Flowers and fruit

I see pretty flowers while riding. I dont know much about flowers but the wild flowers are very pretty in Japan. Would someone please post the name of these flowers?

The Internet Cafe

This was something new to me. An internet cafe is a place where after a hard days work, you can get online and play games or just sit back and read your favorite comic book (manga). Most of the people I saw were about 30ish. I even saw several women...just sitting back reading comic books. I asked the guy at the front desk why a person would pay 280 yen (3dollars) every 30 minutes, just to read comic books and surf the net. He said....`because they can read the comics without buying them`. But what about the 280 yen every 30 minutes??? Anyway, something about the whole thing has bothered me for days on end...I can`t figure out why a person in their mid-thirties would come here just to read comics and look at the internet. Why wouldn't they do that at home? So I asked the same question at another place and I was told `because their computers at home are not very fast...`....ok ...move along. Now there are also people here who are homeless. They crash here from midnight to 6am and pay about 12oo yen (12 dollars). They even have showers here. Actually that's not bad for one who needs a place to crash till the morning. I hear lots of night-life people use internet cafes. That's a drink bar in the picture. The drinks are free! The massage chair felt great also.

Minakuchi to Kyoto 68k

This will probably go down as another of my favorite rides. Nice scenic roads with no trucks. Japanese restaurants often have a statue of a raccoon outside. They say it will bring their business good luck. I rode by a small town that sold nothing but raccoon statues. Almost every business sold them.

I ended up staying at an old friends house. Years ago he came to the US and stayed with my family. He was trying out to be the next Ichiro.

I had a great time. I ate yaki-niku, played the piano, played with the dog. I was well entertained. People in Kyoto are `Kokoro ga atakai` which means warm hearted in English. Kyoto has a really nice style that I like.

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.