Stage 2. Getting to know a customer and transport at the foot of Mt. Fuji

Yuki Tsugehara | 24. March 2025

The second day of the tour started in the beautiful city of Fuji-yoshida in Yamanashi prefecture, with its blue sky and green trees. The city, 110 km from Tokyo, lies at the foot of Mount Fuji, known worldwide for its beauty, and is also known for its rich nature and abundant rainfall, which produces high quality water.

The temperature in the morning was 0°C. Snow remains on the roadsides and the scenery is completely different from Tokyo.

Today’s rider, Miyamukai-san, was seeing the igus:bike for the first time today. He was carefully testing the bike.

Mount Fuji has been a famous tourist attraction since the Edo period, but its popularity increased in the 1960s and the city of Fuji-Yoshida became a centre for tourism. Today, the city attracts many visitors from abroad, making overheated popularity a challenge.

The igus:bike visited Arakurayama Sengen Park, which has a spectacular view of distant Mount Fuji. This is almost the only place in Japan where you can photograph a pagoda, Mount Fuji and the cherry blossoms in full bloom at the same time.

Unfortunately, the cherry blossoms are only a week away from blooming. Mount Fuji was also covered with clouds, but the beautiful pagoda and the view were enough to make any visitor wow.

The group descended at the foot of Mount Fuji, with the igus:bike showing stable behaviour on the descent. After 15 km of continuous descent, they came to Wakai, located in the neighbouring city of Tsuru.

Wakai is a company that mainly engages in the inspection and polishing of die-casting components. The engineers from Wakai, who are users of both e-chain and iglidur, were eagerly asking questions about the manufacturing process of injection-moulded igus:bike.

We also heard about the superiority of Wakai’s helisert machine (a machine that makes screw holes in resin and other materials), e-chain used in it and the use of iglidur on the lifting table.

After his visit to Wakai, Miyamukai-san went to the test facility of magnetically levitated (maglev) trains in Tsuru City, Yamanashi Prefecture, where since 1995 test runs have been repeated on a 42km track.

A Japanese maglev train has world speed record, 603km/h (374mph) in a test run near Mount Fuji. Preparations are currently underway for the railway to open in 2034.

The second day of the trip ended with the sight of an experimental maglev train coming to a halt. We learnt about the history of transport and technological advances there.

Our rider: Munetoshi Miyamukai

My name is Miyamukai and I am in charge of e-chain sales in Yamanashi Prefecture. As a sports enthusiast, including triathlon, I was looking forward to this challenge on the igus:bike. I am happy not only to ride at the foot of Mount Fuji, but also to introduce you all to Wakai, a unique innovator in this region.

Map of the tour