Takayama, Lake Suwa, and Mt. Ontake Race 🚲🇯🇵 Japan Cycling Vlog in Gifu & Nagano Prefectures!

In today’s bike video, I’ll take you with us on a weekend cycling trip in Japan’s Gifu and Nagano Prefectures! On Friday we started in Takayama (高山市)and visited the Showa-kan Muesum. Saturday’s ride went around Lake Suwa (諏訪湖 ) and visited Takashima Castle (高島城). On Sunday, Zeb raced the Mt. Ontake (御嶽山) hill climb while I explored the turquoise rivers and woods surrounding Otaki Village.

Ride and Route Data:
Takayama Cruising: https://www.strava.com/activities/11429611842
Lake Suwa Loop: https://www.strava.com/activities/11436148486
Otaki Village Exploration: https://www.strava.com/activities/11443624493

Jump to…
0:41 – Friday in Takayama City
2:12 – Showa-kan Museum
4:08 – Temples, Lunch, & Shrines
6:43 – Day 2 Bike Ride in Nagano Prefecture
8:20 – Lake Suwa Cycling Path
9:57 – Takashima Castle
10:56 – Suwa Taisha & Climbs
13:02 – Takato Town
14:38 – Day 3 Mt. Ontake Race
15:42 – Otaki Village Ride
17:16 – Shizenko Lake
20:39 – Zeb’s bike race result

🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com
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More about…
Hida Area – https://hida.travel/
Hida Takayama Tourism Site – https://www.hida.jp/english/index.html
Takayama Showa-Kan Museum 高山昭和館 – https://showakan.jp/takayama/
Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine – http://www.hidahachimangu.jp/english/
Takashima Castle – http://visit-suwa.com/destinations/spotlight-destinations/spot-4-takashima-castle/
Lake Suwa Fireworks – https://www.suwa-tourism.jp/gosuwa/english_tourism/lake-suwa-fireworks/
Suwa Taisha – https://suwataisha.or.jp/en/miyamori/
Mt. Ontake – https://thejapanalps.com/en/activities/ontake/
Ontake Hill Climb Race Results – https://jbcfroad.jp/result/result277-1283
Otaki Gravel Bike Race – http://www.powersports.co.jp/sda/24_otaki_bike_9/
Otaki Village – https://otakiexperience.com/

🇯🇵 More videos about Japan Cycling here:
Bikepacking Japan’s Amaharashi Coast: https://youtu.be/VIFvovFUGB8
Cherry Blossom Bike Route: https://youtu.be/YqQJQW4w-64
Gravel Cycling in Wakayama Prefecture: https://youtu.be/weifAuHdJ0Q
Week-long Bike Tour Kanazawa to Matsumoto: https://youtu.be/OOgtL6N20mY

#cycling #lifeinjapan #岐阜観光 #岐阜旅行 #高山昭和館 #長野観光 #長野旅行 #japanlife #lifeabroad #高山市#japantravel #biketour #cyclingjapan #japancycling #lakesuwa #ontake #otakivillage #nagano #gifu #takayama #showamuseum #bikeracing #諏訪湖 #御嶽山 #サイクリング #松原スポーツ公園 #高島城

[Music] in today’s bike video I’m going to take you with us on a weekend cycling trip in gifu and Nago prefectures Saturday’s ride went around Lake sua and visited takashima Castle I want to see something cool Sunday’s ride explored the turquoise rivers and tranquil Woods surrounding otaki Village while Zeb raced out on and I can’t wait to tell you how that race went but first we’ll start off on Friday where we drove from kazawa in Ishikawa prefecture to spend the day in takayama in gifu prefecture before staying in Ena in Nagano prefecture for our Saturday and Sunday rides we stopped here in takayama on the way down to our hotel because it was my birthday and I wanted to spend the day with Zeb to celebrate hello hello look who it is we’re on the way to one of zeb’s big bike races for the year on Sunday so we’re spending today for my birthday we’re going to go wander around town by bike I’m pretty excited the first place we went in takayama was the maawa morning Market next to the river you can find these wood statues around town as a reminder of takayama Rich Lumber and woodcrafts Industry in fact they were so good at woodworking that a special tax exemption was made for takayama in the larger H Province taxes that were normally paid in rice could be paid with carpentry labor instead these Craftsmen were called H notami literally the experts of H the Carpenters from this mountain area were the ones who built some of the oldest temples and shrines in Japan we had biked through this Market once before on an early morning ride during our week-long summer bike touring trip which I’ll link below I was kind of surprised by how bustling it was still at close to 11:00 a.m. it opens at 7: or 8:00 a.m. in the winter and it runs until noon there are seasonal fruit and vegetables for sale as well as food pickled Goods souvenirs and crafts one of my favorite Parts was visiting the shakan museum with so many historical items and a full showa era set to explore [Music] we especially enjoyed browsing the candy for sale and bought a few different kinds to take home including some lemon shoes with edible wrappers and tarte kbu vinegar candies oh some drops yeah the showa era was from December 25th 1926 until Emperor hirohito’s death on January 7th 1989 it was preceded by The Tao era and succeeded by the H era I think the Sha era is especially unique because of the incredible shift in public opinion during such a relatively short period of time the early sha era was characterized by some really brutal imperialism and Ultra nationalistic ideas but public opinion and politics dramatically changed during the second half of this era after the second world war sometimes the second part of the showa era from the 50s to the 80s is romanticized as kind of a Golden Age here because Japanese culture and products were spreading and becoming more popular thanks to things like train Innovations electric appliances and car manufacturing Japan became the second largest economy in the world after the United States during the postwar economy retro themed museums and cafes have become popular because I guess they bring a feeling of nostalgia this was a really fun place to visit in takayama the showa museum was so cool and there’s two of those in this city so if you want to see more you can go to whole second retro Museum afterwards from here we backed over to some temples on the edge of downtown takayama there’s a higashiyama walking course here that will take you on a tour of several Scenic temples in the city you might be surprised to know that takayama is the largest city in Japan based on physical area thanks to emerging with nine surrounding towns and villages in 2005 to share resources takayama city is over 2,000 sare km which is larger than Tokyo but 92% of it is Forest we had lunch at chamame Cafe which was a relaxing and tasty restaurant we both got the vegetable set menu for lunch [Music] takayama was a really nice place to bike around and the myawa river that runs through the middle is really peaceful only the central old toown area was too crowded to bike through but that’s probably because we were visiting on a Friday afternoon speaking of peaceful places we visited Sakura Yama hachimangu Shrine in takayama before finishing the drive to our hotel for the weekend this Shrine dates back to the 400s [Music] [Applause] [Music] so here’s another one oh my gosh so this is a doctor mataki my favorite is that guy’s license yeah we also got well Biker Boys wow we were staying in Ena Nagano for zeb’s bike race up mount onake on Sunday he was racing the hill climb event this year again and we actually got a great view of onake on our Drive there’s the boy there’s what he’s climbing on Sunday it’s Saturday it’s the day before zeb’s big race so I’m going to go do a fun ride and zeb’s going to come with me for the start but he’s going to peel back after he does his opener so he doesn’t get too much riding in for his big day we’re going to go ride over to Lake Tua and hopefully see a castle I’m not Nago prefecture has some beautiful mountains and we’ve ridden here before during trips to the city of Matsumoto the utsukushi highlands and the nakaso historic road I was excited to bike somewhere new here and I planned a route out to see Lake sua in fact if you like the anime movie your name or kiminonawa you’ll be interested in both lak sua and takayama the fictional town where msua lives is said to be based on the he Mountain area around takayama and the lake in the movie is based on Lake sua snake oh snake almost hit him but I didn’t okay we were supposed to be on the road not that b path but the rice fields are pretty Zeb turned back to the hotel soon after this because he didn’t want to do too big of a ride before racing I had heard that sua had a bike lane around the whole lake but this was even better than I was expecting okay so this is Lake sua and we’re going to ride partway around it but they have this really cool Greenway that goes all the way around it and there’s a bunch of Runners and other bikers out today so it’s really nice I will say that the roads to get here were not ideal a lot of the drivers were like more in a rush than other places I’ve been but it seems pretty worth it so far it’s really nice here the bike lane was the width of a road directional and paved smooth without the grooves that the sidewalk has also there was a separate Lane for pedestrians so you didn’t have to worry about getting in the way of anyone walking or jogging either it was so comfortable to ride on and there was also multiple foot bath spots around the lake which was really cool I had been to Lake sua one time before but this was my first time seeing it in the daytime Ze and I came here last summer during a week-long bike trip and we took the train down from Matsumoto to see the huge annual fireworks show they shut down the streets for that festival and they set off an incredible display of over 40,000 fireworks over the lake so just outside Lake SE there’s a castle this was originally constructed in 1592 and it used to be called The Floating Castle because the lake extended all the way out to the spot surrounding the castle like a moat the lake doesn’t reach that far anymore and the castle was dismantled by government order in the 1870s but it’s since been reconstructed Tada the garden is free to enter and it’s really pretty in there I think if I wasn’t trying to get back for the afternoon I would spend a bunch more time just hanging out in the garden I rode along the Kami River from the castle to get out to the main climb of the ride before starting the climb I passed the Su TAA Kamisha mamia this Shrine is one of the four shent shrines of su TAA and it’s said to be the spot where the sua deity first resided this complex of four shrines is not only important for Nagano prefecture but it’s one of the oldest shrines in the country the ride had been really flat so far but about halfway into the route was where the bulk of the climbing was I climbed up Road 152 and stopped here at the past to look at the view and get something to drink if you want to admire the view a little longer there’s also a cafe up here I descended for a bit but then I began the next climb over to mumi G Lake Momi g means the red colored maple leaves in the fall and it actually uses the same kanji as coyo but that pronunciation refers to the process of the foliage changing I bet that the Momi lake is true to its name in the fall though there were so many maple trees that I rode through mumi Chiari is what you call Leaf hunting or admiring the changing leaves we used to call it Leaf peeping growing up this lake is really pretty look at the mountain over there [Music] [Music] [Music] I was riding back through Ena now along the tenu river but there was one more spot that I wanted to see before going back to the hotel the takato Rose Garden the town of takato was really cute and there was a hot spring once in here too so if you can’t make it to this area in the fall to see the migi maybe you can make it in the spring to see all the roses and the flowers that are here in the garden I climbed up to the Rose Garden and they were just starting to bloom [Music] as far as I can tell this Garden is free which is really surprising cuz it’s so nice and well kept I can’t believe they don’t charge for it after admiring the Roses I descended back into the city of Ena riding through the vast Rice Field to the backdrop of the mountains was really pretty hello hello it’s race day yep are you excited finally it was the day of zeb’s race he had been preparing and training hard for months leading up to this and I was excited for him we got up early and we drove about an hour to the race location at matsubara Sports Park oh and it’s my old uh ZIP code really or area code yeah 336 cool mockville Zeb checked in and got his number to race he got everything ready and I helped him pin his jersey numbers on you can read them they go across the back so like though I think my pinning could use a little bit of work guess it’s fine it happens I think it’ll go well I’m excited to hear about it a little bit once I check in okay Ze has an hour until his race so he’s going to go warm up finish checking in and we’re going to go ride around the area a bit and explore some roads that we didn’t ride last time onake is a volcano and it’s also a holy mountain for those who follow the anake religion this is a specific branch of Shintoism that worships the mountain itself and believes that the mountain is where your soul returns when you die I talked a little bit more about this in my video from onake last year where we rode up the mountain and visited the kiyotaki waterfall the last eruption here was fairly recent actually only in 2014 when it erupted suddenly and killed 60 people so it definitely feels like an area where the nature demands respect the rural forest is beautiful though and I was excited to explore some New Roads around the base of the mountain that I didn’t get to ride last hello where have you been I didn’t expect to see you I’m warming up oh going back there now hey yoichi stopped me and told me that I might be able to put my bike in his car cuz he’s going to drive the top he’s at the top of 7° right now jeez so he was like are you going to be okay and I was like I guess so we’ll see but I got to go okay well good luck it’s very pretty AI Village has a population of around 700 so there’s actually more monkeys than people living here there’s so much infrastructure back here the otaki river is a beautiful vibrant turquoise color which I followed into the forest water is so blue this is the shisen co lake which formed in 1984 after a magnetude 6.8 earthquake created a landslide part of onake actually collapsed down the side of the mountain creating a dam that caused this lake so you can come out here and paddle around by kayak on this Lake there’s a bunch of trees and things in the lake because this wasn’t created that long ago and so that’s why there’s all these kind of eerie trees like sticking up out of the water in fact this bridge was actually part of the otaki forest Railway which was mostly used to transport Lumber in the kiso valley but it was discontinued in 1975 the railway become a road which was buried during the 1984 earthquake the current road was built afterwards you can still see parts of the old railroad in this area though I recently learned about a gravel race that happens here in otaki village in late September the self-discovery adventure in otaki and they Ed some roads in this area I link to the race website below if you want to check that out unfortunately I didn’t have my gravel tires on my bike so I wasn’t really able to explore that part of the course but I did want to see how far I could ride Road 486 before it turned to gravel the road was still paved through here and I think the gravel race goes on the road up to the right however I don’t think you can continue on this road past the Dame up ahead and I started seeing so much monkey poop everywhere at least I think it was from monkeys so I figured it was a good place to turn back I rode through the small village out here but the soba shop is temporarily closed on my way back I stopped to check out the cor [Music] [Music] Canyon I finished my ride with a loop around on T Lake [Music] behind me right now is onake so Zeb should be partway up that mountain right now and I’m just biking around the lake right here but I got my phone on cuz I’m eagerly awaiting what his result is going to be and to hear how it went I stopped here to get a snack and I also picked up this badge for Zeb with mount onake on it I got some dried apricots and continued my loop around the lake okay I pulled over cuz Zeb just texted me he go second that is so cool I’m going to call him since the road up on T was closed for the hill climb I couldn’t drive up to CB’s Podium ceremony but I was really excited to see once his teammate drove him back down the mountain he did it did it second wow in Japan they seem to give out paper certificates instead of medals so Zeb got this very fancy piece of paper from the JBC F it’s hanging in our living room now looking through all his little photos and kind messages everybody sent uh well here are the podium pictures wow look at him this is when I felt like I was about to die but I kept having to like try and like smile for photos I really did it how do you feel I feel good good yeah let’s go get something to eat yeah want some fried chicken or something need some need some meat thanks for watching my bike Vlog about our weekend road trip bike rides and race hope to see you in the next next video