Another night, sleepless in Japan. It’s been the 3rd time now and to say the least, it’s really tiring. At 6am I couldn’t be bothered anymore and I got up to pack my things for Hokkaido and the rest into my suitcase that would stay behind. I had good breakfast and made toast with avocado and egg for the road. Nommi, nommi
The 3 bags, my bike (in a bag) and my backpack all had to be carried to the train station, some 10mim from the house. By the time I got to the station I was already half dead and super sweaty. Thankfully the fast train to Ueno was post rush hour but it still filled up pretty bad once we got closer to Tokyo. I was an actual obstruction.
Some waiting around in Ueno for the Hayabusa and then finally, en route to Hokkaido. The journey was more boring than I imagined, mainly because it was pretty grey, mixed with rain. We made great progress regardless and reached our final stop 1min earlier (was that allowed?).
Again, lugging my stuff off the train, for the final time in the next few weeks. Assembling my bike from ho it was left and fixing my gear and myself took an hour. I also continued raining so I had to put my rain gear on, that really sucked. Pumping up the tyres from scratch with a hand pump also was super annoying. They only ever get to “somewhat full”, never where they need to be (not even close). Eventually I set off on my first cycle ride. Tired, exhausted, annoyed with the rain and my tires...
The first 10km were uphill, in the rain, on half full tires. Only consolation was that I kept music in my ears. That helped. After a good hour and a half, 5 small stops to catch my breath and already having had to use all my gears right to the lowest and max speed of 4km/h, I finally saw what looked like the end of the mountains. It wasn’t quite for another 30min or so, but the end was nigh.
Km20 to Km30 were ok, it went downhill with top speed of 43km/h. That was fun, albeit manoeuvring the beast and me, all in all 120kg isn’t always straight forward. A crevasse in the road or bad roads generally can unsettle the beast really quickly and a fall will ensue. That has to be avoided at all cost, so, eyes on the road!
Alas, the East German cycle god Olaf Ludwig must have had mercy and let the sun shine, just for the last half an hour. I passed an artificial lake and dam and from there it was downhill, 15 more km. It was already 4.30 and I knew I wouldn’t make it to the camp site before dark. That’s annoying because cycling in the dark in Japan can be dangerous. I had to make a stop at what looked like an engine and parts haberdasher. I kindly asked for a bicycle pump and as he didn’t have one, he sent his colleague to get one. That was really nice of him. Finally, I got to pump up my tires. Oh my god. What a feeling.
The last 10km went by quickly and in record time, I found the camp site quickly and some random
Guy already lived there in a wooded shack. We “talked” for a bit and he suggested I should find an onsen (hot sprint) - A GREAT IDEA. I was cold, miserable, soaking wet still from the rain and/ or sweat and I felt like getting sick.
I put up my tent, which took about 15min and then raced to the next supermarket (off license,really) to ask for directions. The onsen was 2.4KM away. I was not going back to the tent. That was certain.
The onsen was ¥400 and was super lush, 2 inside baths, one thermal spa outside, a dry sauna and a cold pool. That was all I needed! This was he best feeling ever getting into that hot tub. My body slowly warmed up it’s frozen core and I no longer felt like getting sick. For a small town it was quite busy, about 5-10 people.
I also (mis)used the wash basin to wash my soaked cycle shirt and dried it using the big fan. Some Japanese guys gave me the looks but I just had to do it. It was my only long sleeve cycle shirt. Whilst drying my clothes, I managed to almost fully charge my phone again, which helped me through this pretty tough first day with some good tunes to combat the weather and having to climb mountains.
After the onsen I thought I’ll do some shopping, get some food as I saw 2 people come out of a sleepy restaurant. Uh, I stopped and looked, they said it’s a sushi place. Great times. I went in and with half English/ half Japanese we managed to get acquainted and I got some sushi, for green tea and the weather forecast for tomorrow. When it was time to pay (Okeike onegaishimasu), they made gestures that I shouldn’t. I kept on insisting, having my wallet in my hand but the gestures became more and the words “dame, dame” (I can’t / mustn’t). So, we took a picture instead.
Now, first night in the tent. Hopefully the lack of sleep from last night will work some magic. Reflecting on the day, overall pretty good, tough to get going but then it all flowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment