One Day Trip to Urabandai by local trains and bike

Ikebukuro 05:02 -- 10:38 Bandai-machi
Tour includes:
 Bandai-san Gold Line (磐梯山ゴールドライン) (70 yen),
 biking around Lake Hihara (桧原湖),
 Bandai Azuma Lake Line (磐梯吾妻レークライン) (90 yen), and
 Bandai Azuma Skyline (磐梯吾妻スカイライン) (150 yen).
Fukushima 18:49 -- 23:45 Ikebukuro

This time I went the furthest than the previous tours. I had only seven hours to go 120km with 2364m up in total. It was the most challenging tour. I became confident about my physical power because I was not tired at all in Kamikochi. At first my itinerary was in reverse order: from Fukushima to Bandai-machi, but thinking about the tough initial climb to Konroku pass made me afraid of getting tired going up 1600m from the beginning.

I could easily climb the gold line. Going around the lake was fun.

Bike towards Mt. Bandai

Kitakata noodle for Lunch at Urabandai Road Station

Aizu river flows into Lake Hihara

Bike around Lake Hihara

From the initial climb of Lake Line became very tough. I already ran out my energy by going up the  Gold Line and going around the lake.

Lake Onokawa from the Lake Line

Lake Onokawa (小野川湖) and Lake Hihara over there

When I complated the Lake Line I already totally run out my energy. My muscle no longer kick pedals strongly. It was already four; only two and half hours to go to Fukushima Station, which I didn't know the location well. I had a choice to use Route 115 to Fukushima, avoiding the Skyline saving about 20km. But I was too childish to accept this workaround. My new challenge against time and my muscle began!

Going up the Skyline...

Arrived the highest point on 17:30

Mt. Issaikyo (一切経山) keeps fuming with sound

I was not in time but couldn't resist my desire to climb up Mt. Azuma Fuji, which crater was empty.

Mt. Azuma ko-fuji

Bleak landscape filled with volcanic gas

I went down the Skyline at highest speed. Climbed down 25km in 30min. Some part of the road had anti-snow equipment which shook my bile and made it out of control. I have I finally acquired some secret of how to go down mountain pass by bike. I arrived at Fulishima station at 18:45. Not enough time to pack my bike. But I don't want to bother train staff and passengers. I gave up the last local train and got on Shinkansen at 19:05. I was not sure where to catch the local train and bought Shinkansen ticket to Shin-Shirakawa, but I could catch it at Kooriyama. I paid extra 2010 yen...

This time I could not see Goshiki numa (五色沼) and I couldn't take a bath at a hot spring (あったか湯). I would like to revenge this road someday.

Day trip to Kamikochi by local trains and bike

This time I didn't feel tough to go 1000 meter up to the destination, except for the last very steep Kama Tunnel (釜トンネル; 1310m 10.9%).
Kamikochi was nicer than expected. I wanted to stay one night just listening to the sound of the stream without thinking about daily life. Water of Azusa river was clear and yet still, because of its flat land form at 1500 meters above sea level. I think it's very noticeable characteristic which realize this unique scenery.
Taking the previous bitter experience of the way back from Oze last time into consideration, I left the site a bit earlier. I got soon stuck in a traffic jam. I thought it's because of the cars of the leisure visitors going back home. I was very worried about missing the last train from Matsumoto. After a while I saw police treating a car crushed on a mountain side. After passing the accident site, I could go smoothly down the mountains. I biked as hard as possible. It was just 6 minutes before when arrived at Matsumoto station. I had to pack my bike so quickly.
In fact I didn't learn so much from the previous lesson. Next time, I swear I should leave well before the train departure time.

Midono Dam (水殿ダム)

Kappa Bridge (河童橋)

Lunch at Kamikochi Alpine Hotel

Took a bath at Kamikochi Onsen Hotel

Kamikochi Imperial Hotel

Today's best photo!

Bare trees reflected on water surface

Monkey in bush

Taisho Pond (大正池)

Azusa River (梓川)

Good bye, Kamikochi

This time, my new challenge was to only depend on iPhone 4, which I bought this month, for confirming a train time table, gathering the site info, taking photos, checking the current location in a map, and so on. It was successful overall, except for the quality of camera; the lens cannot collect so much light that the green was not saturated, and the speed of loading and showing a downloaded PDF sightseeing map in iBooks; it could show the buffered image when launching the application.