Cycling around Lake Biwa

Lake Biwa. Found in Shiga Prefecture at just about the centre of Japan's main island, Honshu, it is the country's largest lake, measuring approximately 670 square kilometers. It is the world's third oldest lake, and as such has developed a unique and diverse ecosystem, with 58 species of living things found nowhere else on Earth. Most notable when visiting the Northern reaches of the lake are the vast numbers of aquatic birds which either pass through or call the lake home, and the waters and skies are constantly filled with the various flocks of cormorants, gulls and terns.

So where do bikes fit into this? Though vast, though filled with natural scenery and surrounded by mountains, the lake is still in Japan...and that means roads. Specifically, all 235.2 kilometers of the lake's circumference is accessable by either highway, parkway or bike path, and this makes it a popular challenge for Japanese bike enthusiasts in the Kansai region.

For our part, everyone needs a challenge, and Laura and I have long since decided to make some of our challenges physical. Climbing Fuji was my idea, cycling around Lake Biwa was Laura's.

Now many people do the Biwa trip in just one day, in a sort of long distance endurance challenge. But two factors made us decide against this option: a). there was no way in hell we could do it in one day, and b). we actually wanted to see some of the sights along the way. Not only are there a number of beautiful places to visit around lake Biwa, but we would also be biking during the peak of the cherry blossom season; both good reasons to take our time.

So it was that we decided to do the trip in three or four days, depending on how things went. That meant that we would need a tent (which we were dying to use, since we lugged it all the way from Canada and then never used it) and some extra gear.