ippy 66 Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 holy crap, just escaped the heavens vomiting on me by about twenty minutes. Found a net cafe at tajimi by pure chance going the complete wrong way. Actually caught a fair few lucky breaks today if im honest. Had the dudes at a bike shop unilaterally lower my bike seat, which not only chilled my knee down but also, i discovered, encouraged me to stand up on hill climbs and pedal in a bit of a higher gear. Still tough, but there you go. Also had an entire day of clouds threatening to dump on me but never quite materialising. Finally, didnt die coming down the 248 between seto and tajimi with no street lights, mad descents, pitch black, lightning, and lorries trundling past me on a narrow hill road at 100mph. Amazed to be honest. Got mad sunburn though. I switched my sunscreen, squirted it on and thought "why, thats very liquidy... is this moisturiser? Only to realise three or so hours later that i should have shook the damned bottle. My legs and arms are raw. Exciting times on the campaign trail. Another day of rain expected tomorrow and a looming typhoon on its way... jesus, that lightning storm is right above us. Glad i stumbled on the net cafe, i was gonna have to be camping otherwise Now lets see if i cheat tomorrow and take the train to narai so i can sneak past all the uphill Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Be careful with the sun there, ippy. It's not good. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 & I hope you packed your lightning conductor! Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 I got caught in a mad rain storm a month or so ago. Luckily, I was only 20 minutes from home, but I was mad soaked when I got back. It sure can rain in style here. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Kuronekko = 14,000yen to send a bike. That sounds wrong to me. If you can get the front wheel off, twist the handlebars straight with the frame, and wrap the thing in cardboard from a supermarket, I can't see it costing much more than 2000 yen. Good luck with your trip! Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 When I bought my bike, it came fully constructed and I think the tacky in was 3150 yen or something like that. Definiely nowhere near that number, ippy. Don't know if I was getting a discount or not.... Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted August 15, 2012 Author Share Posted August 15, 2012 i figured it was extremely high given that my snowboard bag is like 100 times the weight, and ten times the area for about 1/7th of that. Dont mind me, im probably being an idiot. either way, its by the by. Just arrived in chikuma. God nagano is gorgeous eh? The climb to narai was surprisingly not too bad. A few strategically placed tunnels certainly helped (as did listening to douglas adams read the restaurant at the end of teh universe and life the universe and everything), Sure, lots of climbing, but well spaced out and enough optical illusions to keep you perplexed. The last bit to the center of agematsu was pretty difficult though, coming as it did at the end of the day, but eventually i rolled into kiso fukushima just as night (and the rain) hit. Cycled aroudn a bit before i realised there was nowhere to put my tent up (i did consider the elementary school and ninjaing off in the morning but decided against it), so bit the bullet and stayed in one of the cheap hotels there. Woke up today, kinda sore from the day before, but realised there was only 15 or so km to narai so ground it out and was EXHILARATED by the recognition it was finally done with. I was so happy that by the time i hit matsumoto (the ride down was freaking awesome) i realised it was far too early to call it a day and so pushed on. And then i hit two rather exhausting hill climbs. Foolishly i was kinda smug riding the first one for a while... then i got to this covered roadway bit and hit a wall. I had nothing left in me so had to walk the rest. It wasnt too far, but it was super steep and utterly draining. Enjoyed the brief descent only to have about 2 or 3km of flat before the second and much higher climb. I had nothing left at the start of it, so pretty much hiked the hill. Maybe rode about 30% of it here and there so cant really count it, came across a very bimyo lake (hijiriko) and what looked like a ski lift before finally riding down a twisty turny hell scape trundling out at chikuma. Found my new house (i think - but cant get into it until the 17th), and stumbled across a net cafe a few hundred meters down the road where i expect to pass out for the night. The end. ...since the furthest id ever cycled before this was 40km on a flat (to gwangju and back from naju) I think im gonna coast off my smugness on this one for a few months to get me to ski season. Link to post Share on other sites
Curt 1 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Well done. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 We'll give you till the end of September, perhaps, ippy. Link to post Share on other sites
JellyBelly 1 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Sounds like a great experience ippy. Where did you usually get your sleep? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 wow!! nice ride mate. Should've given me a heads up, I live in Fujisawa, just along from Hiratsuka. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Share Posted August 17, 2012 Sounds like a great experience ippy. Where did you usually get your sleep? I usually tried to squirrel away at an internet cafe, but ive become a little disillusioned by them since i realised they hardly ever switch off the lights or the ****ing music. Who the hell needs muzak at 2 in the morning... and we all have our own desk lamps for goodness sake. Glad to have my own digs though. Two days to go and im back getting paid again. wow!! nice ride mate. Should've given me a heads up, I live in Fujisawa, just along from Hiratsuka. If you ever want your legs in for snowboard season, ride that stupid road up to the lake. 15km uphill, i think id be a wee bit better at it now, but its definitely a battle of will. I reckon im gonna try and keep hitting hijiri until i can ride it without stopping. Itll give me something to do until november (im obviously upo for an early start to the season ) and by then i should have god damned tree trunks for pins. That being said, i think i need to upgrade to a better bike. I like mine, it did a grand job, but i love being on a racer. Had a super cheap one in korea that i paid more in repairs for than the bike cost me (probably three or four times its cost to be honest, the thing was jinxed), but when it was all clicking together it was awesome. All mountain bikes feel clunky after that And alas mines pretty beefcake. So with that in mind, anyone have ideas on a nice effective but cheap brand to scope out? Link to post Share on other sites
snowbender 3 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Great stuff ippy. Feel all good and fit after all that lot? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 Sounds like a great experience ippy. Where did you usually get your sleep? I usually tried to squirrel away at an internet cafe, but ive become a little disillusioned by them since i realised they hardly ever switch off the lights or the ****ing music. Who the hell needs muzak at 2 in the morning... and we all have our own desk lamps for goodness sake. Glad to have my own digs though. Two days to go and im back getting paid again. wow!! nice ride mate. Should've given me a heads up, I live in Fujisawa, just along from Hiratsuka. If you ever want your legs in for snowboard season, ride that stupid road up to the lake. 15km uphill, i think id be a wee bit better at it now, but its definitely a battle of will. I reckon im gonna try and keep hitting hijiri until i can ride it without stopping. Itll give me something to do until november (im obviously upo for an early start to the season ) and by then i should have god damned tree trunks for pins. That being said, i think i need to upgrade to a better bike. I like mine, it did a grand job, but i love being on a racer. Had a super cheap one in korea that i paid more in repairs for than the bike cost me (probably three or four times its cost to be honest, the thing was jinxed), but when it was all clicking together it was awesome. All mountain bikes feel clunky after that And alas mines pretty beefcake. So with that in mind, anyone have ideas on a nice effective but cheap brand to scope out? errr...nah I think I'll pass. I climbed Fuji the other week, took the super long, lowest 5th station route from Gotemba........worst thing I have ever done in my life!! Hated every last second of it!! Usually people only walk down this route, so when we started the climb it was pretty quiet. Very few people on the route at all until we got near to the summit, failing to get there for sunrise, and millions of people coming down.........that was soul destroying in itself!! All the "gambaru's" from smug bastards that climbed the 4hr shitey route....(my mate organised it and decided that to climb it, we should do the hard one.......bastard that he is!!). I wanted off that mountain ASAP.....bullied the rest of my party to start down the mountain after only 40 mins rest at the top (we only had 1 hr "sleep" at the last "station" before the top. Every other "station",very poor excuse for any type of dwelling, were closed!!). Even coming down it pissed me off no end......that bloody ash banking just went on forever!! I literally HATE that mountain now, I have no idea why people would want to climb it twice, never mind real mountaineering at a place like Everest or K2. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 ganbatta TB!! I might be climbing it for the 2nd time in a couple of weeks, so have made a mental note not to start where you did! So with that in mind, anyone have ideas on a nice effective but cheap brand to scope out? 3 letters:- first letter is a "b" and the last is an "x"! & no it's not a box! Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 [...]Even coming down it pissed me off no end......that bloody ash banking just went on forever!! I literally HATE that mountain now, I have no idea why people would want to climb it twice, never mind real mountaineering at a place like Everest or K2. You know what they say, TB: you're a fool not to climb Fuji at least once -- and a bigger fool if you climb it twice. Only done it once, and still haven't found someone foolish enough to do it twice with me. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 yeah I've heard that as well. Did you do it the long way from Gotemba? Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 You know, I don't remember. Don't remember the lower part being all that bad, so probably not one of the tougher ones. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Bike ride to Hama Tamagawa! Thought I'd take the ol' bmx out for a spin yesterday and flippin' hell it was hot!! 3 hours and a mild case of heatstroke later, I managed to stagger back to the sanctuary of an air-conditioned room. Only mad dogs and Englishman! Link to post Share on other sites
@tokyo 14 Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 Nice bike Mick - bigger than I expected! Link to post Share on other sites
surfarthur 22 Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 no training wheels either Link to post Share on other sites
ProbablyaCrazyPerson 2 Posted August 26, 2012 Share Posted August 26, 2012 Photoshop!! Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Nice bike Mick - bigger than I expected! no training wheels either Photoshop!! Cheeky bar stewards!! You're all jealous, I know! Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 love the fact you have a number on it. Grats on teh journey. You ever heard of mapmyride? I found it staying in hama (along with ridewithgps), and it takes a load of the sting out of some of those missions. Definitely recommend either if youre planning your journey by google maps (i think ridewithgps is more accurate though). Link to post Share on other sites
hellyer 216 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Bike ride to Hama Tamagawa! Thought I'd take the ol' bmx out for a spin yesterday and flippin' hell it was hot!! 3 hours and a mild case of heatstroke later, I managed to stagger back to the sanctuary of an air-conditioned room. Only mad dogs and Englishman! Your wicker carry basket fell off Link to post Share on other sites
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