Two weeks ago we had a fair bit of snow in Kyoto (a rarity, since many years we have none), so that probably meant that the mountains in the north (which get lots of snow) were impassable, so I took a bicycle ride south-west towards Kobe. I still found snow.

Here's the 100km ride:

The first climb was the eastern Yanagidani climb, which I had descended before but never ridden up. I took my time, stopping for photos like the above when I ascended above the snow line, and at one point to help a group of elderly hikers find their way.

Just after I took this photo, a station wagon came by with writing on the side along the lines of “City of Ibaraiki Bicycling Support”, which piqued my interest. I have no idea what the two guys in city-worker uniforms intended, but they apparently didn't have snow tires and their trip stopped when they hit this road and their wheels just spun on the ice. I asked whether they needed a push, but they waved me off, so I took a less-snowy road down the mountain into the city.

Along the way I came across construction for the “Shin-Meishin Expressway” (“New Kobe-Nagoya Expressway”), which is slicing through sparsely-habited mountains, and redrawing maps with construction closures and reroutings.

The cost of leveling mountains and filling in valleys, of making huge concrete bridges and boring long tunnels, must be huge. The cost of just the one massive bridge above is inconceivable to me, but it's just one small piece of the whole thing, slated to be done in another six years.

The social and economic benefit to the first trans-national expressway is pretty easy to understand, but since this “new” expressway more or less parallels the current one (+/- 20km), the benefits seem marginal at best... is it really worth the cost in money and in displaced people (and displaced serenity)? Eminent domain is a very big hammer best used exceedingly sparingly and with specific purpose. I realize that I'm utterly ignorant on this project, but at first blush my mind boggles.

Working my way through the suburbia and back up into the mountains, I took the next old mountain road I could find.

I wanted to go down to look at the obviously-old bridge, but there was no access to it anymore. Looking at Historical Imagery in Google Earth, I could see that even just 15 years ago, it led to a couple of farmsteads (that had been on the flat areas to the left in the photo above), but then about 10 years ago the big bridge I took the photo from was built, obliterating the farms.

Now, the road along the right side of the river has been taken over by construction for an exchange for the new highway, so the little old bridge looks like it will be forever cut off.

When I got to a local pass, I noticed a road heading up to the side, so I gave it a try, and found a short but pleasant area that I bet would be wonderfully cool in during a hot summer...

It led to a little village with a few houses, a restaurant, and this unexpected find:

They didn't have all that many artifacts inside, but I was surprised to learn that the first Catholic church in the area dated to 400 or so years ago.

I gave the small restaurant a try...

It was getting late, so I headed out of the mountains and through the ugly city until I got to the riverside path presented in the previous post (“Discovering a New Cycling Route from Kyoto to Osaka”), and headed home.

Every time I go by this wetland area I see some photographers lined up with big lenses, standing around looking cold, but this time there were hundreds stretching as far as the eye could see. I stopped to ask someone what was going on... it seems that there's some kind of owl that they're trying to photograph. Good luck to'em.

On the way home I stopped by the Morning Glory Cafe for crepes and coffee...