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.
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
Three months in japan 