A serow!

It was very fine morning, therefore I rode on my bicycle and went to my favorite place where I lately like to go, Mt. Sakata-yama. It took less than twenty minutes from my home but there is a steap slope at last so I had a very hard time going up.

I parked my bike in the parking space and took a few minute walk to the gazebo. On the way to it, I suprisingly met a serow, who was standing to look at me. I thought we had only around ten meters between us so it was very exciting to see him.

It was fine but hazy in the sky so I couldn't see even Mt. Izuna or the other mountains around Nagano. And I enjoyed to have a very nice breeze there. But I was very satisfied to see a serow this morning. On the way back to my bicycle I found a butterfly stopping on the flower of dandelion. I later found it looked like 'Usuba-shiro-cho'.

I like this season.

Mt. Sakata in Suzaka

Sometimes in the morning I ride on a bike and take a stroll around the town. This morning in the weekend, I happened to go for another road which is new to me.

About half year ago I have found an article which showed this local mountain, Mt. Sakata in my city, Suzaka. The altitude of this mountain is not so high, less than 900m. I would climb it unless I had a bile. I decided to go to the place where I would taka a rest and would see some good view.

After running around the foot of the mountain, I found a parking place which had some space for a couple of cars. I left my bike there. It seemed to be close to the arbor, or Azumaya. I was surprised to see there were a lot of chestnut trees.

It took only five minutes from the parking place to the Azumaya. The view from there was very nice and surprised me a lot. I saw towns in Suzaka and Nagano city and Mt. IIzuna and some next ranges of mountains from there. How nice! I found such a nice place very near my usual course of riding a bike.

I enjoyed the view there and took some rest there. On my way back to my bike I picked up handsfull of chestnuts and I put them into my pockets of the pants.

The Chikuma river

Recently I have got a new machine. It's a bicycle. The kind of cross-bike, like a mountain bike. Amazingly, it has passed just 20 years since I had been using a bicycle everyday when I was a high school student.

This sunday afternoon I decided to take a wandering by my bike somewhere. I like running along the river so I chosed a course along Chikuma river for Obuse.

At first I left home for the Murayama bridge, which is one of the two bridges between Suzaka and Nagano city. It took just 10 minutes.

Then, after I got there, the direction was for the south. Some rivers in Japan are well maintenanced as there are roads on the riversides. It's partly true for the Chikuma but somewhere I often met unpaved parts of roads. My bike isn't appropriate to run on such roads. I had to draw it along me and walk.

In Obuse, it was very good roads, of course paved, and so that I didn't take even a short walk with my bike. I saw an athlete of wheelchair marathon running in high speed. I found a series of owner-system cherry trees along the road with some signboad including the owner names on them. You can enjoy beutiful cherry blossoms in April there.

My aim had been Obuse when I started but I changed my mind there. I made up my mind to go to the Tategahana bridge in Nakano city and go over it and come back along the opposite riverside. It took about an hour by the time I got there. It may sound very long but it's because I took a couple of rests on the way.

Soon after I crossed the bridge I had to go down the steps to the riverside. There was a small JR station named Tategahana. A few kilo meters ahead I ran together with a lot of cars running on R18 and then I could come back to the riverside road. There I could enjoy seeing the view of many mountains around the towns including Mt. IIzuna, Neko-dake, Karita-san, Shiga highland and Kosha-san. Those are ones I ever climbed so far. I recorded a movie panning from IIzuna to Kosha-san here. It was rather simple road this side so I ran and ran along.

By the time I got to the sleeve of the Murayama bridge it has been about two hours since the starting. At last I found lots of things and views I have never met and never choiced so far driving a car. This short trip told me about lots of things. I felt somewhat tired when I got home but it was kind of comfy. I recommend this course if you want to run near Nagano city.