Japan cycling photos

We fitted! Just.

Look at those legs...

Hakodate sunset

Asparagus icecream. It was ... yummy!

Look at those legs (and feet). Looking off the north of Japan towards Russia.

My bike. Salmon in the river (zoom in)

Unintentional selfie

Volcano near Nakashibetsu

Lake Mashu

Lake Mashu. Photobombed.

The other lake! Lake Kussharo

Surprise! A 'drinking iced ... TEA' shot.

Sapporo. My bike is here somewhere. 

I got addicted to Pocari Sweat while I was there

Cycling in Japan 2016 - a day in Tokyo and then the long trip home

9 Sep - in Tokyo

Today was a full day sucking the marrow of Tokyo.  Well, given it is a heaving metropolis with 35 million people (I googled that), I seriously doubted any marrow sucking would even make a dent.  And I was right.  But it was a good taste of what Tokyo has available for any tourist.

First up, breakfast.  And I was starting to crave Weetbix more and more.  Hahah.  But Tokyo is no slouch in the fine breakfast department and everything tastes good.  So, after sustaining ourselves we caught a train to Shibuya.

Shibuya is famous for its frantic pace and massive amount of traffic and pedestrians.  But we stood on the corner of one of the intersections for about 15 minutes trying to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go and really, it wasn't that busy.

We did find the famous crossing, and crossed it.  And found the Starbucks Dai suggested that had a good view over the crossing.

The famous crossing at Shibuya.  Pretty much devoid of any traffic except us.  

My iced coffee while watching Shibuya

After sustaining myself once more, we headed off towards the chic shopping area of Tokyo.  Because we thought we'd fit right in.  Hahahah.  In our bike shorts and all.

We went past a pie shop selling - wait for it - strawberry and cheese pie.  Which I thought was some sort of abomination (or a typo) but I just read a book last night where the main character ordered an apple pie with cheese on top grilled a bit.  What the ...?  Weirdos.

Nothing was open.  Seems shops open around 10 or 11 am.  Way too early for us intrepid kiwis.  So we jumped back on the train and went to Akihabara to check out the anime for Toby.

Finally found some Mario characters I recognised

I think I broke Col.  And damaged Iona.  And I may have taken some impact too.  The anime was overwhelming.  After dragging Iona and Col into a shop that had 7 floors of anime, we all resembled glazed zombies.

It was time for a break.  We found a great wee restaurant and we gobbled down some ramen noodles.

They have an information shop entirely devoted to exploring anime 

The senses were assaulted by anime

Overwhelmed tourists in the multi floor anime shop we chose at random.

We also discovered the palace.  I think.  Spent some time recovering in a garden with really nice seats and fountains.  And then wandered around the moat of the palace.  If it was the palace.

Tom foolery by the cooling fountain

Old and new juxtaposition - at least that was the effect I was aiming for

Some random display had a photo of Dunedin's railway station.  Wow!  Not sure what - it was all in Japanese.

Best lemon tart ever.  I know who would have liked that.

Something cute.  Iona wonders if it is for a bank, or a contraceptive ad campaign.  Ummmmmm - should I be worried?

We headed back to the hotel to recover and then went out to find dinner.  More sushi.  Except we spent ages trying to find the same sushi place we had the night before.  But once found, mmmmmmm.  Yum!




 10 Sep - Leaving Tokyo.

Goodness - up super early and sneaking out at the crack of dawn discarding our house slippers in favour of our travelling shoes.  Off home already.  None of us wanted to leave.  We could have added a few more weeks easily.

We caught the local train at 6.45am.  Groan.  And then changed to an express train to the airport.  Which took 1.5 hours to travel through Tokyo at breakneck speed.  Tokyo is huge.

Express train to Narita airport

Caught the  plane and had an easy flight to Hong Kong.  Sad to leave japan.  One of the easiest holidays I have ever had.  Nothing went wrong.  The people were amazing.  Wonderful holiday.  Can't recommend the bike tour highly enough.  Cycling Japan.  Go find a trip that suits you and book it in!

We had 6 hours in Hong Kong airport and switched money to HK dollars and bought food all day.  Drank any iced coffee I could find.  Iona even bought a GoPro.  Wow.  The next holiday will be a social media frenzy with that!

The long flight back to Auckland was fine.  Slept mostly.  Watched a movie or two.  And generally looked forward to getting to my own bed at this point.  Touched down and navigated customs quickly and walked around to domestic.  Iona and Col were changed to a later flight due to the late arrival of our plane.  So I got to eat lunch with them.

11 Sep - Home at 5pm.  Amazed and astonished at how great the house was and how well groomed and well fed and looked after Mike and Toby were.

And that describes our Japan cycling adventure.  Things haven't really been exaggerated.  I may have missed things though.  All up - a fantastic holiday and I can't wait to go back.

Thanks for the trip, Mike and Toby.  And thanks to Iona and Col for organising it and allowing me to tag along on your coattails.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Shooting down to Tokyo on the bullet train

8 Sep - See what Iona did there with the subject of the email? Ha ha. Right.

Thursday morning was calm with a foreboding cloud lurking over us as Iona and I stepped off for a morning stroll/jog. All through the holiday, Col and I have struggled to keep up with Iona's walking speed. I hit upon me jogging along while Iona walked, and it worked surprisingly well.

We walked (or jogged) to a wee island about 2.5 km away, checking out things along the way. The island was connected with a bridge. If we hadn't seen someone coming out when we got there we would have assumed it was locked. The gate was certainly meaty. But it opened with a little door, and we circumnavigated the island. I ran around and Iona walked her speedy walk.

We thought we might cop a decent bit of rain, but the low dark cloud skirted us. We returned with some food and coffee for Col. We found pancakes in a cellophane packet that we thought she might like. Huge hit! Turns out the packet held four pancakes glued together with butter and maple syrup. Mmmm.

We caught the local train to the shinkansen station and the anticipation built nicely as we waited for our bullet train to arrive. It whooshed in - we found our seats and stored our luggage. Iona and I rushed out to the front to get quick photos and annoy the good natured steward preventing crazy tourists from getting too close.

We got this close

The trip to Tokyo was super fast. Four hours and we were entering the outskirts of Tokyo, our eyes glued to the window.

Iona navigated the maze of train networks like a pro and we found the line to our hotel.  The underground was a seething mass of people and my pack got a bit familiar with a couple of women's skirts in a slightly embarrassing fashion. My navigation skills got us quickly through the steamy streets of Ikebukara to the traditional Japanese Ryokan we'd booked on Iona's cousin's recommendation.

Our room was only just big enough for the three mattresses on the floor. 6 tatami mats. We had learned that is how the Japanese measure the size of a room. 6 tatami mats is relatively small for three beds. Not to mention the exploding  luggage phenomenon that can turn any number of tatami mats into chaos! The aircon was fantastic and we rapidly turned the room into a fridge. Then, fortified by the cold, we set out into the humidity for a recce of the neighborhood.

Ikebukara by night

We found an excellent sushi train restaurant and then back via a supermarket to sleep. Ready for a whole day in Tokyo tomorrow.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Goodbye to the cycle gang. Hello Hakodate

7 Sep - We woke up early on Wednesday morning and met everyone for breakfast. It was fittingly impressive for a last meal together, although I pretty much stuck to toast. Last chance to eat unidentified bits of sea creatures ! Iona and Col had presents from New Zealand for our guides and Iona also sang them a song in Maori, taking them for their hospitality. She did very well and I could tell they were suitably impressed with the sentiment and delivery.

From there we said goodbye to Ernie. He said he was a typical lone wolf during his travels, but that he'd enjoyed our company immensely. Jolly good. Dai and Tats took us to the airport via a shopping stop to try Triplesso iced coffees for the last time. Then we were at the airport and waiting for our flight to Sapporo.

The flight was uneventful and we negotiated the train station on our arrival and boarded our Hakodate train like we were born to the system.

Ha ha.

Anyway, we did get to Hakodate, a 4 hour train ride, without any hassle. On the way down the coast we saw an impressive old volcano with a hole blasted off of one side. We found our hotel within 100m of the front door of the station. When we checked in, we found that Dai's instructions that we wanted a triple bed room turned into us wanting a triple bed. No wonder Iona was confused when she checked in and the reception person made sure she understood the bed was 2.2m wide. She just nodded, completely unaware.

When we stepped into the room, we all snorted in laughter. Fortunately we could separate my bed and undo the domed together duvet and tuck in sheets. Otherwise I'd pity the poor person that got the middle position. You'd die from heat and claustrophobia.

After a quick chat to my mother, who miraculously saw me online moments after I got onto Wi-Fi, we were off to explore the streets of Hakodate. We went up to the old warehouse district then wandered the streets to the cable car. Iona and Col helped a chap in a wheelchair up steep streets.

The Hakodate cable car was heaving with tourists. It was dark by the time we got to the top. And it was so busy that it sucked the will to live from all three of us. But I hit upon an idea to venture into the car park and we found some space to enjoy the view relatively unimpeded. The squid boats lit up the bay but the stars were not so obliging as the day's light clung on over the silhouetted hills of the harbour. Still, I turned on my sky map and found mars and Saturn easily enough and scrutinised the sky where ursa major and minor were. Convinced myself I could see Cassiopeia.

Lights of Hakodate

Back down after a long queue and off to Lucky Peroit for a hamburger on Dai's suggestion. I didn't mind my odd bacon and egg burger. It was a lot more palatable than the thought of eating the squid and crabs swimming in tanks outside other restaurants. Or even the poor large octopus slumped into the end of a tiny glass prison.

Burger on its way, nothing in it that was very recently alive

Back to the hotel and a good sleep. To Tokyo by bullet train tomorrow!

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Last day! Shiretoko to Abashiri

6 Sep - At the sumptuous banquet that was meant to be breakfast we noticed Tats was limping. And he was sporting some huge plasters on his elbows. Turns out they had to drive up to the visitors centre to check in with Ken (boss) and while they were there, Dai convinced Tats to ride in the car park on a long board skateboard. Oops. Tats drove for the rest of the day.

Our guide Tats, before the Longboard Incident

And it was Tats's birthday too. Broken on his birthday. We gave him a t shirt from the visitors centre as a present.

We left at the usual time of 8.30 a.m. Bit overcast. The hill back up to the Shiretoko visitors centre was relatively easy. We stopped near the top to watch some deer. But just below the visitors centre on the main road back to the coast, we passed a huge stag and doe. The stag had some magnificent antlers. I gave them both a wide berth and tucked into my downhill position.

Great downhill. All the way down into a wee town for a stop at the 7 11 and an atm stop.

The day was easy riding, which was good as it was touted as 102 km of riding. But it was all pretty flat. After the wee town we headed up the only hill of the day for a view. But when I got to the top, all I saw was the beckoning downhill and my bike brain took over and I hurled myself down the hill with reckless abandon.

Battled a bit of rain and wind before morning tea. Dipped my feet in the sea, because I could! Headed to the lunch stop in a coastal town. Delicious ramen lunch. Yum!

The others all changed into jackets for the afternoon. They're obviously all soft. Ha ha. I stayed in my t shirt. I figured I might get just as wet cycling in a hot jacket as any rain that might fall.

The riding was flat and along rural roads. We saw another dead fox, obviously not the quick brown one. We stopped opposite the wild flower park, but nothing was blooming. I did eat asparagus ice-cream though. It was good. This was not the unanimous opinion of the party.

Asparagus icecream and... KITE! BIRD OF PREY!

The last forty kms were through the outskirts of Abashiri. My shoulder was sore again, but bearable. I just had to relax it when I could. We stopped at a sandy beach to view the shiretoko peninsula in its cloud glory.

We were staying further out of Abashiri this time. Rode past our previous hotel and kept going for another few kms. The promised steep climb up to the hotel food was a distinct anti climax.

We were finished. Wow. Hard to believe. Wet, filthy, and ready for the onsen and pillow menu.

Wet grotty feet - still gorgeous though

The usual banquet followed and we were all a bit sad that the cycling and luxurious living had come to an end. Ernie, aka the lone wolf, even expressed appreciation for our company. He is obviously a little deranged.

We looked at photos from Tats's camera and ordered some for us both. He's been a sports photographer in a previous life.

After giving Tats my USB stick, we got a DVD player and watched Leon together. Col and Iona had never seen it.

It was the latest night we'd had. 11 pm by the time I went to my room. And I stupidly read for a while before sleeping.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Gorillas in the mist

5 Sep - We rode from our hotel and immediately hit the uphill section. The uphill section lasted for quite a while. Kilometers of 'quite a while'. There were some avalanche tunnels earlier on, lower down the hill. Iona, Col and I got into a rhythm and we tackled the hill together.

Avalanche tunnels

It soon turned into misty sauna weather. Very warm. Unfortunately for Iona and Col, I was in fine singing form. Equally unfortunately, I can barely remember any lyrics. So at one stop, I grabbed my portable Bluetooth speaker and popped it in Col's bike bag. Then on my phone I played the music I had been subjecting them both to with my raucous, breathless music.

Like a sauna

As we ventured further up the hill, it got mistier. At one stage I was a bit ahead and singing away to a song at the top of my lungs when I heard men laughing at me. In the mist on the opposite side of the road squatted three men. They were obviously commenting on my fabulous singing voice. In a few metres I passed their car, with a damaged fender. No idea what had happened or why their car wasn't drivable.

Anyway, not long after that we got to the top. Dai had some food set up. We got jackets on and used the toilet. There were signs about bears in there. Not about bears,actually in the,toilets but the signs were there....a ripped off stall door  propped against a wall, battered fixtures: clear bear signs. No views from the top due to the mist. Headed off pretty quickly on the downhill on the other side. A few kms down the hill we rode into brilliant, hot sunshine. Crazy place.

The downhill took us to the Shiretoko visitors centre. We walked to a waterfall and spectacular sea view before having lunch. I ate a venison burger. Not bad.

Another optional extra saw us riding past our accommodation for five kms to the Shiretoko five lakes. Well, the first one anyway. The others need guides. It was a scorching ride uphill to that car park. A raised boardwalk took us to the first lake. 800m of boardwalk. With an electric fence to keep bears off. Although the sign warned about the electric hedge.

There were lilies growing in the lake which formed millennia ago in the dirt  wash off and landslides from the volcanoes. The land was largely untouched by the Ainu and was then farmed, by the Japanese colonists in the early 1800s, with the resulting tracts of weedy land covered in a low growing bamboo that prevents native species growth.

Shiretoko Five Lakes

Rode back to our accommodation. No Wi-Fi there. Not even cell service. The last 200m was steep! But extremely pretty in a mountain stream kind of way.

This was a traditional Japanese room. No bed but all the makings in a cupboard. I threw wee mattresses on the floor and it was so hot I just put sheets on it. I showered and lay there reading before popping into Iona and Col's room for a cup of tea, a photo in the futon cupboard and a visit to the onsen.

Back to get dressed for dinner and headed off to see what was for tea. Turns out it was a banquet. A feast. Courses kept coming. And this place had bottomless drinks. I found a lemon fizzy drink that I liked. Col tried the beer and maybe even a whiskey.

Banquet!

We ate all manner of things. Crabs. Prawns. Barbecued steak and corn. Soup. Sashimi. Egg sacs. I can't even remember them all.

When I got back to my room, the staff had made my bed, with a duvet. I threw it off and grabbed another sheet. Far too hot for a duvet.

But what a great day. A contrast of weather and topography crossing from one coast of the peninsula to the other. Fantastic.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - 112 km to Shiretoko national park

4 Sep - Wow, what a day. Let's see if I can remember the stuff we did.

We were away from our Nakashibetsu hotel by 8.30 a.m. Today's terrain was far easier than the previous cycling days. Just undulating really. We had morning tea on a bridge over the Churui river. Home of salmon fishing. Then a few more kms under our belt saw us hit the coast. The rest of the day was coastal cycling, and very nice it was too.

We had a mission for the day. A selfie with a local. Iona and Col won hands down by morning tea with a selfie with a fire fighter.   Well done. I got a photo with a chap on a Kawasaki ninja motorcycle. He was mystified and his mates laughed at him.

Lunch was fantastic. I had salmon sashimi and a seaweed rice thing equivalent to a hamburger. Inside was salmon and salmon fish eggs. Scrumptious.

Then off on the optional 50 km ride up to the road end in the national park. So lovely. I saw salmon heading upriver by the hundreds. Some even tried leaping up a wee waterfall. I feel like my life has somehow become even more complete. Salmon in the Leith. And salmon in Shiretoko.

The natural onsen at the road end had been damaged in the recent typhoon and there were no longer any barricades between men and women. Wasn't going to happen. Iona and I decided to ride back and we stopped for the photos we missed on the way up. The headwind made for a slightly tougher ride back to the hotel.

I finished a brilliant day with a fit of the giggles while eating my way through ten dollars (U.S.) of junk food. Ok. I didn't quite finish it all. Some is for the next day when we're away from shops and I need something to distract any bears. Throw the Snickers bar at them and run while they chase the chocolate.

The giggles happened because Iona mused out loud about a career change for her, as an interpreter on Japanese cycle tours. She intends to invent things and resort to charades. She thinks this is a sustainable business model. My insides hurt after hearing that and falling about laughing. Fortunately I was on a chair with no legs, so it wasn't far to fall.

Dinner was a feast. I can't name everything. However, after gamely eating my allotment of salmon forehead (and by this I mean the parts of a salmon forehead that is not flesh, but some weird gelatinous substance that is slightly like cartilage) I turned away for a moment and my bowl mysteriously sprouted two more pieces of salmon forehead. And one looked a bit chewed.

Iona has this ability to put this angelic look on her face. Col has learned to read through it. I'm learning too. And I know Iona doesn't enjoy some fishy things. Two and two almost always makes four.

Tomorrow is short, but a gradual long ride up a pass. Should be a great downhill on the other side. No Wi-Fi for at least 2 days though. See you back in Abashiri.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Lake Kussharo to Nakashibetsu

3 Sep - Wow, that was a huge day.  95 kilometres!

We started with a big Pension Papilio breakfast.  Our guides Dai and Tats arrived from their accommodation and we were soon off.

A few km down the road, we stopped at a natural spring with a sulphorous smell designed for pampering your feet. Oddly, it was a lot like something similar in New Zealand but the Japanese had built picnic tables smack dab in the middle of the spring. So you can eat your lunch and wriggle your toes in hot water.

A few more kms up the road was Iozan volcano with its vents surrounded by sulphur and wee bubbling pools of water. Fascinating. I found out afterwards that the gift shop sold fresh eggs so you could cook them in a boiling pool. I totally would have tried that!

After these touristy activities, the climb for the day started. 10 km up, but with switchbacks. So your cadence changed with the gradient and it was hard to establish a rhythm. But after an hour we were at the top and looking into a gorgeous emerald lake.  Stunning. The mists parted and we got a decent glimpse.

From here, it was a lovely downhill. Tats said we had to stay together and I tried. I really tried. But they went so slow and my bike wanted to go so fast. So I let it. And I hooned down. Scaring massive birds of prey (kites, we think) off the lampposts on the road side as I passed.

We popped into a dairy farm and had lunch. I got this lovely pork rice ball thing wrapped in some sort of leaf. It was yummy. I also had a mango meal. Which wasn't quite so pleasant. Lumpy mango in a bag with a straw. As Col put it, if you ignored the consistency, it was ok. Yep.

I did finish lunch off with an ice-cream with coffee jelly. I was almost expecting more disappointment along the lines of lumpy mango, but coffee jelly was actually good.

Off again covering rolling hills. Some I could get a decent head of steam up and hurtle up. Others needed more effort.

I saw a dead fox on the side of the road. And a few km further a live fox ventured out onto the road in front of me. Toby will be pleased to hear I made the sound of a fox at this point. Yap, yap, yap.  Gave the fox a huge fright and he turned and looked at me and fled back the way he'd come. I burst out laughing.

My left shoulder was giving me grief by this stage. When I stopped for afternoon tea Dai changed the configuration of my handlebars. After that, my riding seemed much easier. Or was it the little red pill Iona gave me (Voltaren)? Whatever it was, I felt much better riding the last 30 km.

Yep. 95 km today. It was cloudy all day, so never too warm. More of the same tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a short day. 65 km. But with an optional 50 km side trip. And the side trip looks totally worth it. I'm doing that for sure.  So another long day tomorrow. But no massive climbs.


Our accommodation is big tonight. And my bed is on a mat on the floor. The onsen was busy. And with no showers in the room, that was where we had to get clean from the ride. I was in the hot water a bit too long and felt very faint when I got out. Oops. Better watch that and drink lots before I go.

Dinner was superb. Set menu with yummy things. Fish. Prawns. Miso. Tofu. Bacon. Lettuce. Tomatoes. Too many things to remember. And Dai gave us Japanese lessons afterwards. Woot!

Right. Time to sleep. Up early tomorrow for an early start.

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Abashiri to Lake Kussharo

2 Sep - I woke up super early at 5.30 after a restless night and headed out for a short run before the day's big cycling effort.

I headed back to my room to get ready to check out after breakfast and met Iona and Col.  We had another yummy Dormy Inn breakfast.

Our gear was piled into our van and we headed out of town towards the South. The day was 80 km long, with a ten kilometre climb at the halfway mark.

The first 45 km was through rolling farmland. No traffic again to speak of. We passed a sign cautioning against the smog. We stopped not long after that for morning tea.

From here it was about ten km to the climb. As we approached the hills, the sun broke through the clouds and it turned into a scorcher.

The climb was fairly easy. No need for low gear. But it was relentless in its length. The gradient was pretty consistent. But fortunately the view from the top was visible (it's often cloudy) and we had a great lunch at the roadside restaurant. I had squid on rice. Mmmm. And gyoza.

I'm eating a lot on this holiday!

After lunch, it was close to ten kilometres of superb downhill. No wind. No traffic. Smooth roads. And I only had to pedal when I wanted to go even faster. Which I did. Loved it! My road bike was made for that road.

We stopped at a great Ainu museum at about 73 km and they turned on a video for us. Twenty minutes in a seat that wasn't my bike seat was heavenly and the man taking on the video should sell his voice to recordings for insomniacs. I nearly fell asleep in my chair listening to him speak.

The exhibits were good too. Loads of archaeological artefacts on display. After checking it all out, we wandered to the river where a natural onsen stood. But from a distance I saw a naked man so I didn't get any closer. Dai and Tats went to chat while I took photos much further away.

Then it was back on the bikes and off to the hot water sand beach. I have no need to visit hot water beach in the Coromandel anymore. I've done the same thing in Japan on the shores of lake Kussharo.

We only stayed half an hour, then we rode to our night's accommodation. When we checked in we found out the guides had no room. Oops. They went further to find a room. We'll meet them after breakfast tomorrow.

Iona and Col and I went into the onsen and relaxed in the water. We managed twenty minutes before we were far too hot. Chilled out before dinner.

Dinner was weird. The menu was in Japanese English. One thing was completely unidentifiable. We made Iona try it and she swore bad words at us when she really wanted to spit it out.

We got through dinner and I googled the menu item and discovered it really was a thing - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascidiacea is what we ate.  It wasn't really very nice.

Anyway, we tried desperately to find something to watch on television but gave up. The Xian entombed warriors reenactment almost kept us entertained.

But I was super sleepy and stumbled off to bed. Zzzzzz.

Tomorrow has another climb. A zig zag one. Bring it on!

Cycling in Japan 2016 - our first cycling day

1 Sep - The day dawned with anticipation making me hurtle out of bed, ready to tackle the day. Breakfast was amazing. Tiny toasted bread. Croissants. Eggs. Fish. Pickled eggplant. Goodness knows how I piled it all away. Mmmm.

By 8.30 we were all ready and on our bikes. Turns out Japan has a road rule that makes all cyclists do hook turns when they turn right. We had a quick explanation of that, but my Melbourne background meant I understood it.

Then we were off! And 5 km layer we stopped at a Shinto shrine. We were taught how to purify ourselves before ringing a bell and saying a prayer. We learned stuff about Shinto. Read some prayers people had requested. Then off again.

My bike is superb. I have a road bike with SPD pedals and it goes pretty fast. We rode along the sea coast before heading inland slightly, and uphill slightly.  Saw some kites (bird of prey variety) circling high above. Like buzzards. Maybe I looked like potential roadkill.

Anyway, I got to a right hand turn to the lighthouse at Cape Notoro and pulled off to the left as instructed. Despite there being hardly any road traffic, there was one car behind me as I did this. And they confusingly stopped in the middle of the road and ushered me out of the gutter and into the right hand road. So I did. And they continued on. Weird. This is a new bike law, and I suspect confusion reigns.

But all the drivers were considerate. Respectful, just like they are in customer services too.  We got to the lighthouse and had morning tea. I ate so much fruit. Mmmmm.

Back onto the main road and through a road tunnel on the footpath before riding around the edge of a lake. Had a yummy lunch of chicken and egg on rice. The name in Japanese translates to "parent and child on rice". Chicken and egg. That made me laugh.

Completely stuffed once more with food, we set off for the last 15 km back into town. Most of it was on a bike path. Great riding although the recent storms have left wee branches all over the path and my road bike was less tolerant than the hybrids others rode. Still, it was no bother.

Once back at the hotel, the guides offered to drive us to the Museum of Northern Peoples. So glad they did. It was hot, the clouds had burnt off and it was a steep climb. The museum was fantastic. Y550 to get in with free audio in English. I found it fascinating. Really worth seeing. It covered all northern people. Ainu from Hokkaido. Sami from Lapland. North American natives, including Inuit and the Pacific coast people. And from Sakhalin island. Yep, I loved it. Well set out.

I love a good museum.

Back to the hotel to check out the local fancy supermarket. I bought three different kinds of iced coffees. Back to Iona and Col's room to eat junk food before psyching ourselves up for an onsen visit.

I went back to my room to shower and thought I had 45 minutes to get my head into the right space for getting naked with strangers. But it turns out my watch was thirty minutes slow. Iona and Col knocked on my door way earlier than I thought. In hindsight, not having any time to dwell on what I was about to do was probably for the best.

We stepped into the onsen, prepared by our guides on the correct etiquette. Stripped off, grabbed the tiny modesty towel (It is misnamed - unless you use it to blindfold yourself and pretend if you can't see anything, they can't see you) and stepped into the onsen room. Trying to act nonchalant.

Anyway, we were the only ones in there and we enjoyed the hot pool with the windows looking out over Abashiri from the lofty heights of the ninth floor. Tried the outside pool. It was a bit hot. Tried the cold pool. It was a bit cold. Back to the hot pool and then two Japanese women joined us.

By this stage I was getting really hot. And not inclined to lounge around the outside of the pool cooling down with this mere wisp of a towel. Seriously, it was incapable of hiding anything I wanted to hide. More like a face cloth. Hence the blindfold observation...

But we've done it now. So perhaps other more traditional onsen along our cycle tour might be less challenging now.

Dinner was incredible. After eating like mad all day, I was intending to eat hardly anything. WRONG! It was a set menu and featured a lot of seafood. Mmmmm. Sushi. Prawns. Octopus. Pork. More sushi. Dessert. I'm so full.

That was the first proper cycling day. A wonderful mix of hot sweaty riding in 30C with humidity thrown in for good measure. Sunscreen was a necessity. It made all the road grime adhere to my legs really well. I probably should have drank more water during my ride. Made up for it at lunch and dinner though.

Tomorrow is 80 km with a 10 km climb in the middle. Woot! Bring it on.

Note:  whole cycling trip is around 460km.  

Cycling in Japan 2016 - travelling to Abashiri and meeting the cycle tour

Wed 31 Aug - Today was mostly a travel day. But it started early for me with a run through Sapporo. I left the room at 6.30 a.m. and walked to a park that bisected the streets in an East West axis. I guess in another country it could be called an avenue.

I started running once I got to the park. I looped from one end to the other. At the far end (opposite to the radio tower thing that looks like a kitsch minute Eiffel tower) I came across a rose garden. It had a sign in English. So I read that it was a garden to commemorate the Munich Olympic games. That same year Sapporo hosted the winter Olympics. I suppose the two cities dealt closely with organising the two events. And when the atrocities were committed during the games in Munich, it must have affected Sapporo a lot.

The other side of the rose garden was dedicated to Portland, Oregon. It was the first sister city in the U.S. to partner with any Japanese city.

Both sides of the roses had a wonderful perfume. Wreaked havoc with my run times. As did the many traffic lights on every city block. I may have Jay walked a lot.

At one stage I ran through a huge tai chi class. I hope it didn't mess with their Fung shui. No one flinched from their arm stretching and back bending.

I got back to the room thankful for the long walk the day before because I ended up running through the city streets looking for our hotel street and crossed streets I recognised from the day before. Yay! I was soaking wet because it was so warm and humid.

Jumped in the shower and then asked Col to sit on my pack and zip it shut while I finished getting my shoes on. It took both Col and Iona to close it. Not sure what's gone wrong with my pack. It's exploded. We stepped out to walk to the train station, only to step into rain. Dug out our jackets and kept heading to the station.

We grabbed some bread products from a bakery and found our platform in plenty of time. Sat there eating my sandwich (a normal one with eggs and ham - far better than sweetened yoghurt as a sandwich filling) and pizza sub.

Got on our train and had fancy seats in the reserved carriage. Iona booked us in style. We watched the scenery fly past. Even the rural train goes super fast. I can't imagine the Shinkasen speed!

Our train stopped at Asahikawa and we switched to our bus replacement. Iona navigated us directly to the bus station and the bus stop. I managed to hook into the Starbucks Wi-Fi across the road while we waited for our bus. Texted Mike from there to update him.

We tried to get on a local bus that also stopped at our stop. Fortunately a fellow passenger on our bus (in the queue with us) spoke great English and stopped our impetuousness. Did I just invent a word? Swype thinks so.

Anyway, our bus came along shortly and we got the front seats. Col took her sea sick medicine and zonked out. I had free WiFi on the bus and updated Mike with plans. And maybe social media. I also rang Mike on the Wi-Fi. Yay for free bus Wi-Fi.

The scenery was incredible. Hilly region with loads of trees and the odd ski field. I saw a few chair lifts going up them too.

The houses in the rural areas take great care of their front gardens. Carefully manicured trees shaped beautifully. Flowers. Rocks. All artfully arranged.

The rivers were flooding and full of churning muddy water. Loads of trees stuck under bridges. The recent weather has hit Japan hard.

The bus stopped off at a few train stations around about. But we got into Kitami at 1.30 p.m. or thereabouts. Wandered over to the train station very early for our 3.08 train and managed to jump on the 1.40 train. Yay!

This train was full of high school children in uniforms. And hot! It was close to thirty degrees with just ceiling fans in the carriage. Once the kids all left, we moved to a table seat and I poked my head out the window the whole way to Abashiri.

I looked windswept and very interesting once I arrived. Ha ha. We walked to our hotel from the station. Maybe 800m. Dormy Inn. It's rather nice. I have my own room.

We dropped our bags and I washed my running gear as it was fermenting in a plastic bag in my pack. Then we headed out to find something to eat. We'd missed lunch in our dash for the earlier train.

Well, this was a fun adventure. It seems a lot of places close between 2 and 5. We walked into a pub but Iona was unsure what we'd find beyond the front door so we trotted back out. Stepped into a coffee house full of older women, eating ice-cream in bowls. Odd feeling to  it.

But the woman behind the counter ushered us in and we took a table. Their menu had no English and no pictures and she had hardly any English herself. But we eventually realised she was saying she had pasta. I thought "pasta" was some Japanese word I hadn't heard yet.

Now, I do realise there are many Japanese words I haven't heard, so that might sound slightly weird. But once she added the word "Italian" in front of "pasta" we eventually figured it out.

Then she described different kinds of pasta. To no avail. No idea what she said. So we settled on the first one she mentioned.

We wondered what we were in for, really. But after some preparation behind the counter, we had a lovely bowl of spaghetti marinara. With ham, for good measure. I loved it! Might have been something to do with me starving. But it was good!

Wandered back via the 7 11 across the road from the hotel and bought an iced coffee drink and some junk food. Sat in Iona and Col's room and chatted to Mike and scoffed food.

Back into my room for a chill out before meeting the cycle tour at 6 p.m. in the lobby.

Dai is our guide, along with Tats. Ernie is an ex pat Brit from Sydney and 70 years old and fit as a fiddle by the looks. Then the three of us.

Col took the time to gloat that it looks like 3 is the minimum number for the tour to proceed. We fitted our bikes and they seem awesome. Then we headed out for dinner. Savory pancakes. I ordered the squid one. Scrumptious but I couldn't finish it.

Back to the hotel and off to bed. We're meeting at 8.30 a.m. for our first day. It's a loop so we're in the same hotel tomorrow night too.

Terribly exciting. I can't wait to start riding. Apparently a cyclist was chased by a bear recently in the later stages of the tour through the national park. No puffins though. That mystified the guide when I asked about that.

Right. Time to sleep and up to start the actual riding. Bring it on!

Cycling in Japan 2016 - Sapporo

A stabbing white light pierced my closed eyelids and I opened my eyes to wonder whether the sun was exploding in its death throes. But no. It was Iona, opening the curtain a sliver to check on the day. The day light coming into the room from her tiny parting of the curtain was invasive. We commented quietly on the effectiveness of the blackout curtains.

It reminded me of the solar eclipse in London when the sun was covered about 98% and yet it was barely noticeable that most of the sun was blocked. Yep, I'm comparing Iona's curtain parting to an eclipse. No, there's no foundation in science for it. Just the brain memory of flooding white light.

Anyway, we cycled through the shower. It's a tiny bathroom. Possibly one of the smallest I've ever been in. With the most electronics. The toilet has buttons I'm too scared to touch. Iona has it sorted. Something she does makes her giggle every time she goes in there.

Iona has embraced the gowns and slippers provided. Col and I are undecided. Mainly because we haven't actually tried them yet. In fact, I'm so uncouth I keep forgetting to take my shoes off at our hotel room door.

We leave the room in search of breakfast and finalising our transport logistics. Some of our trains are broken due to Typhoon Lionrock that caused land slips last week so we have to make some other plans.

Hunger is a force to be reckoned with. We found an excellent wee restaurant and we ate a bowl of noodles (me), fish with rice (Col) and rice and egg and pickled wet socks (Iona). Iona even ate the pickled wet socks and declared it all delicious. I tasted the wet socks, and thought it was more like pickled unidentifiable green vegetable, finely chopped, with nothing resembling wet socks. Mind you, I tried them from Col's plate.

From there we visited the tourist information place. Again. We think they must be darting for cover when they see us now. While Iona stood in the queue, Col and I harassed another poor woman. This one had "volunteer" on her jersey. She spoke no English. And our Japanese is very sketchy. I've mastered konichiwa for hello. Arigato for thank you. Oy shi Kat ta for "it's delicious" and that is it so far. This woman was so patient and tried to understand our crazy requests. I found a brochure for a museum in Hakodate about the indigenous Ainu people and was asking if there was something similar in Sapporo. Amazingly, she understood my question and took off to rummage through the shelves of brochures. But she couldn't find whatever it was she was looking for. I then asked about the botanical gardens. She was very excited to inform me there was a little museum there with indigenous artifacts. Yay. We all left each other pleased.

Once Iona had train tickets reserved and we had information on flights from the end of the tour back to Sapporo to try and get our dates back on track, we left for a walk to a sports store (looking for rugby jerseys for Col) and then coming back to the gardens for a quick lunch.

The sports store was great. Iona tried on togs. How she plucked up courage to tackle togs without prepping for days, I'm completely unsure. I fancied some too but I'm still trying to psych myself up. Col never found rugby jerseys. But the togs were a great find.

We headed to the gardens via a massive mall. As we passed a travel agent, we decided to enquire about prices for flights from Abashiri to Sapporo. We got Wi-Fi so I emailed Ken (tour guide for the cycling) to ask if we could get dropped back at the airport. I unfortunately had a Swype fail with the email subject to him. He thinks I think I'm on a tour called "Hokkaido whitetail cycle tour" instead of the "Hokkaido Shiretoko cycle tour". I may be mystifying him.

We ate our bakery purchases outside the travel agent while we waited for Ken's reply. The croissant was great. To this moment I'm unsure what was in my sandwich. I have to say, if I had to guess, I'd call it sweetened yoghurt. Which makes no sense in a sandwich. So I'm not dwelling on that any longer.

We've decided the sandwiches were leftover dinners in between white bread. Col had potato peanut curry, with bacon and egg as well. Weird. Iona's was a normal chicken lettuce sandwich. It was an amusing lunchbox medley. And my sandwich was obviously meant to be dessert.

Ok. No reply from Ken so we decided to buy the tickets. Bought them with cash because their machine wouldn't accept either credit card. Great.

Wandered to the museum from there. Paid our 420 yen to get in. Found a lovely museum with stuffed animals and old Ainu artifacts. Pottery. Sleds. Hardly any English.

And... One of the cabinets had stuffed puffins in it. Japan has puffins! I'm going to ask Ken if we can find puffins.

Found a rose garden. Scared off a bunch of women weeding it with our presence (It may have been coincidental that they left as we arrived). Found the greenhouse. Enjoyed Pocari Sweat from a vending machine (basically Powerade).

From there, guess where we went? Back to the visitor centre. Yes. We hadn't traumatised them enough. Iona remembered we needed a bus reservation for a part of our journey since the trains aren't running.

I think this might be the last they see of us. But we haven't left yet.

Back to the hotel to relax before hunger drove us out. Ramen alley was our destination. We found the best tiny place. Well, actually, the restaurant down the road found us the best ramen place. The first place we went into (with a cartoon yellow duck outside) only had one meal available. We looked confused. He took pity on our inability to name any other did besides ramen and took us outside, down the street and to a ramen place.

He wasn't wrong. It only seated eight people. An obscure Beatles album was playing. The chef cooked right in front of us. Patrons entered and used an electronic machine to order and pay. We missed that part. The waitress took our order. I had roast pork ramen. Col had spicy ramen. And Iona had butter corn ramen. Iona's came with a huge cube of butter floating on top. But the corn was delicious. Mine was scrumptious. Col's was good too.

Wandered back to the hotel and crashed into bed before 7.30 p.m. Bring on a deep sleep like last night!

Cycling in Japan 2016 - First Day Excitement

What a great trip so far. The flight out of Auckland was fine. It left at midnight and I was hoping to sleep, but I was a little keyed up. And hungry. I waited until dinner was served and then slept with the green neck pillow we've had for years.

Turns out I slept quite well because I was surprised to see New Zealand time was 7.30 a.m. when I woke up. I reckon I got 5 hours sleep in a reasonable chunk.

Hong Kong was amazing. I haven't been there since I was twenty one and things have changed considerably. A new airport. A new county in charge. I hadn't considered how much I wanted to see Hong Kong again and found myself wishing we had some time to explore.

This isn't Wellington Airport

My phone knew an event was on for me and said that I was checking into the Nest hotel in Sapporo that day. Given Iona booked it and didn't add me as a name had us pondering the tentacles of Google. Somehow it knew.

But a few hours was all we had. Got onto the four hour flight to Sapporo and settled back. Col and I were starving and ate most of her huge bag of nuts and seeds and fruit. I picked out the fruit and happily ate the bus and seeds leftover.

Landed in Sapporo and was overwhelmed by the heat. 28 C by the time we got there. We sat in the Japan rail office to activate our real passes. Then we found a seat on the train and wedged ourselves in with our luggage and watched the attractive rail scenery pass our window.

After visiting the tourist centre, we split up. Brave or foolish. You decide. Ha ha. Col and I set out with a map to find our hotel as Iona was worried they'd sell our room. Once outside I consulted the map and was stunned with the gorgeous evening and bustle of activity. It was around 5.30 pm by then.

Despite the map not bearing any resemblance to our surroundings, we set off boldly. But after a few blocks I was suspicious. Suspicious enough to look for a hotel we passed to see if it was on my map. No. Hmmm. More suspicion set in.

I casually flicked my glance on the map to the north of the train station (we were supposed to be out the south side) and found the hotel there. Oops. I told Col that we'd headed the wrong way. We cut back through the station, telling Iona on the way that she'd need to go out this way. After a few blocks (where happily the map corroborated my physical environment) we found the hotel.

Booked in and braved the smoking corridor to our room. Threw our gear in then waited for Iona in the lobby.

She found us! Only had to ask directions one or twice. Oosshh.

Rearranged the furniture in the room with the brash boldness of stupid tourists. My cot bed was out up on its end against the wall and we separated the two large single beds. Col and Iona shared one and I got a bed that was a decent size. And we got some space back in the room.

We went out for dinner and found a great place. No English but plenty of pictures on the menu. Ordered some stuff. It was yummy.

Back to the room and we all crashed. I was asleep in seconds. My pillow was a bit like sleeping on a cliff. But I was so tired it didn't matter. And we're wondering if they have rice in the pillow because that's what it feels like.

Off to find breakfast now. A day in Sapporo beckons.