Osaka to Tokyo by Bicycle - Part I

<st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city>** to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city> by Bicycle - Part I<o:p></o:p>**

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Pictures are here at Flickr<o:p></o:p>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/sets/72157594325986110/show/

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Why Japan?<o:p></o:p>

I have long been fascinated with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region></st1:place> and never really understood why – I am not a fan-boy of anime or manga, I never took a karate class, grew a bonsai tree or did anything very much Japanese other than to try for years to learn the language. I took a year of Japanese in college and it was not until 12 years later when I started GoPets that I took the opportunity to go to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> for the first time.

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On business, I have been to <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> now 6 to 8 times and, while it is a truly amazing city with an astounding array of the very highest quality shops and restaurants, the people of the city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city> often rubbed me the wrong way. I was born and raised in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city> which I feel has a well-known reputation for being a pretty relaxed and flexible city in the most liberal state in the States. Now that I live in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Korea</st1:place></st1:country-region> I have, of course, run into the harmony-conscious, group-minded culture that is part of the greater Sino-Confucian culture sphere; however, the Tokyoites take rules far, far too seriously.

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I have griped about this quite freely with some of my friends in <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> and to my surprise they readily agreed and tried to compare <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> to <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> and <st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>. I did not really think that is fair either, for while <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> has a brisker pace than my hometown, the people are still flexible. Not in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city> - I really cannot tell you how many times I have heard “Deki nai” or “not possible”. At the same time, I must stress that my Japanese friends are very generous and they are great friends to have – just the shopkeepers and random people on the street are frustrating.

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Why by Bike?<o:p></o:p>

This was the background impetus to roll around on a bicycle for 2 weeks and see a lot of the countryside, for my friends from <st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:city></st1:place> have stressed that their towns are fun and laid back. With the idea of rolling around I thought we should be able to see a wide swath of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> and still be able to get close to the people and investigate “not possible”.

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Why Danny?<o:p></o:p>

Danny Ahn is my Cha-jong for design and general production here at GoPets and is also a bicyclist – but tends to enjoy dirt and downhill while I like traffic and long distances. Danny, I would have to say, is probably the greatest guy I have traveled with because he is so tough and always happy and can accommodate any unexpected change with aplomb. A very solid companion and I did want to spend a lot of time with the guy that runs our development here at GoPets.

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Bikes, Gear and Stuff<o:p></o:p>

He chose to ride a hard-tail mountain bike, and I splurged and bought a Lemond steel-framed cyclecross bike from I Martin Imports in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city></st1:place> where I bought my original racing bike when I was on the USC Cycling team.

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Both of us loaded up with a rear rack and rear panniers, lights, tools, energy bars. Turned out that I brought way too many tubes and patch kits – 4 spare tubes and 3 patch kits and neither of us got a flat tire in the whole 750km trip! Both of us carried 27kg of gear and bike – and both of us estimated that we had about 4 to 5kg of unnecessary weight. For me, I took 2 small phrase books and 2 large language texts (Japanese and Korean) and that turned out to be 3 too many books – just the one small Japanese phrasebook would have been enough. However, all of the tools came in handy. And despite the crash Danny took during the trip, his first aid kit was significantly overstocked. We both took too much clothing – for me I brought 2 cycling shorts and one long pants, two short sleeve jerseys and a rain shell. In addition I brought some sandals and two of the new super-cool Nike sports t-shirts. I should have brought just one pair of shorts and one long-sleeve jersey. A couple of times when it was rainy or we were going downhill, I was quite cold with just the short sleeve jersey and the rain shell.

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Route<o:p></o:p>

The route we chose turned out to be quite good, I think:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/277860571/in/set-72157594325986110/

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<st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> > <st1:city w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:city> > <st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Biwa</st1:placename> > <st1:city w:st="on">Gifu</st1:city> > Gero > Takayama > Matsumoto > <st1:placename w:st="on">Izu</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Peninsula</st1:placetype> > <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city></st1:place>

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The other routes we considered were:

<st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Fukuoka</st1:city></st1:place> via the inner sea

<st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Fukuoka</st1:place></st1:city> via the northern coast

<st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> via the southern coast and a full tour of Izu and perhaps up into <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nikko</st1:place></st1:city>

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The route we chose took us through the most important cities from a historical and cultural perspective (from my understanding) and had a wide variety of terrain such as coastal to high alpine to lake front and from city and country to mega polis.

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Sep 22, 2006 <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Osaka</st1:place></st1:city> 20km night ride<o:p></o:p>

We flew into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city></st1:place> on Korean Air and were pleasantly surprised that Danny and I were bumped up to business class – nice way to start my birthday. We unpacked our bikes in the New Otani Osaka hotel which was a pretty decent hotel with adequate service for the price. We could not bear to stay holed up in the hotel and so at 10pm we set out and immediately were stunned by the ethereal site of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Osaka</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Castle</st1:placetype></st1:place> with the eaves lit up and sitting proudly on a gentle rise above the center of the city.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864278/in/set-72157594325986110/

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We quickly found a kick-ass local Yakitori restaurant that had about a dozen locals in there. Both the staff and the locals were far more friendly and social than anywhere in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city> and soon we were banging our tankards and buying and receiving beer from all over the restaurant. It was my birthday dinner party and it just worked – I felt warm, comfortable and happy on the eve of our great adventure. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city></st1:place> = warm and friendly as advertised.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864236/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864218/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864255/in/set-72157594325986110/

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A bit on the happy drunk side from the fresh draft Japanese beer and full of very tasty grilled chicken, we happily glided around the city taking a midnight tour. About 7km away from the hotel my rear derailer literally exploded with one cog flying off not to be found and another cog snapped in half like a cookie, chain flew off, etc. Worst bike breakdown I have ever had – right at the start of our adventure. After studying the broken bits in my hotel room, I figured out that the little bit of the bike frame that hangs down in the back to hold the rear derailer got bent inward from pressure on the rear derailer, causing my chain to be pinched violently when I shifted into a faster gear in my drunken glee to see Osaka at midnight. But it did not dent our mood at all, I skated my bike back to the hotel like a skateboard – a successful night was the mood no matter what the metal bits might complain.

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Sep 23 Bike Shop <o:p></o:p>

In the morning I had a bit of “not possible” with the concierge at the New Otani and it took me about 90 minutes to guide her through the phone book and phone calls to find a bike shop in the second largest city of Japan that stocks Shimano parts (the world’s dominant manufacture of bike parts – from Japan). This was a bit of needless <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> frustration, but eventually she turned out to be helpful by remembering a minivan taxi buddy of hers who took us way out to the west of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Osaka</st1:place></st1:city> to the bike shop. The only reason why I mention this minivan is that despite her overall efforts to get me to accept a one week wait for ordered parts (not helpful) she did turn up a minivan(!) - while in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city></st1:place> at the end of the trip, I could NOT get a minivan taxi even with 18 hours advanced request. Why? Because it is against the rules – not because they were fully booked.

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The bike shop in Osaka was great and Danny and I goofed around there way too long and I ended up replacing almost all of my drive train by choosing a 9-cog rear cassette, new chain and of course a new derailer. I previously had a nifty 10-cog rear cassette making for a 30-speed bike which is geekily quite superior to a 27-speed – but after the derailer explosion and the challenge of finding a god bike shop I decided I did not want to have an esoteric 10-cog cassette, as hardly anyone had the special skinny chains for such and I had now firmly decided that I wanted a backup chain for the climb up into the Japanese southern alps. So my bike was back to being a 27-speed bike. However, back in LA my bike was a 20-speed bike (2 x 10) but in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seoul</st1:place></st1:city>, I made a cool modification to put a mountain bike front crank set to get 3 large cranks in the front to allow for the climbs with panniers. So if you are following this painfully boring paragraph on gear math, my bike went from 20 to 30 speeds, then from 30 to 27. So I am still up 7 – it’s cool.

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In the end after buying so many parts they gave us a great discount and tossed a couple of extra LED front lamps and gave the labor for free. This was a very strong example of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city></st1:place> being quite warm, friendly and flexible – I left quite impressed and took several pictures of these good people.

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Sep 23 <st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city> to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:place></st1:city> – 50km – Bright Sunny<o:p></o:p>

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Route: HWY 171 E

Taking off late from the western suburbs of <st1:city w:st="on">Osaka</st1:city>, we rolled 50 km along highway 171, which for the most part was a 2 or 4 lane highway of never-ending suburbia – family restaurants, car dealerships, shopping plazas, giant stores and repeat – it felt like <st1:place w:st="on">Southern California</st1:place> with a bunch of Japanese people around. The weather was also a hot sunny day but just cool enough for it to be pleasant.

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I experimented with not eating very much on this ride and suffered through bonk for it later – lethargic, dizzy and all of that. Danny and I had our first great convenience store meal and watched the sunset while sitting in a cooling asphalt parking spot. I felt vaguely likely Hiro in Snowcrash spending the dusk time outside of his u-store-it. I know it is a bit of a stretch, but we were onto something big – at least for us.

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We rolled into <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:place></st1:city> that night and started looking for a hotel. I remembered reading that <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:place></st1:city> has a dense tourist area downtown, where these cafes ad restaurants hang their backend over the river Kamogawa, so we headed that way. Quizzing the locals on their opinion of a good hotel led us to a local police box. Those guys were amazingly helpful and called the hotel, made a reservation for us, and hand drew us a quite detailed large map complete with lanes, signals, road names and so on. In just a few minutes, we were delivered into the hands of an eccentric older Japanese guy with good English and poor hearing, which leads pretty much into a monologue. He ran a 4 story “pension” that had ample evidence of much use from very frugal western travelers. For about $60, Danny and I shared a tiny 6 foot by 6 foot room which thoughtfully included a blanket for my squire to user to sleep with by the side of my child-size cot that I indulged in. Despite being a freaky place, we were both still grinning at successfully proving we could travel city to city without a reservation.

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The old eccentric innkeeper, in his monologue, scolded me several times for not making more time to see <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:place></st1:city>’s sights as we were pretty much just going to get up in the morning and just take off. He is right in that there is a bunch of cool stuff to see in <st1:city w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:city> (my wife told me about the grazing deer at one of the temples) but I came to ride and roll across the country – one night in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:city></st1:place> is all it would be.

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The old guy did give us the hot tip of the local public bath – the sento – just across the street and down a little lane. So we took off in our grubby sweaty skins looking to become pink and clean. We were bemusedly surprised to find out that in Japanese local sentos, you get exactly one service: water. No soap, no shampoo, no conditioner, no razors, no nail clippers, no scrubby hand towels, and, most disconcerting, no towels. Yeppers - no towels. All of these items are extra and ala carte at about $1 each. Except towels those are $2 each to rent – being a bit on the larger side and definitely on the hairier side of normal in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it was a bit of expense to dry my body. I also felt a distinct disadvantage negotiating with the middle aged woman who ran the place through a square cutout in the wall to the men’s side to get the towels up front now while I am wet and promising to pay in full for the towels upon my exit.

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Locals have it all figured out and serenely slide into the place with their outside-errand-slippers and a whole supply of personal items. This is direct contrast to Korean local baths which have everything I mentioned above (free) plus a refrigerator of drinks (including beer), boiled eggs, dried squid (and other snacks), massage chairs, sleeping rooms, barber shops and sometimes a whole host more of services. In fact, in the bitter cold days or sweltering hot days here in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Korea</st1:place></st1:country-region>, my whole family will spend a day at one of these all-inclusive “resort” saunas that includes two restaurants, shopping, a PC-room and many lounging areas, and even rents board games!

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Anyway, back to this local sento. It did have a great plum water bath that was a deep red color and it turned out to be a meeting area for the local yakuza with 5 guys in full tattoo suits showing up for a meeting in the cold water grotto. I was most impressed with what I took as the boss guy who had a marine style cut to his shockingly white hair; fat, dark, blue, tattooed eyebrows; and the ability to wash himself without the butt bucket by neatly balancing on the balls of his feet and leaning his knees into the shower wall. Made me think he must have practiced bathing someplace that does not include butt buckets. In hindsight, I see that I have slighted this sento unfairly by not including the butt bucket as part of the service along with water. The yakuza guys were quiet and seemed like they were having a peaceful and slow time managing their territory for none of them seemed very concerned and the meeting was short.

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Now clean, we decided, of course, to go riding around the city at night again. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:place></st1:city> was bustling at night and we spent a really nice and easy half an hour listening to an acoustic guitar and harmonica street musician right on the bridge over Kamogawa over to the Gion side. While listening to the music, we gazed at the beautifully lit cafes that were indeed hanging over the river. I regretted not getting into <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kyoto</st1:city></st1:place> in time to eat at one of those places but I am sure I will be back sometime to check out all the tourist-type attractions.

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Sep 24 – Kyoto to Omi-Iwazu via the west bank of Lake Biwa – 72km – Bright Sunny<o:p></o:p>

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Route: HWY 9 E > 161 N

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Danny and I really got off to a lazy start here – after coffee and breakfast, we didn’t start rolling until 11:30am. It was our first steep, albeit short, climb through a series of hills and our first run of sharing tight, skinny, scary tunnels with scary trucks and buses. Taking a break at the top, I noticed my first old highway that fast was succumbing to being retaken by the forest. I was happily stunned by how quickly the shrubs and trees have overgrown the old highway, which had evidence that it was used about 20 years ago from the bridge markings. There was even an old temple or shrine in the small valley that no longer seemed to have an access road, but the building itself appeared to still be serviceable, so I left behind a mystery of where that access road may be found.

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Originally we planned on riding a relatively short 60km or so from Kyoto to Hikone along the south and east banks of Lake Biwa; however we changed our plans when we found it was the west bank that has the really beautiful countryside and that the south and east banks are the unfortunate armpits of the lake that was central to old capital of Japan. So, with travel being more important than the destination, we made a left turn and headed up the west bank. I had read that there a ferries that cut across the 100km-by-30km lake and I thought we would simply ride up the west bank until we run out of light and then find a boat and ferry across to Hikone.

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Following that plan, we had a brilliant fast ride down from the hills and tunnels, including a really nice, long, and straight downhill where I got into the 60s kmph for the first time in the trip. Breaking free of the small tourist town of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Otsu</st1:place></st1:city>, we started rolling through rice country. The harvest was on and we were able to watch the farmers cruise through their tiny fields and collect the rice. When they were down they would gather the stalks into double fistful bunches and then create little tripods out of them. As the days went by, I noticed that the next step in the rice harvest is to hand the tripods across horizontal beams.

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In the afternoon, with <st1:place w:st="on">Biwa</st1:place> lake on our right, Danny and I found a fantastic Donkatsu (deep fried pork chops) family restaurant. The waiter recommended a variation with lots of spring onions and chives on top that was delicious. The sauces and sesame seeds that you grind with your own pestle were also excellent.

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This lazy day, with the slow breakfast at the coffee shop and the gorging at the Donkatsu place, put us not very far up the west bank; however it was just a beautifully sunny day and we just did not worry much – all we had to do find a boat sometime in the afternoon.

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About this time I noticed that mid-sized Japanese trucks often have elaborate and quite garish metallic awnings sprouting from the cab. In later convenience store stops, I saw a couple of magazines devoted to this trucking lifestyle. The lifestyle itself seems devoted to the creation of these elaborate almost Thai inspired grills – other than that I could not tell what else seems to be going on with these guys.

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Stopping at the edge of a rice farm edged in brilliant orange poppy-like flowers, I noticed some big fat bees loading up on pollen. That is where I got that shot of a bee from the underside (see pix).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864320/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864488/in/set-72157594325986110/

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After the bee picture, it started on about 4:30 and so I was looking for a boat. Rolling into a large water sport launching pad with a large scale operation, I spotted many such boats that could get me across the lake. So I asked the price – 15,000 yen or $150 plus gas. Well, after a moment’s thought, I said okay. And why not – we will make it to our hotel in time and we get to ride a boat. But not now, she said – tomorrow. Sigh. Talking to the boss and some extra bribe money still did not get me across the lake. In the end I talked to our hotel and after rejecting their idea of us leaving our bikes behind and riding a train around the lake I managed to get them to postpone our arrival time by a day.

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This was the most important lesson of the trip. While trying to get across in the boat or negotiate with the hotel, all of our good feelings of a carefree roll around the lake came crashing down as we focused on how to salvage our prepaid hotel reservations. The lesson? When traveling by bike (or probably hiking and train too), do not make reservations because they only get in your way of enjoying the country at your own speed. As soon as we managed to get another day out of the hotel we were relieved and happy. We laughed and simply continued to peddle north and allowed nightfall to happen.

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Eventually it was dark and we stopped at a gas station and a friendly older guy with great English came out to sell us on the virtues of staying at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sun</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype></st1:place> over Prince Omi Iwazu. His direction skills were not nearly as good as his English (always ask three locals for directions and follow the way that gets at least two votes). A half an hour later we were peddling along some side access road in the dark with no hotels lurking on the horizon. That is when we met up with a very friendly Japanese lady who insisted on giving directions by leading us in her car. This was exciting! She had a dim grasp of how slow a bicycle was, and here we found ourselves sprinting at the top of our ability straining with cramps only to see her dash forward every time we caught up. Finally after 15 minutes of this I could take no more and flagged her down and eyeing a lit up tower about 5 kilometers ahead – confirmed with her that was the target hotel. I sent her off so we could recover and then peddle up to the hotel. Just when we about a block from the hotel, she popped out at me from the sidewalk and I almost had an accident! Then I realized it was her. She just wanted to be sure I saw the hotel! Again chalk one up for friendliness in the Kinki area of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.

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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sun</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype></st1:place> turned out to be a solid hotel with a decent breakfast and a great view of the lake. The staff were quite helpful and even provided us with very detailed topographical maps of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">lake</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Biwa</st1:placename></st1:place> completely on their own as parting gifts. I was stunned again.

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Sep 25 – Omi-Iwazu to Hikone 84 kilometers<o:p></o:p>

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Route: 54 N > 557 E > 513 round trip E & W > 303 E > 8 S > 2 S

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This ride was easily the most achingly beautiful of the trip. The ride took us around the north side of <st1:place w:st="on">Biwa</st1:place> with two medium sized peninsulas and many smaller folds that stretched our ride out for even more serenity. The reason why it was so beautiful is that it was a very old highway that was most of the time just a single lane wide, and was lapped by the lakes water being only about two or three meters above the water level. And the trees! The trees of various sorts all wove together to create a leaves & dappled sunlight tunnel for the 30 kilometers or so around the north side of the lake. It was a grand, grand ride. I wish my grandmother, June, would have time to see this road - it is definitely her kind of path. This is where I took the picture coming out of a tunnel (see pix) into the green and gold of morning. The water was also the clearest I have ever seen of a lake and it reminded me of pictures of tropical waters where you can see easily into the water below and see the rocks and the fish.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864458/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864523/in/set-72157594325986110/

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Along the road we came across an ancient fishing boat (pix) and had fun peering over the fence of a giant duck farm. I promise you that in my whole life before this trip, I have seen only perhaps 5 or 10% of the ducks that I saw in that farm. At the end of this idyllic road, we came to a gate with so many signs all saying the same thing – “no go”. Here I took a comical picture of Danny banging against these gates. This setback of 10 kilometers was the best setback for anyone to take!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864550/in/set-72157594325986110/

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Climbing out of the lake district into some sunny hills, we had excellent drying conditions for the first day of our air-dried laundry system (bungee-netting down our shorts, jerseys and socks on the back panniers).

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Flying down from the top tunnel and hill down a straight and wide road with excellent visibility, I got my bike up to 72 kmph which would end up being my top speed despite the much higher mountains ahead. To go fast, I like to see where I am going; if it is straight and visible then no problem – after about 50 kmph, there is not much more the peddles can deliver and it time to tuck in the elbows and head. This new bike of mine felt so incredibly safe and solid at speed and the disc brakes provide so much more confidence than the old caliper and rubber block brakes.

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Danny’s knee was quite bad today from riding with the seat too low and so our pace was fairly easy and flat – nevertheless this day would turn out to be our second longest ride.

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We made it to Nagahama by about 2:30 and I have to say that this is not a very exciting castle. If you had perhaps a clan of dwarfs, then it would be an adequate castle! It was just so amazingly short and dainty - it looked like a very large dollhouse. A few quick snaps of the camera and we were off again.

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By about 3:30 we saw Hikone castle perched up on a much more impressive real hill than Nagahama’s bump. Racing into Hikone, we took the full tourist tour of the castle, the museum, and the gardens. It was here that I learned much more about the gruesome politics at the end of the feudal era and the beginning of the rule by the Shogun. It turns out that these castles, Hikone and Nagahama, were actually the seats of power for the handlers behind the Shogun and the power behind Edo (<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city>). Actually, as I type this, I realize it is possible that if we toured some other smaller castles, they too might like to talk about their connections to Edo’s power base – unlike Matsumoto, Kyoto, Osaka or Nagoya, which would all, of course, boast of their independent importance in history.

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In the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">castle</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Hikone</st1:placename></st1:place>, we saw some impressive Kimonos and Katanas on display. Every time I see a real Katana, it seems so much smaller than I would have expected (and yes it was a Katana and not one of the various smaller blades). The armor, too, is much smaller – I know from reading accounts of both western and eastern peoples that up until about 150 years ago, most people were much shorter than they are today. I was imagining some very angry, fierce 5’ 3” warriors and, well, it would be impolite to elaborate. Later in my adventures, I would appreciate these old warriors much more than when gazing at their armor hung up on display.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864689/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864834/in/set-72157594325986110/

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The Prince Hikone hotel turned out not to be very exciting; it had a good view of Takashima at sunset (see pix) and some friendly staff, but that was all. This is the same $250 a night hotel that Danny and I were trying to get across the lake on a boat to make good on our pre-paid reservation. It was, in the end, a slightly tacky wedding type hotel and, all in all, it would have been better for me to have seen the castle and then swing left for <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gifu</st1:place></st1:city> and just bunk down anywhere. See, again, this reservation thing does not pay off.

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Sep 26 Hikone to Gifu – 68 km – morning sun, afternoon haze (reverse of LA)<o:p></o:p>

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Route: 2 N > 21 E

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This ride started out with very picturesque country with trains rolling by regularly through the green and vegetable and rice fields and small villages. After we climbed a mild hill of 170m to Segihara, we descended into the greater <st1:city w:st="on">Nagoya</st1:city> plain that includes <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gifu</st1:place></st1:city>. While this was a very large expanse of bleak grey mix of industry and suburbia, I took perverse pleasure in rolling through it all. There is not much to say about what is going on here, except similar to the ride from Osaka to Kyoto, there is plenty of evidence that the Japanese are quite capable of adopting the heavy consumption lifestyle that comes with the suburbs – big box retailers, car dealerships, family restaurants a surprising number of book stores and lots of porn shops. I gathered that the rich folks doing business on the west side of the valley must live back up in Segihara since it looked quite nice and was absent these shops.

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It was here on this stretch of highway 21 that we were guided to Sports Depo – a giant REI-style sports goods store that had Danny agape and camera out documenting this monolith to sporting goods. It truly was like those anecdotal stories of communist Russians seeing western super markets for the first time. Danny did not know what he wanted first – I bought him a front pack to complete his set of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Top</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Peak</st1:placetype></st1:place> gear and he was happily distracted for some time installing the pack.

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The main purpose of coming here to Sports Depo is to find the fabled and rarely-seen soft bag for putting a bicycle inside to make it tidy enough for the Japanese train handlers to allow you on board. At this point, Danny was feeling slightly better about his knee, but we were worried about further damage and had decided to take a train the next day, if possible, to Gero to give him a day to repair.

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We found exactly one soft bag. It is a sack of nylon with a drawstring closure, and a few little bits and oddities that might make it easier to pack your bike. We ran into some seriously not possible & “deki nai”s from the junior staff of sports depo in trying to locate a second soft bag. Finally the manager of the store helped us and after he spent over an hour calling around the other Sports Depos in the greater <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Nagoya</st1:city></st1:place> basin he rang up his rival store two blocks away and found out that they had exactly one in stock!

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By now, it started to rain so I picked up the other bag and wandered into a porn shop to kill some time while Danny worked on his new front bag. By the time he was done, night was falling and the rain was falling faster.

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Directions to our hotel turned out to be horribly mangled by the locals and after riding around without enough clothes on (I packed too light for rain as I said in the beginning), we crossed back and forth <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gifu</st1:place></st1:city>’s main river four times before finding our first Japanese Inn.

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It was satisfying to see how aghast the staff was at receiving us in our wet trampled state. However, they had impeccable manners and picked up our panniers and handled our bikes with a bit of grace into the boiler room after declining their invitation for us to lock them up outside.

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This time the castle of Gifu was way, way up the hill and we satisfied ourselves by simply checking it out while it slipped through the clouds a few times, and then headed for the hot water.

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The onsen was good, with a nice view of the wide, white-washed stone river basin. The dinner was our first Ryoken style dinner and I thought that the fried & salted fish was quite tasty. It reminded me of the crispy parts of Sam-chi-gui that I like a lot in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Korea</st1:country-region></st1:place>.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864849/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864878/in/set-72157594325986110/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86007932@N00/264864901/in/set-72157594325986110/

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Very nice beer was on draft and we got quite happy as we ate our dinner. The staff was quite funny here at <st1:city w:st="on">Gifu</st1:city> and both the male and female workers encouraged us to go check out the nightlife of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gifu</st1:place></st1:city>. So, freshly bathed and fed, we wandered out to see the center of the city and got into only a mild amount of trouble.

Originally posted on LiveJournal