2016 年開始，每年都想尋找紅葉嘅足跡，但年復年紅葉期不停向後退。
到到 2020 年，一切都要停頓了。
Since 2016, I began the chase of Red Leaves in Japan, but the period just kept pushing backward.
Up to year 2020, all things came to a complete stop…
00:00 Introduction
00:50 茶屋町站前 Chayamachi Ekimae
02:17 倉敷起步 Kurashiki Ivy Square take off
09:00 瀨户大橋 Seto Bridge
10:30 倉敷美觀地區 Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter
11:17 観龍寺 Kanryuji
16:17 不洗觀音寺 Arawazukanon Temple
16:57 吉備津神社 Kibitsu Jinja (Sanbi Ichinomiya)
17:46 神户 Kobe, , Kikuseidai
19:12 北野異人館 Kitano Ijinkan-Gai, 摩耶山 掬星台 Kikuseidai
20:40 鉄人 28 Gigantor Monument
20:13 明石海峽大橋, 姬路駅前 Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, Himeji Ekimae
26:25 姬路城 Himeji Castle
27:42 書寫山 Shoshasan
27:52 歲德神社 Yūtoku Inari Shrine
38:14 瀨户大橋（宇多津）Seto Bridge (Utazu)
Red Leaves riding trip The year was 2016… However, year after year, I didn’t see any. Also the bikes were all so bad to ride. Then all came to a halt… I built my own a tri-fold bike during this period, after all, a tri-fold is more suitable for air travel,
I have also decided, when all the ban lifted, I will bring this out of HK, Finally Long time no see, Seto Bridge… Soooo excited, it’s been more than 3 years and 8 months since my last visit to japan for my Red Leaves chasing project.
That’s right, I am bringing my own bike this time, and it is a tri-fold type. This type of bike is easier for travelling, compared to my other bike (JXP). Went smoothly from Takamatsu airport, then to Takamatsu JR station by bus, and to here, Chayamachi.
Actually my destination is Kurashiki, so why the stop here, it is because if I go all the way by train, I would have to first go to Okayama, then get change to another line to Kurashiki.
So I thought, why not get off here and to ride to Kurashiki, it’s only 5.6km, not far at all, as it is getting dark now, so let’s get the bike out.
Morning, OK, here it is, the first destination for today is the Seto Bridge, and this is the hotel I stayed for the night, pretty good, strongly recommended, let’s check out the bike, shall we? Alright, the bike is all ready, I have done some minor modification to this tri-fold bike for this trip, here
I don’t use the Litepro kick stand any more because that would stick out and could cause some damage when folded inside the bike bag, so I swapped it with a quick release stand instead. So, all set, let’s roll.
I have just passed the Kurashiki area and will make a whole morning walk there tomorrow, so let’s head all the way to the south, to see the Seto Bridge. The entire route is about 47km. As you see there are many people, who are going to school as well as going for work.
Cycling in Japan is so common, you would see them mostly go about by bike. The side walk is also built for this purpose, it allows a shared use of the side walk. Cannot compare with HK as they do not have the problem with space.
OK, time to climb hill road, however, this time, I am with my own bike, not a rental one, and it makes a BIG difference.
The best one I remembered was from the Giant shop at Imabari, cost around 4,000 yen a day, and it was for the trip to Kirosan from Imabari, and it only has 12 gears (front 2, rear 6).
Mine one this time has 18 gears (front 2, rear 9), and it is now only at 3rd gear for this slope. When finished climbing, there will be down hill, and that may be worrying, as this bike is using C-brake,
And as you might know, C-brake is not as good as disc-brake, so may be just to pay a little more attention to it, need to keep braking for lower speed. For disc-brake, it would be care-free, just let it go 😉
While we speak, the up hill part is about to finish, there is a tunnel ahead, will show you when getting there. Finished climbing and it was easy, compared with the experience I had from previous trips. That’s the main reason why I decided to bring my own bike this time,
And here is one of my most favourite parts about Japan, and that is to ride a bike through a tunnel. Why would I need to pay for a rushing event when I can enjoy going through as many as I feel like it?
Most of these tunnels are big enough so you wouldn’t smell any gasoline and there is no need for ventilation fans on top, and it reaches the end of it. Downhill ahead, careful….. Seto Bridge view Down hill again….. Fast forward, the actual speed was around 19-30kmph Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter Kanryuji
OK, so now we have left Kurashiki, and now heading to Okayama, will pass by the real Kibitsu Jinja as I made a mistake in previous trip.
As usual, if simply follow Google map, as it would show you the shortest path between two places, so the suggested route would need to go across a mountain, so I didn’t want that.
A bit of sharing, I thought I could carry around the bike carrier bag while planning for this trip, it is good for packing the bike for air travel, but it turned out to be quite a nuisance,
When carrying it at the back of the bike rear rack, it is not as secure as I though, also it would block the heels while cycling. So I wrap the carrier bag with a belt this morning and ask to hotel service to send it to my last hotel on 24th.
For my cloths, I use the saddle bag (inner bag of the carrier bag) to pack them all up and wrap it, since it is a lot smaller, so it is now OK to carry it around.
As you can see, the bottom part would not block the heels and it is quite sturdy in this way. I guess this should be the way for all bike trips afterward.
Seems a van wants to come this way….. not, and because roads are a lot narrower at areas like this, not bringing the carrier bag is definitely a wise choice. Right, the view would be like this for a distance, stop for now. Arawazukanon Temple Kibitsu Jinja (Sanbi Ichinomiya)
Reaching Okayama station and take the JR to Kobe Welcome to Kobe
I was going to ride to the coast line and see the BEKOBE sign, but all roads are blocked now, because there will be a parade this afternoon the celebration of the Hanshin Tigers won the championship. See whether I will see the parade today, if not, that’s fine, so I will head east to see if there is anything interesting.
北野異人館 Kitano Ijinkan-Gai Kikuseidai Perfect spot to see Kobe night view. OK, so that is done with Kobe for now, along from the hotel down here, heaading to west towards Himeji, and there will be some interesting POI to stop for, lets go. Here is the first one – Gigantor Monument
Continue towards the west, along the coast line, very windy today, I guess it is because there is a wind change and it will have a sudden temperature drop in coming few days. Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge Himeji station night view.
Today we can finally take a good look at this place, last time was in 2016, after the Shimanami Kaido trip, on the way to KIX, there was still time, so I made a fast trip to Himeji, but only able to walk beteen the station and the castle.
Himeji is very interesting, the train station has a straight road right towards the castle, and there are many shops along the road. It gives you a very compact feel of the place, so if you are in a hurry but still want to make a quick visit, Himeji is one of the spots.
Here is the south of the station, when cross the station, you will see the castle. As I don’t need to make an early move this morning, so it is quite quiet on the street since it is already 10:00.
Let’s ride over there as there is sun shining, it is pretty cold this morning, about 7, 8? Here is the north side of the station, as you can see there is a podium, you can go up there and have a nice view of the castle.
This bike lane probably is the nicest one I have ever seen, again it is ahared used by bikes and padestrian. Shoshasan Yūtoku Inari Shrine Morning, today is the last day, back to this place that I have been visited back in 2018 (Marugame), this is just next to it (Utazu).
I will take one stop from here tomorrow to Sakaide for the airport bus. This hotel is right next to the station, it is pretty good too, only the room temperature cannot be adjusted, so I had to open the windows and use the cold air outside to neutralise, pretty lame.
I will re-visit some of the places and to take the same shots and compared with the old ones, should be fun. Comparing between rentals and bringing your own, there are pros and cons on each side.
For rental, with the couple of hundreds yens, it’s on the budget side, but you would not expect anything, I stil remembered a trip at Matsuyama, I experienced a puncture right in the middle of nowhere, if it wasn’t a guy I met that day, I couldn’t imagine what would happen.
This is the road leading to the Seto Bridge Memorial Park. What you see is not the bridge body yet, it is only the high rise part of the highway, ready to join the railway together ahead.
The railway part will join and at the lower part of the structure, it is not the same as the Tsing Ma bridge we have, it is an open design, meaning you can see the outside view of the train windows.
See that? The highway and railway merged, going across is Kurashiki, where we came. Back to the topic about rental vs self brought, with rental bikes, no guarentee of quality, and the settings mostly not fit your geomety,
Reminds me of the trip in Hiroshima back then, the Tobishima Kaido, I remembered thre was no place I could get a rental. the hotel I stayed with told me that I could borrow their bike, I thought that’s good news, but it turned out to be that 3-speed bike was so hard to ride, the Tobishima Kaido is at 44km one way, so it makes 88km a return trip, I ended up with a criple thighs.
So since then, I always wanted to have my own bike for trip like this, my first self-assembly (JXP) is simply not fit for travel purposes,
Up until I got hold of a tri-fold, it is the game changer, altough it is not as comfortable to ride due to lack of front/rear suspension, but it can be folded in such a way.
Self brought has many good sides, but the down side is that you would have to carry a baby all the way, with tools, and cannot bring too many cloths because you may need to carry them along with the bike.
Also you would need to find a carrier bag for the bike, there are choices like suitcase, dimpa bag, or like me, a proper bike bag (Vincita), which is very good. Alright, we are close after these corners. This tower is worth going, but I never did 😉
I will just go and take couple of shots of my own bike, good enough for me. Seto Bridge (from Utazu side) There is the Seto Bridge completion memorial stone, and it makes the final down hill for this trip. I hate c-brakes…..
Alright, this concudes my Red Leaves riding trip, it was a success in general, the ad-hoc service request I asked for to tranport my bike carrier bag was a good experience, and I know what I should arrange next time round.
So what was the down side, and it has to be the Red Leaves period. As the extreme weather is happening more often, the Red Leaves period has been pushing once again towards the year end. Does it mean I might have to come next year around Christmas time? 🙁 Thanks for watching.