Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Komoro


The morning after the pass we were loathe to discover that the rain was still coming down.
After a warm breakfast to motivate us we got back on the bikes and headed out for another wet one. We started out with a long downhill. Usually cyclists look forward to downhills but they are far less appealing on cold, wet mornings when the additional wind just adds insult to injury. But, to keep things in perspective, the people in passing cars were in suits going to work. Suckers.
For a short while it looked like the rain might turn to snow but as we descended in altitude the temperature rose and the rain abated. We ended up having a great ride down narrow winding streets lined with traditional japanese houses all the way to Komoro.
We arrived in Komoro in the early afternoon and rode around town looking for a grocery store and internet access. We ended up using the internet at what appeared to be a private office of some sort. It was a bizarre situation. We stopped in to ask the whereabouts of an internet cafe but, exemplefying the cultural emphasis on politeness, they insisted we use their computer. They were very interested in us and our journey. They all stopped working and served us tea and cookies and took a whole bunch of pictures of us. They also gave us a mapofthe town with the slogan, Komoro: A Poetic Sentemental Town. We thanked them for all their help and headed towards an onsen that we hoped to bathe at and camp near.
It took a while to find it as it was located in a sketchy spot outside of town under a bridge. It was dark by now and there were no lights on in the place. It was overgrown and unmaintained which isstrange for Japan. It seemed creepy. We almost moved on but we were tired, ready to camp. We knocked on the door not sure if this was the onsen or Boo Radley`s house. No one came to the door but for some reason, I think because we were just curious, we kept knocking. Eventually a very nice, normal woman came to the door. She didn`t have a hump back or anything. She just hadn`t heard us knocking.
We took an onsen and she gave us permission to camp on her property right by the river. It was great. She had a couple little kids with whom we practiced our limited reppertoir of Japanese expressions.
In the morning we woke up to citrus drinks sitting outside our tent. As we packed up the womans husband came outside with hot cans of coffee for us. Then a cute old Grandmother with a limp, which seemed to make her even cuter, came out with fruit for us. She gave us presents that she had made herself: nearest I could tell they were spherical cat toys with bells inside of them. But it was the gesture that was important. I accepted it and examined it like it was a diamond and thanked her profusely. As we rode up and out of the river valley they stood there waving to goodbye. What nice people.
The sun was out for the first time and days and we headed towards Nagano feeling great.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Shinshu Pass


Woke up to the sound of rain hammering our tent and grudgingly pealed ourselves out of our sleeping bags. Its difficult to break camp in the rain, trying to keep wet gear from contaminating dry stuff. Big pain in the ass. We pedaled down to a nearby gas station in rain jackets to review our maps in a dry place- and to sip some hot coffee of course. We had a very general route plan for the next few days: head towards Nagano, which is a good distance through the Japan Alps. Telling people we were heading to Nagano by bicycle invariably elicited laughter and a shake of the head. Silly Americans. Little did they know our actual destination was not Nagano but Okinawa, over a thousand miles away.
For this day we had no set goal. We weren`t super eager to ride in the rain so we figured we would just ride until we didn`t feel like riding anymore. So we cast off our rain gear and resigned ourselves to being wet. Once we got going our moods lifted and the rain stopped bothering us. It even began to feel good in a peculiar one thousand needles stabbing you in the face kind of way.
As we stopped now and again to check the map we became encouraged. We were moving much faster than we thought we would given that it was entirely uphill. Around lunchtime the rain was still coming down and we stopped to eat under the thatched canopy of a roadside produce stand. An old man there gave us each a a fruit that I`d never had before. It was part tomato part orange- pretty tasty. We thanked him and rode on. We passed some of the most beautiful scenery we had yet seen. All Misty mountains and huge river gorges with granite crags on either side, wooden bridges getting us across. We were feeling invincible riding through this landscape at 40 mph and soaked to the bone with sweat and rain.
The incline we had been steadily moving up all day was leading to Shinshu Pass, an intimidating high point along our route, the presence of which had been a nagging weight in the back of my mind. We hadn`t even expected to be dealing with the pass today. But around 3pm we realized we had covered a lot of ground and there was a chance we could make it over the pass before nightfall. Feeling emboldened and energized by our progress, we decided to go for it. But the hills we encountered were like none we had yet seen. They seemed to be nearly vertical. In my lowest gear I was having trouble pedaling and i had to stop frequently to regain the energy to continue. We were starting to lose day light and I had no idea how much farther it was to the top. I started to wonder if this was such a good idea. The idea of turning back and finding a place to camp at a lower altitude was becoming more and more desirable. Perhaps stupidly, we pushed on. My head was pounding and my legs were on fire. Seeing the crest of the pass was like a mirage. It took nearly everything we had to give but we made it. Feeling weightless, we rolled down the other side without pedaling, letting the lactic acid take over our legs. I felt less triumphant than cold, wet and exhausted. The hard part was over but I had hit a wall. Its a strange feeling when your body starts to utterly shut down. We were both light-headed and weak and had to stop to eat a granola bar. We continued on desperately hoping for a dry bed and a warm meal which we were lucky enough to find. We ate dinner and drank some coffee but no amount of food or drink was going to make us feel good. We felt like shit and needed sleep. We rented a Japanese style room with a straw tatami mat and crashed hard on the floor knowing that Shinshu Pass was behind us.

Kofu


The day after climbing Mt. Fuji we woke up feeling surprisingly fresh. We loaded up our bikes and rode a blissfull 35 miles to Kofu achieving our first day`s goal. It began with a steady and challenging uphill around lakes, up gorges and then through a tunnell which was a bit scarryWith tractor trailors whizzing by. But once on the other side it was a steep ten-mile downhill all the way into Kofu. We cruized down it at around 30 mph. It only took us about two hours.
Once in Kofu we came upon a beautiful temple perched on a hillside with a massive staircase leading up to it from the street. We climbed up to check it out. The grounds were very well kept with a network of pathways leading all over the hillside and up into the forest where I found some small caves that from the inscents left on the ground, looked like they were used for meditating. But not a soul was there. We decided it was the perfect place to camp so we set up on little spot just off the temple grounds. It was great.
After cooking dinner we went looking for an Onsen we had heard about, a public bathhouse fed by a hotspring. We were disapointed to find it closed and headed back to camp resigned to go another day without a shower. But when we passed a building with the sound of splashing water and people laughing we got curious. We went inside and found it was a hotel that happened to have an onse. We told the Woman who ran it that we were from New York and that we were biking across Japan. She insisted on paying for our Onsen. We were dirty and tired from riding, and climbing Fuji, and from camping the last two days. We were inexperienced as far as public bathing goes but soaking in a hot onsen was truely wonderful. Something we could get used to.
We went to bed clean and relaxed.

Finally, Some Updates

Well we haven`t posted much since our original postings and the reasons for that are many. One is that bicycle touring is pretty demanding and doesn`t leave all that much time for lollygagging on the internet. Another reason is that while Japan is a very techno-savy country, much of our time is spent in the countryside between cities and there is not much internet access out in those parts. And I will admit that when we were in Kyoto last week I couldn`t figure out how to change the language on the computer to English. But since we have a few days off of riding here in the city of Osaka I will try to put down some of the notes I`ve taken over the last three weeks.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Karate Chopstix


i am not going to apologize for mass emails, its hard enough for me to write emails as is, so this is the easiest way for me to say hello and return some messages from a long time back. everything is going well!! i am sitting in nagano, japan having a day off from biking. i am about a week into a two month bike tour. this is the first time i have traveled this way and its absolutely blissfull!!! traveling by bike is simple and rewarding, allowing time to think and feel healthy. you also can eat tons and sleep very well after a long day of biking. mike and i started in tokyo and headed to mount fuji, climbed the massive volcanoe and then got on our bikes and headed north west for nagano. the japan alps are spectacular, rural japan is everything you expect and more, the japanese are polite, helpful and peaceful. we have covered over 140 miles in about 4 days of riding, not bad for two amatuers. we will head south from here along the coast and eventually reaching the southern most point of the the main island. there we will hitch a ride on a ferry to okinawa to visit our friend kevin. overall things are running smoothly, no major disasters yet, enjoying every day!!! hope you are all well. someday i may be better about returning emails/messages, but probably not :) thanks for the emails and myspace/facebook messages. look forward to hearing from you.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

First Week In Japan


Well,
Its been a crazy first week in Japan.
We were welcomed with open arms by Maggie, Scott and Lucas who Showed us around Tokyo. We had our first conveyor belt sushi experience. Sushi travels by your table on a conveyor belt and you just grab whatever you want. Its Fabulous. Then Scott took us to the top floor of a building to see the Tokyo City View. I knew Tokyo was big but it blew my mind. Buildings as far as you could see in every direction.
We spent our days there checking out the different neighborhoods and stocking up on supplies for our trip.

On Friday morning we loaded up our bikes, said goodbye to the Hansons and rode to Shinjuku train station (we figured it best not to try to ride out of Tokyo on the highways). I thought riding bikes through Tokyo was going to be hectic but it really wasn`t that bad. Once at the station we found a corner and started breaking down our bikes. You have to take them apart and put them in special bags in order to take them on the train- kind of a hassle. We had some language barrier issues but with the help of a phrasebook managed to buy tickets to Mt. Fuji.
We said goodbye Tokyo and one short, scenic train ride later we were in a mountain town at the base of Fuji. We threw our bikes back together and rode a few miles to the Fuji Trailhead where we camped for the night.
By 3:30 am we were up and hiking. We could not see much for the first hour or two but when the sun came up we found ourselves in a mystical forest. It was all lush and mossy - I wouldn`t have been surprised to pass a hobbit on the trail. Every few miles there were Buddhist shrines with various offerings left by climbers before us. It was all very cool.
We soon rose above treeline where the temperature dropped and the wind picked up.
It was bitter cold. But tough guys that we are, we fought through it and made it up to the summit. The crater at the top was gigantic, maybe a mile across and we could`nt see the bottom. It was wild.
The altitude was starting to mess with our heads a bit so we hurried down to a hardy feast of mac and cheese and some much needed sleep.
Fuji: Check!