9/9
Waking up early and making it down the mountain was as easy as expected, not much went wrong until I got 100 km from Tokyo. Here the endless straight roads with shops and restaurants on both sides made the scenery boring to say the least. I made very little progress when I was on the walkway with the pedestrians, so on to the road with the cars I went. I had done this several times before though, but never because there were too many people.
The roads on the other hand made it difficult for me as well, constantly changing names and whether I could ride on them or not. I tried different methods, but in the end I didn't find anything that worked and so I probably zigzagged all the way to Shinjuku. In the parts of Tokyo where there are too many people, like Ikebukuro or Shinjuku, it's impossible to ride on the walkway. You have to do it on the road, but it can be a bit dangerous. Other people did it, but not so many though. When I first started I didn't stop, it was much easier although I might have annoyed the drivers, it seems to be part of the game that is traffic in Tokyo.
I decided not to leave my bike, but to take it with me to my friend Takuya. I am to sleep at his place, and I'm ever thankful for this, it means a lot especially after the last couple of days with little to no luck, haha. After getting in touch I got to take a shower, eat and now I'm lying comfortably and writing this post. It's a first in 16 days I sleep in a bed.
A few comments I would like to share. The roads for pedestrians and bikes are horrible. Some places are fine, some are great, but the majority are taken out of a post apocalyptic movie and it seems like it's left for nature to reclaim it. I'll post a picture of it later!
People here in the city are less cautious of bikes, I guess there are too many things to take notice of. And with me going relatively faster than most bikes might trick them too. They should really know the difference just by looking, but some things can't be changed.
Speaking of looking. Kids are especially easy to impress with my bike and all the gear, but a lot of people reacts to the fact that I'm not Japanese. It's difficult to tell with the helmet and sunglasses and I even managed to scare one when he got a good look at me.
And I made a sign saying I'm going all the way to the most southern part which helps a lot with the attention, but now people talk to me instead of avoid as much so that's nice. It's a good icebreaker.
Lastly, please put less restaurant signs and start making it easier to navigate on bikes, my god it's difficult. I am going to leave my bike here while I'm visiting friends, traffic, finding the way and people just makes it impossible to make any progress at all.
Tomorrow I'll rest before I go to meet people. And at some point I'll go to Yokohama, I'll tell you why some other time.
Distance: 212 km
Total distance: 1771 km.
Time: 11.30
Condition: thankful and happy
Quote: sometimes you have to travel in order to understand where home is.
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