Minokamo Trip #1 (Gifu Prefecture)
Another exploratory day-trip excursion to a possible route into Kani, linking to the northern route to Gero hot springs. At about 100 kilometers for the round trip it’s a long one, but this one avoids the punishing climbs normally involved in getting out of the city.
Here’s the route, bending to the west toward Inuyama and joining Route 41 at an earlier point, rather than pushing straight north through Kasugai.
- GPX data: Nisshin ↣ Campground on Kiso River
Result
A sad trombone, unfortunately. I initially threatened to make the ride on Monday, but flaked out both days, but flaked out on account of staying out too late on the Sunday. On Tuesday I devised a flurry of errands that kept me busy, and on Wednesday I woke early and lay in bed thinking firmly, “I don’t wanna.” But breakfast and coffee changed my mood, and I set off at a little past 7:00am. The volunteer monitors were out to watch over kids walking to school. One man that I’d spoken with before, a retiree like myself, asked where I was headed, and when I said “Minokamo,” he said, “Ah, there’s lots of car traffic up there.” He wasn’t wrong!
There’s a Japanese loan word コンビナート (kombinat) that comes from the Russian Комбинат. The English translation as “combine” seems to refer to business groups, but I’ve heard it used by Japanese speakers to refer to the massive and densely packed industrial districts that you sometimes encounter here. The western corridor that I chose to follow on this attempt passed through a district that I think probably warrants the name. The experience was close to that of the city of Sōka on my Kantō tour in May of this year: heavy trucks and heavy equipment everywhere, factory buildings dominating the landscape, the smell of industrial solvents in the air, cycling routes tracking the commute arteries of the workforce, and parks offering the sole respite from the clamorous rush and bustle.
One distinctive feature of the ride was a long tree-lined walking path stretching north from central Nagoya. One long segment (which I stupidly neglected to mark in the map as I rode through) is lined with rather old Japanese cherry trees. It must be very striking when the trees are in bloom, and sited as it is in the center of an industrial district with no apparent parking spots, no space to spread a ground sheet, and few benches to hang out at, it must be primarily for local enjoyment. I’m gonna mark my calendar to pay a visit next year. Ornamental cherry trees are said to be long-lived, and I’m curious when these were planted, and specifically whether they are war survivors.
A little bonus along the way was spotting a sign for “Little World,” a theme park offering experience of … foreign things … maintained by Meitetsu, the regional train monopoly. Adverts for the park in local trains have never really been a temptation, but the sign was a tip-off that “Meiji Mura,” an architectural park also maintained by Meitetsu, is also in the area. And a trip to Meiji Mura would be worth the ride, when the weather improves a bit in springtime.
As the maps had promised, there were no severe climbs on the route, but I found no viable path to cross over from Inuyama on the south into Minakamo to the north. In setting up the route, I had tweaked to map to use what looked to be less-travelled route. This offered a junction with a minor road immediately before a set of on-ramps to expressways that I was not going to challenge. The minor road turned out to be an unsurfaced access road blocked by a locked gate.
Dropping the tweak from the map suggested backtracking to follow National Route 41, the very road that runs up to Gero further up the line. So I retraced my treadmarks to take a look. There was an access path up the side of the expressway that didn’t look great—constant traffic noise gets on my nerves—but I followed it up the hill until a point where weeds blocked the way.
And that was the long and short of it: it just wasn’t possible to get there from here. There may be more circuitous routes over this last hill, but given the other downsides of the route, they’re not worth exploring. After trying four northbound exits from Nagoya, this route and that meeting the Toki River at Kokokei are impassable; the easterly route through Seto and Tajimi offers forgiving elevations but with a high volume of traffic noise for most of the distance; and the most direct route up the Aichi Nature Trail segment running beside the Kasugai Country Club features a sharp climb over unridable washed-out hiking trail extending over a kilometer or so. Not a lot of great choices, but I think the last in the list is probably the best experience overall.
The next target, weather permitting, will probably be a rerun of the Sasado free camping excursion from last New Year’s, to make that an annual household tradition. After that, I want to explore routes to the south of the city, including a visit to Sakujima, an island at the mouth of Nagoya harbour.