I’m looking for a Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Don’t get the bike. Bring the bike up. Okay. All right. So, I wanted to come and have a look at the uh the black pine grove. I was talking about that in my a lotment video and uh I said that I often come to see if I can find fur cones. Now I’ve never been quite this early. So I thought if I come and check now I might get a better chance of getting some more green fur cones. Is the black pine. It’s quite different from the cedars. Right, John? I think that’s it. I don’t know if you’re going to get any more. Just found this bottle. God’s top still on. What the hell are people doing around here? In here drinking. Okay, time to go, John. Next stop is the uh yuzu orchard. Sudachi 100 in each. Thank you. Right. So we made it to here. This is uh what’s it called? Canon something. Good news. Ah Katari Canon. You can see the yuzu. [Music] So they are still green, but they are starting to turn, aren’t they? [Music] This the little little shrine up there. I’m not going up there today. Let’s get on, shall we? John Kimoot’s not happy cuz uh we took the wrong route. I’ll be back. Little yuzu. Keep ripening. We’re in the big ring. Managed to get into the big ring. Woohoo. Here we go. It’s big ring time. Okay. Lunchtime 11:00. Well, it’s 10:27, so we’re not too, you know. That’s nice. Look, I used to say Indian restaurant and they blacked out Indian and put Pakistan I really appreciate, you know, the navigation and the technology. There’s no way I could have done this on my on my own. You know, I’d have to have a big paper map or um yeah, there is no or I couldn’t have done it. But um it’s not perfect or maybe I’m just an idiot. I’ve got I got two on at the moment. I got Kamuj on the phone and I got Garmin which I never use for navigation. Mostly because the screen is too small for my eyes whereas the iPhone is better. But they don’t agree. It’s really strange. Like Kimoot will say go this way and then Garmin will start beeping no no no. What you doing? It’s an alley. They actually use that word alley. Now that’s a cactus. Hey, look at that. It’s almost as tall as the house. I just stopped by the side of the road to change the battery on the GoPro. Just thought you’d like to see what um Saitama looks like. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Still a lot of rays. Still a lot of trucks. Oh, it might be better to get on the other side. John, I think Kimoot’s taking a piss. Follow stream. Wow. Wow. [Music] See what’s [Music] dashy. That is nice. That dashy reminds me of like soba. Apparently, it’s been here since 1789. They’re selling um cake, I guess. Kind of a That’s bomb khen. You know, where they they the the cake goes in like in a circle and then they pour more on. I guess it’s got to show you flavor. John, let’s go. Come on. This is um egg uh farm factory. I’m sure it’s not a farm. And they’re selling different eggs. You get white eggs. Hakari eggs. They all seem to have gone. Oh no. 1,000 yen. You get 35 eggs. Uh daki tamago. I don’t know. I would buy some, but there’s no way I am going to get uh 20 eggs home on the bike, you know. You’re just not going to get those eggs home. So, don’t even think about it. [Music] [Music] do. Let me take it outside. It’s a little um like goldfish fishing place like the kids can do like inside and this is like slightly bigger one that we saw. [Music] Cufflele, are you joking? Come on. Come on. Is there really a way here? I’m getting off. Oh, okay. There is a way. We found gravel. unwanted, unnecessary, unneeded gravel. Canoe, when I get home, we’re going to have to have a talk, you know, um about my priorities rather than yours. The uh iPhone battery is on 19%. And uh I’m going to give it a bit of power cuz I do like to take pictures, you know. But I’ve got to uh I’ve got to take off the waterproofing. That’s what this is. Waterproofing. Oh god, I forgot about this. I should go a different way, but I’m not quite sure which way to go. They’ve cut this bit. Excellent. This is the bit last time that was uh yeah pretty thick. Bungle in the jungle. I don’t know any more words. There’s a Suzumi Bachi there having a drink. These are the um smen nantoa. Um I can’t remember what they are, but inside it’s like noodles, pimmens, some uh these are um Come on, John. What should we get there? It says three for 100 yen. Let’s get um Well, there you go. It’s pretty busy. So, I don’t think we’ll stay for an ice cream. Yeah, I think the wait is too long today. So, we will just have a little something to eat. We’ll get some water and then we’ll get home. Let’s go. Thank you. Nice bite. Thank you. All right, guys. Ready? Yeah. Smile. Yeah. Yay. Okay. Let’s take a few. Okay. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Good. Where are you guys from? China. Yeah. From China. Okay. Having a good time. Yeah. You too. You too. Yeah. Right. Where are you going? Arakawa cycling road. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good to get up those hills and good to go into that section. Uh you know between the hills and the arkawa. It’s always like full of surprises like that little fishing place. The what else? There were lots of surprises, weren’t there? And I’m sure we’ll treasure them. Let’s meet uh back at the taps. Okay. You know that tap where I usually put my head under, although it’s not hot enough to do that today. But let’s meet there. Okay. Okay. You You need to practice your yodelling, John. Really, cuz that was rubbish. Okay, there you go. That’s that’s almost the end of the race. We’re at the taps. Uh that’s 83 on the watch plus three to get home would be about 86 and uh all the elevation and stuff like that I’ll put on the screen probably if I remember. But it was a good ride. I was really glad to to do it. As I said, I was a little reluctant. You know, it’s just like bit of a getting the inertia moving, but once you’re there and you’re rolling and you’re on the right track, you can’t beat it. So, that’s it. That’s uh that’s the ride done. This is John saying thank you very much for watching. Please join me on the next one. Goodbye.

Tokyo Bike Ride (in Saitama) – To the mountains! – Sept 23 2025

Took the bike on the train to Sakado station, in Saitama, then headed for the hills.
Great day for a bike ride, and there were so many interesting surprises along the way.