Instead of writing up the full blog post about my visit the other day to Suntory's Yamazaki Distillery, I instead did a short bicycle ride to the area, to investigate all the short-but-steep roads nestled in where the city meets the mountain.

On the way, I went through the belly of the sprawling Yamazaki Junction, mentioned in a comment on the blog post where I featured photos of the rat's-nest Kumiyama Junction....

It's much more complex than the one I wrote about before, but much less photogenic...

It's more complex in that it includes an entrance and an exit that can be reached by either of the two expressways that cross. Looking at the area on the map is dizzying. But it's spread over a fairly wide area, and unlike the other junction I wrote about, a bicycle can't get to much of it. So from any one spot, you can see a few trees, but have no sense for the magnitude of the forest.

Oh, and one other things this junction has is a bus stop on the expressway. Passengers reach it from the normal surface roads:

Anyway, I continued over toward the small (but steep) mountain that Yamazaki nestles up against....

Once I reached the mountain, I skirted it and took every road that turned in toward the mountain. Many didn't go far, but some brought enjoyable surprises, such as a big temple...

I made a Strava segment for the 370m @ 11% climb, but it seems few folks have done it.

Near Suntory's distillery is something called the “Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art”. Asahi is a competitor of Suntory, and I assume that they put this thing nearby on purpose, and if so, it seems a bit slimy to me. The road up to the entrance is very steep, and past that it's even steeper as a service road to the rear of the site. It's just as well I wanted to do that steep service road, because as the signs at the entrance indicate multiple times, bicycles (and much else) aren't welcome.

Then it was time for the main climb I knew to be in the area, the short but steep climb to the Hoshakuji Temple (宝積寺) It averages 15.6% for its 350-meter length....

I tried to put in an effort, but it didn't feel like I was getting much out of it. My legs are weak from not having done this kind of powerful effort all winter. Normally it's my lungs that limit me, but this time it was my legs... at least until a trash truck didn't feel like sharing the road, and I had to stop to let him by. Really burst my bubble.

I didn't like that I was interfered with, so I turned around and did it again.

On the way down in between, I snapped a photo showing how high one gets in such a short distance:

Anyway, I got to the bottom, turned around, and did it again, sans trash truck.

Holy cow, the second time was so much worse than the first. My willpower just collapsed and I ended up barely inching forward toward the middle, or so it felt. But by the time I got near the top, the last few meters had me — and this was a first for me — almost throwing up. I guess the problem is that I attempted an effort that I could have done at the start of the winter, but not now at the end.

It had taken just two minutes, but I was wiped out to the core.

Once I got moving again, I was drained, so I took everything for the rest of the ride really easily.

I started poking around the mountain again.

In the center of the photo above, there's a narrow path going down; a woman and a toddler are walking up it. The path is so particular that I immediately recalled it from my commute by motorcycle, done most days between 1990 and 1995.

I also came across a preschool that I recall having gone past all the time, but this time I noticed a small street beside it pitching up the mountain, so I took it. It eventually entered the woods and got even steeper...

I made a segment for this climb as well, 450m @ 13%, but I'm the only one to have done it so far.

The smells from the distillery are heavenly, another thing I remember from the few seconds that I passed in front of the place on my daily commute 25 years ago. In particular, the steam emanating from this truck had a lovely rich smell that I just sat and took in for a bit...

The back road down to the distillery seemed to make a nice climb, so I retraced my steps and did it, then made it into a Strava segment. Overall it's a mild 500m @ 8%, but the first third is relatively flat, then the next third is about 12%.

My effort was 3rd-overall best.... out of four total. 🙂

Continuing around the mountain, I saw a side path go into a tunnel, so I took it...

It goes steeply up the mountain along the edge of a cemetery.

While poking around later, I came across the this monstrosity of a building:

The trip down from there seemed to make a natural climb, so as before, I turned around and did the climb back up, making yet another segment. This one is 750m (½ mile) at an overall average of 8%, but it keep getting steeper and steeper. The final bit behind the ugly building is on the order of 17%.

Finally it was time to head home.

On the way back, I stopped by Morning Glory for coffee and a sandwich...