This is the cyclist i met in Miharu while writing the previous post. We went for an Okonomiyaki dinner together (a specialty of the Hiroshima prefecture) and had a nice chat. He used to stay in Singapore when he was small. He made me laugh when he said he missed bak ku teh. In the midst of everything i forgot to catch his name (i do know he's 20 though, and from Kanegawa). And he starts riding at 6am everyday so we shook hands and said goodbye before i went to sleep.
August 30th: Miharu -> Fukuyama -> Okayama (90+km, pics here)
Despite the "-yama" (yama=mountain) in the 2 cities name, today's journey was relatively flat. No real climbs and overall the weather has really gotten cooler so it's much easier cycling. It's also a good sign that i'm cycling lesser hours and covering more ground since the first day i started.
Okayama JR station just before sunset.
Nothing particularly special about Okayama (modern, big blah blah) but there's alot of Karaoke joints around the station. Unlike Singapore, Karaoke establishments here take up entire buildings and blocks and you really cant miss it cause there's lots of lights and neon signs around each.
August 31st: Okayama -> Himeji (90+km, pics here)
Before leaving town, i had a little sight-seeing detour in the morning to Okayama castle.
Okayama-jo, also known as Crow's Castle because it's painted black.
I appreciated this castle much more than the one in Hiroshima because the surroundings are more 'natural'. In Hiroshima, everywhere you look in the background you can see modern buildings which kinds of spoil the magic. In Okayama, the castle is flanked by a lake (PHOTO) and Koraku-en Garden , which according to the pamphlet is one of the 3 'great' parks in Japan. The park was too big to explore (there's a hill and even a tea plantation on its grounds) and it was getting late so i left for Himeji.
Route 2, which i have been on since i came on Honshu, can be a real pain sometimes. Like the road leading to Hiroshima, there are certain portions where, despite it being a national road, cyclists and pedestrians are not allowed on and i have to make a longer detour below the flyovers or by-passes. Well, just look where today's detour led me to:
I've been tricked!
No kidding.. that small fence on the top right is where Route 2 leads into a by-pass, and this is the 'road' that the cyclists and pedestrians get to take. Its understandable if you're walking but this is ridiculous! (by the way, this is 15km from Himeji) Sometimes when i'm tired, i even have difficulty pushing my bike up a single kerb to rest.
It took a Herculean effort to drag my bike up and around the by-pass into a small village, where i followed Route 179 into Himeji. Of course, this added an additional 5km into my trip. Note to others who might be taking the same path; at the previous town of Aioi, hit #179 straightaway and save yourself a lot of trouble.
No entry to latecomers!
Himeji is also famous for its castle, Himeji-jo, which has been voted as the most splendid castle in Japan. It was 5 mins to closing time when i reached Himeji so i couldnt enter the castle (stupid detour earlier). The grounds and park however, are really grand and well maintained. Very nice.
This is the only place so far in Japan where some people actually smile and say 'Konnichiwa' when they see me cycling on the pavements. And while in the castle grounds, instead of me asking people for help, this nice lady approached and volunteered to take a picture for me. Lastly, when i was asking a man for directions on the street, some passerbys actually noticed and joined in to offer assistance as well. We will call that being kaypoh in Singapore, but that's really fantastic service for a tourist like me.
Interesting bit of news i got on TV. The blue line indicates the normal temperature for Kobe (about 60km from Himeji) in August (it gets coolers) and the red line indicates what they're experiencing this summer, which is just crazy erratic.
September 1st: Himeji -> Kobe (65km, pics here)
Toydeath and me in my sexy riding tights.
Had a great chat with some Australians staying in the same Hotel (they saw me the previous day wandering in the castle grounds). They're performing tonight in Himeji and asked whether i would like to come along. I had to decline but their band is really 'wacky' from what i read on the Internet. They're called Toydeath and they dress up in outrageous costumes and play on stage with sounds from hand-modified toys (they call it 'circuit bending') they collect from all over the world. I didnt hear any of their music but i got to look and touch their 'instruments' which are really cool in a weird sort of way. Of course, i had to ask: have they got around to modifying a Guitar Hero controller? Answer: Not yet, but he's planning to.
What was planned to be a short 3 hour ride turned into one of the longest days i ever had so far. Firstly, bike trouble: my headset suddenly became much looser than it already was; my bicycle stand finally gave way to my bike's weight and for some reason, after lunch, my brakes just drastically faded. Fortunately, 13km from Kobe i found this huge bicycle store (Trek Concept Store), the biggest i've seen in Japan so far, which has great service akin to a car showroom (they have this waiting area (PHOTO) on the 2nd floor with drinks/food and Tour De France DVDs playing) while they service your bike. I burned about 3 hours watching a Lance Armstrong documentary there because it seems alot of people were having their bike serviced.
Sannomiya, next to the station and next to Motomachi (Chinatown). The amount of people on the street is overwhelming.
Secondly, i just remembered its Sunday and nearly impossible to get a Hotel unless you're willing to splash alot of cash. Also the Sannomiya area is jam-packed crowded! I couldn't ride on the pavements or on the roads cause people were just crossing at will. I had to push my way through the whole strecth. So i decided to camp in a park at first, which i gave up after an hour after feeling itchy and sweaty in my tent (no shower).
By then it was already 11pm so i just decided to crash in at a Net Cafe in town. 10 hours for 2080JPY is very reasonable, considering i can sleep, surf the net, eat free ice-cream and drinks and most importantly, BATHE for a mere 100JPY (which is actually the cost for the towel). I might just decide to do this more often whenever i can find a net cafe.
2 very fantastic sight around Kobe, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (the longest suspension bridge in the world) and the Port of Kobe Tower:
Longest suspension bridge in the world! Wow!
Looks better at night with the lightings than in the day.
Tomorrow: 35km to Osaka! I booked a Hotel already online to play safe, Osaka Garden Palace, which looks very good for 4900JPY/night. And now it's time to try to sleep in the Internet Cafe! "Checkout" is at 0930 tomorrow.
3 comments:
forgot to mention..the cyclist i met doesnt know who Toda Erika is! but we're both big fan of Miyazaki Aoi and talked about her wedding.
ALEX! If you're reading this.. Her wedding is over already! How??
Nothing I can do already. Haha...
Did you create a new email for this blog or what?
You do know that a blogger account can have multiple blogs right?
I am asking because your profile only listed 1 blog.
the japanese lad missed only one type of food in singapore?? i feel just slightly insulted. maybe he's trying to make up for his lack of staying in native japan, and therefore his trip? somewhat like your motivation, except you 1) are from singapore in the first place and 2) you don't miss bak ku teh, do you?
and the okonomiyaki restaurants, according to wiki, beckons you to enter with its bright red lanterns. ooohh .....
the rolling stones passed by okayama-jo and wanted to paint it black.
was route 2 a case of misreading the jap road signs? or is it just administration gone wrong. or they don't expect bikers to carry 7 bags full with them.
most of the singaporean habits and cultural personalities are actually beneficial. kaypoh means you care for others. kiasu means you are always seeking to improve (albeit over others, to beat the competition). kiasi ensures that you take good care of yourself.
my goodness. the toydeath link has caused my comp to block an intrusion named portscan. threat level medium. ok now i know better.
after reading the part on the bike showroom, i wonder if japan was in fact constructed for such a biking journey right from the beginning. except the bikes they factored in maybe lasted 13km (or 8km, minusing off the 5 you wasted taking route 2 - or maybe they facted that in as well) longer than yours.
and the net cafe thingy. japanese are really smart asses.
do you have this feeling that there might be loads of cyclists like you, only most of them have the scale smaller than yours?
and the hotel is called a garden palace. the price is just great. you should have expected some royalty just from the name and the screenshots.
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