June 6

Aizuwakamatsu - Fukushima 


Today was a beautiful and varied ride, and I'm all "aglow" to be in Fukushima now.  Actually, the nuclear accident was quite a distance from the city itself, and apparently no residents were evacuated from here.  

It looked to be a challenging morning ahead of us; up for 57 km, and then down for the rest of the day.  Actually, there was a surprising amount of downhill in that first 57 and the grades weren't too bad for most of it.  The landscape was gorgeous and the temperature was mostly cool although it did rise to 26C at one point.  The forests and mountains are so beautiful here that I wonder if all those Japanese tourists who visit Canada's national parks (like Banff) have actually toured around their own country? 

The forests were so thick going up that it was sometimes hard to get a viewpoint. 


A rather large statue off in the distance.


Not sure exactly what this mountain is (maybe Mount Bandai), but we saw a lot of it shrouded in varying amounts of mist, as we rode up toward the ski resort.





I'm guessing this is retractable snow-fencing along the road.









A beautiful quiet road along our climb up to the Inawashiro Ski Resort, with views down to the lake as well.




A rather pleasant flattish section.






This tunnel was at about 40 km.  Still lots of uphill to go until lunch.  When I entered the tunnel, Grant and Barbara were near the other end.  Grant is constantly singing, so I enjoyed a great little concert with the tunnel acoustics and no traffic.




Along this uphill stretch we started to encounter lots of cyclists going the other way.  They all looked fit and strong, and the bikes looked pricey.  Turns out there was an event on - 197 km with 4753 m of climbing, and there were a few thousand participating. The event is The PEAKS Round 19.  And I thought we were crazy!  What a beautiful and challenging place to hold an event like that, though.


I always love seeing the fun construction barriers.  So many different designs.


And finally - lunch.  At 57 km, the top of the climb.  We had climbed 5000 feet by then (and descended 2000 feet).


Nothing but downhill from here until the end of the day.  Sounds like fun, huh?  Well, it might have been if we could have seen anything.



We descended into the mist deep in the forest.  We had a hard time seeing even 2 feet in front of us.  The road had a decent surface, so not too many unexpected potholes.  But - there was a lot of debris on the road.  Thankfully not much traffic.  It was about 70 km before we could see anything again.  


Shortly after that we came to a beautiful pond of lotus flowers.  I only wish I could have ventured far from shore to take more pictures.






And then it was back to mostly urban riding as we made our way through a number of small towns and finally into Fukushima.  Out for Chinese dinner (a feast, as usual), and time to call it a night.  Another reasonably big day tomorrow.


Stats for the Day:

Garmin:  89.75 km.  5144 feet up.  5860 feet down.

RWGPS:  92.2 km.  1751 m up.  1973 m down.



Fukushima

Population:  275,000

Japan.travel:  The capital of Fukushima Prefecture is a compact city centre surrounded by lush mountains, fruit orchards, and healing hot springs.  While the city, with its traditional festivals, horse races, and flower parks draws visitors from around the Tohoku region and beyond, the surrounding areas are well worth exploring.  Don't miss:  Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, The Iwaya Kannon carvings on Mt Shinobu which contain around 60 Buddhist figures, Tsuchiyu Onsen (the artisan neighbourhood with studios selling Japan's famous kokeshi dolls.  

Fukushima city is located about 65 km NW of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.  It was outside the primary 30 km exclusion zone established after the 2011 disaster.  










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