South Korea and Japan 2026

  Fujimi - Lake Kawaguchi Oh boy....... I'm pooped!  But - another beautiful day out there.  I started about 8:15 and the temperature was just below 20.  And – the first 56 km (until lunch) was largely downhill.  Over 5000 feet down by that point, and about 2000 feet down in the first 11 km.  Woohoo……….  A bit of cloud cover, but we could still sporadically see Mount Fuji in the distance.  Here’s how we started……….. This is part of the “loop bridge” at about 11 km.  And – one of the pelotons zooming by……….. The downhill was great, but always in the back of my mind was the fact that we would have to gain back almost every inch of it this afternoon......... More miscellaneous scenery pictures.  The scenery never gets old. Lots of small-time agriculture; mostly rice paddies.  Lots of people out working on their land today.  Cool to see everyday life going on with this world-famous landmark in the distance.  And speaking of pe...

Komagane - Fujimi What a beautiful day outside the window first thing this morning (well......... except for the McDonalds sign).. We are headed to Fujimi today, which means view of Fuji.  I'm so glad we have good weather for it!  We started out with a bit of downhill first thing this morning.  We're in a beautiful valley.    The entire day we seemed to be going either uphill or downhill; not much riding on the flats.  We're in the Japan Alps, afterall.  Very pretty the whole day.  A mix of rural agriculture, wild land, and small towns. There are so many people employed directing traffic around the smallest little bits of construction that at a distance I just figured this guy was one of those.  But - not so!  Not sure what the story was, but we went through an area where we saw several of these and a couple on a bench by the sidewalk; all fake.... I'm sure these are probably weeds, but pretty in any case. Some beautiful properties.........