Thursday, September 27, 2007

September 25th to 27th: Tokyo to Fukushima


September 25th: Tokyo -> Saitama City -> Koga (65km + 20km detour to and from Saitama)


Sign along Route 4.
Route 4 which will take me all the way to the the northern tip of Honshu is 739km long (and the longest of the National Roads) according to Wikipedia. I've set myself a 10 day target to reach Aomori so that would equate to 73.9km a day. Thanks to the detour to Saitama Stadium 2002 (home of Urawa Reds) i fell a little short of target but the temperature has fallen to very cooling 24-26 degrees in the afternoon now, perfect for cycling. And the stadium was a ghost town because there was no game today. Not a soul in sight or shop open (apparently the Reds are on an away AFC game)

September 26th: Koga -> Shirakawa (125km)

Out of neccesity i had to cycle over a 100km today because there were no vacancies in the 2 towns i passed through. Riding at night was no fun and the temperature was very cold at 16 degrees so i finally had a chance to put on the jacket i brought. Finally found a place to spend the night in Shirakawa (the 5th hotel i tried, the others were full as well).

Shirakawa has the best tasting ramen i've had so far in Japan. Just found out that the local variation of Ramen here is considered (by some) to be the best in Japan. The cook (who was also waiter and cashier) was stir-frying some onions and then he poured the ramen broth into it. The smell, heavenly, and the taste, fantastic. The set including some tori karaage and a bowl of soy-sauce rice was 850JPY, which was quite reasonable.

September 27th: Shirakawa -> Fukushima (85km)

Told myself before i set off this morning i didn't want a repeat of yesterday's night cycling so i pushed myself to cycle a little faster and reached Fukushima in record time (2:30pm; i always start off at 10am every morning). I'm 272km from Tokyo now and above my average distance to cover a day (~222km) so maybe i can save a day on my way to Aomori.

Lunch today was ramen again and a new style that i haven't tried before. It's cold ramen noodles that is supposed to be dipped into the soup (a little sweet/sour tasting), and at first i wasnt't sure if that was how it was supposed to be eaten so i just observed the guy beside me. And that black patch on the plate is chili! Wow, never though i would get to have chili in Japan! Unfortunately, it's more sweet than spicy. But the dish was very good.

I'm in the capital city of Fukushima, in Fukushima Prefecture tonight and heading to Sendai tomorrow; that would be the most populated city in the north. I'm expecting temperatures to drop soon and already i'm riding with track pants on to keep warm, but im really enjoying this ride up north. I have not seen any real cyclists on the roads so far though.

7 comments:

Gabriel Chin said...

on a side note, Otsuka Ai's new album, Love Piece, released today.

joseph: sorry, because of the tokyo game show i had no time to explore the rest of Tokyo but don't worry i'm returning there one more time cos my flight is from tokyo

AlmightyMe said...

okok. take care on your way back. enjoy urself. =)

Anonymous said...

eh i thought you don't like chilli, so the chilli being sweet rather than spicy is a good thing?

maybe all the cyclists have already travelled south and have met you on the way.

Gabriel Chin said...

but the regular cyclists i met were very nice, some of them (the older males) would shout "Ganbatte kudasai" as i rode pass

Anonymous said...

are you gonna domestic your way from hokkaido to tokyo or ride back bike??

Gabriel Chin said...

im going to find a ferry from wakkanai to make my way back..might have to ferry-hop a couple of times to make it back to tokyo

Anonymous said...

I just randomly came across this blog while looking up Japan cycling stuff.

I just wanted to say that I live along Route 4 in Fukushima City, and you must have passed right by my apartment.

Hopefully you had a damn good journey.