The Heartlands of Cycling　
Short movie on a new type of bicycle trip

From Kyotango City to Ine Town. Enjoy our movie introducing a new type of bicycle trip.

Views of the sea made us forget the difficulty of the ride. Tango Peninsula Cycling Trip

For the Tour de Nippon in March, we were concerned about remaining snow and the possibility of rainfall. On the weekend of our Kyoto and Tango Peninsula trip, we were blessed with clear skies, and enjoyed an incredible 2-day cycling itinerary.

On the first day, participants gathered in Kumihama in the northwest of the Kyoto by the Sea area. In the brick-styleHoliday Homewhich features views of beautiful Kumihama Bay, it’s time for a lunch party featuring delicious tastes of the Tango Peninsula. It’s a hand-rolled sushi party held with the assistance of Iio-jozo, a Japanese vinegar brewery founded in the Meiji Period (1868-1912), which produces Fujisu, Japan’s number one vinegar.

We’ll use this Japanese vinegar, which is made with organic rice, as well as rice and seaweed to make the sushi. Inside each piece we wrap local ingredients prepared with care by the Holiday Home chef Some of these ingredients were a surprise to our taste buds as they are almost never used in hand-rolled sushi, such as dried mullet roe and fried pork cutlet.

Now that we’ve had our fill it’s time to hit the road and warm up with 26km of cycling. Leaving Kumihama Bay, we’ll aim to reach Taiza, a town renowned for crab, in time to view the sunset. It’s a pleasant ride from town to town, facing the Sea. The clear morning weather takes a turn in the afternoon with the arrival of stronger winds, and while the cold temperatures and hills give us a challenge we arrive to the town of Taiza with smiles on our faces. Participants are able to view the sun setting on the horizon of the sea from their respective ryokan, marking an end to Day 1.

Tour de Nippon welcomes many participants who have doubts about their leg strength or who are not experienced cyclists. Thinking back on past Tours, we expected that riding up and down the hills on Day 2 would be a formidable challenge, but after finishing we found that each participant had leveled up their cycling skills and had a strong sense of achieving something significant. From Taiza, this course continues for 37km to Ine, a town known for its views of traditional style boat houses on the water. We ride purposefully in the morning, then spend a relaxing time in the afternoon at Ine Town, making for a well-balanced itinerary. Riding past seaside scenery including sheer cliffs and nearby towns, participants gave it their all giving out cries of exertion as they pedaled.

The reward for making the ride is none other than a lunch handmade by local moms! This tasty meal revives body and soul and features sliced sashimi seafood with local ingredients including octopus and squid caught this very morning. Ine Bay is lined with traditional style boat houses, and this is a view that can’t be found anywhere else in Japan. While walking through the town, local guide Katsuro Nagahama of Ineura-sozo-juku tells us about local history and life here. This is a chance to see the Tango Peninsula from two different perspectives—on foot and by boat—and to get acquainted with the history, atmosphere, and local people of Ine Town, which is located on the tip of the peninsula. We hope that such small, everyday meetings in the Kyoto by the Sea area will make for fulfilling and pleasant memories of your trip, and make you say “I never knew about this side of Kyoto!”

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