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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?> 2 <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> 3 <channel> 4 <title>Cycling on Chris Bracken</title> 5 <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/cycling/</link> 6 <description>Recent content in Cycling on Chris Bracken</description> 7 <generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator> 8 <language>en</language> 9 <lastBuildDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://chris.bracken.jp/tags/cycling/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> 10 <item> 11 <title>Ride to Okutama-ko and back</title> 12 <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/10/ride-to-okutamako/</link> 13 <pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> 14 15 <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2008/10/ride-to-okutamako/</guid> 16 <description><p><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1qLR0za_apX5qMJi32cqDoNYESRI&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=35.67441532772013%2C139.44887900000003&amp;spn=0.214689%2C0.47083&amp;t=p&amp;source=embed&amp;z=9">View map</a></p> 17 <p>I haven&rsquo;t ridden a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_ride">century</a> since I moved to Japan but with a bit of 18 spare time on my hands before baby number two is due, I decided I was going to 19 get back into decent enough shape that I could pull one off. I&rsquo;ve been using 20 mornings and weekends to get back into riding longer distances, and slowly 21 building up toward the goal of 160 km by riding further and further up the Tama 22 river every weekend.</p> 23 <p>Five minutes looking at Google maps yesterday morning at 6 am convinced me that 24 Lake Okutama was exactly the necessary 80 km away, so without a minute to lose 25 I got dressed, headed out the door and rode north up the Tama river. Here&rsquo;s 26 the <a href="https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/18311395">activity report</a>.</p> 27 <p>The ride along the river is gorgeous, one of the few places in Tokyo you can 28 ride uninterrupted through a green belt that runs from the ocean at Haneda 29 airport all the way into the mountains in the northwest corner of Tokyo. The 30 bike path ends at the south Hamura dam, but by then it&rsquo;s pretty <a href="http://www.ehimeajet.com/inaka.php" title="Inaka: rural Japan">inaka</a>, 31 so you can continue by road from there without much worry about traffic. At 32 the north Hamura dam, I crossed over to the west side of the river, to pick up 33 Route 411 through the towns of Oume, Sawai, and Mitake before leaving the city 34 completely and starting the climb up into the mountains.</p> 35 <p>The trip on from Mitake is a long, slow ascent along a narrow, winding road 36 through small towns and villages while criss-crossing the river. Particularly 37 this time of year with the leaves changing colour, the trip is visually 38 spectactular, with the mountainsides lit up bright orange and red. Okutama is 39 the last major town before the final hill-climb up to the lake. At its 40 westernmost edge is the world-famous Tokyo <a href="http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/feature/feature05.html" title="Conbini: Let's enjoy convenience store life!">Conbini</a> Shuten—the final 41 convenience store of Tokyo. Complete with latitude and longitude figures on its 42 sign out front, it is a site of pilgrimage for cyclists headed up to the lake 43 and the border of Tokyo and Yamanashi prefectures. Too bad it&rsquo;s a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Yamazaki">Daily 44 Yamazaki</a> and not a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilyMart">Famima</a>, but either way it&rsquo;s got 45 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat">Pocari Sweat</a>!</p> 46 <p>From the town of Okutama to the lake is a 13 km hill climb up through tunnel 47 after tunnel to the dam at the edge of the lake. My the one route change I&rsquo;ll 48 make the next time I do this is to go <em>around</em> the tunnels instead of <em>through</em> 49 them. I can&rsquo;t possibly imagine why someone felt the need to put (very 50 expensive) tunnels in on this road given that almost every single one can be 51 bypassed on the road. I can only assume that this has something to do with the 52 government trying to buy the powerful rural vote with thousands of unnecessary, 53 environment-destroying <a href="http://www.iwanami.co.jp/jpworld/text/publicworks01.html" title="The LDP and pork-barrel politics">construction projects</a> per year.</p> 54 <p>The good news is that once you hit the top, the views are spectacular, the 55 roads are flat, and you&rsquo;re back in <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68908288@N00/141327403/" title="Jidohanbaiki: Let's vending machine!">jidohanbaiki</a>-land where 56 Pocari Sweat and Aquarius are available in abundance! I&rsquo;d accidentally left my 57 cycle computer off for a 3km stretch out of Okutama, so I cycled 3 km down the 58 road to make up for it and be able to claim a <em>recorded</em> 160 km. I ran into a 59 German cyclist named Ludwig who&rsquo;d also ridden in from Tokyo; he had a 60 drool-worthy Canyan carbon-fibre bike, and interestingly, it turns out he&rsquo;s 61 part of the <a href="http://positivo-espresso.blogspot.com/">Positivo Espresso</a> cycling group whose blog I&rsquo;d 62 been reading for a couple months.</p> 63 <p>Ludvig continued on up towards Yamanashi-ken with the plan of packing up his 64 bike and taking the train back when he got as far as he wanted to go. Good 65 plan, and something I&rsquo;ll give a try next time. I turned my bike around for the 66 long trip back home. The best part of that trip was the 30 minute descent back 67 down out of the hills at car speed, before hitting Mitake, and heading back out 68 to the flat cycle path along the Tamagawa.</p> 69 <p>All in all, a pretty awesome day of cycling and a trip I&rsquo;d definitely do again. 70 While the trip included a nice hill-climb, it wasn&rsquo;t severe, and didn&rsquo;t last 71 more than 15 km. I&rsquo;ve included the GPS map—there are a couple errors where I&rsquo;d 72 accidentally switched it off for 3 km near Okutama, and for about 5 km near 73 Hamura on the way back.</p> 74 </description> 75 </item> 76 77 <item> 78 <title>Biking Japan 2003</title> 79 <link>https://chris.bracken.jp/2003/08/biking-japan-2003/</link> 80 <pubDate>Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate> 81 82 <guid>https://chris.bracken.jp/2003/08/biking-japan-2003/</guid> 83 <description><figure><img src="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-cycling-in-japan.jpg" 84 alt="Brodie bike parked beside vending machines in front of restaurant"> 85 </figure> 86 87 <p>The plan was to travel from Osaka north to the Japan Sea, northeast along the 88 coast to Joetsu, south through the alps to Nagano, then southeast all the way 89 to Tokyo — a total distance of close to 1200 km, entirely by bicycle.</p> 90 <p>Unfortunately for me, disaster struck just over half-way, in the form of 91 150km/h winds and torrential downpours. Typhoon Number 10 ploughed straight 92 through Japan, following a track from the island of Shikoku through Nagano 93 before it died out, dumping up to 650mm of rain a day, and flooding out every 94 town and village in its path.</p> 95 <p>I arrived in Osaka the night of July 28th and promptly hauled my bike, 96 panniers, and tools through customs and immigration, across the airport, and 97 into a hotel. I’m not entirely sure how happy they were to have a 98 grotty-looking guy assembling his bike in his hotel room overnight, but no one 99 said anything, and I snuck out around 6am anyway.</p> 100 <p>It’s unbelievable just how slowly you start and stop when your bike is loaded 101 with 40kg of gear. Sort of the cycling equivalent of driving an 18-wheeler. The 102 weather was a scorching 36C, with the humidity hovering around 85%. Over the 103 first 70km from Osaka Itami Airport to downtown Kyoto, I consumed 8 litres of 104 Dakara, Boku, Miu, and the oh-so-deliciously named Poccari Sweat, crashed 105 twice, and got lost every 5 minutes. Took a break in Kyoto, stopping by to take 106 a look at Sanjuusan Gendo, take some pictures, and chat with Taxi drivers, the 107 police, and anyone else who wanted to know just what the hell I was doing.</p> 108 <p>Eventually, after a few more Poccari Sweats and some ramen for lunch, I jumped 109 on my bike and started the trek to Otsu. Half an hour later, winding my way 110 slowly uphill, along a narrow shoulder on a bridge 30m above a cemetary, I had 111 the first major close call of the ride. Fortunately, through a combination of 112 luck and skill, I deftly avoided flying over the railing and plummeting 30m to 113 my death. Unfortunately, I did so by launching myself headlong into a traffic 114 barrier, failing to release my toe-clips, breaking the seat right off the post, 115 and trashing both my leg and pannier on the pavement in the process. Pretty 116 sure my leg was broken, I lay there for a few minutes contemplating the 117 resounding success of my bike trip thusfar while the last of the Poccari Sweat 118 drained out of my water bottles into my shoes.</p> 119 <figure><img src="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-fireworks-in-fukui.jpg" 120 alt="Fireworks in Fukui"> 121 </figure> 122 123 <p>Suffice to say that the rest of the day went uphill from there (both literally 124 and figuratively) and I arrived in Otsu, on the edge of lake Biwa, in one 125 piece. Annie met me at the JR train station, we ditched the bike in a parking 126 lot, and rode the train back to Kyoto, where we met up with the entire 127 complement of Shiga JET Programme teachers at The Hub, an Irish Pub in 128 Karamachi. After a few beers, some fish &amp; chips and edamame, Annie and Brent 129 hauled me back to their apartment in Imazu, where they (and I am forever 130 indebted to them for this) put me up for three days.</p> 131 <p>Although I didn’t get to go to SummerSonic in Osaka, I did get to pick up my 132 bike in Otsu, ride 95km back north to Imazu, and spend the evening at Imazu’s 133 Natsu-matsuri¹ with friends of Annie’s and Brent’s (Josh, Yo, and Hatsumi). 134 Natsu-matsuris involve many elements, but some of the most important factors 135 are: fireworks that put ours to shame, music and dancing, traditional Yukata², 136 and vast quantites of food and alcohol. After the festival, we dragged 137 ourselves to Bumblebee Twist, a local bar, and had a few more before eventually 138 hauling ourselves off to bed to recover.</p> 139 <p>The next day, we were all invited to a barbeque. The one thing that any 140 foreigner will immediately notice about a Japanese barbeque is that you can’t 141 just light the barbeque using zip-lights or lighter fluid. No&hellip; the correct 142 way to light a barbeque in Japan is for one person to heat the coals with a 143 torch while the rest stand around fanning the flames with uchiwas³ until the 144 barbeque, in a moment of glory, bursts into flames and the cooking begins. We 145 had music, more food, beer and Chu-hai (a sort of cider), snacks, and more 146 fireworks. It was totally great, even though I was beat over and over at some 147 kind of pirate game by a three-year-old.</p> 148 <p>The next morning, I said bye to Annie and Brent, then hurled myself off 149 northwards up the highway towards the north coast. For 30km, the road winds up 150 through the mountains over a narrow pass toward Tsuruga. In the scariest 151 downhill of the entire ride, I plummeted down the winding road, drafting behind 152 semi-trucks at 70km/h, flying in and out of tunnels and around hairpin turns 153 for the 8km down into Tsuruga.</p> 154 <p>Tsuruga sits on the ocean at the edge of the Sea of Japan, at the beginning of 155 the long road leading northeast to Fukui and Kanazawa. Unfortunately, it also 156 sits at the beginning of a 95km-long leg of straight uphill running along the 157 edge of a cliff with no shoulder. Fortunately, it’s some of the most beautiful 158 riding you could possibly hope for. Even more fortunately, midway through the 159 ride, as I sat at the side of the road huddling in a tiny corner of shade at 160 the edge of a cliff, two motorcyclists from Osaka pulled up and offered me 161 something to drink, a look at their road maps, and some encouragement in 162 Kansai-dialect. This was reinforced over and over throughout my ride by 163 children hanging out of car windows waving and shouting &ldquo;ganbare!&rdquo; at the top 164 of their lungs.</p> 165 <figure><img src="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-lining-up-for-okonomiyaki.jpg" 166 alt="Lining up for okonomiyaki"> 167 </figure> 168 169 <p>Eventually, I wound my way up through the mountains to Fukui, where I almost 170 had to spend the night camped on a park-bench by the river. Just when I’d 171 almost given up hope of finding a hostel, someone walked up to me and in 172 perfect English, asked if I needed a place to stay for the night. Turns out her 173 family ran a hotel downtown, and she and her sister had spent several years 174 living in Australia. Their mom invited me in for tea and snacks after dinner 175 and we all stayed up late with their little boy, Ryu, yakking about travelling 176 and good Japanese food.</p> 177 <p>The next day it was off to Kanazawa, which it turns out has a lot in common 178 with Kyoto. While it’s much smaller, there were many beautiful old sections of 179 town. There are temples and shrines everywhere, Kanazawa Castle and Kenrokuen — 180 probably the most famous Japanese garden in the world. There’s also a crazy guy 181 dressed in a cape and John Lennon glasses who runs around dragging people to 182 convenience stores. Too embarassed not to buy an ice cream treat from the 183 shopkeeper, I grabbed some ice-cream mochi balls, borrowed the phone and set up 184 reservations for Nagano.</p> 185 <p>Because of the typhoon, I ended up doing the rest of the trip by train. I found 186 a bike shop and spent the day yammering away in pseudo-Japanese to the little 187 old grandma and grandpa who owned the shop. Turns out that he had done almost 188 the exact same bike trip about 40 years ago! He had also cycled across 189 Australia and much of the rest of Japan. Pretty amazing! If I hadn’t found 190 them, my bike would probably be lying in a crumpled heap in a landfill right 191 now. It took hours, be we did manage to pack everything into an unbelievably 192 small bag that I could haul onto the train with me.</p> 193 <p>From Kanazawa, I caught the train to Nagano, taking local lines and limited 194 express trains the whole way. Nagano was the site of the 1998 Winter Olympic 195 Games, but has since reverted to its pre-Olympic small-town feel. It was a 196 beautiful place to visit, hidden away in the Japanese alps, surrounded by 197 Japanese hot springs and ski hills. I can’t wait to visit in winter. Nagano’s 198 biggest feature is probably Zenkouji, a Buddhist Temple which houses the first 199 Buddhist images to come to Japan from the Asian mainland. Underneath the temple 200 is a pitch-black maze of tunnels that you can wander into, pushed along by wave 201 after wave of school-children on field trips, people on pilgrimmages, and 202 curious tourists. It’s almost impossible to tell just how fast you’re moving, 203 or how far you’ve gone&hellip; just disembodied voices in the dark. Eventually you 204 arrive at the “key to salvation”, which you can’t see, but you can feel. A few 205 shakes and rattles, then you’re swept away down the tunnels again.</p> 206 <p>From Nagano, I caught the Asama Shinkansen into Tokyo. At 280km/h the trip 207 takes just about two hours. The train tore through the edge of the hurricane at 208 breakneck speed and we were in Tokyo on schedule to the minute. You can’t help 209 but love the Japanese train system.</p> 210 <figure><img src="https://chris.bracken.jp/post/2003-08-17-akasaka.jpg" 211 alt="Akasaka at night"> 212 </figure> 213 214 <p>Met up with Yasuko in Tokyo, and we spent the week bumming around town and 215 catching all the sights: Akasaka, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba, the Tsukiji fish 216 market. Took a side trip to the art gallery a few hours away in Hakone 217 Prefecture where a mix of European and Japanese art is on display. There were 218 some absolutely amazing pieces of Japanese pottery in their collection. Back in 219 Tokyo, we had the chance to see a Kabuki play. I wasn’t entirely sure what to 220 expect, but it was great. The most striking thing is perhaps the movement. It 221 was absolutely incredible. I wish I were able to describe it, but the best I 222 can do is recommend that if you’re even in Tokyo, you go see a Kabuki play!</p> 223 <p>I returned home on August 17th. Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in Tokyo, 224 jumped on the plane at 6pm and had another breakfast and lunch. Arrived back in 225 Canada 8 hours before I left, and had lunch and dinner again, for a total of 226 seven meals on the 17th. Not bad! It was a pretty wild and crazy trip, but it 227 was one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. I can’t wait to go back.</p> 228 <p>Thanks to everyone who put me up along the way! In particular, Annie &amp; Brent, 229 and Yasuko! You guys are the best!</p> 230 <h3 id="glossary">Glossary</h3> 231 <ol> 232 <li><em>Natsu-Matsuri:</em> every village’s traditional summer festival, usually in 233 early- to mid-August, near Obon, the Day of the Dead.</li> 234 <li><em>Yukata:</em> traditional light cotton kimonos that come in a variety of colours 235 and patterns.</li> 236 <li><em>Uchiwa:</em> Large, flat traditional Japanese fan.</li> 237 </ol> 238 </description> 239 </item> 240 241 </channel> 242 </rss>