🎌🏔️ Day 7 🏔️🎌

52 miles / 5,381 ft / 5:07
(Be sure to watch the route video!)

We were up just after dawn, nerves already stirring about the long climb ahead. At 6:30 AM we pushed away from Morino Yado guesthouse in Ōme (青梅), knowing we had a big mountain day in front of us.

The road followed the Tama River (多摩川), whose emerald waters carve a dramatic path through the Hikawa Gorge (氷川渓谷). To reach our breakfast spot, we walked across a long suspension bridge—Lisa, of course, couldn’t resist wiggling it side to side. On the far bank, we unwrapped our 7-Eleven feast: coffee, yogurt drinks, and sweet bread. Simple fuel, enjoyed with the roar of whitewater echoing through the valley.

Climbing steadily toward Lake Okutama (奥多摩湖), the morning light sparkled on the reservoir, its surface ringed by steep forests. We passed bold bridges painted in solid colors—red, blue, green—little markers of our progress. Near the lake, we stopped at a roadside souvenir shop. The kindly owner offered us samples of local snacks, while Lisa discovered something more unusual: a giant bug for sale. As tempting as it was, we decided he wouldn’t make the best travel companion and left him to find a more suitable family.

By midday the heat set in—close to 100°F, with humidity so heavy it blurred the valleys in a gray haze. Dragonflies swarmed in their thousands above the quiet roads, cicadas buzzed in the trees, and sweat streamed down our backs. Parched, we spotted a vending machine, only to realize we didn’t have the right coins. Then luck struck—there, in the coin return tray, sat exactly the coins we needed. Enough for two bottles of cold water, just in time.

The last ten miles to Yanagisawa Pass (柳沢峠) were punishing: endless switchbacks, hot asphalt, and legs burning. At 4,830 feet, Yanagisawa is among the highest paved passes in Kanto, long linking Musashi (武蔵) with Kai (甲斐), the historic name for Yamanashi. At the summit café, we collapsed with well-earned ice cream—アイスクリーム (aisu kurīmu). Of course, we ate ours so quickly that Lisa had to pose with the plastic display cone for the photo.

Then came the reward: the descent. A spiraling, loop-de-loop road cut into the mountainside, tunnels flashing past as our bikes touched nearly 40 mph. The Kōri Basin (甲府盆地) stretched out below, ridge after ridge dissolving into the humid haze.

Crossing into Yamanashi Prefecture (山梨県), the scenery transformed. This is Japan’s fruit basket—famed for cherries, plums, and especially grapes, 葡萄 (budō). In September the vineyards are heavy with fruit, each bunch carefully wrapped in paper to protect it from insects and sun. The care and patience of Yamanashi’s farmers was evident in every row.

By 3 PM, we rolled into Koshu (甲州市). At the grocery store we stocked up on dinner supplies—beer, gyoza, and edamame—and were thrilled when our host at Vineyard Vista said we could check in early. Later that afternoon, a dear friend from Tachikawa (立川) came to visit. I hadn’t seen her in 25 years, and it was a joy to reconnect in person after so long. She also brought a gift of local grapes, sweet and refreshing—the perfect welcome to Yamanashi’s wine country.

That evening, instead of cooking, we joined our hosts and fellow travelers in the dining room. Dinner stretched into three or four hours of conversation, laughter, and new friendships. Our hosts, Takeshi and Kikuchi, a sweet couple married just this past March, made the night even more special by sharing their music—tin flute and acoustic guitar, Irish folk melodies filling the room. When they played Down by the Salley Gardens, it was doubly moving: not only our wedding song, but also the very same one sung at our ceremony in May by Lisa’s friend Monica’s daughter. The circle felt complete.

Nearly 50 miles, almost all uphill, had tested us. But from roaring rivers and dragonflies to chance vending machine miracles, from hazy valleys to wrapped grapes and shared music, the day left us with memories as rich as the land itself.Read more