Century of Wazuka Climbs, Part 1

Panasonic LX100 at an effective 62mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Working The Tea Fields

high up in Wazuka, Japan (和束)

I had a nice ride through the mountains of Uji and Wazuka (Japan, near Kyoto/Nara) the other day. Both Uji (宇治) and Wazuka (和
束) have been famous for their tea for centuries, and have tea fields tucked away in the most seemingly-unlikely nooks and
crannies of their mountains.

Here's the ride at Strava:

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I had a number of specific goals when embarking on this ride:

Goal: ride at least a “century” of distance (100 miles, 161km).

Actual: 167km / 105 miles.

Goal: vertical climb of at least 3,000m (9,850').

Actual: 3,506m / 11,503'

Goal: get a PR (personal record) on the “Omine East” climb.

Actual: beat my former PR of 22 minutes by almost a minute and a half.

Goal: hit three particular descents with gusto, perhaps earning the “KOM” (“King of the Mountain” — fastest recorded time) for them.

Actual: KOM'd all three.

Goal: do the heinous Yaruki Jizo climb again, preferably without killing myself.

Actual: survived

All goals acheived, so yeah for me.