Day 3 - Hamamatsu to Nagoya
Main route was 152 > 257 > 301 > 3 > 1. Route 301 had the nice torii gate in the morning. Route 3 was very wavy with rolling hills, not so difficult.
Route 1 was forced to ride mostly on the sidewalk which was one of the most irritating parts of the trip. Too many speedbumps, random bumps, harsh/abrupt curbs, even at intersections have to slow down a lot because of transitions and crosswalk is not straight across. Streets are really not designed with bicycle users in mind and most drivers don’t care either. Lots of reasons for this as I’ve learned over time but still frustrating on this kind of lengthy trip.
Short little weave back to the hotel from the castle.
Day 4 - Nagoya to Nara
Left around 725am today. Had to check my phone map a lot and it was very slow getting out of the city. Little bit of rain starting out, many people on bicycles, especially school kids… pretty cold too (could see own breath). Was frustrating in the city (common theme) and on route 23 was forced to ride on the sidewalk again… my notes express my frustration more strongly but just a lot of bumps, bushes, holes, gravel, rocks, cracks, bad transitions again. The bike was handling very slippery like and at one point I was forced onto the road at a short bridge, hitting my crotch on the saddle which was just very painful and miserable for the rest of the day.
Just getting away from the city was a pain…
First mountains had some amazing views, unfortunately most are just in my memory as my gopro died and too wet for camera.
That last part was just very difficult as mentioned earlier and not a good situation to be in… this would also play a part in my decision a few days later in Naruto.
Anyway, to be continued!