Micha's Blog – Micha's Daily Rant, updates, travels, and more..

Dragon Tour – Day 1 of 4 – Tokyo to Matsumoto

Posted on 2025-04-28 12:04 by micha Comment

(Pictures and/or video will come later, so check back in a week or two..)

Up quite early to get going as I wanted to beat the traffic. I had already packed the bike the night before, so it was just getting geared up and go. I followed the same route out of Tokyo as last weekend as we were going to meet up again at the Miyoshi PA.

I arrived well ahead of schedule, grabbed a coffee, and chilled. Wilson was next to arrive, and not long after Ben showed up as well. We briefly discussed the first part of the ride and then set off. As feared, the highway was already pretty chockers by now but, being a small group, we filtered through the worst of it and were soon at our exit and heading down the 299.

The first part of the 299 is nice, good quality road with sweeping bends, but with heavy traffic and no real overtaking opportunities, making progress slow. I took the guys on a small detour to go past Bike Bento, a motorcycle-themed restaurant, but it was still closed so we didn’t stop.

We kept going up the 299, sometimes wide with sweeping bends, other times almost one-lane twisting through forests, and finally up and over the mountains. At one stage there was still lots of snow beside the road and under the trees, epic.

When we reached an intersection on top of a mountain I stopped to take a picture of the view and there happened to be a small diner there as well, so perfect timing for lunch. Wilson and I had the local specialty, katsudon with a special sauce. It was pretty good.

The top of the mountain was the middle of a section of the 299 called the Märchen Road – german for “the road of fairytales”, and it really looked like it. Pine forests, moss-covered boulders, little huts nestled amongst the trees, snow and ice. I will need to come back in a few months when the path to the Mononoke Forest is open again.

We kept following the 299 back down the mountains and turned off onto the 192, one of the many sections of the Venus Line, an amazing set of roads over sparsely forested mountains leading to some fantastic views. At the end of this section is Lake Suwa, where I had an ice-cream and we stretched our legs.

Wilson decided instead of continuing on with us to Matsumoto that he would head back to Tokyo after all, as it was still fairly early. He would come to regret this decision later as he got caught in a big thunderstorm while we enjoyed a cold beer in an izakaya …

Ben and I continued on towards Matsumoto ,enjoying some more amazing roads before getting into town. Once there we headed straight to Matsumoto castle, parked the bikes nearby for 100 yen, and went in. The price has nearly doubled since I was there last when I paid 700 yen entry, now it’s 1300 yen! Still, I couldn’t even remember I’d been there until I accidentally found the entry ticket while packing for this trip, so it was still fun to visit again.

Matsumoto castle is one of, if not the, oldest castle in Japan, having been built sometime in the 1500’s. Unfortunately it was pretty crowded despite it being quite late in the afternoon, so it was more of a very long moving line instead of being able to explore and experience it properly. But it has some medieval gun exhibit and other bits and pieces dotted throughout it. It’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

After the castle we rode to the minshuku and checked in, then walked to town for an izakaya dinner where I ordered the local specialty, chicken pieces marinated in a garlic and soy sauce before being deep-fried. I also enjoyed some basashi (horse-sashimi) as well as some other more standard izakaya fare.

After dinner we walked to the castle to take some night-time pics, and then headed back to minshuku for a quick onsen before bed.

We had a fantastic day to start our tour!

📂This entry was posted in Japan Motorbike Travel 📎and tagged motorbike travel
Rideout with Arch

Posted on 2025-04-21 03:29 by micha Comment

Arch of Japan Motovlog fame had posted an open invitation for some people to join him on a ride around Saitama prefecture.

Unfortunately we encountered a few minor trials and tribulations which caused the ride to take a bit longer and people headed back to Tokyo before finishing the tour. Nevertheless we had a fantastic ride-out with great scenery and good laughs along the way.

Unlike the others I continued on to do my own thing and along the way my bike also hit its next major milestone – 20,000km.

[Photo Gallery] [Arch’s Video]
Day 1 – Saturday 2025-04-19

Up early, I reached the meeting spot at Miyoshi PA shortly before 7am to find several people had already arrived. There was some meet-and-greet, a bit of banter, and general carrying-on while more people arrived. I took the time for a very necessary coffee and a bite of brekky.

Arch was trying to share his route with some people but one had a brand-new bike and hadn’t gotten his phone mount sorted yet, and another wasn’t able to load his GPX file. When I mentioned that I’d created the route for OsmAnd he asked me to help guide the group so that he could drop back for filming from time to time.

Once everybody was ready we set off down the highway which was its usual busy self. While it mostly moved along there were a few sections where it was pretty much stop-and-go. Being in a larger group it wasn’t really feasibly to filter.

Luckily Arch was leading at this point because when he took the exit off the highway I discovered that I had set up my route the wrong way around.. oops! At a traffic light I let Arch know and he said he’d stop at a kombini, which he was wanting to do anyway to change batteries on his cameras, giving me time to fix up the route on my phone. Luckily OsmAnd has an option to reverse a route and I only had to tweak a couple of waypoints to get it all sorted..

The other hiccups were one guy running out of petrol just in front of the longest tunnel on the entire route – lucky and unlucky in equal measures, and another guy had a fall on some gravel in the middle of a corner. Thankfully he was uninjured, and there were only some minor scrapes on the engine guards of his bike.

Apart from that the ride went smoothly and Arch’s planned route had us going along some amazing roads, with a combination of larger roads and fast sweeping bends, as well as minor forest roads bringing us close and intimate with the japanese mountainous wilderness. Along the way there was fantastic scenery, often a river or stream alongside the road and great vistas and quaint villages.

A highlight for me was a section of the 462 with a big dam and a bit further down the road a huge boulder lying in the river with a small shrine next to it. From the 462 we turned onto the 45, and then the 93 which is a fantastically windy little forest road running alongside a stream.

Due to the various incidents we had not yet reached Arch’s intended stop by lunchtime, and after the shock of the fall, we stopped at a kombini to recover and have a quick bite to eat. Funnily enough another couple of bikers were there, one with an RS1200 in 40-year anniversary colours! So of course there was a chat and obligatory photo shoot..

By this stage we were down to only 5 people and one said his good-byes and started heading home as the rest of us continued on. We then had a nice quick blast along the 254 and turned up the 196 which is another great curvy road over the mountains going past a temple complex with a big golden statue before reaching the original lunch stop. As we had eaten not so long ago nobody was very hungry and so we had very delicious sakura ice-cream instead!

By now it was getting on and the intended route was another few hours in the opposite direction from Tokyo, so people decided it was maybe better to start heading back. As I had no other plans and the weather forecast for Sunday had improved I jumped online and booked a hostel to continue the weekend on my own. The cheapest I could find in a hurry was in an onsen town a couple of hours away.

After leaving the rest of the group, I headed a few minutes back up the way we’d come to visit the temple with the golden statue which I’d spotted as we went past earlier. As well as having a quick wander around the temple complex I also went on a little hike. I thought it was going to be a walk around a huge rock which the top temple had been build under, but it turned out to be quite a bit of a climb to the top of the rock!

So much for health-and-safety though! The very last bit of the climb to the top of the rock only had a couple of metal chains hammered into the rock to help people clamber up. No wonder a small group going up had a guide, hard-hats, ropes, and clamps with them.. not entirely sure what they were thinking as a gaijin clambered past them in motorbike gear! The view was worth the effort though.

Some more great roads and a couple of picture stops later and I made it to Kusatsu, where I’d actually been before. The previous time I had stayed in a hostel on the outskirts of town, and when I got there there was another guy in my dorm who’d just had a bad fall on his motorbike and was all bandaged up. It was also his birthday! So I went to a kombini, grabbed some food and beers, and had a party with the guy in the hostel.

This time around my accommodation was a bit closer to town. The hostel owner/manager was very kind and let me park my bike out the front even though they don’t offer parking – in my hurry to book I had forgotten to check. He gave me a good overview of town and made a restaurant and onsen recommendation. After checking in and freshening up quickly I made my way into town.

Amazing!

The town is actually build around a natural hot spring which comes out of the ground in the middle of the town. Maybe I should do a bit more research ahead of time when I go on trips, but it turns out Kusatsu is one of Japan’s most famous onsen towns.. this was my second time here and I still had no idea until afterwards!

For dinner I had the local speciality, maitake mushroom tempura, which I ate with soba noodles. The restaurant I ate at (Tabelog) is part of a hotel and right on the town square with its hot spring. After dinner I visited the Ohtaki onsen for a nice relaxing hot bath after the long days’ riding and then wandered around town a bit more. It has very impressive wooden hotels in the roads leading up to the square, and there is a temple with a traditional japanese wooden tower overlooking it all.

400km and a fair bit of sight-seeing. Oyasuminasai!

Day 2 – Sunday 2025-04-20

As I’d gone to sleep quite early I was awake again pretty early, which I like when touring as it gives me a chance to explore roads before the traffic starts up. I quickly got ready and crept out of the dorm, then rode down to the town square which, unlike the evening before was nearly empty. I sneakily parked the bike next to the 7-11 right on the square and had a quick cuppa and sandwich to get me started.

Even though it wasn’t raining the weather had become a lot more cloudy and hazy than the day before. Still as long as it’s dry it’s great riding weather!

I had planned to head further up into the mountains to Mt Shirakane, an active volcano, but the roads leading up to it were still closed. At one road closure I chatted to a couple of guys that were about to set off up the mountain on eBikes with cross-country skis strapped to their backs, so I guess there’s still quite a lot of snow at higher altitudes.

Instead I found some other places to visit, including Shimagawa Dam, a flower festival, and Onouchi gorge.

I had bought some extra food and drink at the 7-11 and was hoping to find a nice mountain pass with nice views to stop at for a light lunch. But unlike in Europe, the mountains passes here in Japan are often barely marked and just go through forests with no viewpoints, let alone cafes or restaurants.

So I kept going and when I accidentally saw a small fair in a side road just after lunch, I did a u-turn and stopped there, thinking it was a sakura (cherry-blossom) festival. It turned out to be a flower festival, and I had arrived just in time for a kitsune no yomeiri, a fox’s wedding. Kitsune are magical creatures resembling foxes in japanese folklore and are known for playing tricks on humans. It was amazing watching the procession and dances.

From there I enjoyed a few more nice mountain roads and stopped at Onouchi gorge, which is famous for icicles in winter. In summer, not so much, but at least there were no crowds there either and I could wander down to the small waterfall enjoying the peace and quiet of the surrounding forest.

What a fantastic weekend!

📂This entry was posted in Japan Motorbike Travel 📎and tagged motorbike travel
Migrate partitions to LVM on a live server

Posted on 2025-04-07 05:40 by micha Comment
Background

My server was provisioned by Contabo as a Debian 9 server with a traditional MBR partition layout. At some point I did manage to at least split /var and /home off from the root partition, leaving the following layout for many years:
```
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0   1.2T  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   237M  0 part /boot
├─sda2   8:2    0    20G  0 part /
├─sda3   8:3    0    20G  0 part /var
├─sda4   8:4    0     1K  0 part 
└─sda5   8:5    0 259.8G  0 part /home
```
Recently I upgraded the VPS to have more diskspace, as I was starting to run low and, instead of mucking about with an ever-increasing amount of relatively inflexible extended partitions and symlinks, I decided to figure out a way to convert this layout to LVM which will provide me with flexibility to mange the disk space in the future.

After a bit of research and prototyping all the steps in a local VM, I came up with the following procedure which worked for me.

Note that I did NOT convert the /boot partition and that the disk remains an MBR-partitioned disk.

Before Starting

It is strongly recommended to take a backup and/or snapshot of the server before commencing. A singly mistype or issue during the conversion could lead to full data loss.

Initial Conversion

The first step is to convert sda2 and sda3 to use the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) and move the root and var partitions into that. This requires a multi-step process:
1. Create a temporary LVM Physical Volume (PV) and move the data into it
2. Update the system configuration
3. Reboot the system
4. Remove the original partitions and replace them with a new PV
5. Add the PV to the LVM Volume Group (VG)
6. Remove the temporary PV from the VG
To create the temporary PV, I first needed to increase the size of the extended partition to make use of the new disk space. I used cfdisk for this. Note that there seems to be a bug in the Debian 11 version of cfdisk – when first increasing the size of the extended partition, a message is shown stating the maximum size, but nothing happens. Deleting the size and pressing enter again applies the size last specified.

Next is creating the LVM:
```
pvcreate /dev/sda6
vgcreate vg1 /dev/sda6
lvcreate -n root -L 8G vg1 && mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg1-root
lvcreate -n var -L 20G vg1 && mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg1-var
```
Now we can copy the data. Note that when copying /var, it is useful to shut down as many services on the server as possible to reduce the data being actively written to the partition. It may be a good idea to run the sync again just prior reboot.
```
mount /dev/mapper/vg1-root /mnt
rsync -avxq / /mnt/
mount /dev/mapper/vg1-var /mnt/var
rsync -avxq /var/ /mnt/var/
```
And finally we edit the system configuration:
- vim /etc/fstab
  point the / and /var mounts to the new LVM volumes
- vim /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  ensure kernel command line is updated to have “root=/dev/mapper/vg1-root”
fstab:
```
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
#UUID=904300f1-5d90-4c10-908a-b8ac334bd021 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       0
/dev/mapper/vg1-root                      /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       0
# /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=9d8415e3-5d47-42e5-b169-ab0f5db14645 /boot           ext4    defaults,noatime        0       1

#UUID=8de1d736-5b9e-44b1-ba6f-34984912889e /var            ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/mapper/vg1-var                       /var            ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
UUID=70554039-342d-4035-8182-ece5b032ec5b /home           ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
```
grub.cfg:
```
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
function gfxmode {
        set gfxpayload="${1}"
}
set linux_gfx_mode=
export linux_gfx_mode
menuentry 'Debian GNU/Linux' --class debian --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-a5511b28-0df7-48c2-8565-baeaede58cfa' {
        load_video
        insmod gzio
        if [ x$grub_platform = xxen ]; then insmod xzio; insmod lzopio; fi
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        insmod lvm
        set root='hd0,msdos1'
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  9d8415e3-5d47-42e5-b169-ab0f5db14645
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 9d8415e3-5d47-42e5-b169-ab0f5db14645
        fi
        echo    'Loading Linux 6.1.0-0.deb11.21-amd64 ...'
        linux   /vmlinuz-6.1.0-0.deb11.21-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/vg1-root ro rootdelay=10 net.ifnames=0 ixgbe.allow_unsupported_sfp=1 quiet 
        echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
        initrd  /initrd.img-6.1.0-0.deb11.21-amd64
}
```
Now for the scary part – rebooting. Double-check that all configurations have also been applied to the new partitions and everything has been copied correctly. Make sure you have a way to recover should the system not reboot!

Completing the initial conversion

Assuming the reboot went well, the system should now be running on the new LVM Logical Volumes (LV’s).

Now delete the /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 partitions, and create a new LVM PV in their place. Mount it and add it to the volume group, then remove the temporary PV:
```
vgextend vg1 /dev/sda2
pvmove /dev/sda6
vgreduce vg1 /dev/sda6
pvremove /dev/sda6
```
Now we can delete the temporary /dev/sda6 partition.

Moving the data

Next we have to move the home partition. Again, this is a multi-step process as we first have to move the data out of the extended partition, then remove the extended partition.

First create a new primary partition, /dev/sda3, large enough to hold the data. Make it a PV and add it to vg1 as before, then copy the data. Note that as before, ideally there should be no active users during the copy and any services which write into users’ home directories should be shut down.
```
vgextend vg1 /dev/sda3
lvcreate -n home -L 250G vg1 && mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/vg1-home
mount /dev/mapper/vg1-home /mnt
rsync -avxq /home/ /mnt/
```
Now remount the new partition in place of the home partition. It may be better and safer to reboot the system instead to avoid any data loss or corruption, since lazy-unmounting a filesystem can lead to all sorts of edge cases.
```
umount -l /home && mount /dev/mapper/vg1-home /home
```
Next we delete all the logical partitions and the extended partition. The free data should now be between sda2 and sda3, which lets us increase the size of sda2. We can now increase the LVM PV to make use of the new space. Once we’ve done that, we can pvmove the data from the temporary Physical Volume and remove it:
```
pvresize /dev/sda2
pvmove /dev/sda3
vgreduce /dev/sda3
pvremove /dev/sda3
```
Finally, we can delete the /dev/sda3 partition and add the remaining free space to the LVM Volume Group. From now on it is trivial to manage disk layout using LVM.

Final Layout

After all was said and done, the server ended up with a disk layout as follows:
```
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda            8:0    0  1.2T  0 disk 
├─sda1         8:1    0  237M  0 part /boot
└─sda2         8:2    0  500G  0 part 
  ├─vg1-root 254:0    0    8G  0 lvm  /
  ├─vg1-var  254:1    0   20G  0 lvm  /var
  └─vg1-home 254:2    0  260G  0 lvm  /home
```
For now I’ve left the LVM partition at 500GiB, which is double what the old disk was, and gives the various volumes plenty of room to grow.
📂This entry was posted in Computers Linux Technology 📎and tagged Linux LVM
Weekend ride-out to Karuizawa

Posted on 2024-05-12 16:17 by micha 2 Comments

What started out as a last-minute daytrip with a couple of guys I met on Facebook the day before turned into a 714km weekend ride to Nagano and back!

So I was humming and hahing about whether or not to go on a ride when I saw a post in Gaijinriders that some guys were going to go for a ride to Chichibu area. I contacted Michael (the main instigator), and agreed to meet them at 7am at Kouenji station – so a pretty early start for me as that’s about an hour away.

[Photo Gallery]
Day 1 – Saturday 2024-05-11

Tokyo to Karuizawa via the 100-year-forest in Saitama. Warm and sunny.

I met Michael, Hiroshi, Simon, and Alfonso at the station, and then we were off fighting our way out of Tokyo to the highway. Our first stop was Ashigakubo rest stop on the 299 where we met up with Satoshi. Everybody was on a different kind of bike, and we pretty much covered all the colours too! Unfortunately it was too early to get a coffee – most of the facility was closed until 10am.

From there we headed up to the 284 from which a lovely loop into the “100-year forest” branches off. The roads up there were pretty narrow and still had quite a lot of pine needles on them, so the going was careful, but very picturesque! After the loop we stopped at Bike Bento, a motorbike-themed restaurant where I had katsu-curry rice.

We then rode to the Dodaira Observatory with some spectacular views. Unfortunately no ice-cream up there, or, in fact, any amenities. Maybe later in the year? After chilling in the sun and chatting a bit we headed to our last stop, Arima Dam. For me that was going completely the wrong way, as I had picked a hostel in Karuizawa, but I was keen on grabbing a coffee before splitting from the group.

But when we got to Arima Dam I realised that I’d been there before – it’s a popular biker (and car) spot, but has no amenities either! So after a final set of pictures, I headed off to my hostel which was still a couple of hours away.. and I was not going the most direct route!

I went all the way up the 299, re-doing a few miles that we had already covered earlier in the day, to the Kanna River, where I turned onto the 462 for a short bit before heading north up the 45. The 45 was a lot of fun and connected me to the 43 via the 254. The 43 was again a lot of fun, and I got to my hostel a bit after dark, having stopped only to take pics of my bike passing the 10,000km mark.

After checking in to Koya Backpackers with Yusuke-san (who can speak pretty good english), I got a recommendation for dinner and discovered that I was right next to the very famous Hoshino onsen. Dinner was home-made soba noodles with tempura, and I treated myself to a small side of basashi (horse sashimi), at Tamagawa Shokudo only 5 minutes down the road from the hostel. After dinner I went to onsen, and while it was nice, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as Tenzan Onsen in Hakkone.

Back at the hostel I had a couple of beers with the owner and some other guests, and then headed to bed.

Day 2 – Sunday 2024-05-12

Karuizawa to Tokyo via Mt Shirane. Cool, cloudy, some spotty rain.

Not a terribly early start, as I had ordered a breakfast and the earliest was 8am. To be honest, the breakfast, while nice, was not spectacular, consisting of a couple of rice-balls, some salad, and a miso soup. There was also an option for a wester-style breakfast, but I’m not sure what that entailed. Overall my stay at Koya Backpackers was great, the host very friendly, and I can highly recommend staying here.

My first concern was petrol, so I stopped at the first service station on my way north. It turns out I’ve been in this area before, at least once, and the 146 on which I found myself is a really nice road. Shortly after getting petrol I stopped again at a kombini to grab some lunch; my plan was to ride to Mt Shirane and climb up to the crater so I wanted something to eat up there.

I turned off on the 241, which is a spectacular road, lots of fun, which led me to the Manza Highway. This is a toll road, and while the tarmac isn’t the best, the road is really great and there are some awesome views up there. The guy at the toll booth told me the 466 wasn’t open, which is the next road I was wanting to take, but it turned out it was open after all. What ended up being closed was the 66 just past the Yamaboku ski resort…

Making the best of things, I had a coffee at a cute little cafe called Santa Bokujo near where the road was closed. The cafe is run by a lovely lady and we had a bit of a chat via my broken japanese and Google translate. She told me about a waterfall nearby where you can walk behind the waterfall. So after my coffee I started backtracking and stopped at Kaminari (Thunder) falls to have a quick look around. Reminded me a bit of The Valley of Adventure by Enyd Blyton, where the kids hide behind a waterfall.

From there I looped around to the west side of the 292, which is a superbly entertaining road and I had next to no traffic on it. On the way I tried (again) to get through a disused road which I had tried last year, but from the other way. I did get a fair way into the forest up the dirt trail, but then the gravelly road turned very muddy and I decided to turn back; my tires aren’t really up for mud. Later I discovered that I had almost reached a tunnel, so I wish I had have tried to keep going just a bit further! Maybe it’s time for some more off-road focussed tires..

The 292, apart from being extremely scenic and a great motorbiking road, also holds the claim to being the highest national road in Japan, with the top at 2172m. Of course I stopped this time around to take a couple of pictures.

Unfortunately when I got to the Mt Shirane parking lot, everything was roped off and closed, as the lady in the coffee shop had already mentioned. It actually looked semi-abandoned, so not sure if it’s just seasonally closed, or whether it’s been closed permanently.

As it was getting on in the day, I simply plotted my way home from there, but then couldn’t help myself, and took the 406 to the 28 in order to have a very late picnic lunch at Lake Haruna. The 28, incidentally, is also a very nice road. Unfortunately by the time I got to the lake it had started to rain, so I quickly ate my sandwich under the shelter of a tree, zipped my waterproofs into my bike gear, and then headed off to the highway back to Tokyo.

The ride back was pretty smooth, a couple of slow-downs due to traffic, but overall pretty rapid progress with a final blast around the Tokyo expressways. Even though it was all highways it was still not a bad way to round off the weekend; at least no fighting through stop-and-start traffic for hours on end as I have had to do in the past.

What an awesome weekend!

📂This entry was posted in Motorbike Travel 📎and tagged motorbike
DZT Does Malapascua – 2024 Edition

Posted on 2024-05-06 14:11 by micha Comment
Around the start of May is a Japanese phenomenon where 4 or 5 public holidays are almost back to back. Some companies close the office for the entire week, giving their employees a full week off work, hence the name Golden Week.

DiveZone Tokyo takes advantage of this and usually organises an overseas diving holiday during this time. This year, the destination was Malapascua, a small island in the Philippines.

Getting There

Most of the people attending were on the same Cebu Pacific flight fairly early on Saturday morning. For me, this meant dragging my suitcases to my local train station (20 min walk) and then a couple of train swaps to get to Narita airport on time. A little bit later in the day I could have had the convenience of local buses..

Everybody met up at the airport and then it was a 5-ish hour flight to Cebu, the capital of the Philippines. I managed to again “smuggle” my Triton rebreather onboard as a second piece of hand-luggage; theoretically only a single piece of carry-on is allowed, but there’s no way I’m checking the Triton into the hold..

At Cebu, Ben was already waiting for us at the airport with the shuttle buses, which would take us for the 4-ish hour drive up the island to meet the ferry (actually, the boat from the dive-shop) which would then take us to Malapascua itself. The drive was “interesting”, with the drivers certainly making progress despite single-lane roads and at times quite heavy traffic. As we had a very tight schedule, Ben had thoughtfully arranged sandwiches, snacks, and drinks for the drive.

Thanks to the rather spirited driving, we did make it to the boat before dark which was the important thing! A beautiful sunset crossing over to Malapascua put us into our holiday mood 🙂

Settling In

We stayed at Evolution Divers again, which is the only tech-friendly dive shop on Malapascua. As DZT had been there a few times before already we were well acquainted with the shop and the procedures, and quite a few of the staff remembered us from the last time we were there, 5 years or so ago before Covid.

The resort is right on the beach set amongst trees and with all the amenities one needs for a week of diving and relaxing; tech-gas mixes, rinsing tanks, restaurant and bar, and plenty of outdoor spaces to just chill and soak in the atmosphere. I had a deluxe room all to myself, which was just as well as it gave me plenty of space to sort out my rebreather.

Since our first dive was going to be very early the next morning, everybody got busy sorting out their dive gear; for some of us diving rebreathers, this was going to take a bit longer.. but we managed to get everything sorted and, after a welcome drink, headed off to bed excited about the upcoming diving!

The Diving

The highlight of the dive trip were the thresher sharks. These are generally a deep-water species, and despite having a large range are rarely seen in shallower waters. Malapascua is unique in that it is pretty much guaranteed to see these sharks early in the morning as they come up to the shallows after a night of hunting. They do so to get cleaned up at cleaning stations, where they have a symbiotic relationship with various types of fish which nibble parasites and debris from the sharks’ skin and even teeth! Brave fish..

For us, this unfortunately meant setting our alarms at 4am or so every morning in order to get our dive briefings, make sure our gear is in order, and then head off to the dive site which is about half an hour or so away from Malapascua. The last time we were there, the thresher sharks were primarily found around Monad Shoal, but, due to the presence of some tiger sharks, are mainly around Kimud Shoal now which is a bit further out.

Over the course of the week we had many opportunities to view these beautiful creatures! The last time I was there I was with the “bubble makers”, watching the sharks from afar, and being somewhat envious of Ben getting much closer with his Triton. This time around I was part of the CCR group and had some really amazing close encounters.

Apart from the thresher sharks we had many other dives through the week, mostly on walls and reefs with the amazing diversity of undersea life which is on offer in this part of the world. Highlights included various kinds of rays, seahorses, a huge variety of corals and other sedentary organisms, tiger sharks, reef sharks, a peacock mantis shrimp (very proud to have spotted that one!), octopus, and more.

Apart from sealife there was also a variety of caverns and swim-throughs, and, for the CCR divers, the wreck of the Mogami Maru, a converted cargo ship for use by the japanese navy during WW2, now lying in 52m of water. This wreck was discovered by the owner of Evolution Divers, Matt, who explored it and its history, and also recovered some artifacts from the wreck. Unfortunately it is starting to show signs of collapse now.

Enjoying the Holidays

So between the diving and the between-dive relaxation there was not much time left. Besides, Malapascua is a fairly small island with not a lot of sight-seeing available.

We mostly had dinners at Evolution, but spend a couple of nights exploring some of the other nearby venues for a bit of a change of fare – after a few days the Evolution menu does become a little repetitive.

One evening we had a roasted piglet beach bbq dinner. This is a local delicacy and when the option was mooted, everybody immediately jumped at the chance. The roast piglet was, unfortuntately roasted elsewhere and then brought to Evolution instead of being roasted on the beach, but it was absolutely delicious along with a couple of local side-dishes.

We also had two island trips, one to Kalanggaman Island, and one to Capitancillo Island. At Kalanggaman everybody had the opportunity to also explore the island, as well as a couple of dives on the local reef. At Capitancillo, the CCR divers unfortunately missed out on the island visit itself as our dive took up most of our intended time in the area.

On the last day I went for a bit of a hike around the island. My aim was the lighthouse on the northern side of the island, but I very nearly walked around all of Malapascua! The beaches are mostly given over to the dive shops and resorts, and the nearly 7000 inhabitants live mainly inland. Unfortunately there is quite a lot of rubbish about once you get out of the tourist areas. For what it’s worth, the lighthouse wasn’t really worth the walk, but it was interesting to see more than the resorts nevertheless. On the way back I went past the pier and “downtown” where there were some markets and quite a large town, a part of Malapascua I hadn’t seen the last time I was there.

Back to Toyko

All too soon it was time to pack up our gear for the final time and head back to Tokyo. Good-byes were said to the Evolution staff and then we took the boat back to the main island. The crossing was again around sunset, a very beautiful way to end our time on Malapascua.

As we were less people we only had two cars this time, and, without the time-pressure, the driving was a (little) bit more relaxed. We even stopped on the way at a Jollibee for dinner, which is the KFC-equivalent in the Philippines, although they have more options than just fried chicken.

A few people had a hotel as their flight was later the next day, but most of us went straight to the airport for our 2am (!) red-eye flight back to Tokyo. I again managed to get my Triton on the plane as carry-on along with my backpack full of batteries and electronics, and, despite the very uncomfortable seat (couldn’t be reclined at all), I got a few hours of sleep before arriving at Tokyo. As it was later in the day I was able to catch buses back home instead of having to take the train.

Overall a fantastic week away! Just wish it was 2… lol

Media Links
- Micha
  Picture Gallery
  Thresher Shark Medley (Youtube)
- DZT Videos by Ben (YouTube)
  DZT Malapasuca 2024 “Final Cut”
  Mogami Wreck
  Gato Island
📂This entry was posted in Diving Travel 📎and tagged scuba diving shark travel
PS5 Remote Play on Linux – Chiaki

Posted on 2024-01-21 08:12 by micha Comment
Chiaki – a remote-play client for PlayStation consoles.

Overview

While playing Undertale on my PS5, I got a bit frustrated at some of the trophies. Spending hours spamming the X button didn’t really feel like fun and rewording gameplay. A brief search later led me to discover a remote-play option called Chiaki for Linux. 10 minutes later I had it up-and-running! Impressive.

The remote-play session can be controlled by keyboard, or a PS5 controlled can be connected to the PC. In my case, it was just plug-and-play.

I tweaked the config a bit to use 1080p instead of the default 720p resolution, and to use hardware acceleration. I also added Chiaki to Steam and configured it to open Chiaki using gamemode as otherwise the screensaver was kicking in. Unfortunately the Steam overlay and screenshot facility is not working (yet).

Worked absolutely brilliantly on my setup – gigabit LAN and a 1080p-based Debian GNU/Linux 12 desktop PC.

It was then also rather trivial to script spamming the X button using xdotool..

Issues

Chiaki 2.2.0 – “Extended DualSense Support” crashes the remote play session, forcing a restart of the PS5 before remote play works again. To be fair, this feature is marked experimental.

Remote Play of streaming content (eg, PlayStation Plus Premium classic games) shows a black screen, with the streamed content being displayed on the TV. Not sure if the official PlayStation remote play application has the same problem.

Installation

Core Installation

The steps were pretty simple:
1. Install Chiaki:
  apt-get install chiaki
2. Retrieve account ID (NOT your login or username)
  I used a python script provided by the Chiaki developers.
  Here’s a reddit post describing an alternative quite convoluted approach (didn’t try it)
  And here’s a webpage which retrieves it – by far the easiest method! (This does NOT require you enter any login credentials, but does require your account to be publicly viewable.)
3. Enter required data
  Account ID
  Code from the console
  Settings -> System -> Remote Play -> Link Device
4. ?
5. Profit!
Optionally:
- Add it to your Steam library
- Run it using gamemode
- Tweak configuration to use hardware acceleration and higher resolution
📂This entry was posted in Linux PlayStation 📎and tagged Computer Games Linux PlayStation
Undertale on PS5

Posted on 2024-01-21 05:52 by micha Comment

So I just played (and nearly completed) the cult-indy-hit Undertale on my PS5.

Firstly, it’s an awesome little action adventure rpg thingy. If you haven’t played it, I can highly recommend it despite it’s rather old-skool looks. Quirky humour, interesting choices, and only a few hours long for a basic play-through although it has quite a lot of depth if you want to spend the time on it.

It effectively combines puzzles and combat (via some nifty little mini-games) although exploration is quite limited. While there are some hidden areas, mostly it’s a linear story.

My two main gripes are that there is no way to permanently speed up dialogue display and that it is very grindy to get money, which is required to get enough consumables for healing for the final fights if you’re not so good at those.

Specifically on the PS5 port, whoever designed the trophies for this game really should go back to the drawing board; most of them are just filler and mind numbingly tedious repetition. It’s not even required to complete the game in order to Platinum it!
Without going into spoilers, the game itself has plenty of opportunities for much better trophies which would properly reward the player. Somewhat amazed SIE approved half of these trophies!

The game itself: 4/5
The PS5 trophies: 2/5

📂This entry was posted in Computer Games PlayStation 📎and tagged Computer Games PlayStation PS5
Ride to Touratech.. and beyond

Posted on 2023-07-10 13:32 by micha Comment

Saturday

To Touratech – and sorting the tools

So I ordered a nice toolkit for my bike from SBV, which arrived last Monday after I got back from my ride. Excitedly unpacked and played with it, only to discover that one tool, a socket extension bar, was broken. It was impossible to retract the locking mechanism so no way to put a socket on it.

Interestingly the Japanese vendor is Touratech, and they only have a single showroom in the entire country – which coincidentally happens to be in the town where I met Wilson last Saturday and is a jumping-off point to some nice rides.

Even though the weather was a bit meh I decided to ride there and have a chat to the guys, instead of trying to fix things via email (nihongo o tabemasen..) and sending stuff back and forth for a month.. Since the shop only opened at 10, I left around 9am, which put me in heavy traffic on the motorways leading out of Tokyo. Was totally not expecting that! It ended up taking me over 2 hours to get there instead of the estimated 1.

The guys at Touratech were very friendly and helpful and can even speak some english – certainly a lot better than my japanese! After some explanation and showing, they quickly replaced the faulty extension. Did not have as much luck trying to figure out the different contents between the Japanese and the European version of the tool kits..

After browsing the shop a bit I sat down and planned out the rest of the day – figuring I wanted to hear north and up to get out of the lowlands heat. Nagano direction seemed nice, so I planned some nice twisty roads up.

Towards Nagano

Hitting 5000km..

The ride to Nagano was a mixture of awesome and humdrum. At first I took a wrong turn out of the Touratech shop (well, partially because of heavy traffic and a yellow line), and went the long way around the lake to get on the highway. Then just highway for half an hour or so until I peeled off onto the 140, which was pretty meh for quite a while – traffic and suburbs.

Once I turned off the 140 and onto the 37 things started to improve, and certainly by the time I got onto the 71 it was quite an acceptable ride, especially once I got past some cars. The 46 was a pretty good stretch, and I was getting very close to my bike hitting 5000km as I got back into towns.. oh no!

But luck was with me – at Akihata I turned off onto the 192, another great little windy road and soon my odometer ticked over to 5000km just as I was leaving the village. I find a picturesque spot with a big stone marker amongst the trees for a commemorative photo.

The 192 turned out to be mostly a single-track back-country road, slow but rather picturesque and a great change of pace, leading through some dense forrests and eventually back down into a valley. There I hopped onto the E18 highway for a 10 minutes or so to bypass a city, turning off again at Yokokawa, I started up the 18.

The 18 and 292.. oh my!

Oh my, what a fantastic little road the 18 is!! I managed to get past one or two cars early on and from there I had a clear run up the mountain! After one corner I had a youngish fox just sitting in the middle of the road. No idea what it was doing there – it’s not as if I was the only vehicle passing by (there were quite a few cars coming the other way), but I guess it didn’t mind playing chicken! This was definitely one of the better roads of the day – over 200 corners in only a few miles!

The 18 ends up in a town as a major road, but it’s not long to the start of the 146 – nominally a road with some decent stretches, except I caught up to a black crown sedan.. no idea if the cops patrol this far out in unmarked cars, but I played it safe until it eventually, after many miles, turned off. But there wasn’t long left until the road hit suburbs again. I was quite glad to finally turn off onto the 292 at Kusatsu.

The 292. Epic! That’s the only word – even with the rain and the mist this is an awesome road with potential for great views leading up and around Mt. Shirane, one of the highest volcanoes in Japan and active as recently as 2018 (which I didn’t know until I read up about it). Unfortunately it was very misty and it was starting to get late so I didn’t stop – but this is DEFINITELY somewhere to come back to with more time! At the top, over 2100m, it got nicely chilly with only around 16C..

Dinner and bed – Seki’s House

After dropping back down from the peaks I went through Shiga Kogen ski area, and soon found my hostel, “Seki’s House”. The owner wasn’t home, but left me a note as to which room was mine and that they were in a bar. So after freshening up a bit I headed to the bar where it turned out Seki wasn’t having a beer, but was actually working! I had a pizza and salad for dinner with a couple of well-deserved beers, then Seki-san unlocked an onsen for locals for me where I could relax for a bit in the piping hot water.

Completely knackered, it didn’t take me long to fall asleep – so much for writing up some trip notes!

Sunday

Sunday started off with quite heavy rain, so after waking up early I turned around and napped a bit more. I then had a leisurely breakfast which Seki-san cooked – inari-sushi and a Nagano specialty, sanzokuyaki (which, to be honest, was just a slightly different take to kareage, although it was very delicious being freshly made). Eventually it was time to get going.. the rain had let off and there were even some blue spots amongst the clouds!

Green lanes..?

I didn’t have much of a plan, just picked out some curvy roads towards Nozawaonsen. Seki-san waved me good-bye and flicked some sparks off a “good luck rock”.

After filling up with petrol, my first road took me up a quiet road, the 342, which I saw was already going to be potentially a problem further on with the telltale moss in the middle and a fair bit of uncleared debris despite it being marked as a major road on my GPS.. and sure enough, after a couple of miles, it turned into a proper green lane. As in, the tarmac disappeared under a carpet of grass and was soon just grass-on-gravel. No wonder there was a barrier to stop cars!

But, it didn’t seem too bad.. and there were some car tracks leading into it which didn’t look too old. After some debating and walking a little way along it I decided to give it a shot – the detour was quite significant! And after all, that’s what this bike is made for! So I gingerly set off down the grassy gravelly track and immediately wasn’t very happy. The gravel was not very firm and the bike moved about quite a lot – probably not helped by the full tank of fuel. Initially it was wide enough for two lanes with a guard-rail but soon the track narrowed to a single lane with no guard rail and an appreciable drop. Combined with the squirrelly nature of the front tyre on the gravel underneath, I decided to turn around at the first opportunity, which came not long after at the first of a series of switchbacks.

I made it back to tarmac without any mishaps, but by this stage I was quite hot and bothered! Ok, the bike can definitely do this, I can’t. Certainly not on my own and without further training.

I then proceeded to take the long way around the mountains, which was mostly rather dreary suburbs and villages with lots of slow cars in front and little to no chance to pass them. Eventually I reached the other end of the 342 and, curious, went up it to see what this end looks like. Not so long in, it turns into an unpaved single-track forest path. This looks a lot more rideable than the other side, but as I’m already late in my schedule I decide against seeing how far up I can get it. But definitely something to come back to someday!

The 66, which I had been following, finally left the suburbs behind and became a great road back up into the mountains nearly hitting 2000m elevation again! It meets up with the 292, but unfortunately I was not heading back towards Mt Shirane, so I duplicated a short section of the road from last evening and then peeled off towards Nozowaonsen.

The 502 to Nozowaonsen

Peeling off the 292 onto the 471, this was a pretty fun little run, but it pretty much finishes at “Edelweiss Resort”, turning into the 502 which does not allow heavy traffic on it. I missed the turn onto the 502 and did a quick loop over some gravel roads instead of doing a U-Turn; no worries this time as it was compacted gravel roads and very much in use.

Back on track, the 502 is a great little road. Mostly it’s a forest road, often single-track, with quite poor visibility in the many many corners due to lots of plant growth. I was lucky though as there was pretty much no traffic and it really was very pretty with very vibrant plant growth everywhere. The going was pretty slow but very nice.

Sections of the 502 open up a little bit, especially on the downhill run past some ski slopes, and offer some great views. But better watch out – there’s bears about! No, literally! A youngish-looking black bear ran across the road in front of my bike, I had to hoik on the brakes quick-smart there! Although I was more worried about a momma-bear coming out of the woods.. so I didn’t hang around long. Times like these I need a camera on the bike!

Crash! before lunch..

Eventually reaching the valley of the Chikuma River and a bigger road, I stopped to look for lunch. I found a soba restaurant a few miles away, and, instead of the main road, decided to take another smaller road. This was, as it turned out, not such a good idea.. firstly it was concrete, not tarmac, secondly it was single-track, and thirdly there was no guard-rail and quite a steep drop into the valley. Picturesque, yes, but definitely not a relaxing ride.

And then, in one corner, there was a wash of mud on the road, which I misjudged and before I knew it, I was sliding down the road. This is only the second time I’ve dropped a bike while actually riding.. at least this time it was totally obvious why. Covered in mud, I quickly picked the bike up – well, at least I get to pracise that! and, apart from being a bit muddy, it looked perfectly fine. The crash bars did their job and the little plastic protecters protected even them from any scratches. In retrospect, I should have taken a few pictures…

Stopping again not long after, I stripped off my muddy riding pants and put on my jeans – I didn’t want to look totally unfit to enter a restaurant!

Without further mishaps I made it to the rather out-of-the-way soba restaurant, and more bad luck – they had just sold their last portion! Guess I should’ve stuck to the main road for once.. well, they told me about another soba place one more town over.

I made it to Tomazawa, the next soba restaurant, before they sold out and had a delicious soba noodle lunch.

Back to Tokyo – via Nikko

From where I had ended up it was about 240km or so back to Tokyo.. but that was just one boring long blast all the way down the highway, and would get me back into a set of expressways which I knew would be heavily trafficked by the time I got there.

So I decided to take a detour via Nikko..

An hour or so on the highway, and then off I was up the 120. This is a really nice curvey road, often two lanes heading up the mountains with a single lane down, so getting past cars was a breeze. Once at the top the road does narrow a bit but is still quite open compared to the narrow roads I’ve mostly been riding.

I’d been here quite a few times already, so didn’t feel the need to stop at the waterfalls again, but I did make an impromptu coffee stop at Lake Chuuzenji after seeing a cafe with a parking spot. In fact, it turns out there’s two next to each other, and I ended up going to Adonis as I noticed it had outdoor seating. A nice coffee and slice of cheesecake while taking in the sight of the lake certainly hit the spot!

After the lake is the ridiculous section of switchbacks on the down-hill run of the 120. But it’s been rebuilt to be one-way only, which does allow a bike some wiggle-room to get past the interminable columns of cars.. I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever come the other way UP the 120… might have to try that one day.

From there it wasn’t long until the start of the highway back to Tokyo.. nothing much more to say. I sat on cruise control at 120kmh for quite a lot of it until the he traffic got heavier as I got closer to Tokyo. Despite it getting slower there was no traffic jam and all up a smooth, if boring, ride back.

Otsukaresama!

Photos:

(Click on a picture to go to the album..)

📂This entry was posted in Uncategorized 📎and tagged japan motorbike travel

WordPress and Piwigo? Yes please!

Posted on 2023-06-29 09:34 by

Comment

So I just discovered the PiwigoPress plugin for WordPress.
While it’s obsolete and the widget no longer works, the “short code” feature still does. Unfortunately it’s not very well documented, but it is possible to add pictures to an article which link back to not only the picture, but also the album which that picture is part of.
Yayy.

Trawling through the source code, it seems the following is possible:

[PiwigoPress id=<pic> lnktype=albumpicture url='http://gallery.lemmurg.com/']

id	Piwigo picture id(s)	eg. id=1 – picture id 1 id=1-5 – all pictures with ids 1 through 5 id=1,3,4 – pictures with ids 1, 3, and 4
lnktype	picture (default, link to picture only) album (?) albumpicture (link to picture with album)	eg lnktype=albumpicture
url	URL of the Piwigo site	eg: url=http://gallery.lemmurg.com
size	Size of the picture. Possible values: sq – square th – thumbnail xs – extra small sm – small me – medium la – large (default) xl – extra large xx – extra-extra large	eg: size=sm
name	Adds image name 0 – no (default) 1 – yes auto – ?	eg: name=1
desc	Adds image description. 0 – no (default) 1 – yes	eg: desc=1
class	?
style	?
lnktype	picture – link to picture only (default) albumpicture – link to picture with album album – ?	example: lnktype=albumpicture
opntype	Whether to open in the current tab or a new one. _blank – open in new tab (default)
ordertype	? random – random order (default)
orderasc	Whether to sort pictures in ascending order. 0 – no (default) 1 – yes

📂 Technology 📎 computers piwigo technology wordpress

Motorbike weekend with Wilson

Posted on 2023-06-28 12:50 by micha Comment

Friday

Tokyo to Kawaguchiko via Route 56.

Taking a half-day Friday, a friend of mine and I planned a quick trip to the Fuji Lakes area as he needed to be back on Saturday evening.

We left Tokyo separately and met up at a restaurant in Sagamiko as it’s quite picturesque near a lake, at the end of the highway, and the start of the more scenic roads leading west. I left the highway a little bit earlier to take in a short twisty section and, of course, immediately took a wrong turn after a rather convoluted exit ramp and had to backtrack through a long tunnel. And then, of course, got stuck behind a car during the twisty bit.

After lunch we headed off towards Yamanakako taking a small road to Route 56 which we then followed all the way to the lake. On the way we had a quick fuel-stop in Doshi but otherwise just enjoyed the ride. I wanted to check out Nijinomotsu bridge, so from Yamanako we headed up a small road. After a mile or so it got covered in debris and small rocks, and Wilson didn’t want to go on with his street bike, so he turned around to find somewhere to wait for me.

I kept going and after another corner, the road turned into a dirt/rock track. Unfazed I started up it, but after two hairpins and the incline getting ever steeper I decided that this was probably not a good idea.. and anyway, after glancing down at my GPS I realised I wasn’t even on the road anymore! Doh! So turning back and finding the right road, I headed up it. No debris and tarmac. However, after a couple of miles, it was blocked off, presumably due to a landslide or something. Bugger!

After messaging Wilson that I was on my way back and texting him the location of a parking lot to meet up, I turned around. When I got to the parking lot I had a message from Wilson that he was waiting at a McDonald’s a few miles away. Battling the rush-hour traffic, I eventually got there and enjoyed a chocolate shake for my efforts, yum!

From there it wasn’t far to our final destination, a hotel in Kawaguchiko, which we found after an accidental detour over the bridge. Following check-in we wandered off to find dinner and ended up in a chinese restaurant. Well, that was a bit different! The crispy-duck pancakes came with four pre-cut pieces of duck and a tiny bit of hoi-sin sauce, and the sweet-and-sour pork was what seemed to be soy sauce.. Finally back at the hotel we enjoyed a nice hot sentan (unfortunately no onsen) before rolling into our futons for a deep sleep.

Saturday

Kawaguchiko to Utsubuna for lunch; around the Fuji lakes, scenic forest roads, and some fast curvy stretches.

We got up around 7am, geared up, dropped the key into the check-out basket, and headed off. First stop was a service station on the other side of the lake for Wilson to feed his hungry steed, while I wandered across to a 7-11 to feed myself. Wilson’s not a big breakfast person, but I do like my cup of coffee in the mornings!

From there we followed the road around the lake, then looped around Lake Saiko, Lake Shouji, and Lake Motosu before heading along Route 300, a fantastic curvy stretch. Nearly at Fuji River we peeled off onto the 413 which is a small road leading through forests. There was a bit of debris on the road, so we took it nice and slow until we got to the top where there was a nice look-out. We stopped for a couple of pictures, and a guy arrived from the other direction on a Postie Bike. He said his other bike was a GS, and also mentioned that there was more debris on the road from the direction he had come from.

We continued on and it was actually not as bad as what we had already done, but when we got to an intersection Wilson said he’d had enough of the tiny road and wanted to get back on something more decent. Unfortunately the road leading back to the main road, while starting off nice and wide and clean, quickly turned very narrow, very bumpy, and very mossy, so slowly, slowly.. nevertheless we made it back without mishap and then proceeded to follow Route 9 beside Fuji River.

We stopped in Utsubuna for lunch in a small restaurant beside the road. Although we had both initially wanted Tempura we opted for soba bowls instead, and they were very delicious. After lunch Wilson and I split up – Wilson was wanting to head back to Tokyo, and I was wanting to check out a small road leading to Tenshi Lake.

Utsubuna to Shirakaba Lake via dirt roads, Shizuoka, and the fantastic 152; long dash to the hotel at night.

The road to Tenshi Lake, rather predictably by now, got narrower, covered in debris, and eventually turned into a rocky track leading deeper into the forest. Less daunted, I kept going and it was quite a nice ride, I even saw a deer grazing beside the road. Eventually the track turned less rocky and more gravelly, but developed a centre grassy hump which was a bit tricky to negotiate at times. Still, I made it through without mishap and had a good time of it!

From there I had wanted to ride Route 152 further west, but to get there required riding through quite a bit of town and major roads, which were full of cars and people. I miss the quiet countryside already! After slogging my way through Shizuoka I turned off on Route 362 which was much nicer. I also wanted to take Route 32, but this turned out to be closed a few miles in, so I had to backtrack. Still, 362 was mostly ok for traffic and most cars let me past.

I eventually reached 152 and, after passing the detour in Isuka due to a landslide I had managed to get past all the cars and could really enjoy the road leading up the Funagira Dam Lake. This was a well-paved road with great sweeping corners, fantastic to ride. Eventually though, as seems to always be the case here, the road turned into a single-lane narrow road through the forest. My aim was to get over the Bungui-toge Pass, but this was thwarted…

After reaching the Hodono Castle Ruins (which I actually didn’t see as I didn’t realise I was there at the time – I was running a bit behind schedule to reach my hotel for the night at this stage…) I ended up taking a wrong turn through a long tunnel.. which I then had to backtrack. The 152 was closed here, but there was a smaller road which should detour around and meet up again with the 152 later. Except, after a few miles, yep, you guessed it, it was also closed!

Checking for alternatives I realised there really was nothing.. and by now I was _really_ behind schedule. I had originally wanted to get a place somewhere in this area, but they were all booked out, and I accidentally ended up booking something near Nagano, which was still a couple of hours away.. so I just told the GPS to route me to the hotel, fastest route, and gave up on going over the Pass. Funny story: the new route took me through the tunnel I had taken a “wrong turn” through an hour earlier…

Here followed a mad dash to the hotel. I should have spent a bit more time trying to plan the route instead of trusting the GPS as, instead of routing me over highways, it took me via Route 152 and other quite small roads. During daytime this would probably have been really nice and picturesque, but as it was getting dark, the highway would have been a lot more comfortable. Still, I got to try out the auxiliary lights on the bike after dark and damn, are they impressive! I was still able to make quite good progress even on small twisty roads through the forest. I’m really glad I reprogrammed them to be dimmer before setting off as otherwise they would have been blinding to oncoming traffic even on low-beam.

I eventually reached my destination, the “Petit Hotel Kurumi No Milk” without mishap, despite having to stop to let a few deer cross the road on the very last stretch. As it was already nearly 9pm by now there was no point trying to head out to find dinner as the closest places would be a 15 minute ride away or so. Unfortunately I lucked out again and the place had neither an onsen nor a sentan – and after my epic ride (over 500km, mostly over small roads) I was a bit beat. So I folded myself into the ofuro and soaked before collapsing in bed. Still, it’s a nice enough place and, as it turned out, was on the Venus Line, which is one of the best roads in Japan for motorcycling!

Sunday

“Petit Hotel Kurumi no Milk” to Tokyo; via the last bit of the Venus Line, various other small roads; 2 caves, and a rather horrid last stretch back to Tokyo..

I left quite early again as the hotel didn’t have breakfast – I really need to start booking through Jalan again as the places it has usually have breakfast options! A very nice trundle along the last bit of the Venus line followed, in very comfortable 18C at this altitude. After various great mountain roads I stopped for breakfast at a kombini – not my favourite, but it was too early for anywhere else to be open, and I needed coffee!

I was mostly just moseying back towards Tokyo, but realised that I was well and truly too early as I had originally expected to be starting at least 100km further back and was wanting to check out the “Median Tectonic Line Museum” in Oshika this morning. In retrospect I could have had a great blast up the Venus Line and had breakfast at the top.. oh well.

Instead I did a sudden U-Turn when I saw a sign for Fujido Cave and headed up the side-road to that. I already got a sneaking suspicion on my way up the access road, which was confirmed when I reached the top – I had already been here! Well, no point going in the cave again, so I traipsed across the Ueno Suspension Bridge in search of ice-cream. Unfortunately it was still too early for that, so I traipsed back and got an ice-cream out of the Cave shop freezer instead. The view was nicer on this side anyway.

From here I did a big loop through a small forest road just for fun, and then tagged another cave as my next destination. The ride to Hashidate Limestone Cave was mostly along Route 299 and overall great, although the last bit through Ogano was a bit painful with traffic. FWIW, Hashidate Cave isn’t worth it as a specific destination.. it’s quite small and there’s barely any indication of stalactites or stalagmites. It’s also a bit of a scramble to go through, so only recommended if you’re reasonably fit and flexible. It does seem to be quite a popular tourist destination though with a big eatery and other touristy stuff. The only hint is to drive up to it instead of parking at the top carpark.

I tried to keep going up the road past the cave to get to Arima Dam, but, yep, it was closed maybe 10 miles later.. so back I went and had to take quite a long detour to get there, some of it through busy towns. I made it eventually and discovered it’s a hot-spot for bikers! Lots of bikes parked up on the dam wall with people lounging about.

From here there was really nothing else except back to Tokyo. I tried to take a smaller road for a bit but, again, closed, so again, backtracking.. the main road leading down into Hanno got busier and busier, and, coming out of the mountains and onto the Kanto plain, the temperature soared to 30C+. I was getting quite hot in my gear, and the neverending lines of cars did not help. After various attempts to reroute myself off the busy main roads I eventually got onto the highway back to Tokyo.

Unlike the south, there were no major hold-ups and apart from not taking an exit when I should have (the GPS and road signs disagreed with each other; the GPS turned out to be correct..) it was a mostly reasonable ride back. Still, I was more than happy to finally get home and have a shower!

What a fantastic weekend 🙂 Looking forward to the next ride.. although I definitely need to invest in some summer riding clothes!

Photos:

(Click on a picture to go to the album..)

📂This entry was posted in Japan Motorbike Travel 📎and tagged motorbike travel

Day 1 – Saturday 2025-04-19

Day 2 – Sunday 2025-04-20

Background

Before Starting

Initial Conversion

Completing the initial conversion

Moving the data

Final Layout

Day 1 – Saturday 2024-05-11

Day 2 – Sunday 2024-05-12

Getting There

Settling In

The Diving

Enjoying the Holidays

Back to Toyko

Media Links

Overview

Issues

Installation

Core Installation

Optionally:

Saturday

To Touratech – and sorting the tools

Towards Nagano

Hitting 5000km..

The 18 and 292.. oh my!

Dinner and bed – Seki’s House

Sunday

Green lanes..?

The 502 to Nozowaonsen

Crash! before lunch..

Back to Tokyo – via Nikko

Photos:

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Photos: