Thursday, September 20, 2007

September 19th to 20th: Numazu to Yokohama and Map of my Travel Route

Edit: Yokohama is not 50km away from Numazu as i was so wrongly misinformed by a guy on the street. It's actually ~80km away.

As suggested by Kenneth, here is a rough map of the places i've cycled through up till tomorrow. Please bear with the kindergarten-like scribbles, i just squiggled it out on in MSPAINT on the first map i could find. (Map taken from http://www.ease.com/~randyj/)

September 19th: Numazu -> Hakone -> Hiratsuka (pics here and here)

The name 'Hakone' has always been on the back of my mind since i met a fellow cycle-tourer back in Miharu. He told me he almost thought of giving up and going back home to Yokohama midway while pushing his bike up Hakone-pass. It took him 5 hours to go up Hakone (till nightfall no less) and down again (by my estimation that would be 30km total). I just laughed it off as a joke back then but after yesterday's trip, i have to conclude that pushing up this hill is no shame at all, especially if your bike is loaded with luggage.


Road snaking up to Hakone. That's Mt Fuji slope in the background, hiding again in the clouds.

Within the first kilometre of the climb i already passed a female cycle-tourer conceding defeat and pushing her bicycle up. I told myself that no matter what, i would not be doing the same. I passed a couple more cyclists going up and saw them struggling as well. Seriously, i felt their pain. Countless times while going up, my legs and heart kept telling me to stop and just surrender. Fortunately, pride won out in the end and it took me a grand total of 2 1/2 hours to go up and over Hakone...and i thought i was at the top when i saw this sign but after a 2km descend, i had to climb up somemore to the true highest point on Route 1....


The mist at the top felt like rain.

..and then from there it was a sweet descent to Odawara. And with a combination of late braking and just plain madness, i was surely the fastest idiot on wheels speeding down the mountain.

Fittingly, my Lonely Planet guide describes Hakone as a 'tourist mecca'. Truly a beautiful place. I also tried to spy Mt Fuji while cycling up, but it's more of the same ol' same ol'. The view from the top of Hakone pass of Lake Ashi would make a fabulous picture, if my camera could focus through the mist and capture the moment, which unfortunately it couldn't.

Found a bicycle shop on the way to Hiratsuka and changed my tyres and brake pads which were badly worn out. And on a personal note, i think my new tyres makes my bicycle look even better than it did before.

September 20th: Hiratsuka -> Yokohama

I'm spending the night with Robert Quek and family in Yokohama. Their house is fantastically luxurious and cosy and they were kind enough to invite me to base myself here for the next couple of days while i attend the Tokyo Game Show. But for fear of getting too comfortable (and already i'm reminded of home; they even have a Xbox360..) i think i will move on to Tokyo tomorrow.

Did a quick night sight-seeing trip around Yokohama bay, really pretty place even at night but it would be more ideal for romantic dates and such. So as the lone cyclist shining his LED headlight into the many embracing couples there, i didn't care to hang around too long.


Landmark Tower, tallest building in Japan.
Street performer who juggled fire sticks and extinguished them in his mouth.
Big ferris wheel at the bay.

Honestly, I'm just looking forward to the Tokyo Game Show. I bought the Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary collection in hopes that I can get Hideo Kojima to autograph it for me. Just so you know, the game that got me into gaming was Metal Gear Solid for the PS1, so besides being a big fan of Kojima and the series, there's a lot of 'sentimental' value for me. I just pray that i will be able to get a ticket to the biggest game show on Earth (Sat/Sun 10am-5pm; open to public).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Walau.. its so unfair. the games convention asia in s'pore is so lousy compared to the tokyo game show. The GCA was like occupying 1 hall only. Which means that i will be missing out of 8 times the amount of booth babes..damn.

Anw, good luck at the TGS. dun waste ur 1000 yen take more pics inside!

Anonymous said...

yes. a friday. it feels so good! except i have duty tomorrow but that's not your problem. anyway

for most of us ever since ippt we just rotted away. so, what a great contrast. well. and the cutesy mountain sign is in pure chinese. i wonder if you read it as such. well, i guess the 'number one' means route one, not like really, the first or something.

bike shop: you can what? ride up hakone without stopping. and therefore the need to visit their shop.

do take some pix of uncle robert's manor. do they have a built-in gymnasium with obstacles labelled one to eight?

the street guy's mouth does look slightly caramel.

tgs. i wonder if xbox 360 will conquer the show floor this time. as in style of microsoft.

did i read it wrong? metal gear - SOLID edition don't play play

Gabriel Chin said...

ee wei: 8 halls of exhibitions is nice and all, but the crowd is ridiculous. its like i got off 2 stops early (which would be Tokyo Disneyland stop) and i have to queue for every single thing. thankfully the gir..i mean games made up for it!

bert: guo dao = kokudou = National Road, yup, so it says Route 1. Not a really nice Route to travel since it goes pass more cities than countryside but its the quickest way i guesss...

you know what, in my haste i forgot to take a picture of the exterior of the house and also the Quek family..but the house is right up an extremely steep hill. you'll probably unlock achievements just by cycling up that hill.

frankly, MS booth sucked. they had so many signs and personnel telling you not to take pictures, like they had anything good to take pics of! HALO 3 probably doesnt excite me as much as every X360 fanboy. and PS3 had GH3 on demo, they didn't so BOOOO!