1LAParound Japan on a bicycle

Kumamoto, Saga, and Shimane Prefecture!!

2011-07-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Ok I know its 6 months late.. but here is more info from my trip back in Jan 2011!

Kumamoto Castle! Did a quick day trip to Kumamoto from Fukuoka. It took an hour and 20 minutes from Hakata station. Unfortunately The new Kyushu bullet train was not scheduled to open til march so I could not take ti to kumamoto. Latest bullet train shaves time to like 35 minutes. Anyway Kumamoto castle was a short 20 minute walk from Kumamoto station. You can take a road trolley but the walk was nice.

What is Kumamoto known for? Why Horse Sushi of course! Tried some and it was pretty good!

Also went to Saga prefecture to get some crab at Takezaki. There three ways you can get it there: Broiled, Baked, and Sushi! Personally I though it was pretty good crab but it wasn't worth the price in my opinion. The best part of the meal in my mind was when the Okami-san of the res truant took the left over parts and made miso soup out of it! That was good!

Ok speaking of crab, more crab! :) Scrab is really good in the winter time so we went to Tamazukuri Onsen in Shimane prefecture. This was the place where we stayed and it was pretty good! The place is know fpr having the largest outdoor onsen in Japan. I'm not sure if the largest in Japan really is true or not but it was definitely big! had the place all to myself. Its a little embarrassing because people in the hotel can look down onto the hot spring from the room windows but there wasn't that many people staying at the place so it wasn't really an issue I guess. Ok back to crab! Had Crab the same way as above but this time I liked it a lot better. The meat was much more easier to get to in the "Echinzen " crabs.

Okinawa~~~! If only the weather cooperated some more..

2011-03-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

OK so on to Okinawa!! 1st let me say its a beautiful place! 2nd Its not as warm as Hawaii! It was about Highs in the 60F's while I was there! Water temp was actually warmer than air temp! That being said if it were a bit warmer I think it would have been a nice place to go. Also I couldn't go diving because the waves were a tad rough... 3m waves :) We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel in Manza Beach ( the middle part of Okinawa). Its about a 45 minute drive from the Naha airport.

それでは沖縄へ！まず沖縄は綺麗な所ですね。それから沖縄はハワイほどあたたかっくなです。平均１５℃でした。水温のほうが暖かいのでちょつと海水浴に行くのにはさむすぎ！後ダイビングはいけませんでした。波が荒く３Ｍほどの波が押し寄せていてとてもじゃないけどいけない状態でした。泊まったところは万座ビーチＡＮＡインターコンチネンタルーホテルです。（沖縄の真中　あたり）那覇空港から車で４５分はなれた所にあります。

The hotel was renting out a bicycle but schedule wise it didn't work out. Would have been real nice to ride a bicycle around there. Anyway more shots of the interior of the hotel its really nice. Its only missing one thing in my book... a hotspring! :)

ホテルで自転車レンタルしてましたけど予定にうまく入らなかったから借りませんでした。そこらへんを自転車でうろうろしてたら面白かっただろうな。とにかくホテルの中もかなりよかったです。ただ一つ足りないのが温泉かな？　＾＿＾

Ok on to the food of Okinawa! Here is what I tried!

それでは沖縄の食べ物の感想！　沖縄で食べたのは。。

Okinawa soba - Had some in the airport so it may not be too authentic but compared to normal ramen the soup is a lot less salty. I would say its closer to Hawaiian Saimin. I like tonkotsu trype ramen (Fairly salty flavor so it didn't agree with me as much) The hotsause/ vinigar they use was pretty good though!

沖縄そば　－　空港で食べましたが本場の沖縄そばかどうかは判らないのですがふつうのラーメンに比べるとあさっり系のスープで塩分控えめです。どちらかと言うとハワイのサイミンに似てますね。個人的にはとんこつ系が好きなのであまり味が合わなかったような。からし入り酢はおしかった。

Taco Rice - Tastes just like what you'd expect mexican taco ground beef over rice. Nothing special if your from the California.

タコ　ライス　－味は名前道理でタコとご飯です。Ｃａｌｉｆｏｒｎｉａからの人はあんまり新しい味とはいえないかな。

umi budou - Sea grapes! now this was novel! taste like little sea water filled caplets. goes very good with soy sauce and vinegar!

海ぶどう　－これは面白い食材ですね。海水粒粒ですね。醤油としそ酢とあいます。

goya-chamburu - Goya stir fry! very good almost available every where you go. I like this dish! its very simple and good. If any of you had bitter melon its that with scrambled egg. you can definitely taste the Chinese influence on this dish.

ゴーヤ　チャンブル　－ゴーヤのバター炒めですね。これは美味しい！。簡単で美味しいですね！中華のビターメロンプラス卵閉じ見たいな味ですね。中国の影響がよくわかる一品ですね。

Not sure what the shell fish above was called but it was good whatever it was. We were walking around Makishi Market and we saw this shell fish asked about it and we just ended up buying it and eating it. As soon as you buy it they will cook it up and serve it to you so its very fresh! It was made into a sashimi and then stir fryed with butter. It went really well with this Okinawan Sochu. Its like 30% alcohol but it goes down easier than say Korean Soju which is typically 20%. Good stuff cheap too like $10 for beer bottle sized bottle.

名前のわからない貝類を食べました。牧志市場でうろうろしてて市場のねーさんに進められて買いました。その場で調理してくれて新鮮でした。これは日本では当たり前なのですがアメリカでは珍しいので個人的には好きです。半分は刺身で半分はバター炒めで本当においしかっちたです。上の写真の沖縄焼酎とよく合いました。アルコール度は３０％なのですけどスウーと飲めました。韓国の焼酎はアルコール度が２０％なのですがこれはそれよりも飲みやすいのでよかったです。後すごく安い！ビール瓶ぐらいの大きさで千円でした！

Speaking of Alcohol.. there was one sake I wanted to try but it was really expensive. See picture below for price.. 7.5L for 129675 Yen or $1500 for 7.5L... some how I think I'd have a hard time getting that through customs:)

酒と言えば沖縄はハブ入り酒が有名ですよね。僕も飲んでみたいですけどこれほど高いとは！

７．５Ｌで１２万９千６７５円です！　ちょつとこれをもって税関通るのはむずかしかも　

＾＿＾

Anyway a little more on Okinawa next time!

後もちょつと沖縄の事を話したいけどまた今度！

A lot has changed in the last month or so...

2011-03-27T01:22:00.000-07:00

A lot has changed in my life last few months. Where to begin... Lets see I've postponed my 1 lap around japan trip as of now. An opportunity popped up that I needed to take advantage of. Started my new job in the beginning of this month. hopefully this job will allow me to go to Japan. (Would have gone to Japan but Earthquake and Fukushima nuclear plant problems has put a damper on that)
この数ヶ月で私の人生色々変わりました。さあ何から話そうかな。今のところ日本自転車１周旅はちょつとお預けです。つい最近いい仕事のお話が来たので転職しました。今月から仕事始めました。この新しい仕事で日本に行く機会が増えると思うので楽しみです。（地震と福島原発のせいで四月の出張は取り消されたました）

Anyway I was in Japan Late Jan to mid Feb this year. I would like to share my experience of that trip. The basic trip itinerary went something like this:
と言うことで私は今年の１月下旬から２月中旬まで日本にいました。その旅のお話をしたいとおもいます。旅の順路は：

SFO->Fukuoka（福岡）->Tokyo（東京）
->Fukuoka(福岡)->Okinawa(沖縄）->Saga(佐賀）
->Kumamoto(熊本）->Yamaguchi(山口)->Totori（鳥取）
->Shizuoka（静岡）->Gunma（群馬）->Yokohama（横浜）->SFO

A lot of traveling in 3 weeks! Ok so Fukuoka! My family is originally from Fukuoka so I spent most of my time at my parents place in Ito-shima. It was cold! This shot was taken at night from my parents balcony 30 sec exposure.. If you look to the left side of the picture it looks bright.. thats the light pollution from Fukuoka City. (3rd largest city in Japan)　とにかくかなりあっちこっち行きました。それではまずは福岡！私の家族は元々福岡出身なので福岡の糸島にいました。とにかく寒かったです！これは親の家のバルコニで撮った晴れた夜空です。シャッターは３０秒あけてとりました。写真の左は明るいのは福岡市からの光がもれてるからです。

You can't see it in this pic but there is a little fishing village near by (around the green light in the picture) and they BBQ oysters every day! it smells so good! So we had to have some too!　この写真ではよく見えないのですけど近所に魚業場がありすき焼きのカキを焼いててすごくいい匂いがして！我慢ができず我々も食べました！

This was a little cute. Its a table top charcoal BBQ where we cooked up some oysters.It tasted so good with some good sake. So much good food down in Hakata! Can't be in Fukuopka with out eating Mentaiko!
これが使った卓上炭焼きです。アメリカではこの大きさの卓上炭焼き暖炉（？）は珍しいです。とにかく美味しいです。いい酒と食べるとさらにおいしいです！博多は美味しいもいっぱいあるばい！博多に来て明太子食べずにいられません！

Anyway thats all for today. More trip info to come later.. so much to cover!
まだ色々話したいのですけど　また跡で！

A lot of Earthquake activity in Japan

2011-03-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

My heart goes out to all those suffering in Japan right now. It is gut wrenching to watch the stuff going on over there. As you can see from the USGS Earthquake map not only has there been a magnitude 9.0 earthquake but there has been a bunch of magnitude 5+ aftershocks going on over in North East Japan for the past week.(all the Yellow boxes are 1 week old earth quakes. Blue boxes are earthquake from the day before and red are ones that happened with in a day. Size of the box tells how big it was)

If you can spare a few bucks please donate to what ever charity that can help.

I have donated to here : http://www.jcccnc.org/

Thanks All.

Small Seattle Trip: ちょつとした

2010-08-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

I took a little Mini-vacation last weekend and went to Seattle, WA. I must say its a nice city. Tons and Tons of coffee shops! I can see why this was home base for Starbucks Coffee! Speaking of Seattle.. I didn't know that REI started up in this area. Their main store in Seattle is impressive! As you can see from the top picture They actually have a mini bike trail that goes around their store! Also they have a hiking trail so that you can try out the boots! Pretty impressive!

ちょつとしたシアトルの旅に行ってきました。本当にいい町ですね！もうとにかくコーヒー喫茶店がいっぱい。シアトルがスターバックスの本拠地だと言うのがなっとくしました。ええっとシアトルと言えばＲＥＩの発生の地らしいです。シアトルの本店はすごいですね！上の写真を見ればわかるんですけどＲＥＩの本店の周りに自転車トレールがあるんです！後はハイカーが靴を試すためのコースも　あるんです！さすがすごいです！！

Other places I visited in Seattle... Museum of Flight! The main reason why I wanted to check this place out was the SR-71(or Lockheed A-12) !!! I absolutely Love this plane!! Even though this plane was built in 1960s its still one of the fastest planes even today( actual top speed is classified but its been known to go Mach 3.2+)! I guess I'm really proud of this plane because I work for Lockheed Martin.. But she really is a beautiful plane! A modern Marvel of Engineering & symbol of American Ingenuity! I'd go far as to say it should be classified as a national treasure! IF you ever get a chance I highly recommend these books!Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed and Sled Driver: Flying the World's Fastest Aeroplane Skunkworks details how she was built along with U2, F-117A and Sled Driver is more from the pilots point a view.(check out this awsome Gizmodo Article on Sled driver!)

ほかにシアトルで行った所は。。。ムージアム　オブ　フライト！なによりも目当てがＳＲ－７１（別名ロクヒード　Ａ－１２）とにかくこの機体が好きです！この飛行機は1960年代に作られたのにもかかわらず今でももっとも最速の飛行機のひとつです！（実際の最高速度は国家機密ですけどマッハ３．４以上行くそうです）なぜこれほどすきかと言いますと実は私もロクヒード社で働くからです！本当に綺麗な機体で工学の最高傑作とも言える機体です！この機体はもう国家家宝というべきだと思います。もし機会があれば
を読んでください！　あとＧｉｚｍｏｄｏで本当にＳＲ－７１面白い体験談記事があります！Ｇｉｚｍｏｄｏの記事はこちらで！

にほんブログ村

にほんブログ村

Book Review : Jitensha by Donald R Schlief 読書感想：自転車　BYドナルド　R　シレフ

2010-08-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

When I was setting up this blog I saw the amazon ad for a book called "Jitensha: Down the Japanese Archipelago on a Bicycle" by Donald R Schlief. Wow an ad that is some what relevant to my Blog amazing! So I bought a copy of this book. I read it while i was camping in NY state last month and I finished it recently.

私がこのブログを始めたときに横のリンクに自転車と言う本の広告がありました。実際のブログの内容に合った広告だ！珍しい！そこで私はこの本を買いました。先月NY州にいたときに読み始めて最近読み終わりました。

So here is my review:
そこでその本の感想です：

First and foremost I think that the amazon page should have had the Authors note in the description because it pretty much sums up what this book is. The author states:
まず　アマゾンのページに著者のノートを載せるべきだと思います。著者はこう書き始めます：

"Dear Reader: This book is neither a guidebook or a how-to-bicycle japan book. Most definitely it is not a treatise on culture, customs, geography, history, government or people of Japan. Pure and simple it is a very personal narrative of my bicycle ride down the length of Japan's four main islands. Please accept it as such"

”読者の皆さんこの本はガイドブックまたは日本自転車観光案内の本ではありません。また日本の文化、仕来り、地理、歴史、国または日本県民の本ではありません。簡単に言えば自分の日本横断自転車旅の経験談です。そう認識してください。”

so there you have it. This is exactly what this book was. It felt more like a blog journal than an actual book. I guess I'm biased. When I see this in book form I expect there to be more polish but this was average joe blogger writing. Very report like : I went here, I did this, I met this person, I rode my bike, something broke, I slept, The random history lesson on the area and repeat. All through out the book I wasn't sure who the author wrote this book for. He assumes the reader knows nothing of japan for about 10 pages going into great details about some things like yukatas but then he glosses over other things. There are parts where the authors translation of Japanese is flat out wrong. There is a part where he describes a flag out side of a car dealership and he reads it "kaitorimasu" which means we "will buy back@ high price/trade in" he confuses it to be "we will charge you high prices"..

といってます。著者の言うとおりこの本まさにそのとおりです。個人的にはこの本は本よりブログに近い存在だったようなきがします。本の場合ですとどうしてももちょっと磨きが利いたものを期待してたんですけどほんとにブログがそのまま本にされた感じです。本当にレポートみたいで：ここに行き、あれやって、これやって、この人に合って、自転車壊れて、助けられて、寝て自転車乗って、歴史レッスン入れてそのまんままた繰り返しのようです。また著者が誰のためにこの本を書いたのかはっきりしない。著者は時々読者が日本の事何も知らないと判断してすごく細かく説明すれば（浴衣の説明みたいに）ほかの者はまるきり説明なし。　後時々著者の日本語が間違えてるときとかあります。たとえば本の中で”高額で買い取ります”と書いてある旗を車屋で見かけた作者はなんで”車屋は高額な売ります”とわざわざ旗に書くのだろう　と悩みます。本当はまるきり逆なんですけど。。。

Also its funny the author spends about 70% of the book writing about Hokkaido 20% about Honshu 5% about Shikoku and 5% about Kyushu. Its like he was excited in the beginning of the trip kept meticulous notes and then by the end he hardly did any note taking so he didn't have any material he could remember. If you look at his route Hokkaido should be like 30% Honshuu 50% Shikoku 10% and Kyushu 10%.

後面白いのは作者は本のページ数を北海道に７０％、本州に２０％、四国に５％、九州に５％　かけます。でも地図を見ると北海道に３０％、本州に５０％、四国に１０％、九州に１０％　時間かけて旅してるのになんでこの割合に？まるで旅の最初のほうは豆にノートを執ってたけどたびの最後のほうで何も書かなかったからそれが反映されてるみたい。

Personally I felt he could have done a little more research and painted more of a vibrant picture of the places he visited.What is the area known for, which famous warlord was in the area? What is the local food specialty? What are some things that he wanted to see but didn't get a chance? Also a map of where he was during each chapter would have helped a lot. There is a map in the beginning of the book but it can get quite confusing to figure out where he is just based on the reading in the chapters.

個人的にはもちょっと地方の事を調べて書いて貰ったほうがよかったとおもいました。たとえばこの地域はなにで有名でおいしいグルメは？とかここの大名はだれだったかとか？そう言った情報が入ってたら面白いと思います。あとチャプタごとに地図があればいいなあ。時々文章だけじゃどこら変異いたかわからないときとかありました。

Overall would I recommend this book? No. It offers no real substance to anyone who may be thinking of doing this trip. Like the author states in his notes this is just his experience.. nothing more.. I just wished there were more resources out there on this subject mater.

こういった旅を考えてる人にはほとんど役に立たないのでこの本はおすすめできませんね。作者の言う通りこれはあくまでも個人体験談なので。。もうちょっと日本の自転車旅の情報や本さえ出まわってたたらな。

にほんブログ村

Adirondack Lake Camping in Lake Indian / アドロンダイクス地方のインデアン池でキヤンプ

2010-07-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last week went back to the east coast and went camping in NY state. Lake Indian in the Adirondacks. Place was beautiful and I was able to take some awesome pictures of the night sky.

先週東海岸に戻り高校時代の友達とニュウーヨーク州でキヤンプして来ました。行ってきたのはアドロンダイクス地方のインデアン池。とても綺麗な所でいい夜空の写真が取れました。

The night sky was very dark and milky galaxy was pretty bright! We paddled out to a small island on the lake and took these beautiful pictures. and watched the night sky for a many hours.

夜空は本当に暗く銀河が本当にはっきりと見えました。我々は夜中に池の真ん中にある小さい島に上陸してきれいな写真を撮りました。島はでかい岩なので何時間もゆっくり夜空をながめごろごろしました。

Overall a good trip much needed energy charge.
いい旅でした。エネルギーを充電するのにもてこい旅でした！

にほんブログ村

Little fun with Camera / カメラで夜遊び

2010-06-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

Did some biking this weekend but nothing really to write home about so.. decided to play around with my camera a little last night. Its a Nikon D40 with a 10.5mm Fish eye lens I set the focal length to infinity.. Set it for ISO200 F7 3" shutter speed. Interesting effects can be gained with this relatively long exposure times! I was able to trigger the camera with IR remote in left hand. Kinda neat!

昨日自転車に乗ったんですがたいしたことではないので昨夜はちょつとカメラで遊びました。カメラはニコン D40．レンズは 10.5mm F2.8G ニコンDXフォーマット専用の魚の目レンズです。カメラ設定はＩｓｏ２００　Ｆ７　３秒シャターです。長い間シャターを開けると面白い物が撮れるんですね。シャターは赤外線レモートを左手に入れ押しました。おもしろいですね！

にほんブログ村

60 Miles (100Km ) challenge

2010-06-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

I decided last weekend to test my biking skills and see how long and far I can bike for. My goal was to ride 60 miles or 100Km. I can now say I can do it on my bike but its painful! 今週末ちょつと自転車で長距離乗れるか試してみました。目票は１００Ｋｍでした。今１００ｋｍは出来ると言えます。

Here are the stats.　　

Distance　距離: 63.64 miles (102.42km)
Time　時間: 6:21
Average speed　平均時速: 10 mph (16.1km/Hr)
Max Speed　最大時速: 25.6 mph (41.2km/Hr)
Total Climb　登り: 2659 ft (810m)

I basically did a loop to Stanford then Mountain View then Stevens Creek trail to Palo alto and back to MountainView then home. a long grueling ride but I know now I can do it.コースは家からスタンフオード大学へそれからマウンテンビユウーへそれからＳｔｅｖｅｎＣｒｅｅｋ公園１周して家に帰りました。

1st Stop was Stanford. That took about 2 hrs or so to get to. Pretty surprised there were many people there on a saturday during the summer. まず始めに止まったのはスタンフオード大学。だいたい２時間でつきました。夏休みで土日なのに人が多いのに驚きました。

Steven Creek Park near Mountain View, CA. Rangers are trying to catch pelican with broken wing. They were at it trying to capture it for more than a few hours.マウンテンビユウー市内のＳｔｅｖｅｎ　Ｃｒｅｅｋ公園です。公園レンジャーが羽を折ったペリカンを捕獲しようとしてます。この後何時間も捕獲成功しなかったそうです。

Sun was going down... took a picture of a rollercoaster at Great America theme park.　日没です。近くのテエマパークでジェットコスターの写真を撮りました。

Sun was going down and I was exhausted. pretty much rode from 1 pm to 8:30 pm. longest I thin I've ever rode consecutively. Anyway kinda gave me confidence that I could do long distances and long rides so its good. Not sure if I can do this continuously everyday for a whole month though.. 日はだんだん沈み疲れが出てきました。１時から８時半までずうと乗りぱなしでした。今まで一番長い自転車旅かな？でもこれで出来るという自信が出来ました！毎日はどうかわかりませんが！

にほんブログ村

Almost Downhill season!

2010-06-19T02:06:00.001-07:00

Finally got my new DH (Down Hill ) helmet! North star@ Tahoe is open but they only have the lower mountain open. Although I'm itching to go probably wait til the upper mountain is open. For those that don't know Northstar @ tahoe is a ski resort in winter and Downhill Mountain bike park in summer! its great over 2000 ft of descent with almost 0 uphill pedaling. all for a 4 hr drive from Silicon valley and a $45 lift ticket! Now some may be asking why I need a new helmet? Well I actually cracked open my old one last year at Northstar. unfortunately I don't have any video of it.

やっと新しいDH（ダウンヒル）ヘルメットが届きました！Northstar at Tahoeでシーズン　が始まりました。すごく行きたいんですけどたぶんもちょっと完全にオープンするまで待ちます。知らない方のためにNorthsat @tahoeは冬スキー場で夏はＭＴＢできます。上らずに７００ｍのくだりが出来ます！車で四時間で＄４５で１日リフト券が買えます。

え？なぜ新しいヘルメットが必要かって？じつは去年Ｎｏｒｔｈｓｔａｒ　で石に顔面先岩にゲ激突してヘルメットを　割りました。残念ながら当時の映像はありません。

Some old footage from some runs down Northstar :　過去Ｎｏｒｔｈｓｔａｒで撮った映像。

I've heard that you can do some DＨ in japan. but the only one That I'm aware of is Fujimi. Anyone have any other places you can go DH in Japan?

日本でもＤＨが出来るそうですね！私は富士見は知ってるんですけどほかにもＤＨ出来るところ知ってますか？

にほんブログ村

Long trip today...so Tired!

2010-06-13T00:30:00.000-07:00

So tired today.... Distance wise its not bad but... elevation wise it was brutal! Rode to Monument Peak only 10 miles(15 km) away. But the elevation climb killed me. I walked the hill climb.. and my legs were seizing up... I need to train some more. Also learned preprogrammed routes in maps.google put into my Garmin 605 GPS doesn't work too well. it would try to focus you back to the missed wave-point. instead of trying to figure out what is the closest wave point to objective and recalculating.. oh well just don't thin I will try to use this device for preprogrammed route...

今日は疲れた！　距離的には悪くはないんだけど高度的にはキツイ。Monument Peakは１５Km離れた所にあるんですけど登りに泣かされた。坂はほとんど歩いたんですけどそれでも　足をつりました。。。もっと足を鍛えないと！後は　Garmin 605はMaps.googleとあんまり愛称がよくない事。ミスった場所に強制的に戻すとします。現在地に一番近いらウト　

Here are the stats: 　

Distance traveled（距離）: 18.63 miles (29.98 km)
Time（時間） : 3:40
Average speed（平均速度）: 5.1 mph (8.2 km/hr)
Max speed（最高速度）: 38.6 mph (62.2 km/hr)
Elevation gain （高度）: 2505 ft (768m)

Picture from nearby park. The arrow is where I'm going!
家近くの公園からの写真。矢印が目的地です！

This is only about 1/4 of the way up!　この時点で４分の一あたり

Half way up!　五合目位かな？

3/4 of the way up.　４分の３ぐらいかな

Mostly at top.. didn't go all the way.. didn't want to leave my bike I was in no shape to go the rest of the way up. So I turned around and went down real fast.. 2 hrs to climb up 15 minutes down!

一番上ではないのですけどかなり近いです。自転車を置いて登りたくはなかったからこの時点で引き帰しました。二時間の登りで１５分の下りでした。

にほんブログ村

Building back my bike leg!

2010-06-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterdays bike commute.

Had some knobby 2.5" tires so had a lot of rolling resistance.

Total commute time : 1:12
Total Distance : 12.38 Miles (19.8Km)
Average Speed : 10.22 mph (16km/hr)
Max speed: 18.3 mph (29.28km/hr)

Need to beef up my endurance though... I need to be able to ride this distance with out breaking a sweat.
I need to go out riding more!

------------------------------Japanese -------------------------------

昨日の会社通勤です。

２．５”　ダートタイヤだったのでかなり道路抵抗がありました。

通勤時間：１：１２
距離：１９．８Km
平均速度：１６Km/Hr
最高速度：２９．２８Km/Hr

足腰を鍛えないと！この程度の距離は簡単に乗れないと先がだめ！
もっと自転車に乗らなけらば！！！

にほんブログ村

Interesting Blog site in Japan.

2010-06-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

Found some interesting Blogs about bicycle touring in Japan while surfing around.

Here are few I found interesting

Japanese Sites:

Mr Shonen Oyaji-san's Blog about his bicycle trips: Just finished his trip through Kyushu same route I was thinking so very interesting. Also got some very interesting advice from him too.

While drinking Beer: Interesting pictures and route on Shikoku Island

English sites:

Kan Cycling : extensive info about cycling in Japan with lots of good info.
Mountainbike bill.com : Good info about Fujimi DH near Mt Fuji!

にほんブログ村

To Tour or not to Tour that is the question!

2010-06-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

" To tour or not to tour that is the Question!"

Above is a picture of my trusty steed! Pivotcycles Mach 4! Been going all over with this bike here in the Northern California. Even taken her to Northstar at Tahoe for some DH action during the summers! Handles the bumps well and thanks to the DW link suspension it goes pretty good too. She has been my steed for the past 3 yrs almost.

As great as this bike is she isn't designed for touring. Its like taking a Porsche out for camping. Sure you could probably fit your camping supplies into one and you could drive there but it wouldn't be as good as say a RV camper or an SUV. Its not built for that purpose.

So the question is what other alternatives are out there & what is "Touring" mean anyway?

Touring bike according to wikipedia is:

A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase (for ride comfort and to avoid pedal-to-luggage conflicts), frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity (for ride comfort), heavy duty wheels (for load capacity), and multiple mounting points (for luggage racks, fenders, and bottle cages).

Also I hear a lot of complaints online from the hardcore touring people that there are few good Touring bikes on the US market. A quick look also reinforces that view point.As far as I can tell there are only a handful of options for new touring bikes. Surley Long haul trucker , Fuji Touring to name a few.

Looking through Japanese Bike Magazines like "自転車日和 Vol.16 (タツミムック)" show some cool touring bikes in the Japanese market..Here is a cool bike thats in there from Bridgestone! Its a HELMZ H1 see below:

Very tempting but I guess I'm getting ahead of myself.. should really organize what I'd take with me reduce it down to the bare minimums and reassess my needs and see what I can do about it.

Testing out GPS tracking

2010-06-06T02:58:00.000-07:00

Picked up a Garmin Edge 605 at REI last week. Mounted it on my bike and took it for a test ride this afternoon in Alviso. Not bad. Here is my route in google Earth.: Distance covered 16 miles. 1:41 Hrs Average speed 9.5 MPH. It does a pretty good job but I wish got a way to load the KML file directly online.. but this will do for now.

Low long can you legally stay in Japan?

2010-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

If your an US citizen the official word is: ( cited from State Department)

ENTRY / EXIT REQUIREMENTS: A valid passport and an onward/return ticket are required for tourist/business "visa free" stays of up to 90 days. Passports must be valid for the intended period of stay in Japan. Americans cannot work on a 90-day "visa free" entry. As a general rule, "visa free" entry status may not be changed to another visa status without departing and then re-entering Japan with the appropriate visa, such as a spouse, work or study visa.

This is common knowledge but what if you leave Japan after a 89 day stay then come back at a later date say a week later can you be there another 90 days? Is that valid? I called the Consulate in San Francisco to find out...

The answer I got is:

"They can't officially comment on what is legal that is for the immigration office to decide. You can ask once you get there."

Not a good answer IMHO. So I did some searching online and got some answers. It seems to depend on two things:

There seems to be a unofficial policy of 180days total (many people from Korea seem to be able to come and go quite frequently with no problems where they stay a week a month as a korean tour guide)
It really depends on the impression of you the immigration officer gets (if you look like your just trying to stay permanently in Japan on a visa free they will reject you.. or if you look like your going there for a job)

So what did I get out of this exercise? Try and plan the Lap around Japan to finish in 3 months or plan to split it up into multiple trips. Maybe I will go to japan for a month, bike around Kyushu and then head out to Australia for a few weeks then head back into Japan for rest of the 3 months? I don't think they have a Visa stamp that has variable days.Anyway some thing to think about if your not a citizen of Japan.

Information gathering: MAPPLE

2010-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

The 1st step is to get a detailed map of Japan. Now you probably could use google maps to plan but while your on the road you may not have internet access so next best thing is these books. Touring Mapple series Map is updated every year and its been written for motorcycle touring but if your planning on biking in japan its is a great guide. There are 7 in the series and each book covers an island or a section.

The sections are:

The books go for about 1600 yen. The cheapest way to get them is to order them through your local Japanese book store. If there aren't any near by my next suggestion is to purchase them through Amazon japan. Click on the links above to go amazon directly. But be warned they do charge an arm and a leg to ship to USA. Typically you will pay double the retail price. On the positive side you will get them in 2 days. (next day air is the only option..the sea shipping option is no longer available unfortunately)

There is an Touring Mapple "R". The difference that I can figure out is the physical size of the books themselves. They are the same as the normal version but they are printed to the typical photobook /map books you see in the states. I personally like the smaller size (approx 6"x8") of the normal version better.

What makes these books great is that if you can read Japanese they have a lot of useful info in them. They have campgrounds and hotels marked off, they tell you where the hot springs are and also mark off which routes are more scenic or congested with traffic. They also got some interesting tid bits of info like this tunnel is known by locals to be haunted.

About the maps themselves:

Mostly the scale is 1: 140,000 (so 1" = 3 Km = 2 miles)
Major city area are scaled to 1:50,000
There are Ferry route info
The Map Key is extensive (will save that for another post)

Anyway thats it for now. too much info to sort through!

Post up more info later on the maps.

Why am I'm doing this?

2010-05-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

Why Am i doing this? I've always wanted to bike around Japan and visit every nook and cranny but with a job and all never could take more than a few weeks off at a time. Now its looking more and more likely that I will be laid off.. (Although I think I've been saying that for the past year or so) Anyway rather than sulking about loosing my job I'm actually looking forward to it and planning out what I'm going to do. So in a way this blog will be a live journal if you will of:

documentation of my planning / prep (so that if others want to try something similar they can)
Once on the trip The blog will be a trip documentation tool

Anyway this is more or less a test right now to see if this Blog is easy enough to use for now.