After working straight through spring break, I took a couple of days off to enjoy a ride with José. Because José had the entire month off, I’d considered a number of options, including a London-to-Paris reprise (which he said he’d love to do). The need for me to work through the spring break put a crimp in those plans, and I haven’t done much riding yet this year for various reasons, so I looked for an alternative that would not be too challenging but would still be enjoyable.

Four years ago we’d done a ride to Shirako Onsen in Chiba. Apart from some modest climbing, the route was characterized by the fact it was urban and exurb riding for the entire length, until we were within 15km of our goal. The onsen was nice and the food was good, but as a ride it left something to be desired. José suggested afterwards that we might do better to look for rides that originated outside Tokyo, and take our bikes to the start by rental car or shinkansen. And in fact the next year we went to both Hamamatsu and Shimanami Kaido.

I’d meanwhile discovered the route up Edogawa, readily reachable from our home in Tokyo, and thought we could reach a worthwhile destination on this route without having to book a car or portage our bikes on the shinkansen. The challenge was finding a good hotel at the destination. Northwestern Chiba is chock-a-block with business hotels, accompanied by a corresponding dearth of ryokan offering a comfortable onsen and nice kaiseki meal.

I’d set Teganuma — a small lake in northwest Chiba not far from the Edogawa — as our destination after finding a very traditional ryokan just 1km from the northern shore. But when it came time to book, I discovered the ryokan had closed. Nana jumped to the rescue and found an onsen hotel just less than 10km away. I was very suspicious — rather than a ryokan it was a large, modern hotel established by one of Japan’s large conglomerates. But the baths looked nice, and despite the lack of kaiseki dinner I agreed to book it.

I’d told José to expect me about 8:15-8:30 at Nihonbashi, and said I’d message him when I awoke and again when I left the house. As is usual, he didn’t respond to repeated messages between 6:30 and 7:38, when I actually left the house. He finally messaged me at 7:48 that he was up, and at 8:14 that he was leaving the house. I checked my progress and realized he’d be at Nihonbashi before me, so when I stopped at the Imperial Palace for a photo I shared it with him so he’d know where I was and how long it would be before I arrived. We met up at 8:25 and were soon on our way.

We’ve been up Edogawa two or three times now, with José with me for at least one of those rides, and so there were no surprises. The weather was mild and cloudy. There was a chance of rain in the forecast for the afternoon, but in fact the outlook improved as we went on. I’ve ridden in the past nearly to the turning point where we’d leave the Edogawa for Teganuma, but I was feeling the effort and wondering when it would come.

We crossed the Edogawa on a broad pedestrian / cycle bridge and found ourselves in Chiba. After a couple of false turns we were on our way to Teganuma. We passed through some moderate traffic, looking in vain for a convenience store, before meeting up with the course along the Ohori River leading to the lake. The pavement was a bit broken up in places, prompting José to quip, “That’s my prostate exam for the year.”

We finally came across a convenience store and topped up on food and drink before continuing on the final handful of kilometers to the lake. Once we arrived the view was less than overwhelming, thanks in no small part to the completely overcast skies. We sat down to finish off Nana’s world-famous onigiri — and I only realized as I started eating how hungry I was — and some Snickers thoughtfully provided by José.

With our stomachs full, I gave José the choice. We were still well ahead of schedule at this point — it was just after 1 p.m. Did we want to continue around the lake or just head for the hotel? Circumnavigating the lake would add about 8km (or roughly half an hour) to our trip. José voted for continuing straight to the hotel, and I seconded this.

Better than expected

We arrived at the hotel just about 2 p.m. While I watched the bikes, José went in to ask about checking in and where we could park the bicycles. A very helpful clerk said we could check in right away for an additional ¥1,500 per person, and then revised that to say we could check in at 2:30 with no extra charge. Of course we opted for a 2:30 check-in. The clerk showed us where we could park our bikes and assured us they would be secured overnight. We then had less than 15 minutes remaining before checking in.

I much prefer the traditional ryokan to a modern hotel and so was expecting the worst, but we were pleasantly surprised. The room was new and clean, and not too small (according to Japanese standards, as José put it), and the bath was a very pleasant surprise. Very clean, relaxing, and not too crowded. José and I had the rotemburo to ourselves.

On the downside, as mentioned, there was no kaiseki dinner. The hotel was adjacent to a food mall and after some back and forth we chose a Chinese restaurant that served up a very good meal in staggering portions. I said “enough” at exactly the right moment, before we’d ordered enough food to make ourselves sick.

Back in our room, we both fell asleep early. I awoke after an hour or two to find José gone. He’d woken up and slipped out to a café to take some work calls and handle other business. I was asleep again when he returned.

In the morning we enjoyed the baths again and then tucked into the hotel’s buffet breakfast — pretty standard Japanese hotel fare.

Sunny, windy return

I hadn’t plotted the return course, figuring I could just reverse the previous day’s ride on Garmie. But after some frantic searching through various menus on the device and related searches via my phone, it soon became apparent this function was only available via the web interface. It’s something I should have taken care of before leaving home. The situation was exacerbated by the fact I’d hit my data cap on my phone (about which I’m going to have words with a certain colleague at the office tomorrow), so everything was taking far longer than patience would allow. At last José plotted to route back to Edogawa on Google Maps using his own phone, and I handed over navigation duties to him.

Google took us back right through urban traffic the entire way to the Nagareyama Bridge, after which we rejoined the Edogawa cycling path — directly into the wind. We started out optimistically enough, enjoying the blue skies and springtime vistas of the river, and set our sights on the Tora-san café rest stop for lunch.

After filling our bellies and having a bit of a rest, we continued on into the wind. But our energy dwindled with each passing kilometer. José was openly talking about his spirit yearning for home, while I was wondering what exactly it was I liked about this stupid sport anyway. We’d been loping along on our way upstream the previous day at just less than 20km/h, and were now fighting to make 17km/h, with our speed slowing to as little as 12 at times.

Finally we reached the branching of the river with the Kyuedogawa. As we turned to follow the Kyuedogawa, the wind slackened abruptly and our speed — and spirits — rose accordingly. We were laughing again by the time the Magic Kingdom hove into view. We stopped for a photo which I sent off to Nana to update her on our position (and which she may not have received until I arrived home thanks to the data cap).

After a brief lateral across the edge of Tokyo Bay, we raced up the Arakawa with the wind at our backs. José zoomed ahead at this point and was waiting for me at the bridge to take us over the Arakawa and back into the city. On the bridge, the wind was blowing stiffly from our left and we had to fight to keep going in a straight line. Once back in city traffic, though, the wind left us alone to concentrate on traffic. We reached Nihonbashi almost before we knew it, and quickly parted ways.

After leaving José at Nihonbashi, I continued homeward at a leisurely pace. I stopped at Otemon gate to admire the shidarezakura before continuing to Kudanzaka. Tired as I was and with my laden bicycle, I got off and pushed up Kudanzaka to the entrance to Budokan. While taking my snaps I noticed a message from Nana at 1:38: What time do you think you’ll be back? It was 2:25 by this time so I replied about 3:30. I mounted up again and was soon playing cat-and-mouse with a rider on an unladen single-speed bike along Shinjuku Avenue. (He left me in the dust, naturally.)

I got a green light at Shinjuku Station and soldiered up the rise over the railroad tracks. I’d been wondering if I’d make 75km before reaching home, and Garmie beeped comfortably before the finish to let me know I’d cleared that goal. At the final light I dodged a driver who’d gone straight from the turn lane, overtook an ebike, and cruised to a stop by the entrance to the bike parking. “I’m home,” I messaged José and Nana at 3 p.m. on the nose.

On the first day we were rested and relaxed as we cruised up the Edogawa, taking long breaks for food and water. We had a couple of errant turns but were soon back on track. On a moving time of 4:10:34, I averaged 18.2km/h. On the return my thighs felt good and I was just a bit saddle-sore. I was able to find a comfortable position each time I mounted up. But the wind really took it out of us on our way down the river. On a moving time of 4:20:42, I averaged 17.5km/h.

The two-day effort netted a couple of trophy badges: the March Ride to 100 from Garmin and the March 400-Minute challenge from Strava.

A lot of fun

In the days leading up to the ride I’d been wondering if I’d chosen a good destination. The sights and hotel would be so-so, and we’d pass through significant urban areas. But we enjoyed the Edogawa and the Ohori River path, and were satisfied with onigiri on the shore of Teganuma (although we didn’t bother to ride a lap of the lake). The hotel baths were surprisingly nice and uncrowded, and we had no complaints about the Chinese dinner. José wrapped it up by saying he’d really enjoyed the ride and what a nice contrast it was to our previous journey into exurb Chiba.

I had one final surprise as I garaged the bike at the end of the ride: I could see the light of the headlight reflecting off the pillars of the garage. As soon as I dismounted I checked: Yes, both the headlight and taillight were lit. I’ve gone to some trouble and expense to get the dynamo lights working, and they’d worked fine for a couple of rides and then were distinctly not working for the following two rides. Finding them lit up at the end of my ride home from Chiba leads me to believe there’s a loose connection or possibly intermittent short somewhere. But if someone were to suggest to me that Kuroko has a poltergeist, I’d consider that an equally rational explanation at this point.