Kawaguchi Lake 河口湖 cycling and canoeing

I spent another weekend with the IAC-Tokyo on one of the five lakes on the north side of Mt. Fuji. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge, a small and reasonably priced 民宿 (hotel) that rents bicycles and canoes, that is tucked into the forest of cedar and cypress trees which carpets the mountainsides.
Yurie organized the group of 10 of us on a bicycling trip on Saturday. My rental mountain bike was too small for me, but that's to be expected. Since the ride was pretty easy, that was no problem; I just stood up on my pedals most of the time. We cycled along the lakeshore and through some mountain forests, eventually passing 西湖 Fuji Westlake and arriving at a traditional village that had been destroyed by a typhoon-induced landslide and flood about 45 years ago and then rebuilt. Before reconstruction, a dam was built in the steep valley above, to catch debris in the case of a landslide and to dissipate the energy of the swollen stream in case of a flood. Together with the dam, a channel was built through the center of the village so that flood waters wouldn't destroy the village again. Together, the dam and channel have protected the village from destruction since, and the village now serves as a museum of sorts, preserving the way of life of feudal times. This lab experiment, in the village museum, shows the destruction caused by the flood and landslide without the dam and channel:
and the protection offered by the constructed works:On the way back to the lodge, one of my companions, Mirin, suffered a nasty fall from his bicycle while rounding a sharp turn and descending a steep hill at high speed. The rest of the group was ahead, but I was the anchor, with Mirin directly in front of me. His fall was worthy of a Hollywood action movie, and I regret not having it on film so that he could see how well he performed the stunt! But sadly he broke his collarbone in the process. All I could do was give him my coat to use as a sling for his bad arm, while he phoned the group ahead of us. They had already returned to the lodge about 5km further on, and Bryce came back with his car to pick us up and then bring Mirin to the hospital, from whence his wife cared for him sweetly; lucky guy!

That night was a heavy rain, and the lodge staff cooked us grilled veggies and 焼きそば yakisoba (for me; the rest of the folks at meat of course). Mirin came back from the hospital dressed like a monk, with a white blanket over his white splint/sling/bandage over loose brown clothes. Another photo I regret not having taken!

The next day Mirin and his wife returned to Tokyo, to get treatment at a bigger hospital. The rest of us spent the day canoeing on the lake and enjoying the view of Mt. Fuji. We paddled to a small island in the middle of the lake, upon which was a forest and a hill, and on top of the hill was a shrine (part of the traditional Shinto religion). The island used to have camping facilities, with water, power, and small boat landings, but these were in disrepair and overgrown with at least 10 years of vegetation. The lodge staff told me the camping facilities were abandoned 15 years ago due to the inconvenience of getting to the island, so now only the shrine is left.
Along the saturday bicycle ride, there was one sign around to ensure us that we're in the land of funny English (though granted, in the US we have our fair share of funny Japanese and Chinese writing around too).
Can't read the sign? Look again.

My dorm in Tokyo

This is my dorm building at 東京海洋大学 Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. It's on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, so everything in the area was built in the 60's and 70's.


My room makes me feel like I'm a freshman in college again, apart from the lack of roomate. It's a western style room, with bed and desk, in contrast to the Japanese style tatami room I stayed in back in my much older dorm in Kobe (which had been built in the 40's or 50's). The main advantage of my dorm here is the A/C unit, which has been very nice at the end of this hot Tokyo summer. I often use the space on the floor between the bed and the desk for pushups and situps after jogging around the island.

My kitchen is in a hallway that connects the entrance (you take shoes off at the step near the entrance) to the bedroom. Across the hallway from the kitchen are the bathroom and a storage closet. In all, the dorm is very modern. It lacks the charm of the traditional tatami room I stayed in back in Kobe, but it makes up for that through A/C. Ants and roaches, however, are as much of a problem here as they were in Kobe, leading me to sweep and wash my floor everyday.

Urban planning in Tokyo

This city is so advanced and civilized that it casts a dim light on us in the US. In addition to the excellent public transit that's been part of the culture here since the end of feudal times, Tokyo is building automated underground bicycle parking garages for its commuters.

My first hike in Tokyo: Takao-san guchi to Sagami Lake

I'm lost in this big city, but I had the chance to explore some mountains for the day, and since I didn't want to go hiking all by my lonesome, I was lucky enough to convince 9 nice folks from the local hiking club to come with me. The superb railway system here makes it so easy to get from place to place, even out in the countryside, that it's easy to get off at one station, hike over a mountain, and get back on a train from another station on the other side of the mountain. My companions and I did just that, starting at Takao-san guchi station, and ending up at Sagami Lake station.


The Takao side of the hike was extremely crowded, as it's popular for local hikers and runners from Tokyo, especially on a sunny day like yesterday, which was the first sunny day in a week. Tokyo was hot, but the weather on the mountain was relatively cool and pleasant, due both to the forests of cedar and cypress blanketing the mountain, and to the cool rivers running through the canyons cutting across it. The relatively easy climb to the top of Takao (about 600 m altitude) took about an hour and a half.

From there on we traversed the ridge to Shiro-yama, which means Castle Mountain. Despite the name, there was no castle on top, though maybe there had been one in feudal times? The top of Shiroyama now is dominated by NHK antennas and an outdoor restaurant. Descending from Shiryama to Sagami Lake took us through some very quiet and peaceful cedar forest. My group and I weren't quiet enough for the forest, however, leading one local hiker to complain that we were being too loud as we were walking along the trail.

The trail descended to the Sagami river, which it crossed via a very nice pedestrian bridge of suspension type (BenTen Bridge). It then ran through some rice fields and vegetable gardens before re-crossing the river at the Sagami Lake Dam. Just upstream of the dam, a large boil marked the lake surface, as this is the location of the lake's aeration system, where air is pumped into the bottom of the lake, to spur overturning of the lake water and to prevent stratification and depletion of the oxygen on the lake bottom.


After about 4 1/2 hours of walking from Takaosan guchi station, we reached Sagami Lake station, and returned to Tokyo.