In today’s cycling vlog, my wife Thuong and I will be riding to Sanage Mountain (猿投山) and climbing as far as we can by bike before we continue the rest of the hike to the mountain peak.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Japan with a comfortable temperature, so we also brought our new drone with us, hoping to get some good footage from Sanage Mountain.
Ride Departure
First, we hopped onto the green road and went East towards Toyota and the mountains. We recently got a new Ikea in our neighborhood, but have yet to go and visit. Saving that for another day..
This road has a fairly decent cycling path that is protected from cars, and gives quick and easy access to the mountains. We often use it when starting and finishing our rides.
The Climb
At the base of the climb there is Sanage Shrine. We stopped there for a quick break, so Thuong could tackle the climb at full power. Once I told her that this would be her largest climb to date (about 500m), she wasn’t looking forward to the pain to come.
Even though she is a fairly decent climber, she doesn’t like climbs that are over 3 minutes. Guess that means she’s a sprinter haha, but she toughed it out and made it all the way to the top without stopping 🙂
This climb is rideable by road bikes, but it is a bit messy at times with sticks, dirt/rocks on the road, so it’s a bit more challenging than a regular climb. It’s full of switchbacks and scenic views of the mountain though, so I definitely recommend the route.
We reached the peak in one piece, and it was full of hikers taking pictures at the gate continuing the trail. Most people hike from the base by Sanage Shring, though some people take their car up to this point and only hike the last little bit.
We also took this moment to take a bunch of photos before continuing on with our hike up Sanage Mtn.
After our quick photo shoot, we locked up our bikes and were on our way with our hike.
Hiking Sanage Mountain
Even though we did not do the full hike, there is still about 2km to get to the peak from where we started. This path is full of beautiful views, a smooth hiking path, and lots and lots of friendly hikers. There were actually a lot of kids/families out this day, so it’s a fairly simple hike that anyone in the family can participate in.
After reaching the peak, we took out the drone and took it for a little flight to get some awesome footage of the mountain. Make sure to check out the video in the VLOG.
After our drone flight, we descended back down the mountain and started our return home.
Delicious Food Reward For Today’s Ride
As a reward to Thuong for her hard work climbing up the mountain, I promised her that we would go get some delicious food after the ride.
We ended up going to a sweets shop which is famous for their ichigo daifuku (イチゴ大福), which is a strawberry filled sweet rice cake.
As you can see in the picture, it is a mouthwatering dessert and we enjoyed it thoroughly. To top things off, they also had a rare sweet, mikan daifuku (ミカン大福), which is the same type of dessert, but frozen with a mikan orange inside. So we of course got that one as well.
Two very satisfied customers.
After finishing up our ride, we also splurged and ordered a Large pizza from Dominos. This is normally a $35 expense, but we got a 50% off coupon in the mail, so it was a lucky day. Japanese pizza isn’t the best, but it tastes pretty good after a long, hard ride.
That’s it for today’s adventure. See you in the next cycling VLOG!
Today’s ride on Strava
