Exiting our Ryokan early, the wifey googled "Awesomeballs coffee place in Kyoto" and this place, Kurasu Kyoto appeared high up on the list. One thing we learned after our walkabout in Kyoto the day before is that, Japanese drip and canned coffees are terrible. Its either hideously sweet or grimly milky or BOTH with a bonus metallic aftertaste. All that funny Boss / Suntory coffee advertisement I keep seeing being shared on the interwebs kept my expectation high but after trying 3 different cans, I thing we'll stick to Espresso gaijin coffee.



Zigzagging across Kyoto city towards the general southern direction of Nara. BTW I love this milk carton house. The owner should definitely custom shop a huge blue stripey straw on the roof.



Kyoto's landscape changes from little housing enclaves to big industrial factories the further south we go.



Wifey's pretty excited because we're getting close to the Kyotoyawatakizu cycling road.



But we just need to figure out how to cross this big ass park to the other side.



Yay we're here. 45km bicycle highway from Kyoto to Mizu city.



"Bicycle path"



The houses here are much, much bigger than what we saw in central Kyoto. It's probably cheaper to live here too. Living next door to a bicycle highway is pretty awesome too. What's awesomer is that, not only does the highway takes you to Mizu but the highway also diverges to Osaka. It exits close to Osakajo, the Osaka Castle. Imagine that, strap on your bicycle with a day's clothing and off you go to the next prefecture, enjoying what Osaka has to offer - Universal Studios, Ramen Museum, Asahi brewery.. no, Emmeiji market and stay over a night before cycling back to Kyoto. 



It's amazing how the shared cycling / pedestrian infrastructure between cities provides so much freedom to the locals.



The Three Amigos. If they're anything like my mom, they'd be comparing vegetable prices between supermarkets and what's their next holiday-shopping plan.



The Kyotoyawatakizu cycling road map. Click here for a zoomed in image.



It’s completely paved and goes up, over and along the river banks and flood embankments.



We're higher up so the scenery is definitely captivating at times.



I cant remember his name, but I think it was Saito-san. Wife sais its something else. But anyways, he was initially quite apprehensive because he thought the wife was a Japanese and me, this brown flat nose south asian bastard married a local. But after we cleared things up he was quite relaxed.

Saito-san, a 70 year old fella - lived in California for 20 years, and he had to return back to Japan to take care of his ailing mother (!). So this bicycle highway is a way for him to exercise, going on a daily 60km ride. But he sometimes meanders in his questions, telling us on three separate occasion "Why are you going to Tokyo? Dangerous. Go back"



The mountains looked like a composite of inky brushstrokes in the distance. We separated with Saito san at the Yamashirohashi junction before reaching Mizu. He looked quite bewildered as we bid farewell. When we rode away, he kept waving and motioning "Hey follow me". After awhile, I looked back and he was still looking at us with a confused look. Sayonara Saito-san. 



Not as impressive as the entrance, the end of the bicycle highway is a lonely road near a small housing suburb. Mizu city is nearby and we're thinking of grabbing some lunch.



Previously I wrote something about having a bike stand? This is one of many examples where we had to propped our bikes against the wall instead of parking our bikes in the designated parking. There's a signage nearby that says bikes parked outside the parking space will be fined and towed away.



We had a whale of a time walloping the food here. Generally, the options available in any Japanese supermarket is just amazing. Cheap and tasting better than the kombini variety. Keeping to the Halal theme - just try to avoid the unagi as normally the thick, sweet, oh-so-delicious, hickory flavored sauce has wine added to it. Everything else is fair game! NYUMSSS!!



From the supermarket onward, we had to cross the typical suburban hell : heavy traffic, concrete everywhere, But the sidewalk was wide enough we could cycle in peace. 



As the concrete suburbia ends, thick forest with varying shades of yellow and green start to envelope the road we're traveling. It says "Careful! Steps ahead!"



This bit is particularly funny. "Raise your hand and say hi to the passing buses". The climbs are long on this section.



As the elevation gets higher the scenery gets better. Sweeping range of rice field plots were in varying shades of brown: parcels are still flooded or wet from the spring rainfall. Errant grass emerging a fresh, limey color into the summer. If we were here early April before the harvest the plots would be engorged with full grown paddy, its flat panned leaves brushed an emerald lush under the sun.



Actually by now, we weren't so sure where we are but we're sticking to the north of Nara and heading into Nabari. I think we were in Tawara but post trip, Google map says my estimation is off by alot. We were probably in Oyagyucho or Sugawacho. Anyways, I was over ambitious in my planning, as I figured we can do a 130km first day ride to Aoyamakogen Campground but we're getting tired approaching the 80km mark. Also, hills! Many many climbs and hills! And it's getting dark.



This village is very peculiar. It was about 7pm when it was slowly getting dark but even before then there was no one around. We didn't see a single soul strolling about in the village. When darkness descended - all off the houses were dark, seemed abandoned. But the presence of outdoor lighting suggested otherwise.

A spot of storytime:
After lunch, as we departed from Mizu city - we constantly kept seeing kombinis; Watson, 7-11 or Family Mart over and over along the way. Every corner we turned was an "Ah-hah! Another kombini!" moment. At the back of my mind, I kinda knew our supplies were low but the abundance of kombinis got my guard down and we missed the chance to restock as they abruptly stopped appearing. We mistakenly and confidently assumed that, yea "we're sure this village we're passing through will have a minimart or a restaurant street thing". But yea, one thing I've learned after this trip is that most things that work outside of Japan, don't usually work in Japan.

So. We're in a village but it looks like a dead village. No more minimarts or any restaurant street things. We're low in supplies. It's getting dark. We needed to set up our tent.

Inside the tent, fumbling around scouring inside the deepest reaches of our panniers, we realised we only had 4 sticks of cheese. Hahaha. So we were actually very low in supplies. Stepping out of the tent and into the darkness, we saw in the distance a cluster of lights. Gathered my things, I slipped into my cold weather jacket. I decided to cycle over to the lights hoping that a delicious hot meal of Ramen were waiting for us.

After getting the alright go signal from the wife, and the tent was stealthily erected - you can't see it from the main road, I started pedalling. Taking to the general direction towards the cluster in the dark, with the street lights lighting the way... Eventually, the road changed into a dusty unpaved road. Had a bit of difficulty controlling the bike in the dark as the slick tires went all over the skittering rocks, but with the thought of oh hot delicious ramen and creamy chicken broth having slow sex with my mouth I soldiered on.

Turns out it was a fucking used car dealership. Those light clusters were from 4 vending machines. I'm standing in the middle of nowhere over an unpaved road in the dark with zero street lights and they have vending machines! Motherfuc....

Returning to the tent with 3 bottles of water, our first night in the tent was a romantic dinner of a stick of cheese each. ☹