Day 18 - Yokohama sightseeing

12/9

Although the weather forecast would have me think that rain was today's agenda I left Takuya's apartment at around 10:00. And that was without my bags, of course. First time I ever ride without my bags and it feels so light. Almost too light actually. The bags did work as a balance/weight thingy that prevented me from over steering and without them I feels like I might turn the bike handle too much and trip.

Luckily that didn't happen. At least not yet. I went to Yokohama in order to visit the usual touristy things, but also to visit the Yokohama archive of history, and if possible find the place where my great grandmother lived during her early childhood. Now the story behind that is not easily told, but if people are interested they can get it in another forum.

I was also suggested by Takuya and his mom to go to Chinatown. And I love to visit Chinatowns around the world. This might seem strange, why go to another country to see a part of China? That's just it, it is isolated from China and has developed in its own way through many many years. Fascinating!! There I got what I usually get in Chinatown, meat buns. There were many cheap Chinese buffets and for the first time since I arrived I thought it was a real shame that I didn't have a group of friends to go with. I got to make up for that the day after tomorrow.

After Chinatown I went looking for the archive of history, but to my displeasure I found it closed due to a nation holiday. Which I by the way knew was today, but somehow didn't make the connection..

Disappointed I went to the main thing, finding the bluff, the neighborhood where foreign settlers lived around the time my great grandmother was in Japan. I found it quite easily, but finding the exact property is somewhat tricky. We have a rough idea though and now there is a hospital located there. Just a normal hospital. But the neighborhood itself is quite special still.

I didn't really ever give it any thought, but there are still foreigners living on the bluff, or Yamate as the part of the city is called now. I don't know if you can call them foreigners though. I presume they can speak Japanese and are a part of the local community, but they don't look Japanese, that's for sure.

There are many international schools in the area and even the Japanese looking kids spoke English. And with American accents at that. Combined with the western looking buildings and the many non-Japanese looking people, I felt I was no longer in Japan. Getting down from the bluff again I returned to Japan. That's how it felt anyway.

I did find one remaining clue that Danish people once lived there. One of the boards featured an old map and there it was, a Danish flag on one of the settlements. I was quite lucky to find it as it was a place I hadn't planned to visit.

I want to stay here until tomorrow and then visit the archive in the morning. I hope to find something with my knowledge of our family history and Japanese reading ability. Maybe I'll learn something new.

I went to the baseball stadium and the park around it and rested a bit before making it through small and narrow streets. I found a bike shop and wanted to give my tires some air when I found out the price was 100 yen.. Now I don't know if that's normal or not, but next time I'll refuse. I will survive until I find someone who'll pump my tires for free, haha.

I found a manga cafe where I will stay, but before settling in, I decided to take a small night trip around the port area I visited earlier. In one of my favorite ps2 games, Gran Tourismo there is a stage where they drive through Yokohama Bay Area by night. And it was worth it. The light from the tall buildings, the big roads and the Ferris wheel, it was all amazing.

Tomorrow I'll go to the archive and then I'll visit a cup noodle museum if I have time.

Distance: 60 km

Time: 4 hours

Condition: Relaxed and excited for tomorrow.

Quote: look to the past and you will know

Day 17 - Strolling through Shibuya and Harajuku

11/9

I didn't have many things on today's program so I went to Shibuya to look around. I spent a lot of time looking at nice shops and also planning ahead for the next part of the trip.

I skyped with my mom and dad and wrote with Samar, a friend of mine that I met during my exchange to Fukuoka three years ago. We are going to meet up in Nagoya, the next big city I'll stay in. But that's not until the 16th. It's never to early to plan though.

After spending quite some time on the Internet searching everything from restaurants to local festivals in Nagoya, I decided to look at the road out of Tokyo and into Shizuoka. My girlfriend's parents friends who I will be staying with for a day, said it was impossible to ride from Tokyo to their place in a day. That might be true, but it says so on my itinerary, and I kind of already said I'll be there the 15th, so I'll make it somehow.

I also wanted to go to Harajuku by foot, it's really not that long, I went on to Harajuku. I like the bigger parts of the city, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku. Places where people never seem to sleep and the neon signs emit colourful light everywhere. There is something about these places that is different from other cities I have visited so far. That will be a blog for another time, I guess.

I thought a lot about the next part of the trip. And I miss Ayana a lot, so I want to get going as fast as possible. But resting is good for me and my bike and I still haven't met up with that many people here. I wonder how difficult it will be to continue my journey once I get to Fukuoka. And I have been thinking about changing the route so I don't have to zigzag across Kyushu. But I'll figure that out later.

Distance: walked a lot
Time: all day long
Condition: thoughtful
Quote: time is now  

Day 16 - Relaxed shopping in Tokyo

10/9

Today I had 4 things on my shopping list and a couple of things I wanted to know so I could plan my exit from Tokyo later. And I also wanted to gather the people I know here in Tokyo for dinner on the 14th, let's see how that will turn out, hopefully people aren't too busy!

I needed new tubes for my bike, a present of some sort for Takuya's mom for letting me stay in their apartment, a cable for my light because I can't find the one that came with it, (it was like less than 7 cm, very inconvenient.) Last but not least I needed to find a new pair of shorts.

Got the three first things, but I haven't found any shorts that I liked yet. Not too heavy, not too warm to wear and did I mention not too heavy? So most of the day I walked around Shinjuku which was nice for a change.

Again I have to mention the kindness of Takuya and his mom, they're making it very comfortable for me and I wonder if I will get too used to it, haha. I'll find a way to repay their kindness. 

Around 19:00 I was to meet up with Takuya who himself had a very long day with many things to do. I went to Waseda university at around 17:00 and wandered around the area. It's a big place, and there are many interesting buildings around the campus. I was using free wifi when I suddenly...  heard drums.

At first I thought it was interesting and wanted to find out where it came from. But then I remembered that I often had heard music from speakers on the cars. Even in the smaller villages they play music at certain times of the day. And when that happens suddenly while driving it might... distract you a bit.

I went on to the place we were supposed to meet when I saw a shrine on the corner of the street, the sound of music grew in strength and I started hoping for a festival. And I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't big, nor crowded, but enough people so that you would have to look where you walked. Food stands, music, dancing and everything that comes with a Japanese festival was present and I was happy to have walked around and be able to go there. That's what happens when you go on adventures!

I met up with Takuya, ate dinner, went home, lost in shogi, (I'll get you next time, for sure!) and now I'm tired. More so than when I ride my bike, must be all the people in Tokyo.. 

Tomorrow and the next few days it will rain, actually I can't see when it will stop, so I might have to go on the 15th in rain, which sucks since all my stuff has dried and can be used again. Let's see what happens, maybe I'll get lucky and avoid the worst rain.

Distance: walked a lot, but nothing for the bike computer today. It too must be tired of counting.

Time: -

Condition: ready to sleep! 

Quote: hope for the best, prepare for the worst. 

Day 15 - Lost in Tokyo

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.

Day 14 - Trapped in the mountains

9/8

So first I'll like to take some time to say how thankful I am to the people I meet on the way, without them I'm not sure it would be worth it to make the trip to be honest.

The hotel staff was very kind to me when I told them how I ended up there. I spent most of the time planning the week to come and figuring out how to get to the other side of the mountain. But the weather wouldn't clear up until next morning so I was awaiting an opportunity. The mountain road up was closed due to the weather and the road down south was restricted to cars only...

Luckily, after having spent time lurking around looking for a place to camp, the hotel staff offered to drive me past the gate so that I could get down and onward on my journey. I didn't think twice about it, but it was with some guilt that I put my bike inside the van. And when I saw the road down I wondered what made it different from the road of which I came just last night.

Past the gate I continued to a small town called Nakanojo where I ate Chinese food and went to sleep outside the station.

Tomorrow will be approximately 200 km, if I don't get lost that is.

Distance: 50 km.
Time: 2.15 hour
Condition: feeling tired.
Quote: be the person you want to meet

Day 13 - Mountain adventure!

7/9

Like the superstition surrounding the number 13, my 13th day became quite the mess.

My day started out with some early sightseeing. I went to a temple in the city, the biggest one actually. And there I saw a ceremony being conducted by the head priestess. I was about to leave when one of the staff came over and convinced me to stay 10 more minutes to see the statue on display behind a curtain.

A woman came over and we talked about the ceremony and religion in general. She said that the head priestess would bless us after the ceremony and so I waited and received her blessing. Quite the experience right from the morning and here everything was perfect and I knew nothing of the horrors I would face later.

In order to get to Nikko, I had to go over a couple of mountains. This, I thought, would be difficult, but not impossible. So I ventured on. The cities are horrible to bike in and it's easy to get lost. And before I reached the base of the mountain it was already 13:00.

Going through the smaller villages, the outskirts of Nagano was tough as well. It was already going uphill. But with the time I was making I could easily get to the summit before sundown...

That was to say if nothing was to happen. The village ended 27 km before the last stretch to the mountain. So for the next 27 km I struggled through the heat. The sweat was flowing left and right and I thought I would die of thirst before I would reach the summit. After a couple of hours I had emptied water and food and I had made very little progress. 

I had to pull my bike many places and I decided not to ride it at all after a little while. Then I noticed that my back tire was kind of flat... I figured it must be because the weight is shifted back and the air is pressed out. Now, even if I did get to the part that went downhill, I wouldn't be able to ride before I had pumped the tire.

Here I began to think of what to do next. I could go back, but wasting too much time climbing only to go down seemed... annoying. So I continued.

The low hanging skies made it impossible to see more than 50 meters ahead, and the sun was about to set. The cars had stopped passing by. Now the next that would happen was that my tire became totally flat. Like punctured flat. It was the same tire I had used in Hokkaido and patched up in Hakodate so I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

I had now walked 17 km up hill and before that biked around 25. The climb was a constant 6-9% and now I could only see what was within 10 meters of me. I decided to leave my bike. I wanted to make it to the resort place and then go pick up my bike in the morning.

I got myself a broken piece of a long pipe to defend myself and went on for two km.
I then saw lighting... my stuff would not withstand a heavy shower and the only thing I brought with me was my phone. Oh and I tried calling everyone and everything I knew of, but I couldn't. I actually can't make a phone call and was asked by the machine to find a payphone. A payphone. In the mountains. Hmm, I could only see the irony in my situation by now. And the phone number on the signs were out of order too. Great.

After walking two km I heard a car. It was headed in the same direction so I waved it over. Three people, obviously coming from a party, probably in Nagano, was heading back to their workplace in the resort. Lucky! I drove with them and although the guy was driving like he tried to outrun a landslide, we managed to get the last 8 km to the hotel.

The two other people, a woman who was very drunk and a Chinese girl broke the rules and took me to the dorm where they live. I wouldn't know what to do if they hadn't come along.

In the morning, 4:30, I ran 8.2 km to my bike, changed the tire and checked my stuff. Although wet everything seemed fine. Thanks whoever, God or Buddha,  I don't know how sad I would be to lose iPad and ipod.. oh, yeah it was raining a lot the whole time.

I'm sitting in the hotel right now figuring out what to do. I want to go to Tokyo now instead of Nikko. In Nikko I'll face more mountains, and I'll be more delayed so Tokyo is the better plan. Today will be impossible for me to depart because of the rain. But tomorrow it is.

This might make people back home very worried about me, and I know I promised to be careful, but you cannot fear fire if you haven't burned yourself at least once. Lesson learned and from now on I'll take the less scenic route (read no mountains).

Distance: 50 +
Time: I don't even know, if I had to guess I would say 6 hours.
Condition: glad to be dry
Quote: I'll just turn this corner aaaand.... look, we're still going up the mountain. Dammit.

Day 12 - The little things

9/6

After sleeping surprisingly well in the parking lot, I packed my things and started my trip early, around 6:30. But as many other times I found more interesting things to do than driving straight on the road.

I tried a car service place to see if it could pump some air into the back tire, but the valve didn't fit.. I talked for quite some time to the guy working there though. And after that I ran into a guy who was on his way to work. (He was on a bike too). I told him about my trip, and the current situation and he had a pump at his work only 3 minutes from there! The pump worked wonders and I could feel the difference right away. Like it was much lighter. I talked for maybe 30 minutes and he was very interested in everything.

I made good speed and reached the road I thought I couldn't ride, but fortunately I could. Only for some time because it soon turned into a intercity highway and I had to find different ways. I asked so many people, and I even went to two tourist centers in the station, but they were of little help. Don't think they get too many asking about how to get to Nagano on a bike. 

I did my best and guessed right almost every time. I also used the method of going away from places I knew. So just go towards the unknown helped a bit too. The scenery today was remarkable. I have uploaded the pictures to Facebook, the thing that is wrong when I use my phone is that it can't have the pictures in the post while uploading in. What.....?

Although it looked like rain for most of the day I didn't feel a single drop. But the mountains made the humid air feel like it might as well be raining. No need for sunblock or long t-shirts..

The ride into the city was long and a bit boring, but I was happy to have overcome the mountains for now. I took a shower in the public bath closes to the station. New experience acquired alright.

My body is handling the new lifestyle quite well. The only problem I have is my left shoulder and my toes.. The rest is something I can live with so to speak. But riding for so many hours a day changes something small to something big. No matter what you do, if you do it 100.000 times it's going to leave some kind of mark. On the other hand, getting to take two free bites of chicken in the convenient store is small, but valuable.

Nagano is quite big, so there are many things I want to see. Unfortunately I won't be able to see  everything. Some are simply too far away. But tomorrow I'll go to a famous temple and maybe a samurai city.

Distance: 170 km

Time: 8:45 hours

Condition: ready to sleep!! 

Quote: it's the little things.