So Long Seicomart

Tonight is our last night in Hakodate, which means that it's also our last night on Hokkaido. It's been an interesting month full of sweet bean buns, interesting people and of course - rain.


First a special thanks to Zack for getting us from Sapporo to Hakodate with everything else in between without ever getting lost or even really inconvenienced in any way. While I'm still not one for planning things, I suppose it can be useful at times.

We've been in Hakodate for a couple of nights and while there's not too much going on here it is definitely a pleasant place to wander around. The morning fish market along the water front was a great place to find food, which in our case was yet another giant bowl of ramen topped with incredibly fresh grilled squid.


Wow, my tan is horrible. It looks like I'm wearing latex gloves. My sock tan is even worse and I can't even really do anything about it. I tried biking for a day with my sleeves rolled up and that just resulted in sun burned shoulders. Zack claims that such a tan is a bike tourist's badge of honor, which is certainly believable as it would fit in perfectly with the rest of cycling fashion - look ridiculous at all times.

Anyways, after picking up some spare parts for the bikes I spent a few hours wandering around the city. The downtown area of Hakodate is quite nice, the old fishing warehouses having been converted into touristy shops and restaurants. Nothing too surprising, but a nice way to spend the afternoon.


I met up with Zack for dinner to preemptively celebrate my birthday. Lured by something even better than Otaru's 1 litre beers - 1.8 litre beers - we spent some time at Hakodate's micro brewery. The 1.8 litre beers ended up just being normal pitchers, which was a little disappointing but we managed somehow.

After dinner we aimlessly wandered around the area until we happened across an unassuming handwritten sign for an upstairs bar that looked inviting enough. Inside we found ourselves in a tiny, dimly lit, but very comfortable looking space with only the bartender behind the bar and a couple quietly talking in the corner.

We decided to sit at the bar and continued our celebrations for a couple of hours while talking with the bartender and the owner who appeared at some point. While talking we were offered a free pizza which we happily accepted, and while that was generous enough already, as the evening was coming to an end the conversation turned to the mountain that looms over Hakodate, at which point the owner offered to drive us up to see the view from the top - another offer we couldn't refuse.



So, somehow without ever even exchanging names we found ourselves at the top of Hakodateyama overlooking an incredible night time view of the city with our two new friends. Truly worth seeing if you ever find yourself in Japan. While we did take pictures, they really wouldn't do it justice.

We left the mountain top as the fog started to roll in and twisted our way back down the road that snakes up the side of the mountain. We did our best to express our gratitude as we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hostel for the night.

It was a part of Hakodate we would have never seen had it not been for the kindness and generosity of these two strangers for which we are more grateful than I feel we were able to adequately express through Japanese, and so even though they'll never read this, thank you!

If you're ever in Hakodate, spend some time tracking the place down and relay our best wishes.

With that, I'm off to sleep. The next update will likely be from somewhere in northern Honshu, but not for a few days at least. Hard to believe it's already been a month.

Hokkaido, home of the world's worst cycling weather

At a time when apparently the entire Northern hemisphere is complaining about how abnormally hot and sunny it is, here in Hokkaido we're having a different experience. I have, in fact, determined what the worst possible weather conditions for cycling are - here they are in point form:
-First, there must be a headwind. As I've stated, the only noticeable tailwind we've experienced in a full month cycling all the way around Hokkaido lasted one morning.
-Second, it needs to be cloudy. Cloudy enough to obscure the clear blue sky, and certainly cloudy enough to hide any nearby beautiful mountain peaks that might make the ride memorable.
-Third, and this is what makes it so nefarious - the sun must come out for at least two hours. The sky does not clear, mind you, but rather the sun burns a hole in the clouds above you for just long enough to make your pass ascent murderously hot, and enough for a greasy sunscreen application to be necessary to avoid a burn.

Today, on our last day of riding on Hokkaido, we fittingly experienced this day a (hopefully) final time. Bonus: Packing the tent after a full night of rain, and arriving in Hakodate in yet another downpour!


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Overtly negative tone aside, we're actually doing fine. We even had one pleasant day of riding to show for the past 4 - a ride over the shoulder of Mt. Yotei:


as well as a very scenic ride around Lake Toya, with a lakeside camping spot to boot:


We're once again huddled in a hostel, wondering where to go next. The view from our room:


I'm not sure exactly how long we'll be here - a few days at least - nor do I know exactly where we're headed next. Somewhere south. Once the rain stops. (Sometime in the next week, please?)

Otaru

Well here we are in Otaru, with our ever present friends rain and fog.

Despite the weather, we've been enjoying ourselves here. It's easily the most lively town we've been in since we started in Sapporo. Otaru is inexplicably famous for it's glass blowing studios which we only really experienced in passing, and by proxy of the 463 thousand souvenir shops selling various glass things that wouldn't last more than a day squashed into our bike bags.

The sushi here was also highly recommended, and while it was quite fresh and definitely a nice change from the Seicomart meals, it has the price tag to match. Somehow it bothers me to pay more for raw fish from an ocean that's ten feet away, than I do for raw fish that was frozen and shipped half way across the world in Toronto, but what can ya do.

We then wandered into an tiny ice cream/t-shirt store in search of beer flavoured ice cream but found something even better; crab flavoured ice cream, and to answer your question - it tastes like crab. We also tried wasabi, potato and pumpkin. All of which were actually pretty good.

We finished off the night in the micro brewery and after having a pint of everything on their menu couldn't resist the ridiculously over sized one litre glasses of beer that look like something out of the Flintstones.

And just when we thought the one litre glasses were the highlight of the night, we came across a place selling Bakudan which I don't even know how to explain. It's a ball of fishy tasting goo that you can put different toppings on? Even after eating one I'm not even sure what it was, I don't think I want to find out either. I have a feeling it's the seafood equivalent of a hot dog - miscellaneous parts crushed into a tasty paste.

Anyways, the Bakudan wasn't even the best part, it was the 30 second Bakudan theme song that played literally non-stop over and over from the shop that I'm sure is haunting the dreams of the poor girl forced to listen to it for hours a day. We only heard it for five minutes and can't get it out of our heads. I'll come back and edit this if I can find it on Youtube.

Tonight in Otaru there's a festival of some sort, lasting the whole weekend. Fireworks, music, lots of glass stuff for sale along the old railroad.

Unfortunately, it's pouring rain and doesn't seem to be letting up, so we will likely skip the festivities so we can get an early start tomorrow. Our next major destination is Hakodate, our last stop on the island of Hokkaido and also an opportunity to celebrate my birthday on the 30th. I'll be turning the horrifying age of 29. Leaving me only one more year before I have to start lying about my age, or be forced to act like a grown up - I think we all know which is more likely.

All things said and done, Otaru was a nice city to spend a few days off the bikes. Tomorrow morning it's back to Seicomart, rain and headwinds! Which actually seems strangely appealing right now.

Small update - The rain eventually did clear, and so we made our way to the festival at night. It was surprisingly busy, something like the CNE in Toronto, with fireworks and even a not so fantastic Japanese metal band hitting the stage.

We came here for the beer

After a fairly productive 5 days of riding, we've reached the town of Otaru:


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which we selected as a destination based on hearing that it has a fairly good microbrewery. Also because we really haven't been to a city since our arrival.

Some highlights from along the way:





-A beautiful (good weather!) ride around Lake Mashu (pictured), Mt. Ioh and Lake Kusharo. This was a un-laden ride we did on a rest day in Teshikaga, a 60km loop which also featured an outdoor onsen which was FAR too hot to actually sit in.



-A day of actual nice riding weather. Although I'm fairly sure it had headwinds. The wind blows from whatever direction you're travelling in, in Hokkaido. This is a fact. We've traveled every compass direction now and with the exception of the one morning I alluded to earlier, it is the truth. It will even change during the day as you do.




-A morning ride along the shore of Lake Shikotsu. This was of course followed by two grueling ascents as well as a flirtation with Sapporo traffic. Rather than tackle it head on, I opted to force Matt up a third climb in order to avoid it.

I believe the highest pass thus far we've done is Nissho pass, which was 1022m above sea level. Not bad! (A google search for Nissho pass, at least from google.co.jp, finds a youtube video with the caption "Nissho pass is terrible road...") It would have been fine, really, if not for the literally howling headwind we faced both going up and down the mountain. This was the sort of headwind that's usually only exaggerated about when boasting of passes climbed long ago...let it be said, we have now done a climb in a 50km/h headwind.

So, we're here in Otaru planning to take a day or so off, before heading south for the final push to Hakodate. We're a few days ahead of "schedule" by which I mean my arbitrary plan of spending precisely 1 month in Hokkaido. Thus, rest days will be frequent and mileages short. Until next time,


-z

In which the weather gods were cursed

Before I start, we've posted 3 entries now in as many days, so if you haven't checked back in a while, look down the page to see if you've missed any.

Where I last left off, we'd woken to a driving rain in the town of Abashiri. Our Korean friend Hyun, who we'd met the night before, poked his head out of his tent and told us curtly "I'm not riding anywhere today."
We set out anyway, and to give the abridged version, experienced 3 days of crappy weather and bad lodgings. So, rather than write it out, here's a brief photo essay.



-Riding up the Okhotsk coast of the Shiretoko peninsula. A famous world heritage area, the most remote area in Japan, and boasting a healthy asian brown bear population (which rules the park with an iron fist - if a bear is sighted nearby, the area is closed off). All we saw were bad roads, headwinds, and what may have been been a mountain (obscured by fog of course).



-Skipping over the overpriced dingy hostel, this was the ride up over Shiretoko pass. A 15km ascent, supposedly boasting fantastic views. We saw a couple of foxes on the way up, but hit the clouds soon after. It was actually pretty neat - howling winds and swirling mists, temperatures dropping below 10 celsius, an epic climb indeed. However we saw no scenery.



-We emerged from the clouds on the other side of the pass, in to the town of Rausu and surprisingly good weather! (This would last in to the evening but no later.) The most exciting thing? Getting a clear view of the Russian-controlled island of Kunashir! For some reason, seeing Russia was big on my list, and with just the faintest outline of Sakhalin visible from Wakkanai, this did the trick very nicely.



-For one night at least, I could see Russia from my house (tent). Blah blah, Sarah Palin joke, ......



-After another boring, cloudy day of riding in to the wind, we reached the spa town of Teshikaga, where we're staying even still. Surely the weather would get better, right?



-And finally, ramen with our Finnish pal Mikka!

Tomorrow we head west, probably towards the city of Otaru which will likely be our next stop. I imagine after 3 days of sunshine, sweat and sunburns, I'll be crying for the rain again, but the complaining is what makes it fun!

-z

Of Rice and Ramen

Can noodles be beautiful?

I don't think I'd care to live in a world where they couldn't. So while Zack's been busy with maps and "planning" things - whatever that means, I've been documenting something of much greater importance; our food.

Pictured above is what has become one of our most frequent meals. Unlike the boring spaghetti noodle, ramen noodles twist and turn haphazardly through a murky bowl of soup, the flavour of which is usually written in Kanji, the one Japanese script that we can't reliably read and so is usually a surprise.

Twisting around each other into a loosely knit rope of noodles they lie waiting to be dredged up from the bottom of the bowl with our steadily increasing chopstick skill, the temporary pockets formed in the noodle-rope hold just enough of the soup to make each bite full of flavour.

On top of the pile often lies a slab or two of meat, fish or a raw egg - again depending on which picture in the menu we gesture at, and again usually a surprise - so far never a disappointment.



The prices are about what you would see for a meal in Toronto, thought the portions are much larger. It's hard to tell the size from the pictures, but the bowls are massive. It's an ideal meal after a few hours of cycling and on the cold, rainy, foggy days the thought of a giant hot bowl of delicious calories is enough to keep you going. That and dry clothes - I don't know if we aren't operating the dryers properly or what, but every place we've stopped I swear the "dryers" are just spraying our clothes with hot water. Often after spending 400 yen on one load of clothes we just give up. They were inevitably going to get wet again anyways.



There's also plenty of sushi to be found and it's as good as you would expect. The wasabi particularly seems to be much better here, almost buttery.

However, this being a bike trip we are on a modest budget and since most places we ride through either don't have restaurants, or the ones they do have are open at odd hours it's not all delicious ramen and sushi. Especially breakfast which is usually these terrible oats we bought that I'm pretty sure were supposed to be for horses.

Enter Seicomart - the Japanese equivalent of 7/11 (although they have those too) - somewhere around 40% of our meals are made up of prepared foods you can get off the shelves that we warm up in the microwave, and usually eat sitting on the curb outside the store.

There are many different kinds, some better than others but they are all actually pretty good. Seicomart meals, with a sweet bean bun and a yogurt has been our staple food for through small towns where we can't find a real restaurant or don't have enough time to stop.



Then somewhere at the bottom of the line is the road stop food. Don't get me wrong, it's all very tasty, but it's so obviously unhealthy... it's basically battered, deep fried fat. Being able to eat stuff like this and not worry about it has been one of the best parts of bike touring.



Other than all the above we've had a few amazing meals at some of the hostels we've stayed at that we don't have pictures of - an indoor seafood barbecue, some raw horse meat, basically an entire deer at one point - everything has been fantastic even though we often don't even know what we're eating.



The final thing that has to be mentioned is the drinks. You practically cannot go more than 10km in any moderately populated area in Japan without running into something like this.



Just about anything you could ask for. Juice, water, coffee, tea - it's all there. We've probably spent $25 each so far just on vending machine drinks because it's so incredibly convenient. There's even sometimes a selection of hot drinks, for those cold mornings.



So, for those of you asking about the food, that's how it's been so far. We're pretty much over our fear of looking like tourists, especially since with Zack towering over everyone and having to crawl through every doorway it's pretty much impossible to blend in - so we'll be sure to keep taking pictures of anything interesting that we decide to eat. I'm sure there'll be plenty.

There's a lot more to talk about but I've been using the only computer in this place for far too long now. We're at this hostel for another two nights, so I'm sure boredom will kick in again and we'll write something else.

For now, here's a picture of a dog. His owner's were even kind enough to label him for your convenience. And no, we didn't eat the dog.

The Okh-coast with the Most

....rain, that is.


Sorry, that pun's been floating in my head for about 400km now, and if you didn't like it you're free to read some other self-indulgent traveller's blog!

The current state of affairs is we're settling in to a hostel near the town of Teshikaga, waiting for the bad weather to stop, so there will likely be a flurry of posts in the next couple of days!

Anyway, in order for my pun to even make sense, the story is that since leaving Wakkanai a week ago, and travelling down the coast of the Okhotsk sea (get it now??!?), it's been at least cloudy and often rainy. For the full week. Here's another block of text that's been ruminating for the past few days; it's entitled
"Things we have yet to experience in Japan"
-An enjoyable morning of camping complete with a dry tent
-A view of a mountain peak, unobscured by cloud
-The "non-rainy season" of Hokkaido
-A tailwind
-A starry night sky

Less complaining and more pictures, right? In Wakkanai we met a fellow cyclist by the name of Yoneda Kiyoji, who took us out for dinner and even treated us! He also allowed me to practice a little Japanese which I would imagine was trying for him.



We set out, rounded Cape Soya, which is the northernmost point in Japan, and didn't really bother taking any pictures since we arrived in concert with every tour bus north of the 40th parallel. Down the cloudy coast, we actually found a pretty decent free campsite overlooking the sea.



There we met another cyclist, Takahashi Yuichi, who we rode with for the day. We stopped early in the town of Okoppe, to take advantage of the free lodgings (pictured below, an old train car) and to avoid the rain. Yuichi read the menus for us at a few restaurants, which was awesome, and also took us to a Sento to get cleaned up. A Sento is, of course, much like an Onsen, except without the pretense of thermally heated water (but all of the nudity).



We bid adieu to Yuichi and headed south along the coast. We actually managed a good day of riding (I lied before, we had a tailwind that morning) and aided by another fantastic cycling road, made it to the town of Abashiri. At the free campsite there, we met another two cyclists (one from Osaka, one from Korea), had a pleasant evening, and then of course woke up to pouring rain the next morning.




I'll stop there and leave some for Matt to complain about, but before I forget, THE MAP! (The green marks are where we stopped for the night, with G being our present location.)


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We may also set up some sort of a photo album somewhere since it's too annoying posting them all on blogger. More to come,

-z

The Tubes are Clogged!

We're currently in Rausu in a tiny coffee shop/Internet cafe, and not entirely sure what else to do with ourselves. We came over a 700 meter mountain pass this morning so feel that we've earned some time off the bikes!

Unfortunately we can't post pictures from here, and as we're currently using the only two computers in a room full of people I feel pressured to make this quick...

Next time we settle in somewhere with free Internet we'll make up for it, until then.. this short post will have to do just so you know we're still alive.

Oh and Jason, we've been taking pictures of all our food just for you.

Rest for the Wicked

It's been a grueling 3 days on the road and we've once again found ourselves comfortably ensconced in a fully-equipped hostel. This time we'll actually be taking a rest day, that is, a day off the bike - so that I might allow my sunburn to heal, and Matt, his various bike-seat related aches and chafy spots.

Firstly, the map:

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from Furano to Rumoi to Teshio and finally to Wakkanai, Japan's most northerly city.

We set out from Furano on a rather sunny morning (hence the sunburn) which somehow still managed to be cloudy enough to obscure our views of the surrounding mountains. (This would be a theme)



One fixture of touring we've found very pleasant is the abundance of "Michi-no-Eki" or Road Stations, which boast restaurants, dozens of vending machines, clean washrooms, souvenir shops and sometimes even computerized maps that report on road conditions in the area. Ideal when you're parched, starving, dirty and need to use the washroom, which is pretty much always the case, for me at least.



Later that afternoon, we hit the town of Rumoi on the Sea of Japan! Reaching the sea is always exciting, even if you've only really traveled 100k or so to get there. We trucked up the coast a little further and found a superb campsite on a bluff overlooking the sea.



A little morning rain forced us to pack the tent away wet. We then continued up the coast under overcast skies and facing a constant headwind. Passing the town of Teshio at dinner-time, we entered the Sarobetsu National Park, which is supposedly a vast expanse of wild, undeveloped wetland. In reality it was a vast expanse of hayfields, wind turbines and more headwinds. We did find a sweet camping spot however - whereas the night before we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf below, this time the white noise of the constantly humming turbines did it. (Note to those NIMBY anti-wind power people - you have to be really close to hear it and it's not even that bad!)



The one regret about riding up the coast here is that it was cloudy the whole time, thus obscuring our view of Rishiri Island, which is a 1700m volcano that juts out of the Sea of Japan. If it clears up this afternoon we may still see it, but it doesn't look good!



And finally, we've reached Wakkanai! I imagine Matt will upload some more pictures tonight, so I will now take this opportunity to blab about bike-touring related stuff:
-The roads here have been great, for the most part well paved with huge shoulders, even in the bigger towns. Note to Toronto City Councillors - forget about bike lanes. Just paint lines and create shoulders on every street. Problem solved!
-Drivers have been very courteous about giving us plenty of space
-For some reason - and I'm not exaggerating even slightly here - the sun rises at 3:30am. This is great for getting an early start to the day - we're often on the road by 7:30 - but not so great when 10am rolls around and you're eager for second breakfast, and nothing opens until 11:30. The other result is that it gets dark at 8, so you stop riding at 6 and tend to go to bed by 7:30. Lame, I know.

It's a bit chilly here in Wakkanai. That plus the fact that there's a ferry route connecting the town to the Russian city of Korsakov, which results in a lot of Cyrillic signage around town, a very weird, not-so-Japanese atmosphere dominates. We're going to shamble in to town to try and find a restaurant where they think we can handle seafood (usually we just get pork when we randomly gesture at the menus) and then set out South towards the Shiretoko peninsula tomorrow. Until then,

!

-Also, for Zak: Yes, that is the North Face tent, yes, it's still a little too small for 2, no, nothing will ever smell as bad as your sleeping bag did, and as for chamois cream? I don't know, will have to look up the kanji!

Mountains? What mountains?

So, as it happens, we're apparently spending all our time in hostels with ample internet access.

Lured by the prospect of a "Dutch Oven" chicken feast, and encouraged by our first night of actual sleep in days (I honestly haven't really slept even close to a full night since leaving Toronto) we elected to stay an extra night in Furano and explore what it has to offer.

Firstly, for the cartologically inclined, our route of the past two days:

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Accurate, even including the Sapporo cycling road!

Anyway, today on our "day off" we decided on the advice of one of the hostel guys to ride our bikes up to Tokachidake Onsen which is about halfway up a nearby volcano.

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Plug that in to Bikely or something if you like - this was probably one of the steeper climbs I've ever encountered.


It started out simply enough, with a flat ride on a country road through fields of rice, wheat, and lavender flowers - Furano is apparently described as the "South of France of Japan" whatever that means, I've never been to France but the countryside was certainly pleasant.


Once we turned up the mountain however, it got a little tougher, as it was uphill for probably a full 18km. Granted, still through completely beautiful farmlands and forests.


The forests here are incredible - you're presented with walls of greenery on either side of the road, almost completely impenatrable. Strange, almost tropical birdcalls are a constant, and wildlife seems to be everywhere - we saw two foxes on the way up, one of which I needed to yell at repeatedly before he would screw off. (Cute little fellow, but sorry, I don't really feel like having to get a rabies shot here)

The top of the climb was just ridiculous - with grades going up to 14% - and it started pouring to top it off. However, we did indeed reach the Onsen (volcanic hot spring) at the top.

Onsens are fantastic - picture a steaming hot bath fed by geothermically heated water, with a view of the valley below. Great, right? All we had to do to experience it (aside from the gruelling hill climb) was decipher the etiquette behind using one, which involved conquering a fear of ubiquitous male nudity. A helpful primer: here
Sorry, no photographs of naked dudes :(

Tomorrow we set out again, striking North and West, aiming for the town of Rumoi on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Will we stop for three days at a hostel because we're tired and dirty? Probably! Until then, the roasted chicken awaits...

I Dislike Mountains!

So we've left Sapporo. I can probably sum it up in one picture.

Possibly a bit of an exaggeration, but it seems Zack has already filled you in on what we've managed to accomplish so far. Yesterday morning the relaxing was finished and we headed off from the hostel.

Our initial worries of riding out of the city, on the wrong side of the road on three hours of sleep were immediately quashed by the availability of a bike only street that took us practically right from the hostel's front door, all the way out of Sapporo.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, the scenery changed, and now not only were we riding through a major city on our own private street, but through a shady forest.

Everywhere we've been in Japan so far it has been easy to accomplish whatever we needed to. The roads are amazing, there are vending machines on every corner, the ATMs talk to you.. even the trucks talk to you when they're making wide turns. We continued on the forest road until we reached another wonderful innovation, a biking station. Why they don't have these in every country is beyond me. Washrooms, water, bike rentals - whatever you needed.


Once we were off the bike path and out of the city, we made our way 50k or so along the highway before finding a decent spot out of sight of the highway to set up camp. There were about 50 to 60 million mosquitos. I tried bug spray, yelling at them, and various combinations of the two - none were effective.

We packed up in the morning after another mostly sleepless night thanks to some ridiculously loud frogs as well as a general lack of comfort and headed out from there.

This is where we ran into the mountains. At first it was not too bad, but as we continued on turn after turn there would be another climb ahead, silently mocking me. The only saving grace was the tunnels that were generally about 15 degrees cooler than the outside, and there were some long stretches of downhill.

The mountains may have been more managable if we had food to eat or water to drink, but for a stretch of about 80km there was nothing. Zack, the experienced biker never once complained about my slowness! But he took this picture to ensure that I was aware of it.

Even though it was a tough ride, the scenery was fantastic, and everyone has been really good to us, giving us thumbs up and yelling "Gambatte!" as they drive by. The bridges can be a bit startling at times, with nothing but a three foot railing keeping you from a 100 foot fall.

In the end it all worked out, we made it to Furano, drank three bottles of water and found a hostel just before the thunderstorm rolled in. We'll stay the night and set off somewhere else tomorrow. I really have no idea where, for all I know we're going around in circles. I just assume that when Zack spends 15 minutes looking at the map that he knows what he's doing.