Spirit of Japan 3

Is it worth it?

Posted on 2016-04-21 01:03 by rv

The wind started howling last night as I went to bed, and it only got worse during the night. When I woke up I could hear the rain clattering against the window. At the time I was still considering cycling 60 kilometers in the rain to the next town, but when I went downstairs to check the weather report, and fully saw the storm outside in the big windows, I gave up. I'm staying at expensive onsen hotel one more night. Fun fact: the hotel costs as much as my previous hotel plus the camp site combined. Not crazy expensive, but not good either since I wasn't planning on staying here two nights.

I asked the shuttle bus driver if I could hitch a ride with him to the station and back so I could pick up some supplies, because there's no way in hell that I'm climbing the ridiculously steep slope to the hotel twice. The driver told me there were no other guests coming or going by bus, so he just drove me to the conbini instead. I feel mildly awkward about staying in an expensive hotel, extending my stay, declining the expensive dinner twice, and then getting a bus driver to drive me to pick up cheap food, but that's the way things always seem to be going for me. People here are kind, posh hotels aren't that expensive to stay in but expensive to eat at, and I am limited in mobility by the weather, so that's how it goes.

These kind of trips are not cheap, and despite having rationalized it many, many times, I still don't feel like I've reached the end of the thought train on this. I calculated that I spent the same amount of money on my car as I would do on two to three cycling trips. Given that I only had my car one and a half years, I could do a one-month cycling trip three times during that timespan. (Not that I actually would do that, since I have a job to consider, but it's nice to know that I'm time-saturated and not money-saturated when it comes to hobbies).

Those numbers boggle my mind. I have wasted a lot of money in my life, at least for my own standards. When I'm spending the money I never know if it's worth it, but at the end of each cycling trip I always feel incredibly satisfied and want to do one again. At the end of selling my car I was just happy I got some money out of it. Cars are a shit thing to spend money on. They don't bring any fulfillment at all and have higher happiness cost than cycling trips.

So here I am, wasting time on the internet in an onsen hotel. It's 10:00AM and still raining heavily outside. If it keeps raining until noon-ish I'll know that I was justified in staying here one more day, since I'd have had serious trouble reaching my destination before dark in that case. I've had this kind of weather-break days several times on previous cycling trips. I was never quite comfortable with them. Even though I've weighed the pros and cons many times, even though I know cycling in the rain is not happy, even though I know I am in no hurry, even though I know I am able to entertain myself here with all kinds of stuff today, even though the weather report clearly validates my choice, it still feels... uncomfortable. It's not rational, but then cycling trips are not rational either.

I am trading fulfillment for happiness by not cycling today. If I am uncomfortable with this during cycling trips, I will be uncomfortable with this in life.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 3 , Thoughts

Ledge-dweller

Posted on 2016-04-20 10:09 by rv

Today was pretty much the opposite of yesterday. Yesterday got worse as the day went on, but today got better as it neared sunset. Then again, it started out pretty bad.

Sleeping in a tent seems to have reset my jetlag somewhat. I slept at 8PM because it was getting really cold and there wasn't really anything else to do, but somehow I managed to keep on sleeping until 6:30 ish. My tent was very damp on the inside, as it usually is. It's not a very good tent, but it is a very light and small tent. I'd left my phone out in the tent rather than stuffing it into a bag, and it felt quite moist in the morning. It seemed fine after using it to check out the route for the day.

So I set off, turned into the scenic route road after 2 kilometers, cycled along a bit and then checked my phone to see which way to go. My phone was dead. It kept restarting almost immediately after booting up. This meant a disaster for me because the phone is where all my offline maps are stored. Japan's road signs are pretty damn good but I'd have to stick to only major roads if I didn't have maps. I need maps. I somehow managed to open the maps app before it restarted again, only to find the maps app asking me if I would like to download any offline maps, since it had no maps available. FFFFUUUUUUUUUUU

I took out the SD card on a hunch, since my phone's had problems with sd cards twice before in the past, and indeed the phone booted up normally this time. Not with maps though, because they were stored on the SD card. Well, shit. The scenic route I had planned wasn't going to take me anywhere near internet for a long time, so I decided to give the route a go just based on the map outline and my placemarks, which had somehow been preserved. That didn't go so well. I took a wrong turn not long after, but it took several kilometers for the wrongness to show up on the zoomed-out map on my phone. At that point I did know which way had been the right way, but I wasn't planning on doing a several-kilometer-long detour every time that happens. So I turned back to the main road. 10 kilometers lost. With serious climbs too. Shikattanai.

Back on the main road I turned on the GoPro and some music and started cycling. It was pretty tough, but also satisfying to make good progress. As I went along I kept my eye out for conbinis, which I hadn't seen since yesterday's lunch. Almost a record for Japan standards. The 7-11s usually have free wifi, but for some reason the 7-11 that was my very first conbini spot after a day, did not. Oh well, at least I had a chance to stock up on supplies.

Free wifi really isn't as easy as Japan pretends it to be. No matter where you are, somehow even in the middle of nowhere, there's always this '.FREE_Wi-Fi_PASSPORT' network. Unfortunately it doesn't work for shit. You're supposed to call a phone number on your phone while using Softbank as your phone provider, and then they'll give you free internet for 2 weeks. Sadly, no matter how many variations of the number I try, none of them connect. I am not impressed, Softbank. The 7-11 wifi is way better. It's even free to use longer than a limited time right now because of the Kyushu earthquake. Very well done, 7-11.

Fortunately for me the second 7-11 I passed did have working wifi, and I used the opportunity to re-download the map of my area and book a hotel for later in the day. Very pleasing! That moment really did seem like the first thing that went right ever since I chose not to go back to the first campsite I found yesterday.

With navigation restored I decided to take another scenic route to get to Hagi. This time the GoPro stopped working though. It had plenty of battery and storage space, it just decided to stop working and just showed '1' on the display. I've had a look at the footage I made so far and it looks amazing. Great quality, and somehow it seems faster on video than when I was actually cycling it. But the GoPro hero's controls are by far the worst and most unreliable I have ever come across on a device. The thing only has two buttons, and I only need to use one: the record button. Press it once, it records. Don't do anything else and nothing can go wrong. Except it does go wrong all the fucking time. It's a shit interface and I get frustrated every time I use it. It never does what you expect it to do, and what you expect it to do is just really really simple.

The scenic route to Hagi was indeed extremely scenic, and took me to some serious mountain roads. It was a lot more ups and downs than I expected, but the scenery easily made up for it. Perfect weather, perfect roads. I had a great day. To make things even better, as soon as I was done rolling down the mountain road that finally led into Hagi I drove straight into a Sukiya. The perfect lunch!

It turns out that Hagi is a castle town and a world heritage site. I did not know that prior to coming here. Ignorance is full of pleasant surprises! Loads of houses in Hagi look castle-like, and the castle-like district is very accessible by bicyce, so I had a pleasant cycle through all the little streets. There was a lovely beach as well where a bunch of people were walking around. The only thing I could think of was to finally sit down and relax. The places other people go to move, I go to rest.

As I cycled on to my hotel I realized I could see it from afar, which is not good. The climb to get up to it was easily the steepest I've cycled on this trip, and I was exhausted and sweating when I reached the ultra-posh reception. The hotel staff treated me kindly and provided a safe place inside to put my bike. It's quite a contrast with the shitty camp site from yesterday, and I don't regret it one bit. The view from the room is fantastic and I had lovely dip in the onsen just now, also with a great view. It was a good ending to the day. Things are back on track again now. The setbacks weren't fun, but when it's over it does help me learn to accept bad outcomes. And even then, bad is better than boring.

I'm not quite sure if I've thought of a purpose for this trip; something to keep my brain busy while I cycle and post-cycle relax. For the first big trip it was easy: figure out what to do with my life and whether to go back to Holland or stay in Japan. For the second trip I'm not sure if I had one during the trip, but in retrspect it's quite clear to me that the second trip was about testing my physical limits. I was very fit back then, and I did that trip way too efficiently. I will try to allow for more distractions during this trip. That's not quite a goal though. For now, I've settled on this as a goal: lately my beliefs about myself seem to be getting a bit detached from reality. It's best if I update those. I am not as fit as I thought I was. I am fatter than I thought I was. I'm probably dumber than I think I am. I'll think of some more while I cycle.

Posted in Photography , Spirit of Japan 3

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

A new cycling trip!

Posted on 2016-03-30 14:09 by rv

Last October I did a two-week cycling trip in Shikoku and the north of Kyushu. I was unfit, unprepared and did not enjoy it nearly as much as I should. It's time to fix that: I'm heading back to north Kyushu in mid April with the intent of cycling back to Tokyo along the north coast. I've got exactly a month to do this before I have to head back and restart my job in the UK. I don't intend to rush, though. I won't plan out any day in advance, and will be bringing my tent, so I can camp in random places and don't have to stick to a schedule. That said, I've mostly made up my mind about taking the north coast towards Lake Biwa, and that part of the plan is unlikely to change. What happens after that.. nothing is set in stone. I've got some plans but haven't decided on which way to go yet. It's also not unlikely that I'll simply run out of time and will have to take a train back. Who knows! Not knowing is part of the fun :)

Although by bike's frame was bent heavily after the last cycling trip and was declared beyond repair by the bike shop, I've decided not to believe them. I bent back the frame as best as I could and it's reasonably straight again. I've done a few day trips since then and haven't noticed any weaknesses or further bending happening. Touring will be a lot more stressful on the frame, but I'm mildly confident that it'll hold just fine, since I'll be on good Japanese-quality asphalt practically all of the time. But should it fail during the trip.. well, that'll be a whole other adventure, and surely an interesting one too. I'm ready.

Posted in Japan , Spirit of Japan 3

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