Japan Summer 2024 - Day 7 • Kyoto to Nara

June 18, 2024

Japan Summer 2024 - Day 7

June 4, 2024

Kyoto to Nara 44 Km

Start 9:01AM Finish 12:06PM

Total Duration 3:05

Moving Time 2:37

Stopped Time 28:17

Ascent 303m

Descent 269m

Tour Total 691Km

Details at: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/186191944

I was up early and had a shower and shave before breakfast. It was a quick pack-up. The staff was in cleaning my room before I was even out of there. I said goodbye to Mr. Yamamoto, and then I was off through the hustle and bustle of Kyoto. I rode past the Higashi Hongan-ji temple, the Central Train Station and Kyoto Tower, and the five-storey Pagoda at Tō-ji Temple. It was bright and sunny and I was wearing my short-sleeve jersey, bib shorts, UV arm protectors, and socks.

The route led me to horrible four-lane highway 13 and I had to ride on the sidewalk for fear of being bashed by a truck's side view mirror. I crossed over the Kamo river, the Uji river, and then the Kizu river. I kept riding through the sprawl, and then ended up on a two-lane highway through an industrial area. I again had to ride on the sidewalk, which is perfectly common in Japan. The route then tried to put me onto freeway E24, where bikes weren't allowed. This route was part of 'Length of Japan' published by a Japanese Cycling group. I had been warned that not all of their route checked out. I didn't proceed on the freeway.

I turned to Google maps and had to use the walk setting, because there isn't a cycling setting in Japan. It put me on four-lane Highway 22. I knew today wasn't going to be pretty. For a stretch the highway merged down to two lanes and I rode through bamboo groves. The trees stretched seventy feet high with three to four inch thick trunks.

Highway 22 abruptly ended and Google took me on some nice narrow lanes through housing. I finally ended up on a bike/pedestrian path adjacent to freeway 24 going straight into Nara. When I got to the center of town, there were miniature deer roaming around a major intersection. Nara is known for its tame deer that wander around the park.

I dropped off my bags at the hotel. They were impressed that I'd written my bike from Kyoto, and then blown away when I told them that I had started in Tokyo. I rode out to the fifty foot tall Todai-ji Daibutsuden (Great Buddha), which was amazing as was the building and complex that housed it.

I then rode fourteen kilometers out of town to visit Hōryū-ji Temple. The main hall is recognized as the oldest surviving wooden building in the world. The trees used to construct the pagoda were cut down in 594. Armies of school children were shuffling through the gravel. It was well worth the trek, and my mileage would probably be double had I left my gps on. While Kyoto was the second capital of Japan, Nara was the first. It is smaller and more mellow than Kyoto.