Solo Day

This past weekend, when the weather was beautiful and possibly even considered not cold, I decided to take a day and go explore the west side of the city by myself, with nothing other than my bike. The title is a bit strange, since I tend to do a lot of stuff by myself around here, but it was nice to go out and do things at my own pace. I wanted to see how far I could get before I pooped out, since I'm hoping to ride a roughly 40-50 km trip up to Mt. Hakkoda and back during the spring.

For now, the original plan was to ride along the curving coastal highway going northwest, and see how far out of the city I could get. The day before I left, I was looking through a picture book of the region, and I happened across a picture of 野木和公園 Nogiwa Park, with beautiful bridges going across a picturesque lake. I decided I'd take a western detour to bike around the park before continuing north. I also looked up a ramen shop called ラーメン二八〇 「ニッパーマル」 (since the highway is called the 280) far down along the highway, which I could use as a rest stop/landmark.

And so, around 11:30 am after a breakfast of rice, natto, and a quarter of a honeydew, I set out. The roads in the city are bumpy and crowded, and no fun to ride. I ground through it over the bay bridge, and finally made a left in 油川 Aburakawa to get to Nogiwa Park. None of the paths going through the park are paved, so I stayed along the road that winds around it. The lake itself had not yet completely unfrozen, and still had large chunks of ice covering most of the water surface. I wonder if there are any ice skating activities here during the deep winter, although perhaps the deep snow and not-quite-low-enough temperatures make it impossible. Even though the ice wasn't all melted yet, the lake shore was teeming with fisherman, so I guess this is a local fishing mecca.

Nogiwa Lake, filled with slushy water.

I took half a loop around the east side of the park (which ended in a dirt road), and then wound back around to the west side. I saw a road sign and asked myself, "Do I want to go to 五所川原 Goshogawara?" which is maybe 40 km to the southwest. I thought about it, and decided, "Nahh..." but then I saw the road...

Sweet mother of road biking...

Luscious curves and gentle hills, occasionally enveloped in green pine forests and lined with unadulterated white snow like icing on a cake? How can anyone resist that? So, I rode up this winding, silky smooth, and absolutely empty road for a few miles until I hit a roadblock that said, "Closed for the winter." So that's why it was so empty...

Having been forced to turn around, I rejoined the coastal highway and continued north. A south-blowing wind of around 5 m/s made the riding slow and excruciating. I kept plowing on hoping for the ramen shop sign to appear around the next bend. After a grueling who-knows-how-long, I finally made it to Ramen 280 next to 北中). After re-teaching myself how to walk on solid ground, I stepped inside.

The place was mostly empty, except for the chef and one guy in the corner taking his sweet time reading a magazine. This was great, because I could stretch my poor legs without people judging me. I ordered the shop's specialty, 味噌担々麺 (miso tantan-men) and sprawled out on the tatami in the unoccupied corner to stretch and watch some daytime Japanese television. When my food came, it didn't disappoint.

Miso Tantan-men

It had a sweet and savory flavor made through the use of lots of sesame sauce. It was also filled with chashuu pork and an indescribable ground meat that formed a pebble soup-bed underneath it all. I thought it wasn't that spicy at first, but then the mouth burning slowed my pace way down.

I checked out the wall behind me, and apparently this shop has a spicy ramen challenge. On the left, it says 眺望山「噴火」ラーメン Choubouzan Funka (eruption) Ramen for 800 yen. It advertises that the ramen is very spicy, but if you finish it, soup and all, in under 28 minutes, you get it for 280 yen. I think I'll pass and just come back on the 28th of every month, when the 正油 shouyu ramen is 280 yen. Notice a theme?

やんべ、やんべ、チョウやんべ！

Anyways, after chilling out here for about an hour, I finally felt ready to go again. I started heading north even further, but the wind demoralized me so much that I turned back around after a kilometer or so. The ride back home was fast and easy with the wind behind me.

After getting home, my legs were surprisingly fine. I'd clocked in a bit more than 40 km, and yet 2 days later I still don't feel anything especially sore. I'll probably still need to do some more training before taking on Hakkoda, and I'll try to go further down that fine road towards Goshogawara once it opens up again. In any case, I felt a bit accomplished, even though I spent the entire day by myself. I'm used to it by now, I suppose, but it'll be great once my girlfriend can finally come up and live with me again.