Golden Week Part One: Biking to Tenryu

May 3rd through 6th was Golden Week. Golden Week is several holidays all around the same time. It's more of a long weekend than a week though.

On Saturday the 3rd Jonathan and I biked to a waterfall in Tenryu in northern Hamamatsu. Jonathan had randomly come across the waterfall when biking while I was in Tokyo with Lauren.

We crossed Tenryu River into Iwata and biked north from there because it's a bit more pleasant than biking on the Hamamatsu side. 

We stopped at a Mini Stop konbini and I got some tea with some crazy guy on it.

Then we crossed back into Hamamatsu into Tenryu. A few of my schools this year are in Tenryu.

It was a bit warm that day, but not hot. I would have wanted a jacket if I wasn't moving around. But it was warm enough that the cooler temperatures in the tunnel felt refreshing.

I cross that bridge to get to my schools in Tenryu. It has a nice view, but they're a bit hard to capture from the pedestrian side.

Jonathan crossed the street to buy a drink from a vending machine. Jonathan needed ten more yen so I was going to throw a coin to him. I was about to do it and a cop came around the corner, haha. But then after the car passed I successfully threw him the coin.

 

We parked our bikes on the side of the road and went down a short path to the waterfall. 

It was a really nice area and no one else was there. We sat on a rock and ate some snacks that we had bought at a konbini. 

 

Then we walked up the road and took another very small trail to the upper part of the waterfall. 

Why does that picture make Jonathan look miniature??? Haha!

The waterfall was really nice and I'm glad that Jonathan found it. It's really lucky that he found it because he was just biking somewhere really random and came across it. 

It would have been nice to spend a little more time there but I didn't want to bike too much in the dark.

We took a different route back to Jonathan's apartment and stayed in Hamamatsu. The scenery isn't as nice, but it's more direct.

When we got back Jonathan mapped out our route. We had biked about 33.5 miles (almost 54 km)! That's the furthest I have ever biked. I was pretty tired! We had plans to bike more the next day but I wasn't sure if I would want to or not. But after a good night of sleep I felt refreshed and ready to bike again. I'll post about that next.