Cycling Day in Kamigori and Sayo

We did a cycling tour recommended by our friends! We arrived at Kamigori Station to pick up our bikes and had a charter train take us together with our bikes to the neighboring town of Sayo. From there, we spent most of the day gradually cycling back down to the original station.

We strolled around Hirafuku, which used to be a popular town along the historic Inaba Kaidō trade route. We cycled to a temple, and had sweets and green tea while enjoying a wonderful view of the mountains and listening to live koto music that was being performed nearby. We also cycled to view the changing leaves of a giant ginkgo tree.

Lunch was delicious and we were glad for a break from cycling.

Seirinji Temple had a stall with live crabs for sale! The leaves were amazing as they were beginning to change colors here for the fall.

In another stop we got to try on samurai costumes. It was a fairly length process to put on all the layers and required help so that it was tied on correctly. We couldn't imagine what it would have been like to try on actual samurai armor, which would have been much heavier.

The day was a bit cloudy and it actually started to rain during our ride. Luckily we stopped at a cafe called Hana Terrace for some dessert, coffee, and tea. The rain had gotten lighter by the time we were finished.

We wrapped up the day with another temple and another chance to sit down to drink some tea and have some sweets.