Japan

TOKYO

Unfortunately I didn't get any sleep on the 12 hour flight from London Heathrow to Tokyo. There was great on-flight entertainment and food though.

We stayed with Nick Gentle, a Te Puke neighbourhood kid we grew up with, and his wife Nanako. Nick was a great host. Very helpful with giving advice on what to see and specific instructions on how to get there. Tokyo is overwhelming with many CBDs and no obvious "tourist destination".

We visited Shibuya, where a lot of young people hang out. It has the famous pedestrian crossing, which is always very busy. Loud blaring electronic screens, people everywhere. Quite an experience whilst jetlagged and no sleep for over 24hours.

Nick and Nanako took us to a cute, tiny local restaurant for dinner - fantastic seafood.

We spent the following day visiting the imperial palace gardens. Enjoyed icecream from vending maching and watching people having sleeps in the park..

We caught up with Hiromi, an exchange student in 7th form for lunch in an upmarket area. Had a delicious set lunch with prawns. The rest of the day was spent in "electronic town" - electronics everwhere, neon lights, girls dresssed in maids outfits (perhaps a cartoon character?) trying to entice you into their shops...

Bright and early on our last day in Tokyo we went to the fish market. A friendly local gave us a quick tour, by gesturing us, to the very large tuna. Crazy place: frozen fish being sawed, auctions, live eel being sliced, mini forklifts hooning in all directions...

We had ummed and ahhed about whether to take a bullet train to the city of Kyoto or ferry to the island of Shikoku from Tokyo. The same price for similar distances. The bullet train takes 2hours 15min, the ferry 18 hours. The problem being taking the bicycles on the train. Nick called around and got a flat NO for taking full sized bikes on the bullet trains, so booked us on the ferry. but was warned it could be cancelled due to Typhoon. Ah, typhoon of course. a factor we hadn't taken into consideration.

Ferry was cancelled. So we showed up at the train station with bikes. As Nick suggested, we were better off being ignorant foreigners than having a translater. Sure enough we managed to get our bikes on, after being told no, supervisors called, having to bag them and lug them what felt like a very long distance. 500km in just over 2hours!

KYOTO
We had no accommodation booked, so called a hostel once we arrived. "Tour Club" was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. Fully booked that night, but if we were desparate we could sleep in Japanese style lounge. Other places booked. we slept in lounge the first night. Tour Club is a fantastic hostel. Many thoughtful touches like serving Sake in the evenings, free tea and coffee, being able to try on a kimono, lots of recommended must sees and a farewell gift of chopsticks. And a very good price.

I loved Kyoto. It is full of traditional Japan (and tourists!). There are 1600 temples in Kyoto - fortunately the hostel suggested a top 12. Byrdie said she would be happy only to go to one. A few temples later and it was her suggested which temple we go to next... One had over 1000 statues in it. It was only after the first 500 did we realise they had 25 pairs of arms.

That day it drizzled a bit and we had a look in the souvenir shops, selling beautiful items. One shop specialised in fans; some were quite expensive. I was getting quite enthused about them and thought I might buy myself one. Byrdie managed to dampen my enthusaism, by suggesting I could get just as nice a one at the 100 yen shop (NZ equivalent 2 dollar shop). Later in the day we did visit the 100 yen shop and she bought a very budget looking fan which was made in China. I haven't seen a fan shop since.

We went to the Gion district that evening and saw a couple of Geishas. I had the urge to cross the road when one was just to have a good look...

Our second full day in Kyoto we did a fantastic bike trip to some of the sights further away. Fun cycling through tiny Kyoto streets. Didn't take long to feel like we were out of the city: Rice paddys, scarecrows, beautiful gorge, bamboo grove (oh and more temples). I mulled over going to the monkey park, but Byrdie assured me the bush on Shikoku would have hundreds.

Twice a month flea markets are held on one of the temple grounds, so we went to it the next day. Unfortunately it started to absolutely pelt down. Stall owners were packing up early. So we left too. We arrived back at the hostel soaked. We have noticed that almost all Japanese carry umbrellas even when cycling...

That day we took a train south to Onomichi, where we took a short ferry ride to the beginning of our cycling trip...

SHIMANAMI KAIDO CYCLE ROUTE goes from Onomichi across a series of islands connected by bridges to Shikoku. By the time we arrived (by ferry) to the first island it was getting dark. We were looking at an information board/map when a gentleman asked us where we were going, and where we were staying. "I don't know", "camping. somewhere". "Camping!" he replied "you can stay at my second house. it is empty" and took us 50 m down the road, where we had a lovely shower and slept on futons. The next morning he brought us breakfast: store bought sandwiches. Very successful first night freedom camping. Japanese people are so lovely!

Our first day cycling in Japan was fabulous. Each bridge had a small toll (50 yen) and the final bridge was 6.2km long (200 yen). All bridges had cycle lanes on the outside with fantastic views.... That night we stayed at a closed campground on the beach further down the coast.

HOT, HUMID and HILLY makes difficult cycling. Try navigating on a 1:300 000 map in Japanese Kanji and you have a challenge. As we heading inland towards the mountains we were on fairly busy roads. One road up a gorge was fairly narrow with lots of trucks... I thought is this what cycling in Shikoku is going to be like? but the next turn and the roads were really quiet. We had got used to little convenience stores and vending machines everywhere; s it got more remote we started to wonder where we were going to get food and water.... Fortunately all the mountain roads have a really gentle gradient. so we slowly twisted and turned our way up to the first pass, dripping in sweat and guzzling down water.

Our general plan, after reading enthusiastic internet blogs, was to freedom camp near onsens (public baths). That evening we found, after not being able to find one and a guy in a small white truck lead the way, an onsen at a hotel. The onsen was lovely. Followed by dinner at the hotel restaurant (so good and so cheap), followed by freedom camping 50m from hotel (hotel gave permission, honest)... this is the way to travel in comfort on a budget.

The next day more HARD slog in the mugginess to the "Shikoku Karst" which has been described in a few places as a 25km plateau. Ha. 25km of ridge perhaps but only plateaued for about 30m otherwise was all hills. I did get to see snakes, a beaver like thing and a monkey on the road (all alive and well, the monkey lept into the tree the minute it saw me). We arrived at the "plateau", which was beautiful but just getting foggy - ah well tomorrow we can really appreciate the view. Inspired by our previous nights experience, we asked at the restaurant about onsen and dinner. no onsen and restaurant closed for dinner. oh. Luckily some guys lived right opposite and offered us a shower/bath at their house. We tried to have polite chit chat over a beer at their house. but our Japanese is non existant and their english was very limited. We set up camp about 30m away at apparently what is a "camping station". We were awoken from our slumber at the late hour of 9pm by "hello? it is Tomo". Two of the boys had come over to visit, bearing gifts of beer (the Japanese beer is fabulous by the way) and rice crackers. One of them for some reason took a liking to me and wanted photos with me and gave me "special Japanese bracelet". He was trying to communicate through the limited phrase section in our guide book. "Tomorrow, do you speak english?" blink, blink. "Tomorrow, do you speak english?". He repeated this many times. Our answers varied from " i don't understand" to "yes, and the next day" to "tomorrow, do you speak Japanese?". we were at a loss. A while later and we realise he wanted to come and "chat" the next morning before we left.

We awoke the next morning with total white out. So much for amazing views. but downhill whippee.... followed by more uphill. At the 50km point Byrdie suggested we have a short day as our previous days had being long. 40km later we final set up camp. by a river and washed in cold water :( we had asked around about onsen, got sent back a over a HILL we had just come over a few km and still couldn't find it after asking someone else (who told us there wasn't one).... this onsen freedom camping was turning out to be harder than it sounded.

Next day headed to the beautiful Iya valley. Lots more slog uphill. Stopped at a hotel for another onsen. This one we had to take a cable car up to it (and then when we got there, wished we had paid more attention to where the females vs males vs mixed onsens were, but got in the female one in the end). The onsen had amazing views over the valley. what a way to relax after a days cycling. We actually stayed at a real campsite (and even paid for it) in the most beautiful location. right in dramatic gorge. nearby was a famous vinebridge. one of only 3 originals left (but rebuilt every three years and reinforced with steel). It apparently cost 500 yen (about 5 NZ dollars) to go on. Byrdie said she "didn't feel the urge to go on it". but when we came to the end of it and it was not barred and more importantly seemed to be FREE she did feel the urge to. about a third of the way across, with scarily large gaps between vines over gorge, a loud speaker boomed in Japanese. We looked up and saw the ticket office at the other end of the bridge and a man signaling no, turn around. whoops obviously went on the exit. Byrdie was stoked we got to go on it for free though.

Unfortunately near by there was a HIDEOUS parking building especially for the vinebridge tourists. It had huge concrete piles extending up from the lovely gorge below. a real pity. The Japanese seem to love their concrete. There a concrete-made-to-look-like-wood barriers, tables and chairs everywhere.

The next day we continued in the Iya valley along a tourist bus route. All down hill and stunning. narrow, twisting roads. We stopped at a natural hot spring at another hotel and this time had to take a cable car down right into the valley for it, followed by lunch at the restaurant (after quickly using the free internet). This is the way to cycle tour in Japan! More stunning down hill and then we arrived at yet another hotel "highway oasis", just off the main expressway. This had everything and we briefly considered where we could stay inside. Another onsen. this time with multi coloured baths and all different temperatures. We camped in a camp station just around the corner.

Today we had a final days cycling. was flat and quite built up (just like any flat area in Japan!) and arrived in Tokushima, where we are back indoors at a guest house. Tommorrow we take a ferry to Wakayama then train to the airport. fingers crossed there aren't any Typhoons coming.

FOOD
Japanese food is good. Not surprisingly most meals have seafood and rice. It is interesting that self-catering is expensive compared to NZ. Fruit is huge and hugely expensive. (If NZ kiwifruit growers could develop huge, perfectly shaped fruit they would be onto something in Japan). Byrdie got excited about: white bread. She is in Japan and it is white bread that excites her (sometimes with "english bread" written on it). Eating out is really cheap compared to NZ. Our cheapest large meal at a restaurant was 800 yen (about NZ 9 dollars) for a whole 'set' and as much green tea/iced tea as you want. So we have been eating out more than the rest of the trip. Tonight we may shout ourselves to all you can eat and drink buffet. not as cheap but we can try everything we haven't so far.

TOILETS either are a squat variety or western style bowl but with many features including seat warmer and all sorts of nozzles... talk about extremes.

COMMUNICATION
not many people in Shikoku speak english. I keep meaning to sit down and learn a few more Japanese words. but time has crept up and it's a bit late now. What I love about Japan is a simple bow (or more of a head nod for us unpractised) means so much: greetings, thank you... you don't even have to take your hands off the handle bars to signal hello! We have got by fine. Especially since a lot of food places have plastic realistic versions of their food, that you can just point to.

Sayanara Japan, you have been a wonderful finale to our big adventure!