Day 16: Wakayama to Koyasan (~33 miles UPHILL)
Ready to brace the uphill with brand new tires (and a bleeding nose)! We headed off after our (scary) encounter with the Keirin-jo and followed a rather nice bike path along the river. Part of it was closed, but with the beckoning of the locals, we jumped a few fences and stayed on the path...until we hit a construction zone and could go no further, so went on normal road.
Then we hit the uphill. At first, it was fine. I thought I could handle it.
Then it got steeper.
And steeper.
...and steeper.
Jason said it as a Category 2 hill, if I heard correctly, but I was pretty delirious at that point. I say it was a Category 1 (but this is me, Ms-first-time-bike-tour). That tiny bump we climbed near Mt. Fuji? HA! What was I thinking?
We stopped at a mountain bar for some water and got congratulated (and a little ridiculed) for coming as far as the bar and go big laughs when we told the people drinking we were going to try and make it up to the top by sundown, since according to the map, we were supposed to be able to make it to our destination by then.
However, the sun went down, and we were still trekking on road. "Road" as in a one lane path big enough to fit maybe 3/4 of a car; left side, cliff. Also, no street lights, save for our head lamps. Fortunately, we only encountered one car coming our way (so I only thought we were going to die once).
After discussing the map while walking our bikes up a pitch black hill, we came to the realization that Jason had been reading the writing on the map incorrectly (I mean, how am I supposed to know he can't read Japanese?), and we were going pretty much the opposite direction from our end point...and we had only gone up 500 m and we had 500 more meters to go.
Somehow, we spotted two small dots that looked like lights, so we decided to chance it and go towards it...and lucky us, it turned out it was the train station right before the one we were supposed to end at (named "Gokuraku-bashi" or "paradise bridge" best name ever!). From here, one must take a cable car that will take you up 500m in 15 minutes.
Day 17-19: Koyasan!
We made it!!! OMG! I have never appreciated a warm, lit home this much in my life. And oh, Yuko-san, we love you so much. My mother's friend had prepared us the most delicious meal. All vegetarian, just for Jason. Gawd it was good, y'all.
The next few days we spent wandering around the town of Koyasan, a 1200 year old region where it is said Buddhism first began in Japan. It has a ton of temples and a huge grave site where you can find famous people's graves + plots that big corporations have put up in "memory of their diseased staff" but really...I think it's just a way to advertise.
Ready to brace the uphill with brand new tires (and a bleeding nose)! We headed off after our (scary) encounter with the Keirin-jo and followed a rather nice bike path along the river. Part of it was closed, but with the beckoning of the locals, we jumped a few fences and stayed on the path...until we hit a construction zone and could go no further, so went on normal road.
Then we hit the uphill. At first, it was fine. I thought I could handle it.
Then it got steeper.
And steeper.
...and steeper.
Jason said it as a Category 2 hill, if I heard correctly, but I was pretty delirious at that point. I say it was a Category 1 (but this is me, Ms-first-time-bike-tour). That tiny bump we climbed near Mt. Fuji? HA! What was I thinking?
We stopped at a mountain bar for some water and got congratulated (and a little ridiculed) for coming as far as the bar and go big laughs when we told the people drinking we were going to try and make it up to the top by sundown, since according to the map, we were supposed to be able to make it to our destination by then.
However, the sun went down, and we were still trekking on road. "Road" as in a one lane path big enough to fit maybe 3/4 of a car; left side, cliff. Also, no street lights, save for our head lamps. Fortunately, we only encountered one car coming our way (so I only thought we were going to die once).
After discussing the map while walking our bikes up a pitch black hill, we came to the realization that Jason had been reading the writing on the map incorrectly (I mean, how am I supposed to know he can't read Japanese?), and we were going pretty much the opposite direction from our end point...and we had only gone up 500 m and we had 500 more meters to go.
Somehow, we spotted two small dots that looked like lights, so we decided to chance it and go towards it...and lucky us, it turned out it was the train station right before the one we were supposed to end at (named "Gokuraku-bashi" or "paradise bridge" best name ever!). From here, one must take a cable car that will take you up 500m in 15 minutes.
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| Train station at Gokuraku-bashi |
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| A picture is worth a thousand words, no? |
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| Our destination. I've never been so happy to reach home. |
We made it!!! OMG! I have never appreciated a warm, lit home this much in my life. And oh, Yuko-san, we love you so much. My mother's friend had prepared us the most delicious meal. All vegetarian, just for Jason. Gawd it was good, y'all.
The next few days we spent wandering around the town of Koyasan, a 1200 year old region where it is said Buddhism first began in Japan. It has a ton of temples and a huge grave site where you can find famous people's graves + plots that big corporations have put up in "memory of their diseased staff" but really...I think it's just a way to advertise.
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| Beautiful Shakunage flowers (I think that's what they're called....) |
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| On our way trough Okuno-in, the really extensive grave site. |
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| Grave site for Kirin Beer |
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| Not sure why, but people stuck a bunch of one-yen coins in this tree. |
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| These are said to be a collection of little Buddhas for every person found frozen to death in the area. |
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| Yes, we ate like kings. |
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| Walking through the Nyoin-do, or the path the women took to get to Koyasan...except they weren't allowed to go inside the city. |
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| The cables for the cable car |
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| Our gracious hosts: (Top after Jason) Yuko, Yayoi, (me), Chikai, Yuko's older brother. |
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