Day 41 — Nikko to Ota - Tom and Marilee Retire to the Road

October 13, 2025

Day 41 — Nikko to Ota

Marilee here.

After a photography-filled day off in Nikko, Tom was understandably a little tired of taking pictures, which is one reason that there are very few photos accompanying this post. The other reason is that we were just having too much fun biking to stop and document the ride. It was a great day of riding, particularly in the morning.

Since the temples at Nikko are a big tourist draw, our hotel was full of western travelers. This meant opportunities for conversations with others that don’t involve us smiling helplessly and saying “Wakari masen” repeatedly (it means “I don’t understand” and is one of the few phrases I have fully mastered). We were befriended by a fellow cycling enthusiast from Edmonton who noticed our bikes and was quite envious as she was not biking herself. We lingered a bit over breakfast talking with her, but then had to hustle and pack up, as we had a lot of distance to cover.

There was a stiff climb to get out of town, but very soon we were swooping down switchbacks on a one-lane mountain road — so beautiful and exhilarating! Luckily there was virtually no traffic. Over the first 10 - 15 kilometers we saw fewer than a dozen cars. We did however see other bikers — something that’s become a bit of a rare sighting since leaving Hokkaido. Not fellow bike tourers, these were pelotons of road racers flashing by. And a bit further on we started to see posters advertising an upcoming race, which unfortunately we will have to miss — otherwise we could have entered (Especially if they had a category for 55+ on touring bikes)!

Today was a national holiday: Sports Day — which may have partially accounted for the quiet roads we enjoyed for most of the day. But based on the evidence of the activities we saw going on, we both thought that “weedwhacker day” would be a more appropriate name for the holiday, since every second property we passed seemed to have a man out front diligently buzzing away at the vegetation.

Any guesses as to what kind of tree fruit this might be? It appeared to be growing wild, a huge tree covered with fruit.

As the day wore on we came down out of the mountains and woods into a more industrial landscape. Not nearly as picturesque, but Tom felt we should document it just to clear up any possible confusion among readers that Japan consists only of woods, rice fields and temples.

We arrived in Ota, our destination, in mid-afternoon and made our way to the municipal campground on the edge of town. Where we engaged in possibly the biggest comedy of errors conversation with a campground manager thus far.

We announced confidently that we were there to camp. He replied no, not possible, with a mournful shake of the head. We thought, hmm he doesn’t seem to understand, so we dug out google translate and tried again. No was the answer again, but he produced a price list and suggested that bungalows were $30 a night. Well sure we said, that would be great, we’ll take your finest $30 bungalow please. Oh no, he regretted to inform us there were no bungalows available.

Now thoroughly confused, since the campground, as far as we could tell from the parking lot, was empty, Tom decided to play the sympathy card. We’ve traveled a long way today (our general sweatiness and air of exhaustion was proof of this) we really need somewhere to camp, isn’t there somewhere we could put our tent? This did generate sympathy, but didn’t result in a campsite. Instead he began showing us how to use google maps to find hotels, clearly convinced that we were thoroughly hapless travelers.

We took our leave before things got even more confusing, quickly booked a last minute hotel and rode off. We ended up at the Ohta Grand Hotel, which was very grand indeed, if somewhat faded and dated. But it was happy to take us and had an in-house Onsen bath, which made us both very happy at the end of another strenuous day of pedaling and navigating cross-cultural misunderstandings.

A retro light console in our room, one of the charming touches at the Ota Grand.

102 km — longest day yet! 505 m elevation gain

Today's ride: 102 km (63 miles)
Total: 2,114 km (1,313 miles)

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