Bike touring: Mount Dodai observatory, Arima dam and Okutama lake (October 2026)

Early morning ride on the weekend without a plan or a destination

On October 3rd I decided to go ride to some new random location. I opened Google maps and the Mount Dodai observatory seemed like a decent place: not too far, up in the mountains, and I had never been there before. The idea was to decide where to go afterwards once I got there. The way to the observatory took me through a few very beautiful mountain towns, and a few roads that would have been very difficult to do by car because of how narrow or how steep they were, or because there were obstacles such as big potholes or rocks and tree trunks in the middle of the pavement. On the bike I arrived to the observatory without any issues. I stopped there to eat an onigiri, and then I continued riding without bothering looking at the map. I ended up near the Arima dam, so I stopped for a couple photos. Following the road took me to Okutama, and I thought that I would go visit the lake, since I had never been there before either. I left the bike at the public parking lot, and I went for a walk on the dam. The water levels were quite low, probably because they were releasing water on the generator side. In the middle of the dam there are two white buildings used to monitor the dam. One of them is partially open to the public, so I went to check the views of the lake and the dam gates from up there. In the top floor they have a model of the dam, with buttons you can press to get more information on each part. After visiting the dam I went back to the restaurant near the parking lot, where I had something to eat before getting back on the bike to come back home.