Biwa-Bound

May 19th - 23nd

(S)

Since bank accounts are starting to dwindle low and, considering we are only 6 months into a 12 month trip, we bit the bullet and booked the cheapest night bus possible to Kyoto. Farewell Willer Travel with your lovely 180 degree-d cushioned seats and your privacy hood. Hello to Sakura Travel with your admittedly fairly spacious seats and no choice but to bare your full sleeping face to the whole world. This wasn’t a very comfortable sleep for me, in fact I barely slept at all, while Elliot managed to fall asleep before the bus had barely pulled out of the station. Too soon we were pulling up at Kyoto station. Gone was my chance to get my forty winks. Or was it….?

Enter Tops Cafe a chain of manga kissa! Manga Kissa are cafes where they stock hundreds of volumes of hundreds of different kinds of manga (Japanese comic books). You pay for a certain amount of time to access a seat, a computer and as much manga as you please, and it is even possible to hire private booths for fairly cheap prices. To top it all off they have showers and are open 24hours. They’re often near major train and bus stations so some people use them to stay overnight, since it can be cheaper than a hotel accommodation. At this point I was desperate for some sleep, so I dutifully paid my way into a booth with a cushioned floor and a seat for Elliot. I wish we had got a photo as it’s hard to explain the set up, but see more here. I napped for three hours (of course you are required to remove shoes to enter the booth, so I had no qualms with lying directly on the floor). They even provided blankets which I used two of. Meanwhile Elliot drank his fill of free drinks and browsed the web.

Refreshed, we had our obligatory morning set at Komeda’s coffee and then got on a train to Lake Biwa. Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan and is a 40 minute local train ride away from central Tokyo. We’ve seen it before when we visited Kyoto in November from the observation points at the summit of Mt Hiei. We knew there was a cycle route around the coastline of the lake known as Biwa Ichi, but we didn’t think we’d be back this way this year. When we got our upcoming workaway opportunity, we knew we had to fit this in. The lake is about 672km2 and the circumference is 235km and apparently it dates back four million years and is known as one of the world’s ‘ancient lakes’.

We arrive in Otsu, a town on the Southern shores of Biwa where we settle for the evening. Since we’re both tired, we do almost nothing for the rest of the day and rest up in preparation for three days of cycling ahead. The next morning, we go to collect our bicycles. After learning from our Shimanami Kaido experience, this time we booked far in advance and opted for the more suitable cross-bikes (with panniers!).

They’re comfortable and fast and soon enough we’re whizzing off to our first destination, the Kusatsu City Aquatic Botanical Garden Mizunomori. We explore the greenhouse and the gardens, admiring the early summer blooms, particularly the lotus and water lilies. Lunch (and ice-cream) later and we’re back on the bikes.

We put in a good few hours here and reach Hikone unexpectedly early, although not early enough to explore the castle (yet another of Japan’s last remaining 12 castles) and its surrounding grounds which close at five. Unfortunately, since we skimped out on accommodation (cheapest available please), we also can’t check in until 9pm as we are staying at an “adults only” hotel.

We instead head to a beach on the shores of the lake to try and wile away some time before dinner. Elliot decides to spend some time here skimming stones, and quickly makes a friend. We’re quite close to the University of Shiga Prefecture, where this Ryosuke goes. He played baseball in middle school and shows us his impressive throwing arm while skimming stones. Later on he reveals that he gave up baseball and joined the brass band in high school. As we part ways he says that he is off to his acapella group practise session where he is the beatboxer. He gives us a little sample before heads on his way. What a guy!

After a long and lingering dinner, we amble to our hotel and finally check in. This is possibly the most love hotel-y love hotel we’ve been in. There is complete anonymity (no contact with staff members, only communications via internal phones and car number-plate covers provided). They even locked us into our own rooms automatically, with no possibly of exit until payment was completed via an electronic machine by the front door. At least breakfast was included and pretty tasty, and we even got a couple of cans of free drinks to take with us on our onward journey -another hot day (reaching almost 30 degrees Celsius) meant thirsty work. Our stop for the day was Kohoku Wild Bird Centre where we did some bird watching and enjoyed their dodgy English translations.

After a late lunch, we were racing rainclouds forecast at 5 to reach our accommodation. This was probably the least populated part of the cycle and also our favourite part. It was just so picturesque.

Before long the sky turned grey and thunder rolled and at 4:30 the first big drops began to fall. We still hadn’t reached our accommodation, let alone pick up supplies, and we arrived at the supermarket slightly damp. Luckily the rain didn’t last and we cycled past rice paddies up to our accommodation.

The final day was a leisurely 60km compared to the 70 and 80km of our past two days. We stopped off in the morning for a coffee and since it was so hot already I indulged in a Kakigori (shaved ice). This one was properly traditional with sweet beans and sweet soy syrup served up by a granny and was my tastiest Kakigori ever.

We cycled past the location of our next workaway and then began taking busier and busier roads. We knew that the road was due to become extremely busy and so we decided to cross over the lake on a toll bridge back to the location of the botanical gardens and cycle back to the rental shop that way. This was possible as the toll bridge crosses one of the narrowest points of the lake at a distance of 1.4km.

After returning our bikes, we decided to soak our weary limbs in a sento nearby our accommodation. Sento is a public bath, designed and priced for daily use by nearby residents. Unlike onsen, the water is not natural thermal water, but instead is heated tap water. This sento was pretty nice and even had areas with jet bubbles to massage the muscles. Elliot even said it was one of his nicest public bath experiences. This draws a close to another holiday period of our working holiday. I think we are both feeling ready to settle somewhere again for longer than a few days (and the wallets are going to thank us for no food and accommodation costs!)