Cycling

In May of 2003 my tri-athletic brother gave me one of his unused racing bikes; a nice Fondriest that got me hooked on cycling.
That was only a year ago and 2600km on I decided to get a new bicycle. In January of this year (2004) I got this nice little gem.
TREK 5500  Luckily for me, the new bicycle was last year's stock so it was on sale at 33% off.
Both of these bicycles are master works of technology and I enjoy riding both of them.
The new one is good for long rides being light & made of carbon and the old one is a real sprinters bike made of stiff aluminium and has a low sports cars feel about it and is a kg heavier than the new one.

I do most of my riding on the Edo river which borders Chiba, Saitama, Tokyo, Ibaraki, & Tochigi prefectures.  On Sunday mornings I ride with a team,
SEO CYCLE SHIN MATSUDO. We start at the bridge at Misato under the Musashino train line and ride to Noda where the Kikkoman soy sauce factory is.  We then cross the bridge from the Chiba side to the Saitama side and take a group photo. After that we race back to Misato where we have a small morning tea and chat. The warm-up ride to Noda takes about 30 minutes and we go at a pace of about 24kph. On the return we go as fast as we can and my best time is 18 minutes. The route is about 25kms in total.   After the morning tea/chat, if we feel like doing more, some of us keep riding or we go home to our family chores.

A full circumnavigation of the river is about 120kms. I've done it once and it took just over 4 hours. The river empties into Tokyo Bay not too far away from Disneyland and starts it's course in Tochigi where it branches off the Tone river. You can ride to the Tone river as well which is also a nice ride. I plan to ride the Tone all the way to Choushi(the Pacific) this year which will be a 200km round trip.

From Tokyo Bay: here is a brief tour of the river.  If you start at the mouth of the river near the Myouden train station on the Tozai line you should ride up the river on the left side as this is the best cycling path. To tell you the truth I've yet to ride on the other side. It is possible to rent boats near the start but as this is a cycling story we won't go into that. The path is very good for riding but you have to be careful of pedestrians, dogs, and little kids at this end of the river. There is a nursery near the start and a few kilometres  up the river is a pony trail, so expect little toddlers to get mangled in your spokes if you're not watching. The good part about riding the Edo is the further up the river you go, the number of pedestrians and obstructions diminishes.

Before you reach Matsudo city, (20kms from the start) which is the biggest city on the river; you will come to a small town called Shibamata. This is the fabled town in the Torasan television series. There is a beautiful temple near here and a museum dedicated to Torasan and his movies. It is well worth the time to chain your bike up and go for a walk around here for about an hour. Have lunch up overlooking the river or take a traditional boat across the river and back. The Shibamata train station here has a nice statue of Torasan , so if you forfeit the 500 yen to go into the museum at least get your photo taken next to the statue. The traditional food stalls and souvenir shops here are as good as any you'll find in Japan too. [Most of those photos are from when I took my sons soccer team on a ride to Shibamata.]

As you move onto Matsudo  you will come to a few bridges. You may want to cross the bridge here if you like or keep going on the left hand side. By crossing the bridge you will be closer to Matsudo city where there are large department stores and you may like to pop into a restaurant or other shop for some supplies before continuing your journey up the river. By crossing the bridge and riding on the Chiba side of the river you will have better access to public toilets as well.

The Edo river is lined with playing fields for all kinds of sports. It is not unusual to see in one day along the river cricket, rugby, baseball, soccer, gateball, kite flying, gliders (real gliders), remote gliders and helicopters, dog training schools, air gun battles (you'll think you've ridden into a war zone), people practising golf (there are 3 golf courses on the banks of the river), picnickers, joggers, roller bladers, birdwatchers, photographers, people fishing, kayaking, jet skiing, water skiing etc etc... and did I mention cycling?

There are only about 3 spots along the whole of the river where you have to get off the cycle path to cross busy roads. The first is at Matsudo but there is a traffic light so don't worry too much. All of the other roads or bridges that cross the river have cycling paths that go under them.  After you pass Matsudo the number of people on the cycling path begins to diminish even more so. By the time you get to the Misato bridge you will not see too many people at a time. This is good if you want to pick up the pace a bit.

After passing the bridge at Misato (if you chose to stay on the left from Matsudo, now is a good time to cross the bridge to the Chiba side), continue along the river on the right. Early spring you'll see flowers galore and if you look out onto the river you may see what looks like an old bridge's concrete pylons. I always thought they were unused or obsolete pylons myself until I read in a newspaper recently that buried under the concrete are actually unused surplus bombs circa WW2. The army dumped them there after the war. I'll assume they are harmless but it may be advisable to ride quickly past this landmark.

You will see a large tower ahead. Keep this in mind as on your return journey it gives you a good idea of how far you've got to go. It is actually a chimney for the burning of the local garbage. ( a waste disposal center) No smoke comes from it as they re-burn the smoke too before it gets out the chimney, so it is all pretty clean and non-stinky so breathe deeply. If you are into road racing we sometimes ride around the tower complex for cornering practise. You can do a 2km loop of the complex and there are very few cars. Not too scenic though except for elderly men fishing in the creeks by the rice paddies for small fish or crayfish. Just past the waste disposal center you will pass under the Joban Expressway. (no cycles allowed on this road so stick to the river).

The next point of interest is a canal. It is called Toneunga. Unga means canal and this canal connects the Edo river with the Tone river. You now have an option. Turn right and follow the left hand side of the canal or keep going along the Edo river. (The canal is very beautiful and if it is Cherry Blossom season by all means go this way.) I'll talk more about this canal later as it deserves it's own story. If you don't have much time to go all the way to the end of the river to Sekiyado then go along the canal for about 5 kilometres. 10 kilometres will take you to the Tone river.

Back to the Edo. We're still only about a quarter into our journey. Keep going until you come to a gate and traffic light to cross. This bridge is in Noda where the Kikkoman factory can be seen just before the traffic lights on the right. If they are brewing up some soy sauce you may think that somebody has spilt it all over the place as it sometimes smells pretty strongly. My wife & kids have done a tour of the factory and I intend to do so too sometime over the next few months. They thoroughly enjoyed that. They also have a small castle, pond with swans and an old traditional bridge across the pond.

Keep going!!! There is not much else to see until you get to the end of the river now except for the wildlife, ducks, quails and I once saw a large peacock in the low wetlands. Just before summer you will be amazed at how many grasshoppers are on the path. I once gave up counting when I got to about 5000!!!   Later in summer it is a challenge to dodge the caterpillars or stop the swarms of bugs from going down your throat. Sunglasses are a must to prevent the insects mistaking your eyeballs for ice creams. There is  a glider club up further where you sometimes see a small Cessna towing a glider off the grass and into the sky. As you keep riding look off into the horizon just to your right and if the weather is good you'll start to see  a magnificent towering castle peering over the rooftops of the houses.

This is your destination. The castle is at the junction of the Edo & Tone rivers. It's name Sekiyado!  Farmers used to meet here to put their crops on boats to either Choushi or into Tokyo. This castle is difficult to get to by car, and my wife has never seen it in her life. I've ridden this far up the river about 4 times now. It is the halfway mark if you're riding from the Tokyo Bay. Sit down on the grass by the castle and have a rest. There is a small restaurant down the hill and sometimes the kiosk by the castle is open as well, selling traditional sweets crackers and whatnot.

As you head back to Tokyo it is a good idea to get on the right hand side and ride back on the other side just to get that circumnavigation feeling.... I would love to buy a house up this end of the river for a number of reasons. It is very nice and peaceful....to name one.

I'll put more accurate mileage down here later but here is a rough guide.

Tokyo Bay----->1km-Myouden------->17km-Shibamata------>20km-Matsudo----->30km-Misato---->37km-Toneunga canal---->40km-Noda---->45km-Kawama---->50km---Showa Town---->60km-Sekiyado Castle.

Don't forget your helmet!