Sept. 16-17, 2023
Lake Biwa (also called “Biwako”) is the largest fresh-water lake in Japan. It is located in Kansai area, just above Kyoto. I had always wanted to try cycling around Biwako.
Recently, I found out from internet that there is a free parking lot in Misaki Park at the starting point, for people to park their cars & cycle around Biwako. You can even park your cars overnight there.
So, we decided to drive from Kanto to Kansai (around 5 hour drive if no traffic), and take 2 days to cycle around Biwako!
However, since it is still warm in September & 3-day holidays (Monday was public holiday), even though we started driving at midnight, the highway was crowded & busy like daytime. Finally, we arrived there around daybreak, 5-6am.
We found a 24-hour family restaurant (Joyfull) to have our early breakfast & took a nap on the table, and then we parked our car & started riding.
The starting point was just across the street from the free parking lot, with a good cycling road map, and some landmark signs. Perfect!
We met a cycling group at the starting point, around 10 people older and younger. They were quite ambitious, planning to cycle around Biwako (about 200km) in one day! Indeed, after a brief re-gathering at a convenience store, we lost sight of them. Perhaps, they had succeeded afterall.
DAY #1
I must say that Biwako is the “flattest” place that I have ever cycled! Japan is a hilly island, I often found myself cycling accumulated altitude of several hundred meters a day, sometimes even close to a thousand meters a day, but around Biwako, the accumulated altitude was just less than 200m a day.
It was so flat & easy to ride. Especially if you ride anti-clockwise, you can basically just follow the Blue Line on the road, and ride along the lake! We had headwind at northern part of the lake, but it was not too bad.
However, I noticed that being flat means a little boring & lack of scenery… At first, we passed some camp sites & parks, then we found ourselves just riding along busy traffic, almost like riding in town! So, we escaped the main road to take smaller trails. It is longer, more bumpy, sometimes disconnected, so cannot ride so fast, but then we could have a closer view of the lake, even cross some woods, tunnels & fishing people.
Since we didn’t navigate, just follow the Blue Line, we sometimes went off the course, and rode longer than we intended.
It was so hot, like 36-37degC during daytime, and we were lack of sleep because of the overnight drive, we ended up taking a long nap on the bench of a resting area next to the beach. There was beautiful water view, sound of waves, strong cool wind & nice shadow. We actually fell asleep, while all these road bike people rode past us looking curious. Of course we didn’t care… if you cannot enjoy the environment, what else do you travel for?
The lake was endlessly large, at some places there were many sea birds and green weed on water surface. Also, there were many white sand beaches and people playing on the beach, that I kept confusing it as Sea instead of Lake! Anyway, I love the view of all these white birds flying around & gathering on water, so peaceful & beautiful…
Since we wasted too much time during the hot day, when it was getting dark we were still riding. Only by then we noticed that the smaller trails we took were the longer route, but it was already too late to go to the big road, we just kept riding.
Sunset at the lake looked amazing. Pale sky and pale water connected together. Sun reflected on the water. Some people were fishing on small boats, some were simply standing at the middle of water to fish.
Since the smaller road was surrounded by trees, when it was getting dark, we started being attacked by bugs all around, hitting our bodies and our glasses when we rode. It was too annoying.
However, we rode pass some gorgeous campsites & hotels. There was a campsite (Stagex Takashima) with a miniature windmill that looked like the Netherlands, pointed pale tents that looked like Finland. There were also another campsite with dome pale tents. There were all illuminated at night, so looked beautiful. I bet these deluxe campsites must be expensive, After all, Biwako is a resort area.
Finally, after turning into residential area, we found our hostel for the night. There were already several road bikes parked in front of it. We walked in & smell of foods rushed to us. We knew we would arrive late, so we didn’t order dinner. After quick shower that we so deserved, we tried to walk around the little town center to look for dinner, but the few restaurants in walking distance were either fully-booked or closed, so we walked into convenience store, bought a bunch of these & that, and enjoyed our relaxing dinner in my air-conditioned Japanese style room & climbed into our futon.
We broke our record of riding over 120km in a day! Of course, it was because the road was so flat, and we carried minimal load for only 2 days, no tent, no sleeping bag, no cookware… but it was still an achievement!
Distance Cycled: 120.84km
Stay: Ebisusou
DAY #2
In the dark, I heard so much noise downstairs that I had to wear ear plugs. When we woke up in the morning, looked down from our window, all these road bikes were already gone. Obviously, road bike people skipped the breakfast, in order to start riding when it was still cool in the morning. However, we stayed & enjoyed our rich Japanese style breakfast before setting off.
Second day we had much less to ride. The road was still flat, but the sun was still strong. When we headed south, we saw more and more traffic. Many cars came from Kyoko. From the southernmost town (Otsu City) of Biwako to Kyoto City is only roughly 13km, so Biwako is a popular place for Kyoto residents to visit during holidays. We could still see beaches and white seabirds, but there were more towns & traffic, not so fun to ride anymore.
We rode pass a huge interesting structure, an Arts Museum. I wonder what’s in there. It was like 37depC during the day that my partner almost got a sunstroke, so we decided to take a break to visit Lake Biwa Museum.
It was full of families and kids. There were 6 demonstration halls, showing many local animals, insects and plants. They also showed the history of how Lake Biwa was formed 4 million years ago. There were fossil remains and models of the extinct elepants and plants.
+++ Cite from Lake Biwa Museum +++
There are no elephants in the forests of Japan today. However, about 1.8 million years ago, a small species of elephant, called the Akebono elephant (Stegodon aurorae), used to roam the area. The Akebono elephant later became extinct. However, the nearly complete fossilized remains of an Akebono elephant were found in Shiga Prefecture’s Taga Town.
Stegodon miensis, which had a height of nearly four meters, lived about four million years ago in the area around Lake Biwa. It was a species close to Stegodon zdanskyi, which inhabited China at the time. It seems that the Mie elephant was slightly smaller. This is a replica of skeletal specimen of a Stegodon zdanskyi. The left half is a reconstruction of a living Stegodon zdanskyi. After making its way to Japan, these elephants evolved into the Mie elephant, which in turn evolved into the small-sized Akebono elephant.
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I was looking forward to visit the Aquarium tunnel in Lake Biwa Museum, but unfortunately it was in repair. However, there were still many smaller Aquariums, with many unique-looking ancient fishes, frogs, ducks and an adorable seacow. I also met the smallest mouse (Micromys minutus) in Japan! It was so tiny & adorable!
The southern part of Biwako was mostly towns and busy traffic, so we crossed the closest bridge to the east, and skipped the southernmost part of Biwako, back to the starting point & where we parked our car!
Although this was a short trip with mostly flat roads, the extreme sun & heat during the day, and the lack of sleep on day #1 had made it quite tough. However, I’ was so happy to have achieved a new record of riding 120km in one day, and also I packed the lightest for this trip. I feel like I always learnt something new in each trip. I’m so nervous but excited about my upcoming solo overseas cycling trips~ Yeah~
Distance Cycled: 55.13km
Stay: Le Lac Hotel Kusatsu
Note
Unfortunately, I noticed later that we had missed out some historical sites (Zeze Castle) and Nagisa Park in Otsu City, at southernmost point of Biwako. I hope other visitors won’t miss them out!
