April 2016

Tougher than it thinks

Posted on 2016-04-19 09:58 by rv

A lot of things happened today, and that's good. Even if some things were not good. But most things were amazing.

Let's start at the beginning. I'm still jetlagged and woke up way too early again.I checked out at 7 and started cycling north. I was expecting to go rural immediately but Shimonoseki's suburbs stretched out for quite a bit, and for a long time I was cycling parallel to a busy road. It was very windy and I had to lean into the wind quite a bit. Fortunately that got a lot better later in the day.

I veered off the main road to try and find the westernmost point of Honshu. It was a good 3 kilometers that I had to do twice, since there was no other way back from there, but it was absolutely worth it. A spectacular view with no one else around. At least, not at first. I was soon visited by first a biker and then a random guy, who both, when I told them that I was intending to camp tonight, told me that no camp site will be open since it's not July yet and it's too cold. Bullshit.

Still, I kept it in mind as I cycled along and decided to play it safe, stopping at the first camp site I find that is not closed. I headed north again on an amazingly beautiful road through a nice valley, with mountains on either side and large Japanese houses. The weather was perfect as well, which made it just one of those golden moments of cycling trips, where everything is perfect. It's the exact moment I was hoping for when I was planning this trip. You never know if the combination of route and weather aligns in this way, but today it did, and I was cycling along with a big huge grin on my face.

Wilflife: I saw a tiny shiny dark red frog today. And also what I think was a Japanese Giant Hornet, who didn't appreciate it that I parked my bicycle next to its bush.

After the pretty valley road I was back on the main route going north, and I was starting to feel some saddle pain. Despite my training I still seem to get sore-ish at around 30km. But this time it didn't get much worse throughout the day, which is good. I had a long lunch break at a conbini where I forced myself to sit still for at least 30 minutes before continuing. I think that helped a lot.

As I reached the northwestern corner of Honshu I investigated a campsite that I put on my map before I left. It was indeed very closed, but also in the middle of nowhere and with a perfect view. It seemed like an ideal place to camp, so I made my mind up to stay there tonight. It was only 2AM though so I figured I might as well cycle along a bit further and visit the bridge to Tsushima. It was only a few kilometers further but it was a tough cycle, with some steep climbs, and I was starting to run out of energy.

I decided to cycle on a bit further to a nearby port time in the hope of finding a conbini or supermarket, since I didn't have a proper meal for the evening yet. Unfortunately there was absolutely nothing there. I took a different way back which should have taken me to the main road first, which I could then cycle back on to get back to my chosen campsite, but I missed a turning and ended up even further away from it. So far that going back felt like a chore, and since it was still early I decided to cycle onwards and try my luck.

It was a few kilometers after deciding that that fatigue really set in. I had to take a break because my legs just didn't feel like doing anything anymore. Some bread and chocolate helped recharge me, but I was still feeling pretty drained for the rest of the cycle. I came across a nice park but was told that I couldn't camp there. There were some more potential opportunity camp spots, but none of them exactly brilliant. In the end I came up to the next camp site that I had marked on my map, just around 4PM.

The camp site was open and the two old men running it were very happy to set me up with a spot. Not surprising given that they charged me 1600 yen, or about a third of a hotel room, for a night's stay. What a ripoff. But I was too tired to care. They asked me if I wanted to use the shower and seemed extremely surprised when I said yes. They were very difficult to understand and kept switching back to their local accent.

Shower surprise number one: it's a coin shower. You'd think that for 1600 yen the damn shower is included, but no. Surprise number two: the hot water didn't work. So I went back to the reception where the two oldies were just leaving and I asked them if they could fix the shower. One guy stayed behind and let me try many times in many different showers, all the time slipping me 100 yen coins back every time it failed. It never did succeed in the end, and I had to do with deodorant towels. I should've just showed up here after 5PM and stayed here for free. The place provides no added value.

Still, the view from here is pretty damn amazing, and I enjoyed a nice sunset while eating my dinner of beef jerky and curry bread. I'm in my tent as I'm writing this and it's getting really cold. Good thing my sleeping bag is quality. That was definitely a worthwhile investment. Also, I lost my sunscreen somewhere. I think I left it leaning onto something on my bike and then cycled off, so it must have fallen off. I rummaged around in my panniers and found another smaller bottle of sunscreen from a previous cycling trip. Lucky, ish.

Tomorrow should be interesting. I kind of stopped the detailed map-planning midway into the area I will reach tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll be looking for a cheap hotel, but it depends on the circumstances I guess. I might end up camping again. I might not have a choice since I'm pretty far away from convenience right now. The last time I saw a conbini was at lunch, and that's an eternity for Japan standards.

Posted in Photography , Spirit of Japan 3

Day one. Again.

Posted on 2016-04-18 13:53 by rv

I'm as jetlagged as I was last time. I couldn't sleep much last night because the people in the room next to me were vigorously agreeing with each other until late at night and then jetlagged kicked in and woke up at 4:44AM. I tried to force myself to go back to sleep but it only resulted in getting a headache. Oh well. Despite that I don't feel too tired right now.

I have done this day many times. Arrive at airport and build bicycle. I'm getting better at it every time, though I can't say I'm proud of the fact that every precaution I now take when packing the bike comes from that exact thing having gone wrong for me in the past. But this time the derailleur is padded and cardboarded, the bike is the right way up in the bike bag, the rear fender is placed in a way so that it won't break or fall apart, front and rear forks have a spacer inserted to prevent bendage, and so on..

This time the bike came out near-perfect, with almost no issues at all. The handlebar tape really has seen better days, and I should get some new tape along the way. The right gear lever is kind of falling out a bit more than last time, but I taped it up before I went on the trip and it seems to be ok. Lastly, sadly, all the black bolts that I bought ages ago (from Pro-Bolt in case you're interested) are worn out. They all turned brittle and crappy, and the heads are becoming impossible to screw in. I will not be buying those again. One of them broke off in my frame and is now preventing the rear rack from being properly attached. Another one I had to throw away because the bike tool just kept slipping in its head. Beh.

Today's ride was classic Japan. Lots of populated areas and busy streets, with scenic points all along the way: the occasional temple, forested hill, viewpoint, nice coastal road etc. Most of the roads had a dedicated zone for cyclists, and in many cases there was simply another road next to the main road that was no longer in use for cars. It made for a very pleasant ride. I didn't go too far today because I didn't want to tire myself out, but I feel a lot better than I did during last October's trip. I'm definitely fitter, physically. I was probably at my best physical fitness during the Hokkaido trip, and best mental fitness during the first solo trip from Tokyo to Kyushu. Last October was definitely the worst in both physical and mental aspects. I'm glad I have a chance to retry. I haven't quite reached the level of my previous bests, but I'm not too far off. Being on the bike feels good.

After arriving in Shimonoseki, back on Honshu, I considered cycling on to either a camp site or simply northwards, but I decided to not push my luck and booked the cheapest hotel I could find in the area. There's something really fun about seeking out cheap hotels - there's always something quirky about them. Weird neighbours, strange locations, brilliant unexpected views. I don't think I've had a negative experience in randomly picking a hotel at the last minute so far. The same goes for youth hostels: any Japan Youth Hostel is like a new attraction to explore and discover.

Since I had time to spare I treated myself to a fami-res lunch and then went off by ferry to see Ganryujima, site of a famous battle between two swordsmen, one of whom is Miyamoto Musashi, who I have known of for a while through the Dokkodo, which inspired me a lot throughout the years. The island turned out to be rather empty, but the infotexts that were there were mostly also in English. The location of the island is quite impressive, with a great view of Kyushu, Honshu and the bridge in-between. There was hardly anyone on the island, except a bunch of workers who were cutting the grass with a lot of noise, and a group of Chinese tourists who were constantly on the phone and talking to each other, also with a lot of noise. It didn't feel as zen as I'd hoped it would be, so I soon hopped on a ferry back.

While waiting for the ferry I struck up a conversation with a Japanese man who was also on the same ferry in and already heading out again, just like me. I asked him if he enjoyed his visit, and he said "well, there's not much here really", which pretty much sums it up. Turns out he was a local fro Kitakyushu who has been living here all his life but has never visited the island until today. I wonder why. But I didn't pry. Interesting guy.

Two thoughts to wrap it up: I forgot to take out yens at the airport and the Haneda domestic terminal didn't have money exchange, so today I did what I usually do and went to the post office to take out money from my foreign bank account. Somehow this did not work, even though it has worked in the past. Clearly I'm out of touch because I tried again later at a 7-11 and it went through flawlessly. It used to be the opposite when I was living in Japan. 7-11 is a lifesaver in so many ways, not in the last of which its free wifi, which is brilliant.

That leads me to the second thought, which is that the booking.com app is great. Booking a hotel on the fly and seeing a map of hotels in the area is incredibly useful. Before booking.com I used to just mark hotels on the map and cycle to each them to see if they had space, or very occasionally call ahead if I could find a telephone number. Quite a few of Japan's hotels are on booking.com now, which saves me a lot of hassle in most places. There's still a lot of rural places or middle-of-nowhere places that don't have hotels on booking.com, but in those cases it is just very easy to visit every single hotel in the area on foot in just a few minutes. In every other case, booking.com has saved me time.

Tomorrow I'm heading north, with no fixed destination. I marked a bunch of camp sites on my map and I'm mildly hoping it'll be middle-of-nowhere enough to find a random unmarked place to camp at, but we'll see. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow. Might be a great day :)

Japanese conbinis should be on the world heritage list because they are an amazing accomplishment of modern society.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

Misinformation

Posted on 2016-04-17 09:27 by rv

I am in Tokyo and nothing went as planned. ANA London was not right about the bike going straight through to Kitakyushu so I had to pick it up after going through customs and check it in again. That would have been easy had the domestic check-in been in the same terminal.

Well, it was, actually, but it was the wrong one. When I tried to check in there they told me I had to go to terminal 1. So I carried my bike, two panniers and backpack to the shuttle bus, asked where to go for ANA domestic check in, and they told me to go terminal 2. Much confuse. I ended up trusting the bus person and going to terminal 2, but that turned out to be the wrong decision. Apparently all of ANAs flights except my one depart from terminal 2. So I had to take the bus to terminal 1.

I arrived sweaty and frustrated. Fortunately the check-in people at ANA/Star Flyer were extremely helpful and treated my bike with the utmost care. Sadly though, when I reached the gate it was announced that the flight was delayed for one and a half hours. I would have already had a late arrival at the hotel but now it's going to be really late. There won't be any bike building today..

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

Committed

Posted on 2016-04-16 15:38 by rv

I'm committed now. I'm sitting at the airside of Heathrow terminal 2, waiting for my gate to be announced. I'm flying to Kitakyushu with ANA (smoothest checkin ever, ANA rocks) and the bike is checked in and set to go straight through to Kitakyushu. There's no going back. I've still got mixed feelings about my destination, given that there's still earthquakes going off and people being rescued, but I'm starting quite north of the problem area and will be cycling away from it, so hopefully I won't run into too many issues. Aftershocks are predicted and apparently a serious rainstorm is sweeping over Kyushu and the bit of Honshu just north of it, resulting in landslides and mountain roads being generally crap. Not the most ideal of circumstances to start a cycling trip, but then again, cycling trips are not meant to be ideal. Here goes :)

Ganbatte Japan! Wish you all the best with the rescue efforts. If I have a chance to help along the way I will do what I can.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

Poor bike

Posted on 2016-04-11 19:06 by rv

It's supposed to be bent but it's not. It's great.

I'm using MAPS.ME for offline map use for the cycling trip, and have been doing so for the past 2-3 trips. It's an absolutely fantastic app that's well worth the money. Before going on the trip I scout out potential routes with Google Earth, creating a bunch of placemarks for youth hostels, camp sites, convenience stores, potential sights and interesting-looking roads. I don't decide in advance where to go but I do have a rough idea of the things I'll be passing. When done I upload the placemarks to MAPS.ME via Dropbox. When on the trip I switch my phone to airplane mode and just use the GPS, which greatly reduces battery usage. I usually end up with way more than half battery left at the end of each day.

It's unbelievable how painless this process is compared to the first big cycling trip I did, in the pre-smartphone age. Back then I was carrying around a thick map book meant for motorcyclists, which had all the roads of a particular section of Japan, and also the youth hostels and camp sites. I navigated by compass and by trying to remember the page of the book I was on and the crossings I would encounter, but I inevitably had to reach for the book every 20 minutes or so. It was quite frustrating. I ended up having to buy a new map book two or three times during that trip since they don't cover that much area. And since I didn't want to carry that much weight around I threw the old ones away. (Or rather, left them at youth hostels and camp sites for others to find). I am definitely pleased with the state of modern technology when it comes to navigation.

Last time I traveled very light and was very focused. I was going to do the same this time, but am feeling kind of happy-go-lucky. I ended up buying a new DSLR for the trip. It's been a while since I owned a good one. I'm also still not sure about whether to bring a GoPro or not. I don't have specific plans to use a GoPro anywhere but I guess it's not that much extra weight to carry around. Yup, I'll take it.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

Prep

Posted on 2016-04-10 11:25 by rv

It's less than a week until my next cycling trip. It'll be the tenth one, although I'm counting two trips that were only a few days long, so it's really only eight long trips. This will be a fully loaded one, with tent, sleeping bag and everything. And because it's the Xth trip in the series, in a country I've been to so many times, I have felt zero anxiety in the buildup to this trip. Until now.

Well, anxiety is a big word. I'm not worried about anything going wrong, because something always goes wrong, and I'm getting better at preparing for that every time. Last time my bike frame bent, so this time I've got a metal spacer for each wheel, screwed in place so it doesn't allow either side of the frame to bend in or out. It's still possible for both sides to bend together, but that'll require a lot more force and is much less likely to happen.

In my previous big trip I nearly had to abort early right after arrival because I couldn't get the chain on. It seemed to have twisted in such a peculiar way that I struggled with it for an hour until I gave up and called a taximan to drive me to wherever the nearest bike shop was. Fortunately for me the taximan gave it a try too and managed to untwist it somehow. It's since happened two more times and now I've figured out exactly how it happens and how to undo it. Every trip something new goes wrong. Every trip I learn more.

So there's not really any point in feeling anxious about that. There's things I can't prepare for because I don't know how they'll go wrong yet, so there's no point in worrying about that. And all the things that have already gone wrong, I know how to fix, so there's no need to worry about that either. But.. after so many trips you do have a very clear image in your mind of all the things that are the least fun of the whole trip.

For me the least fun part of the trip is the bit where I have to check my bike in to the airline, and the bit where I pick it back up again from the oversized luggage area and put it back together. That's the bit that's completely out of my control. Sometimes I get charged extra for oversized and/or overweight luggage. Sometimes they break stuff. Sometimes the bike doesn't quite come back together in the right way, eg. the brake spacing will be off, the gears are slightly wrong, the wheel suddenly doesn't quite fit in straight any more.. Plus there's the hassle of carrying the bike bag and all the bags loaded with tent, clothes, bike tools etc. All in all it's just a very tiring and demotivating experience.

But all of that is temporary. Inevitably there will be a point in the first or second day where all the ails have been cured and I'm fully ready to go. And that's what it's all about. All I can think about now is getting to that point.

I'm fairly fit. (for a fat guy..) I've been cycling on the exercise bike 4-5 times a week, since the beginning of the year, in a serious attempt to lose weight and get more fit. It's working.. but slowly. About a month ago I went out for a regular outdoor cycle with a friend and I realized that I was still quite unfit when it came to climbing actual real-life hills. I wasn't training hard enough on the exercise bike and increased the resistance since then. Today I rode outside again and it felt a lot better. I'm still nowhere near as fit as I was for the Hokkaido trip, but I'm getting there. I've definitely reached a point where cycling will be fun. (Unlike the last Kyushu trip, for which I just wasn't fit enough.) With less than a week left, all I need to do now is keep up the exercise, and pack.

I just hope it doesn't rain..

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3

Indonesia

Posted on 2016-04-03 12:16 by rv

Here's some photos of my recent Indonesia trip. We didn't spend a lot of time in Jakarta but it was enough to make an impression. Indonesia's got a long way to go, but somehow it's... exciting. In a good way :)

Posted in Photography , Travel | Tagged indonesia

Responsiveness and Patreon!

Posted on 2016-04-02 16:06 by rv

As you may have noticed from the blinding orange link at the top of this page, I am now on Patreon :)

That said, I am fully aware that this is a personal blog with personal content, but on the off chance that someone enjoys my writing and would like to support me, I thought Patreon provides quite a nice way to do that. I'm perfectly happy to never get anything from Patreon and will still continue blogging, as I have done for the past 11 years. Yes, it's been 11 years.. Interestingly that makes this blog the longest-lasting thing/activity/venture that I have in life. With possible exception of my iPod classic, those things last forever.

Creating a Patreon page was quite interesting. It really forced me to think further than 'It would be great if people could throw money at me for writing silly stuff like this'. I had to think about what value this blog creates, what topics are the most likely things people want to see, and what is the best way to take payment. It didn't make sense to offer payment per blogpost, since I would forfeit my freedom to write silly things that I wouldn't dare ask people money for. Monthly contribution seems to make more sense. I assumed that of my writings, the cycling trip day-by-day travel reports are probably the most interesting to read, so any funding I get on Patreon will likely go to the cycling cause.

As a secondary effect, every time I think about increasing public exposure of this blog I get nervous about its quality. I can't do much about the content after it's been written, but I can do something about the styling and user-friendliness. So yesterday I wrote some css that will hopefully make this blog a lot more mobile-friendly. It's still nowhere near perfect, but it'll have to do for now.

Random life thing: I'm supposed to be preparing for the upcoming cycling trip later this month but instead I'm currently experiencing quite possibly the worst cold I've ever had in my life. I'm feeling myself start to recover, but it'll be a few more days until I'm back to normal. I've got some ideas for posts lined up but nothing written down yet. There'll be something new here soon. Stay tuned!

(ZEST)

Posted in Tech

Zest

Posted on 2016-04-01 08:52 by rv

Zest. Zest is a good word.

I'm doing some maintenance on this blog and happened to be reading some of my old posts from the 2009-2010 era, just before I left Japan. If I had to point out one single difference between the me from then and the me that I am now, it would be my loss of naivety. In those days I had a zest for life that I had undoubtedly lost after moving back to Europe. That started the era of 'the second time I do X' for me, which got me into a lull for a while. Things were still new, just not as new as they were before.

That was several years ago, though. By now I've transitioned to 'the Nth time I do X' stage, and I think coming to terms with this, my middle-aged-ness and my middle-classed-ness has somehow led me to recover some of my former zest. I'm enjoying life lately, and my mind is more open than it's been in the past few years. A lot of the early thoughts I had about life in Japan have crystallized into more solid concepts that I can live my life by. I have made progress. That said, I can't help but miss my naivety. Life was a lot simpler in those days. Since then I realized that a lot of the things I wouldn't even begin to worry about back then were actually a miraculous combination of circumstances and opportunity. I took too many things for granted back then in a way that only naivety could allow me to.

In a way I think the opposite of naivety is analysis paralysis. Naivety means you simply don't even consider so many options, alternatives, circumstances etc. Whereas if you consider too many of those, you may end up in analysis paralysis. I think I've been at fairly extreme ends on both sides of the spectrum, and am at a fairly healthy point on the scale at the moment.

One of the things in which zest clearly shows, at least for me, is photography. The amount of photos I take, the type of photos I take (landscapes, cityscapes, people, opbjects) and the kind of editing I do on them all depend a lot on zest. While looking through my old blog posts I found an old photo I liked, so I decided to see if I could improve on the editing of it. After all, I've got years more experience with Photoshop now, so I should be able to improve upon it a little. The old edit, I thought, was a bit overly adjusted for highlights and contrast, and the colors could use some improvement as well. But when I fired up Photoshop and tried to improve upon my original I couldn't even get close to the quality of the first edit. Then I had a closer look at the first edit and realized that I must have spent quite a lot of time adjusting the local colors and highlights to even get to that version of the photo. I know, my not being able to reach the same quality of edit for that particular photo is hardly a measure of my current zestiness, but it was a moment that made me pause for thought. For reference, here is the first edit, and this is the post that contains it.

"Transitioning from 'the 2nd time I do X' to 'the Nth time I do x' eventually results in getting your zest back" - ?

Either way, I'm zesty right now :D

Posted in Thoughts

← Newer posts