Well, this is it. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we'll finally see the mountain of Japan - Mt.Fuji.

Early morning my bike was already packed, waiting for me outside. I wanted to get up as early as possible to escape the afternoon heat. When I got up at 6 the sky was overcast and I decided to stay in the bed for another couple of hours. It wasn't gonna be sunny that day and there was no need to leave at 7 as planned and I slept for another 2 hours and left at 9:30.

We were a little short of time, so I decided to cycle to the tunnel by myself and meet with Ewa and Pierre near the tunnel. Our friend Pierre agreed to take us through the tunnel to the other side (the Karisaka tunnel between Saitama and Yamanashi prefectures is over 6 km long and it is over 2000m above the sea level. Walking and cycling through it is not allowed).

The first few kilometers were a nightmare. The night before, I had a few beers and my head felt it the next morning. The first climb came after 5 km in Kamiizumi, leading to Nagatoro and Chichibu on the other side. I had never considered that climb as a difficult one, but being hangover it seemed really steep and very long. I cursed every car that passed me. I reached the pass and were glad to be going down. After the pass the road leading to Chichibu city ran through an interesting area in the mountains. There were many old, Japanese style houses along the road and almost total lack of modern, concrete architecture created a great atmosphere.

I reached Chichibu in an hour and made the first stop just outside of the city in Arakawa at the beginning of the climb to Karisaka tunnel. I tried to call Ewa from there because I realized that I forgot to bring a tripod, but they had already left. After a quick snack of salty cucumbers and some rice, I was on my way again. It was the perfect cycling weather. Overcast skies and warm temperature. It wasn't raining, but rain hang in the air. The temperature was much lower than the average for that time of the year in Japan. The summer that year was cool. It was quiet, but the storm, one of the strongest typhoons that year was just a day and a half away.

To my surprise, the first 20 km of the climb were very easy. I expected uphill road all the way to the tunnel, but it turned out to be up and down with short, easy hills. Most importantly, there weren't many trucks on the road. The R140 follows a stream that is deep below in the valley. It looks very beautiful. The whole area is a beautiful place with the river in the deep valley and huge mountains on both sides. The mountains are a part of Tama-Chichiby National Park and there are many popular hiking trails. I felt like going down to the river for a swim and if it was hot that day I probably would have done it. The real climb began passed Otaki Village. It was steep. I reached the roller-coaster, the spiral bridge that crosses the valley from one side to the other and back. That wasn't easy. After the bridge, the road became even steeper, but fortunately the randez-vous point with Ewa and Pierre was just a few hundred metres up the road.

For some reason I thought that the place was right before the tunnel, but later it turned out that the tunnel was 8 km away. Anyway, Pierre and Ewa came, we loaded my bike onto Pierre's car and drove through the tunnel to Yamanashi prefecture. While crossing the tunnel, we discovered that there is a sidewalk, so it is possible to ride or walk through it. Later we saw a guy in Yamanashi who walked through the tunnel.

We quickly found a nice spot on the shore of a small dam lake and set up a camp. There was a small building (some kind of museum, but really small, the size of a one storey house). Next to the building was a shelter with a roof and sink with fresh water. We had to cook the lunch under the roof because the nice, sunny Yamanshi sky turned gray and it started raining.

When Pierre left after lunch, we went for a short walk on the main road. Up the road were some houses, a general store and something that looked like a local onsen (hot spring/bathhouse). When we returned to the tent, we had a fire and cooked dinner. It stopped raining after Pierre left, but started again in the late evening. We noticed that somebody else decided to spend the night in that place. It was the guy that I saw earlier walking on the Saitama side of the tunnel. He must've walked through the tunnel. I never asked though. He slept under the roof in the back of that tiny museum. He had nothing with him except for a small back pack.

After he went to sleep, Ewa washed herself under the sink that was there. She was practically naked there. Fortunately, the guy was asleep or at least we thought so. We couldn't fall asleep that night.

DAY 2