Kitaura to Tsuchiura(C-1)⭐⭐⭐⭐’22.10th,Sep
This C-1 route is in Area-C “Kanto". See Area-C map/ See Japan map
Sight & Entertainment ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Foods & Drinks ⭐⭐⭐ *Up to your planning
Easiness ⭐⭐⭐ *Wind was strong in this time.
Road condition ⭐⭐⭐⭐ *Some places were gravel in Kitaura
Safety ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The training camp of our cycling team in Kasumigaura(lake). This time we took another lake, Kita-ura for the first time and gathered at Kashima Jingu station at 10:09AM, the time of BBBase arival(pic.3). Only I came there by normal train, I reached there 30min earlier and went to Kashima-jingu(shrine), 300M away from the station(pic.1). It was too large to walk all the way, so I turned back after visiting the main hall(pic.2) locating near the shrine gate.
Unusually the east wind blew strongly but we basically headed toward north west, and the cycling road was unexpectedly well paved(pic.4), so it was comfortable cycling. Sometimes when the cycling road cross a stream, the approach to the bridge became a gravel road.
We took a lunch at a local restaurant, Marui-shokudo, who served voluminous lunch at lower price. I ordered grilled pork set menu(pic.6) at \900-.
After lunch, we turned toward west to reach Kasumigaura. There are some hills btw both lakes, so we took a very narrow local road in a forest (pic.7), which was very cool temperature. When we’ve gone through woods, soon the bigger lake, Kasumigaura appeared(pic.8). Now our usual course to Tsuchiura city, our destination to stay one night for a dinner.
It was sunny early autumn day, the contrast of ear of rice, water of lake and blue sky was very beautiful(pic.10). The section of pic.10 was in headwind but once we turned to south-west, it became strong tailwind.
In this one year, a new cycling station opened(pic.11) and most of cyclists take a rest here. There are many sweets menu which use local fruits.
We took one hour rest there and the sun was going down. Still there were 25km left, but thanks to strong tailwind, we could reach Tsuchiura within 1hr. After taking a bath, we gathered at local cuisine restaurant to enjoy drinking.
Next morning, my colleagues went hill climbing to Tsukuba mountain(pls refet to my C-13 article). I didn’t join and went home with local specialty product, baked sweet potato(\760- for 4 pcs) which was very sweet as if I was eating jelly of sugar.
<Transportation info>
From Tokyo to Kashima-Jingu: JR sobu rapid train to Chiba, then JR Narita line to Sawara, then JR Kashima line to Kashima-Jingu. 2hrs40min, \1,980-
*Seasonally BBBase runs from Ryogoku station to Kashima-Jingu.
From Tsuchiura to Tokyo: JR Joban line, 1hr20min, \1,166-
<Relating route>