Spirit of Japan 2

The final stop

Posted on 2014-05-10 06:18 by rv

Kusatsu. Surrounded by mountains. The only way out is to overcome them.

I am not a racer. The challenge for me is to go far, not fast. On my own power. Today was dreadful. All the inclines have become so steep that I can no longer pretend that I'm doing the climbs at reasonable speed. I'm suffering all the way in the lowest gears my bike has to offer. And that's how it's supposed to be! This is exactly what this trip is about. Wake up in a tent, pack up all your stuff, leave while there's still only a few cars on the road, lunch at conbini, find a camp site, set up your tent and go to onsen. SUCH IS THE LIFE! A few days ago i wrote that I still hadn't quite found the right feeling yet. This is it. This is the feeling. This is what I wanted to experience. Complete physical exhaustion, complete physical destruction and complete physical relaxation. This is why I cycle.

Today was tough. The stats will tell you otherwise, because it's neither the highest climb nor the longest distance I've done on this trip, but the amount of climbing per kilometer was just insane today. I really had to give up at some points and just stand at the side of the road, too exhausted to even look at anything, just waiting for my heart to recover. My legs managed to last only slightly longer than my stamina, but it wouldn't have taken much more for them to give out. Good thing I planned only shorter distances while I'm in the mountains, cause I really need the recovery time.

The road from Karuizawa to Kusatsu is incredibly scenic. There's mountains, forests, nature everywhere. The first part is a gruesome climb to get alongside a mountain, the middle part takes you down 800 meters again and has surely worn down my brakes, and the last part is another gruesome climb back up to 1200 meters. Cycle, sit, drink, eat, cycle, wait, drink, cycle. But I made it. The camp site was empty and I got to choose the place with the least wind. Just like yesterday, after I'm done typing this I'm going to head out and find an onsen. Hopefully it's not too far away, since this place is kind of outside the town center, and the area is quite mountainous.

By the way: totally not impressed with Karuizawa. Just a bunch of giant villas and overpriced 'European' restaurants (and onsens) for rich-ass Japanese people who want to pretend they're European. Really too bad though because the entire area is wonderfully scenic.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

The old road to Karuizawa

Posted on 2014-05-09 05:30 by rv

Today is the day I dreaded. It wasn't worse than I expected, because I expected quite worse. It's quite tough, deciding how much distance to do every day. Because I knew this was going to be a massive uphill fight I decided to plan for less today, but in the end going uphill doesn't take that much longer than normal, so I end up being done at 13:00 already. Exhausted though. That was one tough ride. I'm trying to convince myself that from now on I can take the easy way out and just ride down to Nagano and the coast, but my mind seems bent on climbing up 2km's to see the crater lake of an active volcano. I know it's going to hurt like hell to get up there, but time is relative, and it'll all be over soon. As I told myself before: it's not like I have anything better to do.

The road to Karuizawa was amazing. There's three main roads that lead to Karuizawa from Takasaki: the (toll) highway, the bypass and the old road. Bikes can't go on the highway, the bypass seemed steeper and more horrible than the old road, so I went for the old road. A good choice, it turns out. There was hardly a car on the road, and the sights along the way were perfect. It was excellent cycling weather too, at least for the climb. It was sunny yet not too warm. I had plenty of food and drinks with me so I enjoyed a very nice climb. By 'enjoy', I mean suffer. I swear a lot and I die a lot, but in the end I make it.

The summit was rather disappointing. Not even a cheerleader squad to congratulate me on my fantastic achievements, just some dark clouds and a motorcyclist taking selfies. I lingered around for a bit, letting myself recover, but I actually didn't feel that bad. 5 minutes after hopping on the bike again it started raining, so I found a restaurant to have lunch in. After lunch the rain was still there, so I prepared my luggage for rain cycling and headed for the camp site.

The camp site.. it's rather sad. There's nobody here, although there's some decent barbecue facilities. It's run by an old lady, as most things are in the Japanese countryside. She told me I could camp anywhere I wanted, but it's all kinda meh. It was drizzling as I was building my tent and turned into a massive downpour as soon as I got it set up. At least I know that my tent's still waterproof.

GET OUT OF THE WAY WOMAN

There's not much to be done now. I can't cycle on because it's another really tough bit, and there's not really a good stopping point in-between here and Kusatsu. I should have a slightly better schedule tomorrow, since I'll be leaving a bit later because I have to pack up my camping equipment. Hopefully the rain will stop today so I won't have to pack a wet tent.. At Kusatsu there's another camp site waiting for me (hopefully).

Right. I'm off to the conbini to buy an umbrella, and then to the onsen to get some relaxation. I hope the rain stops soon..

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

Getting in position

Posted on 2014-05-08 06:15 by rv

Today I cycled from Kumagaya to Takasaki. It was hardly a difficult ride, but stopping over at Takasaki was a necessity. Not because it's such a vibrant city though, because honestly I just cycled through and it could not possibly be more boring. Takasaki is a necessity because it's the last comfort stop before the massive climb to Karuizawa, which I'll be attempting tomorrow.

Best 5 pounds I ever spent.

There's a big road going directly from Kumagaya to Takasaki and it's utterly boring, yet satisfying to drive. It's got two lanes on each side and is side enough for bicycle, truck and truck to ride side by side. It's also completely flat, so I made great progress at a higher cadence than I usually do. But after 20km's I got fed up with it and made a breakfast stop. I put on some music and went off in search of some riverside. It wasn't too hard to find, but a few kilometers out of my way. Then I realized: it's not like I have anything better to do. So off I went.

It's a good season!

I managed to get very close to Takasaki without any difficulties. The path was wonderfully paved with no bumps at all, and hardly any traffic. Every few minutes or so a cyclist would pass me, but not more than that. It was a beautiful, peaceful ride. This is what I was looking for when I decided to do this trip. Not busy city roads, not doing 100km in a rush because I need to make it to the next hotel. No. Just cycling, in peace.

178km from the sea.

Eventually the riverside path joined up with the main road again and I had to take a bridge to get back on the road to Takasaki. Around noon I stopped for lunch at a family restaurant (Gasuto). Somehow whenever I start getting hungry there's always one of those around. The seat-pointing person showed me to a four person table even though I was alone and saw the perfect tiny table a bit further away. It's happened to me before, and I wonder what the policy of family restaurants is towards this. Do Japanese people feel so insanely guilty about hogging up a table for four that they try to leave as quickly as possible, making it available faster? The Japanese guy sitting next to me at a four-person table seemed to disprove that, as he was reading about four thick book simultaneously and did not seem to be in a hurry. Is it the gaijin effect? Does the restaurant want to show off 'the gaijin' as a way of showing other customers that they get foreigners? Either way, soon after I finished eating a queue started building up and I felt obligated to get the hell out of there, fearing angry stares from the natives.

So quiet. So nice.

Back on the road to Takasaki, I took it slowly so as not to arrive too early, but that turned out not to be a problem, as I soon got a flat tire. A bad sign! So soon on this trip.. During the last trip it took weeks before I got the first flat. Oh well. Since it was exactly mid-day and hardly a bit of shade to find anywhere, I asked a local car repair shop if I could take cover under their roof and fix my tire, which was of course ok. It took me quite a while because of my luggage making things hard to access, and because my spare tubes are wide mountain bike tubes, whereas my outer tires are sort of exactly in-between mountain bike and regular bike, so I never know which kind of tire to get. Eventually I got the damn thing in and resumed my course for Takasaki.

Some kind of evil creature eating a rock.

Have I mentioned that Takasaki is boring? It's quite boring. There's hardly any people around, maybe because of golden week. I cycled around the town center a bit, spent an extraordinarily long amount of time finding a conbini and checked in to the hotel. I'm going to need to buy some supplies tonight, as I can foresee myself spending a lot of time out of breath in the mountain pass tomorrow, and I don't want to be out of food or drinks.

Looks like a great idea, tastes like piss.

ka-pe!

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

(Not) the first real day

Posted on 2014-05-07 07:59 by rv

I managed to depart Atsugi at 8AM this morning. I had roughly planned out the route the day before, to take me fairly close to the mountains so I could get some scenery, but not too close so I could avoid the big hills. It kind of worked and it kind of didn't. There were very boring and busy stretches but also very pretty and quiet stretches. All in all it's not too bad I guess. Good exercise for days to come. In addition to my butt, which started hurting after 20km today, my back has also begun to hurt. One by one components are failing as the new weakest links are found. As long as it's not my leg muscles I'm all ok with it. I'll get used to it.

Japanese people are nice people. Two examples: at a conbini, a woman left her dog in the car with the sun pointing right at it, and it was really hot. I thought that wasn't a very nice thing to do, but she came back within the minute with a bowl of water for the dog. Nice. At a different conbini I was having a break when a car parked right up in front of me. I happened to look the owner straight in the eye, and I'm sure he must have thought me one mighty strange creature. Despite that he stepped out of the car and into the conbini, all the while leaving the engine running. A trusting people, the Japanese.

Living life on the edge (of a conbini)

I've had some problems with my Garmin today. Garmin's been forcing their shitty new website on me, which means a shitty new software program to synchronise the tracks with. Said program bullied me into updating my firmware, which caused me to wait for 5 minutes in the morning until the cyclocomp decided it would wake up. Then at various points during the day, the inclination and vertical speed measurements stopped working. And to make matters worse, the speed sensor keeps hitting the wheel and shifting, because if I place it too far (read: more than 1mm) away from the sensor, it only registers half the actual speed. Now, you'd think that a gps-based cyclocomp would use the gps data to autocorrect itself, but it does not such thing. It happily reports that you're plodding along at 0kph even though there's gps data that proves directly otherwise. IT USED TO BE BETTER, GARMIN!

Roads. Roads are good.

I happened to be cycling around 3PM when the schools were out. So much little yellow hats everywhere. I passed by a group of grade schoolers and one of them yelled out "that dude is cool!". Yay, I'm cool! Then five minutes later I passed another group and one of them shouted "that bicycle is so lame!". Ugh. You win some, you lose some.

Also: Kumagaya, what's with not allowing cyclists on the road anywhere? At least give me a decent and wide cycling path as an alternative.

Narrow..

----- dump truck rant begins. skip if you like to pretend that life is perfect -----

Not everyone in Japan is nice. The people I currently hate the most are those fucking dump truck drivers. I got cut off at least 5 times today by those fuckwits. One time was serious enough to raise my hand in frustration, and another time prompted me to take my middle finger out, something I seriously never do. I still can't get over how everyone in Japan drives safely except for these scumbags. Drivers of big trucks are the best; they've got skillz. Little car drivers tend to be scared shitless of bicycles, so they take a very wide berth and pass you very slowly. Nothing to worry about. Even the lorry-sized trucks, without the trailer but not dump-truck-style, are fine. I guess the dump truck is the apex predator on the Japanese roads. Light and powerful enough to be as fast as any traffic participant, and massive enough to scare anyone into submission. I get the feeling I'll be showing off my middle finger to a lot more of them during this trip.. Now, I know that some of you will suspect this is my fault, but I seriously try to cycle as considerately as possible. If there's space for them to pass, I give it to them, but when the road becomes narrower again I move back in to position, and that's when they strike. And that's just dangerous. And since there's no way in fucking hell that I'm going to brake for one of these dicks, I'm just going to take an even wider line whenever I hear that disgusting dump truck noise coming up from behind me. You shall not pass.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

Stop being lazy, dude

Posted on 2014-05-06 08:24 by rv

Right, I had another break day. Hardly anything to report, but I feel I should write something anyway to keep the chain going. After yesterday's ride I found that the muscles in my abdomen hurt a little, most likely because I was using them a lot to push myself up at low cadence while sitting down. It seems that my leg muscles are fine but the rest of my body has yet to catch up. The same goes for that other bit of the body that connects with the saddle.. After readjusting the saddle for comfort, my sitting position has become a lot more vertical, so my butt has a lot more to endure. It seems that my current limit before butthurt is about 50km. Hopefully that'll go up as I get more butt-trained.

I should've departed today if the hotel had let me change the reservation. Having too much time on my hands is really not good. It makes me think about all kinds of things I should be doing at home that I am in no reasonable position to solve or even worry about right now. Oh well, I guess I'll cherish this moment of physical recovery and mental wandering, because tomorrow the trip starts for real. Unknown territory. Terrifying climbs. New and improved attempts at camping. Not much can go wrong, as long as my body holds up.

I have one mission: to get to Wakkanai. Nothing else matters. No bullshit. Just me on a bicycle.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

Miyagase Lake and Yabitsu mountain pass

Posted on 2014-05-05 22:22 by rv

It's been about 8 years since I first visited Miyagase lake. If I recall correctly the very first time I went there was on a clunky 'mamachari', a tiny one-geared basketed Japanese bicycle. The lake is a little more than 300m above sealevel, and the cycle there is just not doable without gears. At some point you're going to have to get off and push. Later, after I got my first touring bike, it still took me a while before I could manage without pushing. It's the last bit right before the lake that suddenly gets quite steep. I also had to take lots of breaks on some of the other sections, simply because I would run out of breath halfway into a longer uphill section. This particular trip has always been my benchmark; a way to measure my fitness; and I needed to do it again to find out where I stand compared to four years ago.

Yes, the water really is that green.

At the end of my previous Japan trip I cycled up to the lake again, leaving all my touring luggage behind at the hotel, and it felt like I was Superman. I had never been able to get to the lake that quickly! That's what one and a half months of hauling heavy luggage around Japan gets you, of course. I felt so fit then that I decided to do the Yabitsu mountain pass too, which starts at the lake and ends up halfway between Atsugi and the seaside. It goes up another 400 meters though, and my old me would never have even considered climbing 700+ meters in one day. But I managed. I wouldn't say easily, because no mountain climbing experience is easy. It's always suffering all the way through, just slightly more or slightly less depending on how much luggage you have and how fit you are.

Whoosh

I was extremely unmotivated to go out this morning. I had been rudely awakened by an earthquake at 5:30AM, my stomach was still upset from yesterday's food and I kind of felt that my performance would suck compared to four years ago, so what would be the point? But then, I did decide to go to Karuizawa a couple of days from now: a town in the Japanese alps that's almost 1000m above sea level. I'm going to need to know if I can make that climb, as well as make myself fitter and get used to being in the saddle while I've still got the time. So, off I went.

Excellent cycling roads. Bit narrow for cars though.

..and I finished it! I'm not sure if I ever got to the lake as quickly as I did today. The mountain pass was a bit trickier, but I think I finished quite quickly without too many major breaks along the way. It started raining just when I was close to the highest point, and I had to get off and put the rain covers on. I was worried that my brakes would fail me in the rain because I've been very unimpressed with my brakes in the dry (Kool Stop Thinline Dual Compound). All they do in the dry is squeak and really don't feel better than the generic blocks I had before, but when the rain started I was seriously impressed by the stopping power. I think they might actually work better in the rain than they do in the dry. So much grip! As I was racing down the mountain I stopped to take a photo at some point, and by some fluke of chance, just at that moment the same guy passed me that I was two days ago when I was cycling in from Enoshima. The chances of that must be pretty damn small. (Unless he reads this blog. Do you read this blog, gaijin-san?)

Very scenic

Motivation and mentality are still my main issues. I've become quite the scaredycat since last time, and decided to not leave things to chance for the next couple of days while I'm still in the greater Tokyo area. Another big problem is that it's golden week right now, which means all the hotels are fully booked. Leaving things to chance at the last minute if I can't find a camping spot would be problematic, so I've pre-booked cheap hotels/hostels for the two days after Atsugi, and am trying to pre-book camp sites when I get to Karuizawa and beyond. Another thing that greatly helped my mentality is something as silly as my saddle position. I've lowered it and made the angle less aggressive, which means I can coast while looking around without having to put pressure to keep myself in the saddle, and I can reach the ground easily with one foot so I can stop and take a quick photo whenever I feel like it. I'll stand by my previous statements of wanting to challenge myself and wanting to reach the goal rather than wandering around too much, but if you're in the saddle for 6+ hours a day then you've got to give yourself some comfort, otherwise you won't enjoy it. And that's really what it's all about: enjoyment.

Suffering == Enjoyment

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

A quiet day

Posted on 2014-05-04 11:20 by rv

I don't have much to report today. I had a late start and a good breakfast at one of the good old restaurants I used to frequent when I lieved here. Then I went shopping in Machida and bought a wide angle lens for my micro four thirds camera and a big puffy camera bag that I've mounted onto the front of my bike, so I can have easy access to my camera and other things while cycling. I've also adjusted my saddle position to be in more of a 'casually enjoying cycling' position rather than a 'must go faster faster faster ouch everything hurts' position. It's probably still not right, but I'll keep adjusting it as I go along.

Hakuna Atsugi. It means no worries.

There's this place I always used to visit, it's on the way to the big mountain alongside a small river. Just before the road starts to get really hilly there's this bridge, and a very large gravestone behind the spot from where I took this photo. I've been coming here for 8 years now, I find it relaxing to sit there and ponder. But this time somehow felt different. I noticed different things. The haze made the mountains and the sunset less impressive than in my memories, and instead of focusing on the uninhabited bits of the grave and the narrow walking path next to it, I kept looking to the other side of the bridge, to the houses and the people living there, to the cars and the people commuting back home from work. I've seen all that before of course, but my mindset was different this time. My mindset is still full of worries. Worries about real boring life things that I never had when I was living my life here because I was naive and innocent.

I should not have come here so soon. I should've gone to Hokkaido first and then come back here. Now I'm still fresh from the plane with my mind wandering back to UK worries and my body not in shape yet. I realized this before I left the UK, but it was too late to cancel the hotel. So I've decided to challenge myself tomorrow with the Yabitsu mountain pass. It'll be a tough ride, even without luggage, but it will be good training for the mountains yet to come. Getting to Nagano from here won't be easy so I'll need all the exercise I can get. I hope I can improve my mindset as the trip progresses.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2 , Uncategorized

Evaluation

Posted on 2014-05-03 16:27 by rv

The first few days have been interesting. I had definitely forgotten about two of the most serious problems (for me personally at least) during cycle touring: sunburn, and the incredible stress of random camping. I learned my lesson in a fairly controlled environment, fortunately, still in familiar territory. Which gives me a chance to do things better when the trip begins 'for real'. I pretty much know what to expect for the mainland part of the trip, and I'm guessing the conditions will become somewhat different when I reach Hokkaido. By then I'll have gotten used to things a lot more.

In terms of cycling, there seems to be a balance between power + efficiency on the one hand, and comfort on the other. The higher the saddle position and the more aggressive the angle, the faster you can go and the more power you can put on to the pedals. But that's just not the best thing to do when you're touring. The higher the saddle, the more annoyed you'll get at every street light for not being able to reach the ground with your feet without falling over. You can't balance 20kg worth of luggage on your toes. As for the angle, if it's very aggressive then you'll find yourself not really relaxing when you're coasting, since you'll be exerting a lot of force on your arms and hands to try and keep yourself upright. I also found that the more aggressive angle makes me choose higher gears and lower cadence, since that means I can use my legs to keep myself in position rather than relying on my arms to push myself back. I've obviously over-adjusted it and need to tone it down a little, but it'll be tricky to find a comfortable angle for coasting while still avoiding crotch numbness issues during long rides. It's a process I'll have plenty of time to fine-tune.

I'm back in Atsugi now. The only way I can describe it is 'surreal'. Already when coming to Japan from Europe, everything feels 'gentler', less offensive. Coming back to the life that I used to have four years ago only adds to the fairy-tale-like quality. That said, I definitely don't belong here any more. It's been four years since I lived here, and it's been eight years since I lived here. Atsugi has moved on, and so have I. With that in mind, I'm not feeling as much wanderlust I had during the last trip; I feel more like I want to reach my goal of getting to Wakkanai. Not necessarily in the quickest way possible, but certainly with the intent of challenging myself.

Rules for unexpected camping (perhaps mostly applicable to Japan):

Never camp near people!
No tourist spots.
No urban areas.
Local people always show up even if you think you're in the middle of nowhere. Especially people walking dogs.
Never camp too close to the sea. It's goddamn loud.
Never camp next to a major road.
Never camp in tall grass. Your tent will be damp in the morning.

I realize that most of these are quite 'duh', but they really are rules, not guidelines. Any one of these things could ruin a good night's sleep.

Posted in Cycling , Spirit of Japan 2

A tired, tired day

Posted on 2014-05-03 15:45 by rv

This is where I'm headed today.

Things did not go well. That was quite possibly the worst camping experience I've ever had. Yesterday's sushi was great, and the bike ride back to the place I designated as my camping site was easy enough. The place was basically a long strip of asphalt next to a beach, functioning as a parking lot of sorts. There was a toilet building and a closed-down lifeguard/storage house on the side on a long strip of grass, with the perfect space in-between both buildings to put my tent. Pitching the tent quite far back should make it very hard for people to see me and will keep me out of the wind, leaving me to have a quiet sleep.

Well, that was the theory. Let's just say that I was very over-optimistic about my chances of getting a quiet night's rest there. Being right next to the toilet building, people kept occasionally passing by to get to the toilet, then suddenly screaming in terror as my very well-hidden tent sprung into view. It really was very well hidden; the light of the toilet building made it pretty much impossible to see until you were right on top of it.

It was fine in theory..

This kept going on until 10-ish, when things finally quieted down. I was nearly asleep when suddenly I heard a loud barking and a flaslight, and another exclamation of surprise. It was a middle-aged lady walking her dog. UGH. At least she left me alone after that, but occasionally a car would drive by and stop right in front of the toilet building, sometimes shining their headlights right onto my tent.

Finally, around 1AM, I somehow managed to fall asleep. But it didn't last long. At 3AM some ASSHOLES decided that it would be a good idea to have a FUCKING BARBECUE right in front of my tent. The strip of asphalt was at least 2km long but these motherfuckers decided that the best place was indeed right on front of my tent. There were at least 8 people, lots of beer and loud voices. And they knew my tent was there too because they kept shining flashlights on it. Inconsiderate assholes. I should have slashed their tires or something.

Sunrise. Did not want to see this..

Since I couldn't sleep any more, I hung around in my tent until 4AM-ish, at which time it started to get lighter. The timezone is really fucked up in Japan if the first light happens at 4AM and the last light is at 6PM. Just move the damn timezone up 3 hours already, ffs. Anyway, I packed all my stuff, but the tent was still wet with moisture because it was still so early. I didn't want to spend another second next to those assholes though, so I left as soon as I could. And farted in their general direction.

I had to wait another hour at the ferry terminal to catch the first ferry to Kanagawa, and was having difficulty staying awake. I somehow managed though, even throughout the 40-minute ferry ride. When the ship arrived in Kurihama you could hardly see a thing. It was an incredibly dense fog, which (fortunately for me) dissipated in the hour after I started cycling. There was a person who was slightly more overweight than me on a racing bike, who had been on the ferry too and was heading in the same direction. I followed him for a good 10-15 kilometres. He'd get slightly away from me on the flats, but would hold back on the downhill giving me a chance to catch up. When a steep uphill appeared I thought I'd lose for sure, but he went extremely slow and eventually had to pull over. I whizzed past him with my smug face on. WIN! I later raced another fatty on a racing bike on the flat road to Hiratsuka and was able to keep up with him, although not overtake him. Good exercise :D.

Titanic.

After reaching Kamakura the fog had returned, and was very peculiar indeed. In some areas there was the full blazing sun making it hot, but some of the foggy bits were as dense as an actual rain cloud, and a lot colder than everywhere else. I've experienced cycling through clouds before, but never at sea level. Sadly this cloudage prevented me from seeing Enoshima altogether; I couldn't even see halfway down the bridge to the island. Oh well. I headed there anyway and took a break under some trees. The amount of people at Enoshima on a Saturday is just plain disgusting. Way too crowded, much like all the rest of route 134. It's oddly full of white people on this road, more so than anywhere else I've been. Can't say that's a good thing.

Since I was at most 2 hours away from Atsugi and it was way too early to check into my hotel, I consulted the Google and found the nearest Sukiya, which as it turns out wasn't too far off my route. But when I arrived I was shocked to find out that it was closed for refurbishing. Noooooo. I cycled on and found some other, far more inadequate, restaurant to spend some time in, and nearly fell asleep again. Then, having reached familiar territory, I put on some loud music to keep me awake and adrenalized my way to Hiratsuka.

My all-time favorite road. I love it.

I was worried I'd fall asleep and lose my concentration for the last part into Atsugi, but the opposite was true. Seeing that awesomely nostalgic road that I've cycled over a hundred times just refueled me with infinite energy. It's a beautiful combination: sleep deprivation, nostalgia, excitement, adrenaline and exhaustion. I went slowly and took the riverside road, taking photos along the way.

Shinkansen go whoosh

When crossing the Shinkansen tracks there's a very low bridge that I could always just fit under if I put my head close to my handlebars and ducked down a lot. It was only when I was too close to stop that I realized that my new frame is a lot bigger than the old one, and I nearly sprained my neck trying to make myself even lower. But it worked!

Big tower of money

In Atsugi I zigzagged around a bit, paid my respects to the big tower of money and had lunch at Sukiya. Then I checked in to the hotel, had a shower and slept until well into the evening. Finally, rest.

Best meal ever is the BEST MEAL EVER.

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

Chiba all the way

Posted on 2014-05-02 08:14 by rv

My plan for today was to head down to Kamogawa and find a place to camp, leaving the mountain pass that connects East to West Chiba for early the next day, when I'll have plenty of time to take it. But I reached Kamogawa at around 13:00 so decided to give it a go today instead. Some bits of it were horrible suffering, but all in all it could have been a lot worse. I made it to the other side with time to spare to leisurely look for a place to camp. I found two sites so far, but decided to cycle on ahead to the ferry place to check out the ferry times for tomorrow, which is where I'm typing this from. Hopefully camping tonight will go ok. It's a beautiful spot with no residents around, but it's also facing a parking lot and tonight's Friday night, so there might be cars coming in and out. We'll see..

If yesterday was about remembering all the crap things about cycling, today was about rediscovering all the good parts. I finally reached proper countryside Japan, with its beautiful roads, valleys and traditional houses. There was hardly any traffic for the whole day so I felt very comfortable, even with music on (but not too loud, of course). The only minuses were the fairly frequent tunnels and the asshole minitrucks who just can't drive for shit, not a single one of them. It seems to be a requirement to be an asshole if you want to drive one of those things. If you're too nice or capable you'll end up driving a bigger truck.

Health-wise I find I am constantly in near hyper-ventilation while cycling. I think my body hasn't adjusted yet to the sudden new circumstances. Plus, I'm a lot heavier than the last time I cycled. But I'm managing, and I did good speed today (for my standards, anyway), even on most of the uphills.

Now I'll head off to eat some delicious conveyor belt sushi, and then it's the ~4km cycle back to the potential campsite. More later!

Posted in Spirit of Japan 2

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