What’s it like to cycle from Fukushima to Koriyama in Japan?
We’re in Fukushima about ready to leave and go to Coryama which is not a um a supplement. It’s a town. And we’re going to have a day off there and catch a train up into the mountains to go do some archery. And the ride today is only 50 km long, but it’s got quite a lot of climbing. In fact, it’s got quite a steep hill to start off with and then it climbs for the rest of the day. It’ll be an interesting ride, but whenever you try to divert, it doubles the amount of climbing. So, we’re obviously going through a mountain pass and the fat man did the route planning. So, if it sucks, well, it’s going to suck. It’s going to suck, but it probably won’t suck as hard as any other way. We are following a creek for most of it. Obviously, the creek will be flowing down and we’ll be going up. Here’s the hotel we stayed at. Very exciting. We’d like to give you some fun facts about Coryama. Kyama had a population in 2023 of 321,000 people. Population density is about 425 people per square kilometer and that makes it the second largest city in Fukushima Prefecture. There are lots of museums. It’s very eccentric. Like there’s a art museum, a really morbid native bird museum, and there’s a military museum, and there’s also a local town museum, and other features in the area. This time of year, you’ll see rice being harvested. There’s some really interesting equipment being used. You’ll have like hyper modern, really cool kit combined with very, very, very vintage tractors and techniques. This is what I, as the Kraken, have been eating for lunch most days. Literally smooshing silk and tofu into salad dressing for quick protein into a salad in with chopsticks. And the fat man is eating egg sandwiches nearly every day, and he’s pretty sick of them by now. If you’re looking for recreational activities while you’re in Kyama, there’s a surprisingly huge indoor swimming pool complex. There are some incredible parks and there’s also some gyms. One thing that we noticed is there’s a lack of cycling infrastructure in this corridor. That includes consideration even for a road shoulder. What starts to change at the end of this ride is that Coryama really rolls out the red carpet for bicycles. [Music] Here’s the bathroom. And here’s our room. Um, they included free breakfast and also there’s an onsen here. So, they’ve given us gear. Thanks for joining us. Next time we’ll go to a samurai school.
Hi friends! We’re cycling from Fukushima to Koriyama, so we can stop over for two nights and travel up to experience a historic Samurai School.
Do you want a GPX map for our route, you can download it via Strava here: https://www.strava.com/activities/15960389036
What do you think of this ride? How are you doing? What has been the best part of your week or month? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Oh, and you’re welcome to connect with us on Strava to stay in touch and for a preview of what’s coming to YouTube next: 🚲 https://www.strava.com/athletes/thekraken
xox
Charles “The Fat Man” and PJ “The Kraken”
Want to meet up one day? We love meeting and chatting with people! Connect with us!
😎 Couchsurfing: https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/penelope-and-charlie
🚲 Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/thekraken
Yeah, yeah, Penelope does all the social media because Charles is too lazy.😉 But, Charles checks for comments and responds on our YouTube videos so please say hi because it’ll make his day!
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Music:
Filmed in September