No more camping for me.....

Look at this picture. Click the picture and enlarge it. I saw this hand sized centipede walking around outside. 5 inches! This is the second one Ive seen. I threw away my tent and the other camping gear that I had. You will never get me to sleep outside in Japan again. I hate bugs.

Riding in Japan

So whats it like riding around Japan as a Gaijin (foreigner).

As I'm riding around all day the Japanese mostly ignore me or they stare at me with an expressionless look on their face. In Japan staring is not rude like it is in the US. Japanese people stare because they are curious about what I am doing or where I am from. Not because they are being rude. Sometimes while waiting at a traffic light Ill turn my head and catch every single person around me staring at me. Some Japanese people wave at me from the safety of their car. I say `safety` because Japanese people are basically scared of me. I can see it in their eyes. I try to help ease their fears by waving and smiling at them as much as possible. I also make an effort to talk to them first so that they see that I'm no wild animal with a tail. Most Japanese people have little or no contact with non-Japanese people. They basically have great fear of the unknown. Several times during the day I even see a few people with an ASTONISHED!(see photo) look on their face. Its so funny. As if I were a black space alien riding a bicycle loaded with camping gear. Nevertheless, I always try and wave or say hello to kids. They seem so happy that I said hello to them. I hear them tell their friends `did you hear that? He said hi to me!` . Anyway, Japan is the ideal place for those who are a little anti-social or introverted. As long as you are not standing on the wrong side of the escalator or buying something, almost know one speaks to you. This has kind of been a let down on this trip. I like to meet people and share stories. I'm in a country with 150 million Japanese people but all I run into are other Gaijin.

Inabe to Minakuchi (outside Kyoto) 80k

I knew I would be in for some drama today. The clip in part of my shoe broke. and my back rack was also broke. I put as much stuff as I could into my backpack and carried the back rack down the street looking for a convenience store at 6am. In Japan there seems to be a convenience store or two every few kilometers. I needed some super-glue to try and glue the plastic clip back together. I was in luck. Found the store and the super glue. And I fixed my shoe with the spare cleat I had packed.

Today I was riding into the Kyoto area which means I would have to climb up and over Suzuka mountain pass. About a third of the way up route 421 a guy on a motorcycle stopped and told me the road was closed ahead due to a rock slide......bummer. On the way back down I saw another foreign guy climbing up. I stopped and told him about the closed road and he and I searched my map looking for another road. His name was Arron ,he was from New Zealand. We found another pass about 10k away. Route 306. The map showed that it was very steep. On the way I hit a big bump and my super glued rack broke again. My stuff came flying off my bike. I was about to just ditch all my camping gear when Arron volunteered to strap it all to his rack and carry it up and over the entire mountain pass for me. That was a real favor to do for someone you just met 30 minutes ago. He strapped my gear to his back rack and carried all my gear and his gear over the entire mountain. The climb was 8k with long 10% sections. I owe him. Once again a fellow bike rider comes to the rescue.

Towards the end of todays ride we traveled on a road that was brand new and had no cars on it. A road in Japan with no cars on it is a very strange sight. So I took a picture in the middle of the street.

Toyota city to Inabe 64k (40m)

I had a great time in Toyota City. This is a very modern clean looking city that has obviously benefited from the sale of Toyota cars and trucks to the world. This was another stop at an old friends house. They treated me really nice. My friend even gave me a bicycle tour around his neigborhood.

Just before i got to Toyota City my bike stopped shifting gears correctly. So every time the climb got real steep i had to get off my bike and put the chain on the little gear by hand. In Toyota I ended up finding a really nice bike shop with some very kind people. The shop owner was working on my bike within a minute of me arriving. If you pass through Toyota City look up TORH cycle gallery. The shop has been there for almost 100 years. They are also very talkative and full of stories. I like these kind of people. There are not enough of them here.

The next day I left Toyota City at about noon and headed for a camping area at the base of route 421 mountain pass. I misjudged the distance. I thought it was about 40k. Turned out to be about 70k. At around 6pm I realized that I wouldn't make it anytime soon. I was in the middle of nowhere. I ended up camping under a bridge just like a homeless person. While I was setting up my tent, my bike fell over and my back rack broke. So now I had to figure out how to fix that.

Sleeping outside is actually harder then it seems. You never really get good sleep because you`re always listening for sounds. Mosquitos tore me up. I hate mosquitos. And i was starting to hate camping. The ground was all rocky and my tent stakes wouldnt plant .

I saw an old lady sitting outside. She saw me and started laughing. So I took her picture.

Hamamatsu to Toyota City (Nagoya area) 100km(60m)

I awoke in my tent at 5.30am. I noticed a group of GAINJIN (japanese word for foreigners) far off to my west. They were also on a cycling journey to Kyushu. One Canadian,two Americans,and one Spanish girl. I told them my plan was to cycle to Toyota City (100k,60miles) and stay at my friends house. They were also going the same way....AND THEY HAD MAPS! They invited me to join them and I said yes without any hesitation. They even offered me some food. The sport of cycling is like this...at least in America it is. We have a strong sense of comradary and many times cyclist will go far out of their way to help other cyclist who need assistance. 　This group of four were actually on a sponsored ride to promote Earth friendly living.They started from Hokkaido 1 month ago. They are vegetarians and didn't drink any bottled water...only city water. They also wouldn't stop at any convenience stores, Because the stores are all corporate owned. They also would not stop at any vending machines because they are using electricity 24 hours a day. They were zealots. I cant imagine doing this ride the whole way to Kyushu with those restrictions. There are many times when a vending machine saved me after I had run completely out of water. They also gave me the extra map book that they had. I have much love for them.

Today was some of the best cycling Ive done so far. Route 377, 332,334 are a must ride if you are in the OKAZAKI city area. Its nothing but scenic fields and green mountains for most of the day. The climbs are really nice, not to long or steep. Nice long 3% grade downhills. And no cars!!!!

We finally said goodbye at Okazaki City. I still had another 20K to go. I have a feeling we will cross paths again. I Hope.

I met two Japanese college students who were riding fixed gear bikes. They were nuts! They were also doing the Kyushu trip. They had no money,no helmets,no standard road bike. But they had the right attitude. They told me that they slept outside at the top of Mt Hakone. Hardcore. This is how Japanese people are. They are tuff. And they can take hard conditions better then us gaijin. There were times when it felt like I was cycling in a sauna and there were Japanese workers in the field working hard in those conditions.. I rode with these guys for about 20k. I hope to see them again on the way down to Kyushu.

Mishima to Hamamatsu 160k (100 miles) 11 hours

This is a day that will go down in infamy. It was the longest and hardest ride I have ever done on a bicycle. It was also a mistake on my part. Before the trip I was told to stay on route 1 the whole way. So it looked like I could make the distance in about 6 hours or so. Ive rode the Amtrak 100 mile event from Orange county to San Diego two times in under 6 hours so in my head it was no problem. I failed to take into account traffic lights every 250 meters. Endless!!. And also many roads that turned into fast highways were bicycling is prohibited. By 5pm I still had 70k to go and it was getting dark fast. I had to ride in the dark. Something I had vowed never to do. But I had a couple of other guys from Tokyo with me that I met on the road. They were also going to Hamamatsu so i just kept kicking the peddles over. I arrived at the camp spot which is located next to a lake called Lake Hamanako. The cost was 400 yen to pitch a tent.

I was absolutely drained. I tried to eat but I kept throwing up. So i just crawled into my tent and went to sleep. It was the hardest day.

My tent system consists of a top and bottom tent tarp wrapped over my bike. There is just enough space for me to crawl in an lay down. It weighs 3 pounds. I wasn't giving the Tokyu Hands dept store 40,000 yen ($400) for their tent.

Kamakura to Mishima 80k (50 miles) 4hours 45 min

This is the first day of my trip. Mishima is a small town on the other side of Mt.Hakone. This means that you must climb Hakone. 13.5K to the top. The one thing I like about Hakone is that there are many interesting things to see while you are suffering up the climb. Bringing a camera is a must. I started this climb feeling good. But then quickly realized that i was trying to climb to hard. As you ca n see in the picture the road is all switch backs. Up to 10% grade. The red part of the road is an anti-slip compound. At the half way point is when the weight of all my gear started to really bother me. It was very hard to keeping the bike going. It took me about 1hour 30 minutes to get to the top. (without my gear my best time is 53minutes). It was pretty much getting dark when i got to the top so I only spent 5 minutes at lake Ashinoko.

I made it to my mother in laws house in 4 hours 45 minutes....and had a steak dinner! My mother in law fried two steaks for me. One was from Austrailia and the other steak was Japanese beef. The Austrailian steak was tuff but the Japanese steak was really nice and tender. It was almost as if she was giving me a taste test. She kept telling me...`the Japanese steak is best right`.......and she was right!