Three's Company

To start with we had the most enjoyable ride from Osaka to Kyoto, which was a nice change after which we visited the innsanely busy Kyoto Station and then we met up with our Warmshowers host, Ken.  Ken is the only Warmshowers host in the much-visited city of Kyoto, so needless to say he is a busy guy that has tons of cyclists staying with him.  He had a very nice small apartment that he graciously welcomed us into and gave us maps and information with which to explore this beautiful, ancient city.  Kyoto was once the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years, and it is chock-full of castles, shrines, temples, gardens, geisha, and the natural beauty of the mountains and stream that surround it.  There's too much beauty see in two lifetimes is Kyoto but we did our best to wander and were rewarded with ancient wonders, lazy rivers, good weather, and fun hosts.

             

  

Scenes from Kyoto's many sights

We camped at Ken's for a few days, and on our last evening theere we made dinner and shared with Yoko, Ken's neighbor, and Remy, a French cyclist.   Remy made  crepes for desert.  YUM!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful 3 days.  

  

Ken and Yoko

With Remy, who is doing a world tour by bike

We decided to head in a southeast direction along the coast to yet another ferry.  Along the way we experienced some amazing views, mildly treacherous, busy, and narrow roads and more torential rains but luckily they lasted for just one night.  The heat and humidity have begun to wane so we could finally enjoy the scenery ,stopping for photos and not feel like the flesh was melting from our backs.  We had two very nice camping nights and then found our way into Toyohashi where we met our next Warmshowers host Aaron (or A-Aron for all your Key and Peele fans) a Spaniard living and working in Japan, his 6 year old son, and his amazingly welcoming and generous landlords.  By Japanese standards Aaron lives in an extraordinarally large apartment with a great view. We sat out each of two nights drinking beer, whiskey and sochu with him and his landlords talking about everything and nothing while eating little treats of nuts, cheeses, octopus, and ham.  It was truly an international experience.  We are very greatlful to Aaron for welcoming us so openly to his home and feeding us amazing food.  His hosting is well worth going a bit off the usual cycle touring route in Japan for all those looking for experience rather than just seeing the sites.  

     

A-aron, his fun 6 year-old, Augie-son and his wife (probably spelled wrong).  Augie-son had a huge antenna on the top of the building and he was in radio contact with people around the world, even a Pole living in North Korea.  Crazy.

We have also been lucky enough to meet someone that knows a bit about what to see and how best to see it...that meaning a gorgeous train ride north from Toyohashi into the Nagano prefecture and the southern part of the Japanese Alps.  This was only our second foray into train travel and was one of the best decisions we made based on our situation.  We had only about a week left in Japan and were hoping to see something other than busy coastline as we headed into Tokyo.  This afforded us the opportunity to ride in comfort up into the beautiful countryside and then ride our way out of the mountains back to the coast and our last Japanese hosts prior to finishing the trip in Tokyo.

    

Cheers: It is Suntory Time!!

Leaving Takamatsu via ferry we arrived on the island of Shodishima.  It was scenic and enoyable though a bit longer than expected as the ferry we took landed further away than we anticipated.  Another ferry ride and we arrived in Himeji at the perfect time for dinner and the best ramen known to man kind.  

  

We camped in a wonderful park overlooking the coastline where we arrived to find all to ourselves...or so we thought.

Starting around midnight and then every hour after until dawn by raucous partying teens setting off hanabe (fireworks) and shining lights on the strange tent in their local park, we didn't exactly sleep as we would have hoped.  Never the less we started our day as positive as we could heading for the "White Crane" castle in Himeji. We only were able to see this amazing beautiful structure from the outside however due to the holiday season leading to choking crowds of sightseers, both Japanese and foreigners and 2 hour lines just to get in the building.

  As Chiara and I have realized about ourselves at this point, we really enjoy these amazing old structures but they are certainly not what is the route of our enjoyment on this journey so after walking the grounds for an hour, a few photos and a quick stop at the local udon shop, where they make the noodles by had right in front of you (YUM!) we hit the rode heading north.  

(Rolling our the udon noodles)

In front of us lay Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto.  All places Chiara was excited to see.  We hoped to get a night in a real "camground" which are surprisingly rare in Japan and can be pricey, in order to get a shower and wash some clothes.  We arrived at our intended camping destination north of Kobe around dusk only to find hordes of families camping, bbqing, and sitting amongst loads of things that they carried to the campground that, based on the small sizes oof the homes and cars, must have involved every bit of extra money and space they had, in order to celebrate the holiday.  Ugh, the same damn holiday that had been tripping us up for more than a week.  

(View from the campground)

Long story short, we were turned away...they actually turned away foreign cyclists and denied us a place to put our tent for ONE night!  Dumbfounded, we tried everything we could but only met the famed "death x" as we call it where they use their arms in form of an "X" in a way of saying "No way, not going to happpen".  Exasperated and exhausted we turned to them and simply stated (though they had no idea what we were saying), "Ok, then we will walk up the hill to the park above and camp there".  Acting like we won a small victory (which we absolutely didn't as we just wanted to shower more than anything) we trudged back up the hill and plopped down in the field for what turned out to be a restful, quiet night.

Kobe was a neat, small city witth some interesting old achitecture.  

We debated trying the very expensive Kobe beef but decided neither of us had a palate that would discern the difference so ate at a nice cafe and headed out of town.  Along the busy taffic streets we rode from Kobe to Osaka/Kyoto we met our kindred spirits (in reverse) David and Eleanor.  

   

(Eleanor and David)

Easily passing an hour loitering outside the "7" and exchanging travel stories and consoling one another with tales of surviving the unrelenting heat, we had to tear ourselves away and head in ourr opposite directions. (We alll lamented the fact that we were not heading in the same direction as they seemed like a couple with which it  would be fun to tour).  

(Osaka at night)

We camped a quiet night along the river outside Osaka after passing through some very lively and colorful little neighborhoods and trying to get into a loud, smokey bar filled with the sounds of an energetic live band (but alas turrning away when we found the cover to be exhorbanent).  The next stop Kyoto... or so we thought.

A slight turn from the main route to avoid some heavy traffic and narrow shoulder led us, to my though maybe not Chiara's glee and excitement, to a little slice of heaven called the Suntory Whiskey Distillery.

  It could not have been planned better and we whiled away an hour in the tasting room and museum sipping on some of the most unique and inexpensive and downright  good single malt whiskies I have had in my amateur tasting experience.  We came to find out later that this distillery has recently won the prize for the overall best whiskey in the world beating out perrenial favorites from the US and Scotland, which was too much of a surprise after tasting these little treats.

We were a little more "relaxed" after our foray to whiskey nirvana we the rode the last leg to Kyoto, excited to meet our next warmshowers host, Ken.  

Perfect Strangers

One month in the books and we are still finding a way to get along...and at times even thrive, on this journey of ours.  

Not that there have not been a few bumps, in the road, on our bodies, on the bikes, pretty much wherever they could be honestly, but we are taking them as they come and building on our missteps.  We will pretty much be invincible by the time this is done...or not, but either way there will be some great stories.  Now for today's  adventure...

We road in from Imibari where we spent a night with a nice Japanese woman, Neo, and her husband in their small, traditional home.  She fed us a nice meal in the morrning and we once again braved the blazing heat heading up the coast.  

The riding was mostly city other than one beautiful hill where we stopped to take in the view.  Stopping regularly for snacks, water, A/C'd stores, and the like we made it to our destination.  We spent  two, nice air-conditioned nights in a hostel/hotel in the quaint port city of Takamatsu. The nights indoors are so replenishing on one's soul (it may sound dramatic but words never have felt so true).  We had our first taste of a local favorite, tako-yaki, a little ball of cooked dough with octopus inside, which is delicious and mostly sat around and enjoyed not doing anything in particular.  It is nice to be off the bikes and walking around the towns.  This one in particular has a wonderful outdoor covered shopping region that covers a good quarter of the city with food, restaurants, shops, and lots of people watching. 

 We continued on by boarding  a series of ferries to cross the inland sea, as they call it, to Himeji to continue our journey up the undulating, lush landscape of Japan. 

Growing Pains

I had brought up something to Chiara while we were in Korea about naming our posts after soap operas in the US based on the feel of the area.  For instance the city of Busan would be called "The Young and the Restless" because it was full of partying college age beach goers.  Needless to say we didn't do that but I think it is time to start a similar project in Japan but with sitcoms from our youth...hence the title of this post.  Read on if you want to know how they correspond.

We landed ourrselves, somehow, smack dab in the best and worst place at the same time.  Let me explain.  Our new camping friends had suggested that we must see a few places that also corresponded with ourr proposed route...so why not?!   They were so worth the stops and broke up the pedaling nicley.   First was Iwakuni and a beauthiful anarchic bridge that, though having been rebuilt over the centuries, was non-the-less a wonderful example of advanced engineering and beauty. 

   

 We met a fun, energetic and mildly unhinged Japanese fello that insisted that he get a picture with the 'Americans' flashing our best 'Metal Horns' (he and Chiara really connected on their mutual adulation of Van Halen and Motley Crue).  Riding north from there was an easy day and short ferrry to the World Heritage Site of Miyajima Island.  It was slightly disorienting seeing this many non-Japanese in one place as we had avoided most big tourist spots to this point and were used to being the only 'round eyes' in the area.  We had a beautiful  place to camp and if it wern't for the pernicious 'wild (and I use this term very loosely as I have seen wilder animals at a petting zoo) deer' trying to eat our bags, bikes and tent, this would have been quite a relaxing spot.

     

  After the perfunctory 'selfies' at the site we crossed on the quick ferry back to the mainland and planned our way toward Hiroshima...and that is where things went a bit pear shaped.  Turns out we, as bad students of history, neglected to realize that we had set ourselves on a collision course to arrive in Hiroshima on the 70th Anniversary of the atomic bombing in 1945...and as you might imagine accommodation was not easy to find.  Originally planning to take a few days in a hostel, A/C, blogging and enjoying the sites instead turned into 2 night of sweaty humid camping and loitering outside wifi spots.  There were some amazing upsides that made all the lack of amenities woorth it though...we will let the photos speak for us.

      

(Chiara here.  The first picture is of the Atomic Dome, a building that was right near the epicenter of the atomic bomb. Though initially controvercial, resident of Hiroshima have decided to let the building stand as a reminder of the destruction wrought by the bomb. The second picture is of Buddists chanting and singing for peace, which was a beautiful sight and sound for the thousands that came to the 70th anniversary of the dropping ofthe bomb..  The last two pictures were of the evening lantern ceremony, where people wrote messages of peace on a lantern, lit the lanterns, and floated them down the river in front ofthe Atomic Dome.  The historical significance of this day 70 years ago is hard to quantify.  Hiroshima was almost totally decimated.  It is astounding and shows how much spirit the people of Hiroshima have that they have rebuilt their city into such beautiful place and how hard many people at the ceremony are working towards peace and to rid countries of nuclear weapons.  I will never forget the images and the displays at the Peace Museum and it is hard to believe that any populace had to live with the terrible aftereffects of the atomic bomb.  I am so glad that we were able to see the pride and rememberance that Hiroshima and the countryof Japan have for this awful event.  Back to Bruce...)

Glad we had toughed out the mayhem in an otherwise unassuming, very liveable city that was at the same time very welcoming while feeling like it wanted nothing more than to shake off all of us gawking, day-packing, J-Rail'ers so that it could get back to its daily routine of just beiing a place where people lived.   Oh and two other things, the bike culture was amazing Portland...don't think you are really all that special and make sure you don't miss the amazing local cuisine called okonmiyaki...a must!

We were slightly sad to leaave but ready to let Hiroshima get back to its life. We were excited for our next destination...Saijo and its amazing Sake!  A relatively short ride to this little Sake producing region was rewarded with amazing free sake tastings and an gorgeous thunderstorm (luckily we were awaiting a train at the time so we got to witness it dry and in the safety of the station).  To be continued...

Is it Suntory time...?

'It's not the heat but the humidity that will get you...'  I can't even begin to tell you how many summers I heard that from my father growing up in NY.  Or from my friend in NC who said 'the humidity is like a warm hug'?!  And now that I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US humidity is but a distant memory (we get up in arms when the humidity level rises above 80%) and escaping a hot day simply requires one to step into the shade of one of a million Doug Firs or finding one of the icy cold glacial rivers that dot the landscape.  Well it's back...and Japan knows how to bring it with the best of them.  Since landing a bit over a week ago and beginning our ride north the average daily temp has hovered in the low 30s C (low 90s F for the yanks) but 'feeling like' 36 C (high 90s) due to my old nemesis...humidity. 

 The only respite comes at sunset and sunrise where you get about one hour of breezy, drier air in which to eat a meal without dripping sweat into your bowl.  Oh and the daily end of day beer runs offer that little extra incentive...

Regardless of this we have been able to enjoy our time and have learned a thing or two along the way:

1. Japanese drivers are very courteous and patient

2. Camping in Japan is acceptable in just about all public places as long as they are not national landmarks or world heritage sites.

3.  Traditional tea is a lot harder ot find than was anticipated...and the convenience store coffee is actually pretty damn goood.

4.  We carry a lot less gear than most others we meet who are touring (what in the world are they carrying in all those bags?!)

5. The Japanese really love receipts and bagging everything individually.

6.  If asked how to find something Japanese people will walk you around half their city to help you find it and then wait at the location to be sure your issue is resolved before leaving...truly wonderful people!

7.  If your electronics get fouled by the moisture don't fret, we have the solution.  Just go to the market and buy some packaged Nori, which you will want to start using in all your noodle and rice meals as it is delicious, and take out the large desication packet.  Take said packet and put it into one of the ten thousand little plastic bags you have accumulated (the Japanese almost insist you take one when you buy ANYTHING) and just leave the device (in my case my iPhone) and packet in the bag for a few days.  Viole...works like new!

8.  Garbages are rare...though recycling bins are everywhere!  This is not exactly geniune as we discovered talking to a European guy studying in Hiroshima..  Most people just throw their garbage either in the recycle bins or else it ends up in the places you don't see.  Thay also incinerate trash here at huge plants (no room for landfills like the US).  It leads to relatively clean streets but with all the packaging it has to go somewhere?!

To the land of the Rising Sun

Japan is all we had hoped; amazing scenery, delicious food, gracious people and endless rideable roads.  But first...how we got here.  Our trip back from Geoje to Busan was much quicker and less eventful than the gambit we ran on the inward leg thanks to an air-conditioned bus and bike lanes from the station to the ferry terminal.  Luckily we decided to check in early as we discovered when trying to purchase our ferry passes that they will not sell you a ticket unless you have a departing ticket from Japan already booked.  We were not sure if this was a special consideration for us slightly smelly and grungy looking bikers but assuming it was across the board we scoured the internet via patchy wifi for the cheapest, and most refundable ticket we could find out of Japan in a months time and hit BUY!  For all those wondering, 'Why take a 11 hour overnight ferrry instead of flying?'  All you need to know is all Japanese ferries have on-board soaking baths and fairly elaborate bathing rooms worth the price of admission.  Not to mention that the quiet, comfortable bunks on the ferry paired with the droning engine made for one of the best nights sleep we had in quite a few days.  

Our ferry ride was over way too soon and we disembarked in our first Japanese stop, the small port town of Shimonoseki.  Sleepy, quaint, and a perfect starting point for our time in Japan we started north up the west coast and on some beautiful roads with beaches and sun and smiling Japanese locals.  We made good time finding that the 7-11's in Japan, along with a myriad of other convenience stores, are ubiquitous and generally offer free wifi, a good selection of inexpensive rice based snack foods and the most pleasant workers that one could imagine.  Oh, and I almost forgot about the coffee...freshly ground beans and brewed to order, these little morning treats of liquid black gold bear no resemblance to the shockingly bad 64oz mega-gulp cousin that they attempt to pass off in the states as coffee.

Our first night was spent on a beach...literally camped on the beach, just above high tide line. 

We took an evening swim, made dinner and drank a cold beer on the seawall as the sunset on our first wonderful day.  Things kept up there positive bend as we made our way to Hagi, a historic Samuri village on the coast. Hagi had an abundance of beautiful old narrow streets and homes as they have looked for hundreds of years.  We took another swim, followed by a cold, very needed shower, and found a local Udon noodle cafe. As we searched Hagi for a place to pitch our tent, we watched an amazing, fireworks display the origin for we had no clue about, that seemed to fill the sky wiith beautiful colors and shapes and seemed to last for over an hour.  

  

Awaking with the sun, and what seemed like half of the elder Hagi population walking their dogs, we made our way to, you guessed it, the local 7 for our morning cup of joe.  We met a fellow tourer, a young Japanese guy who had been on the move for a month up and down the country.  He was jovial and happy to share tales over a bowl of cereal as the heat of the day crept upon us. 

  

 Getting started slightly later than we had hoped we started a climb east into the hills.  Brutally hot and humid, we climbed a good part of the day, at times feeling like we were melting as the sweat poured from our bodies copiously and without any sign of stopping. We inched our way toward our destination, a campground we had read about, but were detoured briefly when Chiara noticed a laudromat, of which we had seeen very few.  Insinuating that stopping was not an option we held up for an hour, drank a beer and some snacks and waited for our clothes, that had started developing a funk that is hard to describe to those that have never spent any significant time sweating profusely outdoors in a subtropical climate. We finished our day climbing a steep slope to an amazing camppsite with a view that may not be topped (though the trip is still young).  We also met some new friends, a family with a young boy from Nagoya that were out on a camping vacation.  I helped them with their tarp (height matters in these cases), they fed us sashimi and gave us advice for upcoming sites and then we finished another fantastic, though quite challenging, day with Hanabe (Japanese smalll fireworks).  

No telling where things will lead but if the first few days hold any truth then we are in for quite a time in Japan!