New Year's Ride through Yaotsu

A new year’s ride from Ena to Tajimi. We rode the Chuo Line up to 武並駅 Takenami Station, and were a bit worried to find frost on the ground. Snow and ice necessitated a slow, steep decent to the Kiso River. The temperature was around -3℃.

After a short break at a rural fire station, we started our climb up to 坂折棚田 the Sakaori Terraced Rice Fields (Sakaori literally means “folded hills”), at around 500m. There was a New Year’s celebration going on at the shrine here, hence the どんど焼き dondoyaki, the purifying spiritual bonfire.

After this, the climb intensified, topping out around 700m, and some grades of over 13%. A lot of snow on the ground. I felt a little pain in my knees from the cold.

The downhill on National Highway 418 was pretty good, with smooth, wide roads and little traffic. A tunnel spit us out on the 462m-long rigid-frame 新旅足橋 Shin-Tabisoko Bridge (2010), which also happens to be the place of the highest bungee jump in Japan, 220m above the Tabisoko Gorge. I tried looking over the edge while crossing the bridge, but it was a little nerve-racking.

From there, it was down, down, down to the retro downtown of 八百津町 Yaotsu, and across the Yaotsu Bridge and Kiso River once again. After a few long tunnels and rolling hills through 御嵩町 Mitake Town and 可児市 Kani, we made it to Tajimi Station for a well-earned okonomiyaki.

After lunch and packing up our bikes at the station for the train, a punctilious station master chased us down and made us remove our bicycle saddles before boarding the train. This required groping around for packed tools and moving bike parts around in not-so-ideal conditions (i.e., the middle of a busy train station). Technically, it’s the rule, but that’s the first time I’ve been called out for it in a decade of rinko-cycling across Japan.