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!

South Korea-Redux

Total days in Korea: 21

Total distance cycled: 860 km

Sitting in a laundromat waiting area, wearing the last of our clean clothes after sweating through every other stitch of garment in only 3 days of heat and humidity in the Japanese summer, we reconsider our South Korea experience. Being the origin of our jourrney may be both a blessing and a curse for this small peninsula of land, which may as well be an island for all practical purposes.  With Nortth Korea preventing any overland movement of its people South Korea gives one the feeling of a place that must grow both economically and structurally.  The ever present development and rapid pace of life gives the impression that there is no other way to keep its relivence in a rapidly expanding Asian continent and in order to differentiate itself from the military dictatorship that shares a language and land mass but it has been divided from since the creation of the DMZ 60 years ago. Following is a shirt list of pros and cons that we experienced while on our tour of this land that we both agree is worth a second glance.

Some of the the things that we most enjoyed about our time in South Korea are as follows:

-ubiquitous Wifi capabilities on almost every street corner in even the smallest of towns

-clean public parks with fresh water, power and toilets (a must when bike touring)

-Kimchi and the lovely rice, noodle, and of course Korean BBQ

-high population density creates a vibrant atmosphere while leaving plenty of green space to enjoy

-old style street markets/food stalls for quick, cheap eats with an atmosphere that makes one feel like they stepped back half a century

-the friendly locals

-devoted cycling paths criss-crossing the land with more being built as we speak

-loads of friendly cyclists and 'guest houses' scattered liberally around to accomadate when you need a break from camping

 Hello!  Chiara here.  Here are a few things to know when you are cycling in South Korea in a list, as I really like lists.

 1- There is a really good system to find bike routes in South Korea called Naver.  This link helps one find Naver and also explains quite a bit more about cycle touring in South Korea.  https://travellinghajo.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/across-korea-on-a-bicycle-a-howto-for-the-foreigner-riding-seoul-busan-and-coming-back-in-one-piece/

2- Apple maps works very well in South Korea and google maps does not. Really. Even if it looks like is working. Don't trust it. We learned this the hard way.

3- The routes that are specific to cycling such as the Four Rivers trails are very well mapped and maintained.  Any trail by a waterway is very nice generally and will have a place where you can set up your tent, go to the bathroom, and find some water.  If you get off the trail many of the main roads are not super-fit for cycling and can be pretty painful and potentially dangerous to ride in terms of traffic, conditions, etc.  There also seems to be a lit of construction happening on South Korea and those areas are specifically troubling for cyclists.

4- Keep an eye out for drivers in South Korea.  They are generally very courteous on the roads that you share with them but they love to blow through red lights.  Every time.  Seriously.  

Escape from South Korea

'  It wasn't easy to tear ourselves away from the sweet pad Reily set us up in that we had been sprawled in for 3 days in Okpo complete with air conditioning, wi-fi and laundry machine but alas it was time to make our way to Japan.  Easy in comparison to getting to the island; we took a bus that traveled over the new bridge/tunnel back to Busan and we were back to the city in under 2 hours.   Making our way to the ferry terminal proved equally as easy relative to traversing the entire metropolitan area like we had 6 days prior.  We arrived early...and lucky we had as we were required to have a departure ticket from Japan before they would sell us our ferry pass.  We tried to explain that we were on bicycles but they had their orders and the ladies held fast.  The next hour consisted of Chiara and I scouring the interweb, through shoddy wi-fi, for the cheapest but most flexible fares from Japan to Taiwan.  Knowing that we would never be able to know the date we would be leaving we found an airline with no fees for changing tickets and bought two.  Just as the terminal began filling with the nights passengers and space became a premium we finished packing up the bikes and made our way to the boarding area for our 10 hour overnight ferry from Korea to Shimonoseki, Japan.  We had planned on getting dinner but our little misstep consumed all the extra time we alotted so it was too be tuna, crackers, hard boiled eggs and beer for this nights feast.  No matter, the ferry was brilliant...our own bunks, no extra fee for the bikes (because they fold up) and even hot tub/shower areas to use at your leisure.  I, for one, had not felt cleaner and more relaxed on the trip thus far.  In fact it felt like the trip didn't take long enough and we both lamented not having more time to enjoy the comfy beds and quiet time.  All worth it in the end...HELLO JAPAN!

Busan to Geoji Island

We stayed in Busan for a 3 days.  Nice, relaxing days; days that we didn't feel compelled to do too much, which is becoming a bit of a theme any time that we aren't cycling.  We hung out on the beach, visited the Korean War Memorial (a must see monument dedicated to all the nations that aided South Korea; a place of serenity and simplicity),  ate delicious food, cooked some more delicious food, rode the subway a fair amount, and planned our ferry escape to Japan in a few days.

  We still had a couple days till some packages were to arrive so we found a Warmshowers host and decided to visit Geoji Island.  After waiting out a horrendously windy, stormy morning, we set out to ride out of Busan in the afternoon.

Busan is a cool place.  If Seoul is a slick, well-mannered college grad of a city, Busan feels like the wild, slightly unpredictable cousin whom might make out with your boyfriend on the sly.  Busan is also in steep hilly territory in the south of the country and the Koreans that live there have managed to cram skyscrapers into any available space no matter how precarious the slope may appear.  Busan is also about 1 mile wide and 20 miles long. Or so it seems as one is trying to ride through the city.  Start. Stop. Huge uphill. Fast downhill.  Avoiding pedestrians, busses, traffic and noise that seems to never end. We rode through a ton of industrial areas, replete with that nice diesel-coated mouth feel that can only get from being out on the road with endless huge trucks.  After hours of this, we were rewarded with a beautiful little campground on a random greeen island right outside of the city. 6 hours to get half way across a city...not exactly a bikers paradise but GREEN?!  Yes, please.

Our second day of riding was not exactly picturesque either, a lot of highway riding, in and out of towns, and we camped on a little sidewalk area  by a soccer field. We're not sure if the grounds keeper who tapped on our tent while we were alseep was really OK with us staying there for the night or eventually decided that the language barrier was insurmountable and just gave up on trying to ask us to leave.  Whichever it was, we both slept super well after the longest day of riding we have had thus far.

 

The third and final day of riding was beautiful by comparison, we hit a little-used road that lined the ocean for much of the actualy trip to Geoji Island.  Though there was a lot of elevation gains and losses, we felt like we could really gather some inertia on this stretch, and we started pretty early in the morning trying ot outrun the stifling late afternoon heat.  It felt good to feel like we are starting to get our "legs" back,  where all the climbing starts to hurt less and every looming uphill feels less like a puch to the gut.  Unfortulately our entrance to Geoji Island was more highway riding with a fairly limited shoulder but we were so excited about a place to stay and a few relaxing days.  Our host, Reily, even came out to meet us on the highway to lead us back to the apatment!

   

Geoji Island and more specifically, Okpo, the micro-city that we stayed in are lovely.  The island is best known for the massive ship-building yards (33% of the island's population works in this industry) and the second highest cost of living in Korea next to the Gangnam district of Seoul (think Williston, ND but beautiful and worth visiting). Geoji also boasts the most multi-cultural population that we have seen thus far in Korea due to the large industrial complexes.  It is weird after all this time spent cycling through a nation and at the end when you least expect it you find all the Westerners.  It is, however a beautiful and really relaxing place, withn wonderful beaches, cool history, and a whole lot of western-style bars and eateries.  I dont know, I never thought of Michael Jackson as a ribs sort of guy (look it up...there is an actually eatery)!

  

A Note On Loitering

    

Loitering- the act of remaining in a particular public place for a protracted time...under certain circumstances it is illegal.

This something that we do a lot of here in Japan.  The act occurs the majority of the time in front of 7-11, Lawson or other type convenience stores.  Drop your pre-concieved notions folks, convenience stores in Japan are so much more than just convenient.   Along with free wi-fi sessions, they serve fresh, good coffee, delicious rice squares called Onigiri, fresher snacks then you would ever find in the States, and last but certainly not least they have fabulously clean bathrooms with all the trimmings (including the famous Japanese toilets with the bidet feature).  We end up in front of one of these places at least a few times a day, generally trying to map out the coming day's ride or in an effort to figure out where in this part of the world we will be hanging our riding shorts at the end of the hot, sweaty days.  Since leaving South Korea we have had some difficulty procuring reasonably priced accommodation in Japan as it is the high season for vacation travel here for the local population.  This has been ok with us for the mmost part, as we enjoy camping and have been camping a lot since our arrival to Japan.   However, with guerilla camping (meaning we are not always in "designated campgrounds" ) we have not always had regular wifi access.  And though we are able to do a fair amount while sitting on the scorching hot pavement, sipping another coffee, coke, or Pocari Sweat (yes, actually the name of a popular "Ion Drink") in front of the Lawson, without consistent wi-fi access we are not able to post to this blog. Hence we come to the culmination of this long explanation as to why we have been lacking on the blog posts.  We have many already written, and we wil be posting them throughout the next few days as we are splurging on a room here in Takamatsu, Japan.  Stay tuned! xo, Chiara