Ep.113 Climbing to Yakumo
Welcome back to the show everybody. Well, just a little while ago, I did my last super ride for 2025. A super ride, in case you don’t recall, is what my friends and I call a double century. The whole ride I did uh what October 11th was 205 kilometers in total and saw me ride from Ishkari to Yakamo. If you’ve been following along with the podcast, you have definitely heard me talk about Ishikari. It’s where I live and it was also my topic for episode six of this podcast. And last year, I actually talked about Yakamo as well in my three-part series about my Donan trip. Uh, Donan means South Hokkaido. That’s a kind of portmanto of Hokkaido’s do. Hokkaido do and nan. Nan is kind of another way of reading the kanji for south. So, Donan equals south Hokkaido. And episode 61 was about my ride to Yakamo. Now last year the route I took was from Ishikari to Otaru, Otaru to Yoichi, then to Kyoa town, all along Route 5 over the Inhole Pass, then to Iwanai, uh then down to Sutsu. So that was kind of all along the coastline with all those very very long tunnels down there. And by the way folks, yeah, just beware if you are ever planning on riding that coastline from Ewani to Sutsu, that kind of south direction on the west coast, it is a very, very windy coastline. Actually, not even from Iwani. If you’re heading anywhere south from Wakana down south along the west coast of Hokkaido, you will most likely be in for a headwind and a quite a strong headwind at that. So, just heads up if you’re ever planning routes and are looking at considering wind, uh that’s definitely a factor along that western coastline of Hokkaido when you are heading south. If you’re heading north, it’s gold, right? you’ve got a tailwind the whole way up the coast. But unfortunately, heading south, more than likely, you’re going to be heading into a headwind. But my route for Yakumo, Yakumo, sorry, last year was Iwanai to Sutsu and then from Sutsu all the way along Route 9 through the middle of southern Hokkaido to Oshamame, then straight down the coast to Yako. That’s the ride. That’s the route I did last year. And it was beautiful. And I was very, very seriously considering that same route again. It was great. And to be honest, the biggest attraction to taking that route, it is about 1,000 less meters of climbing than going over Nakayama Pass and and down through the middle of Hokkaido. And folks, I don’t know about you, 1,000 meters less climbing is a big factor for me when I’m choosing a route. You know, a thousand meters, a fullon extra kilometer of up, right? Helps with decision- making when you know that kind of terrain, right? But I couldn’t get it out of my head. Right. This time, since I’d never ridden through the middle of Hokkaido to get to Yako, I’d done the coastline ride before, I had to try the new route. I I had no choice, right? I couldn’t I couldn’t do the old route again when another obvious unridden choice was staring me in the face, right? Sure, there was a lot a lot more climbing involved, but thinking about not doing it was almost like calling myself chicken. You remember in Back to the Future, anybody calls Marty McFly chicken and he’s he’s got to do something. What’s the matter, McFly? Chicken. Well, well, that’s how I felt when I was debating not doing the new route because of all the extra climbing that was involved. So, uh, chicken, jiggy, chicken. It just kept running through my head, you know, don’t be a baby, do the hard one. So, that’s what I did. I decided to do the route with all the extra climbing. So, I would go over uh Nakayama to uh Nakayama Pass. Togei is mountain pass in in uh Japanese toge. So my route I was going to go over Nakama Pass and through the middle of Hokkaido to get to Yako. So as I kind of just said before the date. So on Saturday, October 11th, my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. and I was up and Adam, clothes thrown on. All the prepared rice balls prepared by my wife, by the way, frozen water. Everything I needed for the day’s ride chucked into my purs and I hit the road at 4 a.m. Woo! You got to love those early starts. And to get those big super rides, to get those big 200 pounders in, yeah, you kind of have to leave really, really early. At least I do. Unless you’re riding kind of into the night, I’d prefer to get as much possible done in the early early morning, right? But this time of year, that time of morning, it was still, you know, pitch blackout. You’re in the dark of night when you start at that time in the morning in in mid-occtober. So off I went and my route to start, I just went straight down Ishkar Kaido to the Toyoh River in in central Saporro. Right. Then from there, I made my way to Joank. But from the Toyoh River, from the kind of Makomaai Park area, I didn’t just stay on route 230. I I was kind of off into rural roads that are just north of Route 230. And and that that route, maybe you know it, that route takes you through the Hakenzan tunnel and then you meet up with Route 230 after that. And you can see all this stuff on my ride with GPS map, right? And I’ll of course be putting links up to my ride with GPS in the show notes. But if you’re looking for a way to get from downtown Saporro to Joank by bicycle, I would seriously consider that route folks because one, there are way less cars and two, there is a lot less climbing. I don’t know if you know this or not, but the whole way from the Toyohira River in downtown Saporo all the way to the start of Nakayama Pass in Joank is a climb. A really annoying constant climb. It’s It’s one of those things where you don’t really think it’s a climb, but you know, while you’re riding, you’re like, “My god, why am I only at 13 kilometers per hour? What What is this?” this you’re like ah right it’s the terrain it’s it’s a gentle annoying climb the the whole way from downtown Saporro to the start of the Nakama pass so that’s why I take that uh little detour that’s kind of to the north of Route 230 and again you can see that route on the ride with GPS map but also that day me being out there so early in the morning it was very cold. I don’t know what the temperature actually was, but it was super cold. I mean, like bone chilling cold. We don’t have snow here in Saporro right now. Well, well, we we might by the time this comes out cuz I’m actually recording this about a week and a half before it comes out. I I’ve kind of I’m not exactly super up to date. I’m about a a week behind in the Wait, behind’s not the right word. What am I trying to say? I’m about two weeks late in delivering episodes now because the diceets climb took two episodes. It’s not exactly fresh up to date right now because of the Dicetsan episodes, right? But anyway, as I said, it was bone chilling cold. It was the kind we and we might have snow on the ground by the time this comes out, but on October 11th, it was the kind of cold that, you know, makes you regret your life choices at that moment, right? Why am I out here now? I could have stayed in my nice warm bed. What is the why? Why? But I solded on and it was up the past. I’ve talked about it before, but the Nakayama Pass is a hell of a ride and the top is at an altitude of 835 meters and is in the Shikko Toya National Park. It is a great climb, folks. Of course, there is all the beautiful scenery that comes with a mountain pass all the way up. And and luckily for me, the day was kind of starting to warm up as I made my way up to the top. And well, of course, it’s 835 m at the top, so it’s not all that warm up there, but it was warmer than when I left home anyway, right? At least I was getting hit by the sun. Um, Naka Emma Pass also has a hell of a tunnel system if you’re climbing up from the Joank side. So, make sure your lights are charged, folks. Uh, and at the top is the Boyo Nakayama roadside station where they sell my favorite cycling snack, aimo. I’ve talked about this many times before. Aimo are boiled potatoes deep fried in a kind of batter. Mwah. The best. I love them. So, I was at the top just after 8:30 a.m. I think it was like 8:36 a.m. I got to the top into the Mi Noki, the roadside station. Had my deep fried potato balls. But actually, I was kind of surprised that they were open that early. Usually a lot of the Michinois, a lot of the roadside stations, I don’t think they open till 9 or 10:00 as actually quite a lot of things don’t here here in uh Hokkaido. So I was surprised to see them open. But hey, it turns out that that road station opens at 8:30. Fantastic timing, Marty. Well done. They were very fresh, Agimo. Six minutes fresh, as it turns out. So then I’ve had my feed and it’s time to head down the other side of the mountain. So I hit the descent pretty good and of course I absolutely froze on my speedy way down. This time of year especially folks you know when you head up a mountain pass heading up you get covered in sweat. Now in midsummer in the blazing heat of summer going down the backside of a mountain pass is refreshing. the sweat in your on your skin and your clothes, it’s cooling you down. At this time of year, it is turning you into a popsicle on two wheels. Holy smokes, that was cold. And I was well layered up. But when that cold wind was just constantly hitting my chest, destroying my hands, oh, it was cold. But anyway, enough of being a big baby. Through the descent uh down Naka Matog, I arrived in Kimobsu. And I always find that that part of the ride goes very, very quickly, and it should. It’s downhill most of the way, carrying on with the route. From Kimobu, I went to Makari, then to Nisso. And and of course when you’re in that area, the whole time you have those majestic views of Mount Yote and you’re just going through all the the rolling hills and farmland of the area. Well, although the the farmland of the area is mostly just farmers tilling the soil for next year right now, so it’s kind of just brown dirt, but it still looks really nice. It’s not the multitude of colors you get in the summer, but it is still in in all seasons that is just a beautiful area of Hokkaido to ride. And still, even at the top of Mount Yote, there was no snow. So, sure, it was getting cold. And I I heard a couple of people in Saporro saying, “Oh, yeah, they got snow up in the mountains now.” But there was nothing on Yote as of uh October 11th. And while I was going through Makari, I came across the place where you can fill up bottles with spring water that that flow out of Mount Yote. I don’t know if you know this folks, but at different spots throughout Hokkaido, there are natural springs where water is filtered through the rock and the mountains, and it’s just this pristine, crystalclear, delicious mountain water. If you ever get a chance to get spring water from a mountain in Hokkaido, drink it. It really is amazing just how different that kind of water tastes. It really tastes pure. You know what I mean? It’s so different from anything you get out of your tap. It’s a It’s a real human experience. Uh excuse me, folks. I’ve got a bit of a cold. Well, I’ve developed this cold because I was out for four or five hours in the freezing cold doing this ride I’m telling you about right now. Oh man, my You know, I’m coughing so much at night. You know, my wife’s sleeping in a different room with as many doors between us closed as possible. Anyway, the water, if you ever get a chance to taste it, go for it. The Mount Yote’s spring water you can find in the Yashido area of Makari. It was pretty busy, too. A lot of people have the same ideas. Some people take just bottles and barrels and huge containers of water and just fill up and take away as much as they can. It’s uh it’s also kind of an interesting to see when it’s going on like that. So, from Macakari to Nico, then from Nisso, it was off to Dangoshi. Dan Koshi is kind of it’s also famous. It’s got some famous uh hot springs there that that’s a it’s a pretty popular activity there. Uh I think there’s also like hot springs associated with one of the road stations. I’m not sure but Rancoshi super famous place for uh uh hot springs if you’re into onsen. I actually stopped for one of my uh rice balls in Rancoshi uh before what was supposed to be a gentle descent from Rancoshi all the way along route 52 to Yakamo. Folks, what I when I say it was supposed to be a gentle descent, I checked a couple of the possible routes with chat GPT just for fun. See what it says about the roots. I’ve been kind of playing with chat GPT a little bit with things like roots with things like analyzing rides and things like that. It’s been kind of fun. But GPT lied to me folks. chat GPT is a big liar because it said yeah there would be a lot of climbing you know obviously Naka pass through Niko Makari the rolling hills all that but then it said and you would enjoy a gentle descent from Rancoshi to Yakumo and when I read that I it made me feel really good you know like I was like all right this ride isn’t going to be too bad at Oh, but again, chat GPT was not completely honest as it failed to mention any of the many large climbs that are sprinkled along Route Five. Holy smokes. From Noshi. Yes. Okay. Yes. I suppose compared to climbing the Nakayama Pass, it is kind of a gentle descent, but that’s nowhere near the whole story. There are a lot of climbs along that route. Okay, sure, they’re not mountain passes, but you’ve definitely got some climbs still to go after Rancoshi. Yes, there are some gentle descents as it said, but overall because I swear to God, what around what was the place called around Mena around Mena? There was one climb that was steep and was a real nasty bugger. It it was a real challenge and there were that was the biggest one that was just before Mena I think. Um but make no mistake about it. You’re you’re climbing that whole way. Um AI is lying to us, folks. It’s trying to kill us. Uh but anyway, as always, one of my favorite things of a ride is meeting people on the road. And the last 40 kilometers of this ride held some excellent people in my very near future. At some point in Kuro Matsunai, I was riding along when in the distance, I saw a mysterious figure walking towards me. I got a little closer and Whoa. Yeah, that dude is all done up in traditional samurai looking gear. I thought this is so cool. Am I going to meet a real life Shugendo? I don’t know if you remember Shugendo from many episodes ago. Shugendo was kind of a sect of Buddhism where or Shintoism, sorry, where they live in the woods, they live in the mountains, you know, they make tea out of tree bark and all that kind of stuff basically. And a shugendo as a person is an aesthetic monk, right? They they have no belongings. They wander the they wander the earth in search of enlightenment and all that kind of good stuff, right? Well, I thought that’s what was walking towards me. Cool, right? And did I just say shugendo was Buddhism and then say it was Shintoism? Sorry, that that’s kind of incorrect. The the aesthetic monks that practice chugendo, they blend aspects of both Buddhism and Shintoism together in into the one kind of religion. It’s it’s very very cool. So anyway, I I thought that’s kind of the person I was going to meet. And as the guy got closer and closer, I thought, you know, hm, that that that that’s kind of funny looking. I I don’t think shagendos walk along with quite so many selfie sticks on them. It It turns out it was a Polish live streamer named Emil. Emil is walking along and doing his live internet show. as he walks around Hokkaido. And you know, we both stopped, we said hi. Uh we had a great chat. He was making his way on foot to to Mount Yote from Hakodate and and doing his live stream as he walked along. Um I’ll of course include his Instagram link in the show notes as well. I I said a few words on his uh live stream. Um we said, “Great to meet you. I’m going to I’ll follow your stuff. I’ll follow your stuff and and it was time to go. So definitely one of the more interesting people I’ve met on the road. I’ve never met anybody in full samurai costume complete with a plastic katana. It that was a really cool meeting. He was obviously really into the whole Japanese adventure and I loved seeing him just obviously enjoying himself so much and just being into the the whole thing of it like just full on into it. It it was really cool. But anyway, as I said, it was time to go. So I said goodbye and good luck to my new Polish samurai friend and kept on trucking. Then in Osha Mambbe, some friends of mine drove past. They were shouting all kinds of encouragement out the window. Go Marty, go, go, go. It was awesome. They were actually going to the same place I was. We were going to a barbecue at our hunter friend’s house in Yako. But then I noticed as they they, you know, shouting out the cars, they drive past. Then I get a little further along and I see they pulled over into the convenience store lot and had the cameras out taking videos of me giving it my all riding past them and they’re still cheering me on it. Man, it was awesome. I love our friends. That was so cool that they did that, right? So many How many people wouldn’t How many friends of yours just wouldn’t bother? They probably just drive on, right? And say, “Hey, yeah, we saw you. That was great.” No, no, they were stopping cheering on the cause. It was great. It was really cool. Thank you. And I actually because at that point I was about 170 kilometers into the ride. You get you get a bit tired at that point in those big rides, folks, right? But after all that, after the cheerleading, I got a nice pickme up. I got a lot of energy out of their wellw wishes and and and cheers. So, thank you folks. Then not long after that, I met this young Italian couple named Kiara and Omar, and they were awesome. That was to be their last night in Hokkaido after two weeks cycling around. They had been up the northwestern coast to Wakana and I think kind of down through the middle of Hokkaido to Saporro, uh, Lake Toya. And and when I met them, it was to be there last night before they were heading down south to Honchu to begin that leg of their Japanese bike packing journey. But this Japanese leg of their adventure was just a small part of their much much larger 8month global tour that started in Italy and has taken them just everywhere. I mean everywhere. I talking to them for the last 15 16 kilometers of my ride was a real treat to the day. Absolutely lovely people. Fantastic English. God knows how many languages they speak. Obviously, they speak Italian and and English. Um, but I always find that when I meet Europeans, they speak multiple languages. It’s it’s very very cool. I’ll of course include Omar and Kiata’s Instagram links in the show notes if you want to follow along with their journey. And I would actually be better if you followed along with their journey because obviously I can’t do it any justice talking about this in just this little bit in in in this podcast. You know, you if you I I I had a look through their Instagram and just the things they’ve done, the places they’ve been, the people they’ve talked to, the almost year-long adventure they’ve been doing is just absolutely fantastic. And I think they said, I might have this wrong. I think they said that their journey is going to end sometime in November. Um, just an amazing time in the in their young lives, right? But anyways, folks, I absolutely love meeting people out on the road like that. I get real inspiration talking to them and and hearing their stories, you know. Um, and again, I actually rode the last 15 kilometers or so w with Omar and Kiata. So, that was really really cool. Another great chat. And another thing folks on the com I’ve said I get inspiration from meeting these people and hearing their stories but kind of on the flip side of that I’ve been noticing the way people react to kind of some of my story when I say you know they ask where are you from what do you do and when they find out that I live here I live here in Japan and that I have lived here for 26 years They’re kind of they’re kind of faces their jaws dropped. They’re like, “What?” Um, it’s something that I and my other long-term expat resident friends here in Japan, here in Saporo, here in Hokkaido, I guess we don’t really think about it anymore. We’re just here. We’ve spent the last two plus decades. It’s been 26 years for me. I’ve got friends that have been here for 30 and it’s just there’s no novelty to us living here anymore. You know, we we’re we’re all working. We’re trying to keep the kids on the right path. We have to do laundry. We have to take the garbage out. Um all that kind of stuff, you know. And when we meet people that are here in two weeks, even six month vacations, it’s just it’s just a completely different thing. And seeing the reaction in other people’s eyes, like, whoa, oh my god, you’ve been here 26 years. What is that even like? That is been what kind of an eyeopener to me just how just how long I’ve been here now. But it’s again, I haven’t thought about that for a long time because most of the friends I have here are long-term residents of Japan. But seeing it reflected in the faces of travelers has has has been really really interesting. And actually to be honest, seeing that reflected in the faces of Japanese people when they speak to me on the road in heavily touristy areas is also very very interesting now because like I don’t know if I mentioned this but when I was up at the Mikuni Pass in Detazison on the first day there was a grandmother with the family with the little kids and the little kid said hello to me and and then grandma uh uh spoke a little bit Japanese to me and I spoke English back. I sorry I spoke Japanese back and grandma was like whoa hey what’s this? I guess when I with my face when I’m in these touristy areas Japanese people unless they don’t know me obviously they they can’t imagine that I’ve been here 26 years that I live here. I’m sure I’m seeing these touristy areas, but I’m not a tourist, right? It’s And you I see that reflected in Japanese people’s faces as well, especially this past summer where where I’ve been able to get out and see a lot more because you tend to spend time with people, you know, like up until this year, every weekend has been spent with soccer people where our kids have grown up together and things like that. And I’m not a novelty to to Japanese people or travelers because I I don’t meet unknown Japanese people outside of that kind of soccer circle. Well, now that I’m out on the road, I am a completely new entity to local Japanese as well in these areas, right? And so they they automatically assume, I guess they see the bike, I guess they see the the the purs on the side of the bike, and I guess they assume I’m a traveler. And I guess I am, but um I’m not traveling from overseas. So over the last few months, that that’s been something that’s been really uh what not not so much come to light, but it’s been really in the forefront of a lot of the conversations I’ve had. So that that’s been really interesting as well. And that was really interesting with Emil, the Polish samurai and the Italians as well because, you know, they were asking, you know, wow, okay, so your wife’s Japanese? I like, “Yeah, yeah, my wife’s Japanese.” And a couple of interesting questions, you know, can you cook Japanese food? Like, well, a little bit, but you know, not that much, not that well. you know, they had uh some interesting practical questions about what life in Japan is like when you’re living here, which which was also a really really cool part of those conversations. Anyway, so uh so after about 16 15 kilometers with Kiara and Omar, it was time to say goodbye. We all took a selfie. Um and then they were off to set up a wild camp somewhere. And at that point in the ride, I was just a few hundred meters away from my friend’s house. So that was the end of the ride, folks. But here are some details of the ride. Again, I left home at 4:00 a.m. and arrived at my destination in Yako just before 5:30 p.m. I think it might have been like 5:21 or I can’t really remember. I rode a total of 205 kilometers. And according to Ride with GPS, the duration of the ride was 13 hours and 16 minutes with my wheels turning for 11 hours and 9 minutes. And folks, please don’t forget that I never actually start the GPS exactly at my house or exactly at another house if that’s my destination. I I don’t think people in the internet need to know need need a map to my house or to my friend’s house. So there might be small differences between like the 205 km and I think what’s the 201 km the ride with GPS that I rode. So that’s why folks anyway where was I? My wheels were turning on that ride. I was pedaling actively moving for 11 hours and 9 minutes. And get this folks, out of those 11 hours, I was climbing for seven. My lord, yikes. I knew that that was going to be a huge climbing day. I didn’t think it would be 7 hours out of 11. Holy smokes. My elevation gain for the day was 1,829 m. By far, my biggest climbing day ever. Of course, with all that climbing comes the beautiful mountain, forest, and coastal scenery. And also, that was me in in Yakumo. Again, folks, before I go this week, just let I know sometimes I just kind of wrap it up after the ride, but before I go this week, let me tell you a little more about Yakamo because as you know, every day is a school day, right? We are learning. Every day we have our eyes open or at least we should. Every day should be a school day. We should be looking around. We should be curious about everything around us. Every day is a school day. So, first of all, the kanji for yakamo means eight clouds. And I always thought that it was kind of just a small fishing and and forestry type of community. But my friend took me to this site just around the corner from his house that is a monument to the first pioneer settlers in Yakamo. Apparently at the mouth of the Udap River, the mouth of the Ura River opens up into the Pacific Ocean. It’s right there. The river and the ocean, that’s where they meet. But apparently way way back in the day at the mouth of the Ura river there was an Inu Kotan or an Inu village. And it was also a kind of trading post between the Japanese and the Inu. Here we go talking about the Inu again folks. I’m telling you they if you come to Hokkaido, check out AU culture and history. But over time it wasn’t just an Inu settlement. Over time, Japanese also started to live in the area and and during the Ado era, Japanese traveled up the river inland, helped along by the Anu as well. And of course, after last week’s Anu episode, we kind of all know, so we we kind of we know that story, right? And actually speaking of that kind of the kind of end of not the end of a new culture but the the how do you say it kind of the end of their real traditional way of life just about 20 minutes east of Yakumo was another of Shakushine’s revolt battle sites that my wife and I we actually went to see of of course it’s just an empty field with a stone monument in it now but it was really cool to see that as well that you know Shakushine is kind of all over this southern Hokkaido area. Very very interesting to see. Um also in the area some of the actual in Yakumo sorry some of the actual Tokugawa family that’s right from descendants of Eyasu to Toko Tokugawa the first sorry not the first shogun one of the most powerful shoguns of the Edo era. his family had actually settled and developed a decent relationship with the Anu in the in the Yakumo area. You know, they apparently they used to go on bear hunts and and and all that kind of good stuff. So, Yakumo had a much deeper a much richer history than I had imagined. So, there it is, folks. That was my Yakimo weekend. And of course, it was a threeday weekend. It was uh sports day on the Monday. Unfortunately, I was supposed to have an ice hockey game on the Monday, but unfortunately with this cold, with this cough, you won’t hear the coughs on this episode because I’m going to I’m I edit them all out. But I’ve been coughing like a demon through this episode as well. There was just no way. I I think just with the cold of the start of the ride, um I got this nasty chess cold and there was just no way I could play hockey with it on on Monday, so I had to cancel the hockey. But hey, luckily my team mailed in and said they won. So good for us. All right, but anyway, um that was my big ride to Yakimo with lots of climbing. And folks, that was definitely the last ride of that size for 2025. There’s just not enough daylight now and it is cold when the sun ain’t shining. I also met some amazing people obviously. Had a lot of fun. Beautiful scenery. What more can you ask for? The bike life is good. Have fun out there folks. Love you.
The ride to Yakumo is turning into an annual thing. Yay! This year I decided to take on the hills and ride through the middle of Hokkaido. I rode from Ishikari to Jozankei, over the Nakayama Pass, down to Kimobetsu, through to Makkari, over to Niseko, a jaunt to Rankoshi then down to Yakumo. A most excellent ride with a HELLUVA lot of climbing. The scenery was excellent but the people I met along the way were awesome. Ya gotta love meeting people who are doing awesome things out there, eh!? I hope you like this episode and are having fun out there.
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