21.9.14

Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture

[Hikone Castle]

Where? The circumference of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, anticlockwise from Hikone.
Terrain? Hilly in the north, pretty flat with some soft inclines for the rest of it.
Distance/Duration? 56km + 184km / 8 + 12 hours (Day 1 + 2, respectively)
How? By mamachari aka. The Granny Bike with a 6kg pack riding in the front basket. My mamachari was a fixie i.e. 'no gears'.


 Not on a mamachari anyhow, and doubly so with a fixed gear one. I admit, I seriously considered saying "Stuff it" and taking the shortcut across Biwako Ohashi Bridge on Day 2 which would have cut 3-hours off of my journey back to Hikone, but perseverance won through, especially knowing that I would regret it and berate myself afterwards for giving up on completing the circuit.


Otherwise, the locals are really friendly, and if one would overlook the rubbish along some of the shores, it was a very beautiful and scenic route. And was quite easy to navigate, even when the route winded inland onto country roads and around expressways. GPS-less and making do with just a paper map, I managed to not get myself completely lost.


Meals were bought from Michi-no-Eki, stores which sell local produce. And for accommodation, I pitched tent on a nice green spot by the lake side. Public campgrounds charge 4000yen (about GBP20) for a night's use of a tent site which covers washing facilities, but not car parking, equipment rentals etc...


Arriving back at Hikone was a bit of a rush with a 15-minute visit to a sentou (public bathhouse), before grabbing a hoard of bread to munch on the shinkansen, which actually, also happened to be my first time riding a shinkansen, the station attendant had a face of amused bemusement when I couldn't figure out why my tickets wouldn't let me through the gates... Well, better late than never ;)




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