The 10 Day Home Stretch!

I find that the closer I get to finishing this whole adventure, the less I believe it is actually happening. I suppose there are enough things to keep me busy during the day, that I don't have much time to think about where I have been or where I am going. According to some random guys math on a bike forum I was just looking at, there are about 280 pedal strokes for every mile traveled. That means I have successfully made about 440,000 circles with my feet so far. A lot can happen during so much geometry practice and it's tough to keep track of it all!

I must say, though, that I am a bit happy to be done with Honshu. Much of my trip was punctuated by small victories/accomplishments that made the distance easier to contemplate, but from Himeji all the way to Aomori, it was just a monstrous 950 mile trek! Oh, and the roads were narrow and rainy. But everything else was amazing. I am not sure if touring by bicycle just adds an extra spice to everything you do and everyone you meet, but it seems like the nicest people on the planet, Japanese and foreigner alike, live in Japan.

While taking an impromptu rest day in Hachinohe, I had the most wonderfully nostalgic time with my couch surfing English buddy Joe. Hachinohe is not a particularly large city, though it does have a bit to offer in terms of things to do and places to see. Though Joe had a bit of a knee injury to contend with, and work the next morning, we decided to venture out to some street-side bars and see where the night would take us. Probably not for Joe, but for me the night was headed straight for good old fashioned American and Japanese nostalgia.

I should first explain that one of the few things that I truly miss from America (aside from friends and family, of course) is cheese. Japan has some cheeses, though it is usually something less flavorful like mozzarella or processed beyond the category of cheese. Furthermore, any other cheeses are just too expensive to be an option. This is where cheese senbei comes in. Traditionally, I believe senbei referred only to a rice cracker of some sort. In modern times, though, almost anything that is relatively flat and about the size of a sand dollar can be called senbei, whether it's fish, seaweed, candy, bone (yes, bone) and others. That night I was able to partake in the joys of a cheese senbei. Basically, this senbei was just some fried cheese with more cheese melted on top of it. A heart stopping dish, both medically and emotionally.

It was too dark for a good picture, so imagine this with even more cheese!

After that nice delicacy, we walked out in search of a nice outdoor pub. We walked along a street that was literally lined with small lean-to shacks that housed tiny kitchens and could seat about 8 people each, which had a wonderfully summery feel to it. The place we finally settled on had a man from Miyazaki prefecture (southern Japan) that we were able to talk to. After I told him that I had come from an area near Miyazaki and that I very dearly missed Shochu (basically rice vodka), he insisted that we drink some together. I am not sure if I actually missed Shochu, but since 6 of the 8 months I have been here have included drinking Shochu exclusively, you eventually build up a taste for it. For the record, and those that know me well know this, I truly hardly ever drank in America...but if you plan to come to Japan and make friends with Japanese businessmen, well let me assure you that your main source of hydration will usually have some hard liquor in it.

At any rate, it was an absolutely wonderful night, and a further testament to the wonders of couch surfing and the kindness of Englishmen.

I have finally been able to make a Google map that doesn't look awful, though it is not yet annotated with my nightly stays, but I will do that when I get the time. At the very least, it is a true representation of almost the exact route that I have taken, as well as the exact route that I have left. So I start the countdown to Cape Soya right here and right now! T-minus 9 days until I have successfully ridden across this crazy, interesting country! Estimated date of completion: Friday, September 16th



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Wrap it Up like a Present!

Hello, everyone! It has indeed been a VERY long time since my last post and quite a bit has happened since Sept. 12. However, I wont spend too much time apologizing for my absence...as there is nothing I can do about it now. Except, of course, try my damnedest to finish with a little style.

Looking back across the past few months, I cant tell you how many things I would do just a bit differently if I had the opportunity. At the same time, I wouldn't really change a single thing, because if I had gone through this whole adventure and done everything perfectly, then it wouldn't have been much of an adventure! At the outset of my blog, I had these wild hopes that I could take a few days worth of travel and condense them into a sort of illustrative, thoughtful blog post that would encapsulate the true feeling of being on the road. I do not think such a feat is impossible. However, attempting to do so while on the road turned out to be impossible (for me). As such, I must confess that a day-by-day chronology is, in fact, the best way to recount a trip like mine.

Therefore, from here on out, the rest of my posts will be daily musings and anecdotes. My goal, after all, was to portray, for anyone reading, the feelings, trials and tribulations of someone embarking on a quest greater than themselves. It follows naturally that if you would like to give someone a daily sense of things, you must provide a daily account of events!

I haven't yet organized my pictures, so I will be doing that today so in my next post you may experience the full grandeur of a day in the life of a bike tourist (embarrassingly the first full day account yet provided!).

All but my spirits have been dampened, Typhoon Talas

I'll give it to ya straight, ladies and gents, there has been a lotta rain and bad weather. That doesn't really effect my spirits, but it has drastically limited the amount of pictures I am able to take, so I am just apologizing if this post is a little light in the visual stimulation area.

In other news, I have just been killing it on the road, for some reason. A good friend once told me that it is during our rest days that we become stronger. Perhaps this is true, because I have been riding like a madman, bagging three 80+ mile days in a row (82, 90 and 94 to be exact). I have been quite worried about some burgeoning pains in my knees, but apparently riding these long days hasn't troubled them too much, so I'll assume everything is just fine down there.

I must say that, since there is a fundraising aspect to this whole journey (even though I know I scarcely speak of it), I was surprised to actual witness the character of the devastation that was caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Essentially, I passed through all of the affected areas in a mere two days of riding and, frankly, didn't see too much damage. This is, of course, because my route kept me on the inland side and most structural damage along my path had already been repaired. Though this initially gave me the "Everything is Ok, no fundraising needed" impression, I quickly learned that along the coastline of Japan, there is still much work to be done, and many lives to be rebuilt.

As long as there are cars on top of 3 story buildings 300 feet from the shoreline, there is work to be done

Almost everyone I talked to knew many people who lost everything in the tsunami, and certainly everyone was effected by it. Unfortunately I was not able to spend as much time as I liked in the affected areas, but the best thing I can do is continue riding, blogging and hoping for more donations!

Also, if that isn't enough, Japan has recently been getting rocked by a typhoon recently, going by the name of Talas. Cool name, but not such a cool meteorological formation. I feel bad saying this, but in the midst of the unfortunate experience that a typhoon creates for many people...for a cyclist that is a bit out of it's path, typhoons can create some monster tail winds! To provide some perspective, I usually am going at about 20 km/hr each day. When it's almost totally flat, with no wind, I can bump this up to about 22 km/hr. However, with my good buddy Talas at my back, even with some tough mountains in my way I managed to pull almost 24 km/hr with 7 hrs in the saddle. Mind you, that's 7 hrs in the saddle, not travel time. Such an awesome day, and it was right in the middle of this beast (I am the red circle)

We had some good times, Talas...but that was really lame what you did to southern Japan.

The end is in sight...it's just really far away

Hey hey hey, I'm back again to report the latest on this wonderful journey through Japan. I am not sure if this leg of the trip has been less eventful, or that the general novelty and awe of my everyday experience is just starting to become more comfortable and familiar. In either case, I'll do my best to capture the ups and downs, both physical and figurative, of the last few days.

When I began riding, thinking about the end of the trip was a very difficult and possibly dangerous thing to do. It can be dangerous because some might find the thought of riding a bike almost every single day for a solid two months to be quite depressing. Therefore, it is better to just think of every day as it's own private adventure, independent of any broader goal. That kind of thinking has brought me cleanly through a solid 1,400 miles of riding, which I am quite proud of. However, now that I better know my physical limits and have gotten much better at planning my route, this knowledge has come with a sort of curse. I am now able to decide the exact day that I will finish this amazing journey. As exciting as that is, having every day planned out ahead of time removes some of the precious flexibility that has made this trip so amazing. Before I would just ride up until a certain distance and then stop whenever I felt like it. Now, I will need to reach certain cities by certain days if I hope to reach my goal in time, no matter what I feel like in the morning or how the weather is. This may seem like somewhat of a bleak outlook to have as I enter the final leg of my journey, but with it has come a wonderful realization that I hope to take with me into wherever life takes me next.

Though I still have 800 miles to ride, there is absolutely no way I will ever quit until I reach my goal. Such deadpan certainty came to me mostly in the absence of any good reason to quit. Granted if I receive some horrible injury, or my bike is stolen, it would be quite tough to continue, but other than that there is absolutely nothing that I can think of that will stop me from finishing what I have started. This, to me, is a good thing to learn about oneself; the certain knowledge that you know you've got what it takes to finish some grandiose plan that you started without knowing the outcome, is something I hope to carry with me always. I am positive that this is easier said than done...but I'll give it my best!

On to some stories! I don't mean to talk so much about sleeping and accommodations, but they are such a large part of a bike trip, when you think about it. I spend most of my days riding, eating and sleeping, and sometimes there just isn't much else to talk about. Luckily, the world of the Japanese internet cafe is pretty interesting to me, so let me digress on them for a moment.

The Japanese internet cafe is a mostly cheap place that is an ocean of cubicles, free drinks and an occasional shower room. After certain times, usually 8 or 10 p.m., they have good deals on 7 to 12 hour packages for people who either want to play video games all night, drunken business men who do what drunken businessmen do and bicycle tourists like me! What's more, they have a variety of room types, some of which are obviously suited to those who would like to get a little shut eye during their stay.

They don't much like people taking pictures, but here's the ocean of cubicles

Here's my space, all tucked in nice and cozy like!

The other thing I love about net cafes is their personality. The inside almost always looks the same, though the music differed strongly, but the outside is always good for a laugh, or in some cases a worldview.

Love, peace, music, people and Sonic the hedgehog. Is there anything else, I mean really?

As I mentioned above, I have gotten quite a bit more skilled at finding more pleasant routes to take during my daily ride. To be perfectly honest, that skill only involves looking at the highway, and picking a road that is relatively parallel to it (I know, I'm a genius). Sometimes these roads can be quite hilly, but the rewards are more than worth the effort.

Here's a canyon and the moron riding through it

Man made, but I thought it was a really neat waterfall

After taking a really long and frustrating detour, I came to this place. Japan can be a real jerk sometimes, but she usually makes it up to you

Not a country road, but I couldn't pass up the chance to show off Japan's willingness to mix cultural icons!

Lastly, I wanted to again address how interesting the concept of timing is on a bike trip. Though you are moving quite slowly through a country, everything happens so fast. For example, during a short, 1 hour period my golden chance to see Mount Fuji came and passed. Due to some clouds, the darn thing was SO close, but far enough way that I could only see the outline. So here I present what could have been one of the coolest pics of the trip, but is a bit poorly lit and is missing one of Japan's most important icons.

See the clouds moving over the top of that gorgeous beast!?

Slightly better. No bike though

My cell phone has been a bit on the fritz lately, so I will really try my best to write blog posts absolutely every chance I get, since writing from my phone is no longer an option. In other news, I can say with a fair amount of confidence that I will reach the end of my trip on September 16th, 2011 where I will proudly stand on the northernmost tip of Japan and hopefully celebrate in some ridiculous, and not yet decided way!