South to Chiba

After a welcome rest in Iwaki it was time to get going, I was now pretty close to Narita airport but with time on my hands I had decided to ride south along the coast of Chiba prefecture before crossing Tokyo bay by ferry to go catch up with Koichi and my friends in that part of Japan.

The ride out of Iwaki started with a small climb before levelling out on the coast road. I had picked two possible campsites for the evening, one was a wild camp in a coastal park with the advantage of no climbing to it but meaning that I would have to wait until dark to setup the tent, the second option was a genuinely free campsite which was up in the hills with around five miles of climbing, but I could setup and leave whenever I felt like it.  With rain forecast from 5 pm and sunset due at 6:30 pm my decision was made for me and I turned the bike skyward for the five mile climb.

Now at the start of my trip I hated climbing, I just didn’t have the stamina and after short steep climbs my legs would have nothing left. After two months riding I have started to ACTUALLY ENJOY CLIMBING! It’s scary, I’m still suffering but I know that as long as I keep my legs turning and ignore the pain that I will make it over the hill and the satisfaction from achieving that is immense.

That said with a light drizzle falling I wasn’t particularly thrilled to have a long haul ahead but thankfully the scenery was beautiful as I followed the river up the valley before reaching a dam and running along the lake it formed. After another few miles climbing away from the lake I was at my campsite by the river, I setup my tent just in time for the downpour to start so settled into my sleeping bag for the night.

I was up early, well, I was still wide awake when dawn arrived at around 5 am the next day. The rain had turned into a storm the previous night and my little tent was tested to its limits, making it through to the morning just barely still waterproof. Thankfully I bought a very good sleeping bag before leaving the UK so I was toasty warm at least.

I packed my bags and threw the sopping wet tent into its pack on the back of the bike and made my way gingerly downhill, drizzle still falling. I grabbed my breakfast at the nearest conbini and headed to the coast.

In contrast to the previous night and day it was a lovely sunny morning and the temperature climbed up the thermometer, drying out my bags and my tent in the process. I headed down the coast to a campsite I had found on google maps, I was in need of a shower and was glad of the shade of the pine trees when I finally arrived at my spot for the night.

I grabbed a quick shower and let my tent dry in the sun while the local cat population came and introduced themselves, I had been missing my own cat since I left home and the cats in Japan had been doing there best to avoid me until this point so I was glad of the feline company.

After relaxing with the cats I was sitting in the sun when one of my neighbours came over to introduce himself, his name was Kosuke and he was there camping with his wife Rieko and their dog Mob and I spent a lovely evening chatting away with them. I headed to bed early to make up for the long night in the rain the day before.

I woke up early and was greeted by my new friends with a lovely cup of fresh coffee before the cats joined me to sit in the sun a while. Kosuke and Rieko had invited me to come and visit them in a few nights, so I had revised my plans to head inland and would be going to Tsukuba for a couple of days to visit JAXA (the Japanese space program) before heading down to Inzai for one night with my new friends before riding to Chiba the day after that with Kosuke.

It was a simple 35 mile ride to Tsukuba and Chiba is a relatively flat prefecture so in no time I was at the hotel and relaxing while waiting for my laundry to finish before heading to bed for the night.

I headed to JAXA the following morning not sure what to expect (the reviews on Google maps were polarising, either very positive or very negative), it was a short walk from the hotel and after ac quick chat to the security guard on the gate I headed over to the visitor centre after stopping to admire the rocket on display outside.

I spoke to the staff at the visitor centre and while there was no English tour available that day (book ahead people!) I jumped onto the Japanese tour after looking around the excellent free display area.

The tour only cost ¥500 but we would be guided around through the astronaut Isolation training area and then finally we would be shown the control room for the Kibo section of the international space station, it was a real thrill to see all of this and the small boy in me who loved all things space was very happy. I left JAXA at mid day and headed to a nearby restaurant for dinner to complete a very good day.

It was a short 20 or so mile ride to Inzai and I took my time with a strong headwind pushing against me all the way. I had a lovely evening with my new friends enjoying good food and conversation, both Kosuke and Reiko are from near Osaka so we ate Osaka style Okonomiyaki which I had never tried before. It was a real treat to spend the night like this and I hope I can return the favour one day if they come to the UK.

I had booked a cheap capsule hotel for the following night so Kosuke and I had been looking at maps trying to figure out the best route to take to get to the city. There was a straight path along route 16 but we decided eventually to head to a local lake and then follow the cycle path along the river that would take us to the sea and Chiba city.

Kosuke is a pretty experienced rider and lead the way on his lovely Colnago road bike, the pace was a little faster than I am used to but it was fun to push myself a little even if I did struggle to keep up once the road hit an incline. With neither of us speaking much of the others language conversation was basic but very enjoyable, each of us getting our point across with a mix of words and gestures making the miles sail by all too quickly, it was good to have company on a ride and I would miss it in the next few days.

We arrived at Chiba by mid day and sadly it was time to part ways, with me heading into the city to my little tube for the night.

I woke the next day pleased with only banging my head once on the stupidly low hung TV in my capsule, I know that the reputation is that westerners are taller than Japanese people but I refuse to believe that TV hadn’t claimed hundreds of scalps in its life.

The roads out of Chiba city were nice and quiet for a Saturday morning so I had a good ride for the first five or so miles before traffic became very busy and I headed pack onto the paths, slowing my pace in the process. I was heading south to a campsite around 15 miles north of the ferry terminal where I would cross Tokyo bay, the plan was to head there and stay a few nights before meeting up with Koichi and making the most of my final full week in Japan, the trip was nearly over.

The road home has a few bumps

After one night in Sendai I woke to rain, this was expected but according the the forecast it would move on by around 10 am. I held out as long as I could in my hotel before heading to the local covered shopping arcade to wait for the rain to pass. By about 1pm it had eased off enough so I got on the bike and headed north out of the city towards the campsite I would be staying the night at.

The rain had other plans, within a mile or so it started to pour down making it hard going. sure enough while passing a parked car I rode over a metal gird I hadn’t seen and the bike slid away from me. I tried to keep it upright but failed and hit the floor with a thump, more embarrassed than anything I hopped up and picked up the bike, moving it out of peoples way to inspect the damage.

I had come down pretty hard on the right side of the bike and it had managed to break the right bar end and moved the brake and gear levers out of position. The wrist I had hurt in Kyoto was starting to grumble and looking at my legs I had managed to tear through the right leg of my trousers. I gave up on the idea of camping that night and headed to the nearest and cheapest hotel I could find to fix myself up and figure out my next move.

When I arrived at the hotel I must have looked a bit of a mess as they made quite a fuss and let me into my room well before the check in time. I dumped my bags in the room and checked my legs, there was a short deep cut on my right knee just below the knee cap that looked a real mess but after a quick clean it was manageable with some gauze. My wrist was getting pretty sore so I soaked in bath a while before dosing up on painkillers and getting an early nights sleep.

I woke early the next day aching all over, but with the sun shining it was time to be heading on.  Without the bar end on the right side and with my wrist being a bit of a mess it was a very uncomfortable few miles at the start, within a few miles there was a bicycle shop so I popped in and picked up a new pair of bar ends to give me a place to rest my hand.

The route out of Sendai was relatively simple, following the main roads south towards Fukushima prefecture, the bike felt better with the new bar end and after straightening out the various levers but something wasn’t quite right. After about 20 miles I found out why, I hit a bump in my path and heard a loud ‘clink’ from below me before feeling an odd sensation through the right pedal. I stopped to have a look and saw that the pedal was loose in the crank, I started to try and tighten it but the thread was stripped.

I rode another two miles with the pedal loosely in place until a reached a conbini. As soon as I stopped the pedal fell to the floor and I looked to see that the right crank was completely destroyed. When I had crashed the previous day the pedal had rammed into crank at an angle and trashed the threads, as I had ridden the pedal was slowly turning inside the crank arm deforming the internal diameter and ruining the pedal at the same time. I was stuck.

 

cof

cof

Earlier in the day I had booked a hotel in a town called Soma and I was 15 miles away when the pedal gave up. I had two choices, did I forget the money paid for the hotel and head back towards Sendai in the hope that there would be a bike shop? or should I press on towards the hotel in Soma, knowing that the further south I got I was heading into areas heavily effected by the 2011 tsunami and the subsequent issues with the Daichi nuclear power plant.

Fearing I would never leave Sendai due to some unforeseen curse I plumped to head to Soma, 15 miles sounded better than 22 with one pedal missing and Soma had a train station should I be unable to fix the bike.

So, pushing up hills and rolling down, pedalling in a fashion with only my left pedal I managed 8 miles before finding a hardware store on my route. I popped in for some inspiration and after debating a few options grabbed a coach bolt and a couple of nuts to fashion a makeshift pedal.

This made life easier and meant I could ride in an almost normal way, despite the sole of my shoe slowly rotating to the end of the threaded bolt every ten or so rotations. I arrived at Soma exhausted, hungry and worried if I could continue my trip.

After a quick meal and a few phone calls home and to my good friend Koichi a plan was formed. The next day I headed to the train station and bought a ticket to Iwaki, a city 50 or so miles down the road with a good bike shop that Koichi had been in touch with. It sounded simple but the matter of getting there would be far from that.

I arrived at the station with only around 15 minutes to spare for the next train, as Bicycles aren’t allowed on most trains in Japan I had to strip the bike and pack it all away into a large plastic bag I had brought with me. I had bought some cable ties and duct tape the night before so it was relatively simple work if not time consuming, once I was done the train was leaving the station so I decided to catch the next one I could.

My new friend in the ticket office was less positive about my journey, the bike passed inspection now but because of the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plant and various train lines not being rebuilt it would now mean I would have to take three different trains and a bus to get to Iwaki, with a four and a half hour wait in Namie, just inside the exclusion zone.

Not having much choice I set off armed with pockets full of time tables and a cheery wave from the ticket office, hauling my bike and luggage up and over the stairs to the first platform, stares from locals wondering if I was nuts, I was starting to wonder myself.

The first two train journeys passed quickly, short local hops with few passengers save the occasional elderly couple and one other foreigner. I arrived in Namie pretty quickly and got myself comfortable for the long wait.

Namie has had most of the restrictions from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake lifted, with people free to return to their homes, but in reality it seems to be almost empty. In my four and a half hours I saw few people, mostly police, or builders, trucks moving through the town towards areas requiring decontamination, the only other occupant of the station was an elderly man who wandered in for a short nap before heading back out into the town. Though 2011 is quite a few years ago it seems very close here.

After reading a few books and sampling the delights of the station vending machine, the bus arrived, I quickly loaded my bags and hopped on board. Sitting ahead of me was the other foreigner from a previous train, he was interested in the disaster and had previously visited Chernobyl and Hiroshima, he had come prepared with his own personal dosimeter and had been exploring the area taking readings of radiation levels and photographing the decontamination work. It was fascinating to talk to him with his knowledge of this particular subject and I was surprised to hear that the levels he had found were lower here than in Tokyo! While we talked the bus took us along route 6, within 3 miles of the Daichi plant and acting as the border for the no go zone surrounding it. The area was eerily quiet with the plants over growing the buildings, car dealerships abandoned with vehicles rusting on the front lot. The bus pulled to a stop just past the Nuclear plant as a scruffy fox wandered across the road in front of us, making his point that this wasn’t a place for people any more.

The bus rolled into the brand new station at Tomioka and after saying goodbye to my new friend I hauled my various bags and the bike into the train, jamming them into the luggage area and rendering it useless for any other passengers. Normally I would try to avoid inconveniencing others but by this point I was exhausted and wanted to be away from the exclusion zone, I’m certain I was safe but I had a slightly unsettled feeling and needed to move on.

I had booked two nights in Iwaki, unsure of how long the repairs would take, so I quickly abandoned my bags with the very confused man on the front desk and hastily pushed my quickly assembled bike to the local shop, eager to drop it off before closing time.  The store closed at 7 pm so arriving at 6:10 pm I was expecting to be told when I could come and collect it, I was stunned when they simply started stripping the front crank apart and proceeded to fit a whole new front chainset, shorten the chain, index the gears and fit new pedals, all in the matter of half an hour and at a very reasonable price!

I was back at the hotel by Seven with the bike repaired, ready for a good nights sleep and a relaxed wander around Iwaki the following day before resuming the trip.

To be continued

 

Socks full of gravel and sleeping with strangers

Its that time again, I have managed to get myself sat in front of the laptop in a hopefully awake enough state for all of this to make sense when anyone else reads it.

When I last wrote I was in Otaru, Hokkaido recovering from a 21 hour long ferry trip and after a days rest writing and doing laundry I was ready to make a move again. I packed up and headed the 23 or so miles it was into Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido.

Hokkaido itself has a relatively young history having only come under direct control of Japan in the late 1700’s / early 1800’s and the island had a very different feeling to it, to me at least, Japanese for certain but at the same time with something else I couldn’t put my finger on during my brief visit.

There are certainly various influences on the Island itself, with the docks in Otaru having adverts in both Russian and Japanese, and the layout of the towns and cities on a ‘block’ style giving a very western feel.

The ride to Sapporo was relatively simple, a short run alongside one of the main roads into the city. Once into the city I was pleased to see lots of small parks dotted among the larger buildings huddled around the train station that seems to live at the heart of all Japanese cities.

I arrived at my hotel for the next day or so and headed out to wander the city for something to eat. I eventually ended up at a local burger place as sometimes happens when I’m tired, I love the food in Japan but exhaustion makes me lazy and it can be an effort to figure out what you are eating sometimes. Lucky for me the burger was amazing so I went to sleep dreaming of the Honey mustard sauce I had eaten.

The next day I had planned to wander around the nearby Botanical gardens however rain had moved in so I spent my time walking through the city, visiting the various sights and enjoying a relaxed day as a tourist before an early night to rest to the next days ride.

The weather was coming in strong and I had decided to press on south to Tomakomai to get a ferry back to the mainland that evening at 7pm, I hadn’t clicked with Hokkaido and the weather had made my mind up for me to leave.

The rain had reduced to a slight drizzle when I left the hotel but the wind was picking up and blowing straight at me, I crawled out of Sapporo up a long slow gradient. The long winters in Hokkaido must play havoc with the roads and footpaths as they were badly rutted and breaking apart, with the spray from my back wheel showering the back of my legs with rain and grit from the ground.

I was loathed to stop in the conditions, knowing that I would only feel the cold once my heart rate dropped and my body temperature lowered after exercising, however after around 35 miles I was getting close to the ferry so I decided to double check the times and have a quick energy gel in a conveniently placed bus shelter. To my horror I discovered that the cash I had taken out the previous day was no longer in my wallet, I rushed through checking my bags trying not to soak the contents but with no luck, I had lost a substantial amount of cash and didn’t have enough to pay for the evenings ferry.

A quick, and rather stressed call home resulted in me being bailed out yet again, and I was soon back on my way, cold, wet and filthy with grime from the road cursing myself for my stupidity.

My misery was compounded when I arrived at the ferry terminal to find it sold out for that nights crossing, after a quick internal debate I gave up and booked a hotel for the night, the days first sensible decision. Once at the hotel I set about washing my luggage, shoes and self, the grit had not only coated my legs (yes I was wearing shorts, less clothes to wash afterwards) but had run down into my socks, coating my ankles and rubbing the skin away in a few areas.

I had a quick shower, then headed to the Onsen in the hotel for a long needed soak while my washing sloshed about in the adjacent laundry room. Heaven is a long soak in a bath followed with fresh clean and warm clothes.

Not needed a hair dryer for a while but they come in handy sometimes.

I woke up in a much better mood the following morning, the sun was shining all though the wind remained, so I loaded up the bike after rinsing off the worst of the previous days muck and headed down to the ferry terminal. I was only a couple of miles away so I soon arrived to find that the desk didn’t open until 15:30, undeterred I called up the ferry company and via a translator booked my ticket for the evening. It being the final Friday of golden week the only remaining cabins were the cheapest option so I went with that, hoping that I wouldn’t have to row for too long and wondering if the drum would keep me up at night.

With quite a few hours to kill I decided to show the bike some TLC, the previous day had taken its toll on the poor thing and it was squeaking, rattling and the front brake was pretty much non existent. I parked up outside a 7-11 (cant go wrong with a free sink and loo) and set about swapping the pads over on the front brake, thankfully it was a pretty simple job and I was done in about ten minutes.

Deciding that the job needed doing properly I rode to the nearest bike shop and grabbed some cleaning wipes and a small can of the local WD-40 equivalent. There was a park nearby so I pulled the luggage off the bike and set about scraping off the grime, grit had gotten everywhere, filling up allen bolt heads and even rubbing away my name decal on one side of the bike where my shorts had been touching. The wipes I bought were pretty decent and got the majority of the rubbish off so I coated everything in the multipurpose oil and gave it a good wipe down with a clean cloth.

I was admiring my handy work when a local popped over to see what was happening, he was a friendly sort and despite us not really understanding each other we had a good chat, after he headed off I loaded the bike back up and was getting ready to move when he came back with a massive bag of crisps and a bottle of Coffee! We chatted a little more and after I drank some of the very sweet coffee he seemed happy enough and we parted ways for the final time.

I still had a couple of hours left to kill so I grabbed some dinner before heading to the ferry terminal with my crisps and sundry other snacks I had grabbed at the 7-11. The terminal was busy but I didn’t have to wait long to sort my tickets so settled down with a book to while away the last hour or so.

Once it was time I headed down to the ferry and was allowed to cycle aboard under my own steam. I headed up to my cabin and found that my bed was what appeared to be three chair mats, a block of foam and a small duvet, surrounded by 15 other people.

Thankfully I was by a wall so I got as comfortable as I could and tried to get some sleep, headphones in to keep the noise out. It was fairly simple until around 2 am when an older gent slightly worse for wear (the boat wasn’t moving that much), got his footing wrong and landed on top of two rather surprised and understandably angry people. Luckily it was on the opposite side of the room to me but the commotion woke me up and I struggled to get any more rest, working out potential trajectories our unstable friend may find next.

I was spared from being squashed by any fellow inmates and by about 9 am the following morning we were coming close to Sendai port, I packed up and headed out to the back of the boat and was soon rolling off the ferry onto the wet dockside after what must have been a pretty heavy shower.

It was a short ride to Sendai and I had booked a cheap hotel to get a good nights rest so I dropped my bags off and set out for a wander, my body still rolling from the boat. Sendai is a lovely city with streets lined with trees and it was sunny but cold when I was exploring. It was children’s day so families were out walking or heading to some event all giving the place a lovely relaxed atmosphere, I grabbed a couple of Donuts and sat down in a park to relax for a few hours before heading back to the hotel for the evening.

I headed north the next morning, I had seen a YouTube video about a place called Onagawa and how it was rebuilding after the 2011 Tsunami so I decided to ride the 40 miles there to see the town for myself. The ride from Sendai followed a few busy roads at first but was soon rolling through fields and small towns, it was difficult not to think about what happened to the area but other than some empty lots and road building work you wouldn’t have had any idea.

I arrived at Onagawa and after having a quick look around the shops in the new high street including a full size cardboard Lamborghini (no I’m not kidding), I headed to my accommodation for the night. My hotel was made up of around 20 or 30 static caravans that had been used as emergency housing following the Tsunami, they had been refitted and used here to create a place for visitors to stay, one of the great little ideas that are all adding up in Onagawa.

The new train station built in the town is a spectacular design and also rather handily contains an onsen so I ended my day with a relaxing soak.

Rain played its part again the following day as I went back south and rather than reliving the misery of my ride from Sapporo I had a short 12 mile ride to a nearby hostel, handily placed next to a great little bike shop where for ¥500 (£3.40) the bearings on my pedals were cleaned and re packed with grease, ridding me of the awful grinding noise that had accompanied me the past few days.

My hostel was very cheap so I was pleasantly surprised to find that first of all I was the only occupant of the dormitories, and secondly there was a fantastic restaurant attached. I waited out the evenings storm eating Swiss Raclette melted over fresh bread and bacon feeling very happy with the world.

I was regretting the cheese the next morning as the sheer quantity of it weighed me down and made me feel decidedly bloated and sluggish for the majority of the morning to come. Helping fight the dairy induced lethargy was a fantastic tailwind and I was cruising along at a great rate. Passing a local JSDF airbase I saw several planes taking off and for the next three miles was treated to what felt like my own private display as the planes banked and twisted in the sky in formation, smoke trails following behind them.

The next surprise came about half way in my journey, ahead on the opposite side of the road I saw another cyclist with panniers so I rode over to say hello. To my surprise it was the very same Italian rider I had met going the opposite way on the Shimanami Kaido, nearly a month and around 700 miles away! We both had a good laugh at the chances of that happening and caught up with each others progress, after swapping information on routes and camping spots we parted ways again.

And that brings me back to Sendai, I have around three weeks left of my trip and will be heading south through the Fukashima and Ibaraki prefectures before riding through Chiba and back to Yokahama and Tokyo for my flight home. As always I will try to keep you updated as I go.