Mount Fuji Hill Climb Race

Last Sunday I "competed" in the first bike race of my life. I'd been reading a book by Dean Karnazes and on a whim of inspiration found myself entering the Mount Fuji hill climb bicycle race. It's only 12km, but the course snakes up the side of Mount Fuji as far as a tarmac road can take you. The height gain is 1200m.

Here's the profile:













I guess the toughest famous mountain for cycling is Alpe D'Huez in France.

Here's how the stats compare:

	Fuji Hill Climb	Alpe D'huez
Start Altitude	800m	744m
Finish Altitude	2000m	1850m
Height Gain	1200m	1071m
Number of bends	35	21
Average gradient	10%	8.1%
Distance	11.4km	13.2km
Maximum gradient	22%	10.6%

Fortunately, I investigated how it compared to Alpe D'Huez after I'd done it. I think I might run off in fear if I'd have checked before starting.

We made a weekend of the trip and stayed with one of Kayo's old college friends near Kawaguchi-ko lake. Thanks to Naoki & Natchan and their 2 children Sora & Mira for their Hospitality. Here's the adorable Sora and Mira pulling strange faces.



We arrived at the race venue about 7am with the race starting at 8:30. Everyone was looking very proffessional and I felt quite intimidated with my very modest bike. I spent a lot of my time trying to find another competitor (other than me) who didn't have clip in shoes, but failed. Even after the race, as far as I could tell, I was the only person without cleats.





I've done fair few running races in my time, but I can't recall ever feeling as nervous as I did on the start line on Sunday. I know I'm reasonably fit and felt confident in my abilty to get up the mountain, but adrenalin was flowing through my vains and butterflies in my stoamch like never before.









The start gun went and I settled into a steady pace near to the back of my group. After a kilomoter or so, I was steadily passing other riders, but by 3kms I was feeling absolutely exhausted. I suppose that's to be expected when you've been going up a very steep hill for 15 minutes. Only another 9km to go though. Despite the suffering, I still found myself steadily passing other riders. I had found my rhythm and was making reasonable progress. The pain levelled off (or at least didn't get any worse). I had a bit of trouble with my gears so had to briefly stop to sort that out around the 5km mark. From there on the road got steeper and my legs continued to burn. other cyclists were weaving all over the road, but I continued along the shortest route. I don't think either has any advantage as we all seemd to be trundling along at a similar steady pace. My bike is set up for touring as opposed to racing, so I"ve got a great range of gears for going uphill. I was certainly greatful for that as we went through some 15%+ gradients around the 8km mark. I kept on driving my legs, and even passed a few more racers before I crossed the line. I was relatively happy with my finish time of 1:11:31 and 11th/31 riders in the beginners catergory.



I met some nice people from the Tokyo Cycling Club at the race, and I'd like to join them for a ride again. Hopefully they'll be coming over to Shizuoka at some point in the near future.

Kayo had been waiting patiently for me at the bootom of the mountain and had got wind of a Janken (Rock, Paper, Scissors) competition that was to take place after the prize presentation. The prize for the winner was a brand new Jamis Coda hybrid bicycle. By the time the presentaion started, rain had set in and by the end of the presentation it was lashing it down. This was looking great from our point of view since the fewer people that were present, the bigger the chance of winning the prize. There were only about 40 people present by the time the competition started. Here's what happened:
Round 1: I lose - That's me out. Kayo wins - She's through to round 2. It's down to about 10 people.
Round 2: Kayo wins again - It's down to 4 people.
Round 3: Kayo wins again - It's down to the 2 people. The 2 finalists are called on to the stage for "The Final"
The Final: It's a draw - Go Again!
It's another draw - Go Again!
Finally........................................


























Kayo Wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Unbelievable! We somehow have to fit another bike in our tiny car for the return journey. But it was a very worthwhile day out indeed. I really enjoyed the race and quite fancy giving another one a go.

A cycle trip/pilgrimage around the 88 Temples of Shikoku

Preamble

During the spring vacation from school, I went cycling around Shikoku for 2 weeks. I’d read about the sacred 88 temples of Shikoku in the lonely planet guidebook and thought it would make a good trip. Travelling around temples is not what I usually do with my free time and many people along the way asked me, “Why are you doing the Shikoku pilgrimage?”

• I’d only briefly been to Shikoku once before and thought it would be a nice place to see more of.
• The distance of the pilgrimage fitted well with a 2 week cycling trip.
• Usually when I go on a holiday, I choose and plan my own itinerary of the places where I want to go. By following the pilgrimage course, I was visiting places which I’d normally bypass or never visit. I thought it would be interesting to follow a route decided by someone other than me for a change.
• I thought it might be interesting to learn about Buddhism. I’d read a little about it in the past, and decided some more investigating wouldn’t do any harm.
• The weather in Shikoku is nice at that time of year.
• I thought it would be a good chance to meet people who don’t usually fall into my peer group.

View The 88 Temples of Shikoku Henro in a larger map

I packed my bike up and took the train down to Tokushima to start my journey.

When I was planning the trip and deciding how far I could travel each day, I based my calculations solely on distance – figuring that 100km per day would be about right. As a result the plan for day 1 was 100km. The 1st 16 temples are all grouped together along the Yoshino river and within 100km of each other. This meant I was due to visit 16 temples on my 1st day. I suddenly realized that even if I only stayed 10 minutes at each temple, then that would be nigh on 3 hours. I also realized that it would in reality take more than 10 minutes to see each temple. I also hadn’t taken into account the mountains. Temple 12 is about 900m above sea level. My plans for day 1 were looking in tatters before I’d begun. But I’d payed for 2 nights at the minshuku in Tokushima, so I had to make it back there by the evening.
Thoughts for the day
Be more decisive
There's a lot of temples
Try to stay ahead of schedule
Enjoy the trip


Day 1 – Saturday March 21st 2009



I didn’t get off to an auspicious start and I was playing catch up from the very beginning. A temple filled itinerary meant that I didn’t have time to stop for food. I had some Udon for brunch around 11am and that was basically it for the day. Not to be recommended. I rushed around the temples and was finished at temple 11 by 3:15. That gave me 1:45 to get to temple 12 Shozanji before the stamp office closed at 5pm. It was 25km away and on the top of a mountain. Full of optimism, I hastily set off.

Rather too hastily as things turned out. The road I was following wound its way up a mountain and gradually gettting narrower and narrower. It then stopped being a road and became a path. It then stopped being a path and became stairs. I carried my bike up the stairs. This path wasn’t marked on my map, but I thought if I continued then I could connect with the pilgrimage path and have a chance of making up to the temple. By 5pm, I was still carrying my bike down the mountain trail and nowhere near the temple. In fact I was probably further away since I now had to ride around another mountain, up and over a pass, down into a valley and up the mountain on which Shozanji stands.



I met a cute and friendly shiba-ken dog along the way which was all very nice. He was rather too friendly though as he trotted alongside me. I had to get off my bike, get angry with him and chase him back down the road to his home, otherwise he’d still be accompanying me now. “Kawaisou” as they say in Japanese, “Poor Dog”.

The sun had set long ago, and it was pitch black. I finally made it to Shozanji around 8pm having collapsed of exhaustion twice along the way. I headed straight to a vending machine and gulped down 3 energy drinks and a can of hot chocolate before climbing up the last few stairs to the temple to say my prayers.


According to my guidebook, there was temple lodging available. The thought of 30 more kilometers back to Tokushima wasn’t very appealing, so I went to inquire. The middle aged lady clearing up in the kitchen looked very confused and gave me a rather frosty reception. “You can’t stay,” was all she said. I spotted some bread for sale, so inquired about buying some. I plodded off to fetch my wallet from my bike and returned to pay for it. I was met with quizzical looks and an interrogation from some of the guests, which I suppose was understandable. A strange foreigner cycling in the dead of night to a mountain-top temple in the middle of nowhere is not really an everyday occurrence, I guess. Their reaction when I told them I was about to set off for Tokushima on my bike was “It’s pitch black out there!! Wwhhhhaaaaaaaaa!?!?”

Reluctantly I headed off and finally made it back at 11:15pm – 16 hours after I’d left. I took a quick bath and headed off to sleep as soon as my ear touched my pillow. It had been a tough start to the trip and I hoped for an easier time of things over the coming days.

Thoughts for the day

Surprised on how many people are doing it.

It's tougher than I thought.

Respect to the walkers

It's gonna be hard to stick to my schedule

Carrying your bike over a mountain is hard

Day 2 – Sunday March 22nd 2009



I awoke feeling less tired than I feared I might and made decent progress throughout the day. I was determined not to run out of energy today and had an unhealthy breakfast at a convenience store and a healthy lunch at a noodle restaurant. Showers continued throughout the day and by the time I snaked my way up the steep mountain road to temple 20 they had turned to heavy rain. The temple was totally deserted and was serenely peaceful. My original plan for today had been to spend the night at Tomoya-san’s (an organic farmer I’d met through warmshowers.org) but I was no where near on schedule. I phoned ahead to a minshuku to make a reservation and freewheeled down the mountain in the cool rain, safe in the knowledge that I’d soon be sat in a hot bath and eating some delicious home cooked food. The minshuku was full of pilgrims and I had a great chat with a couple of “Ojisan” over dinner.


Thoughts for the Day

The pilgrimage feels a bit like a treasure hunt. I was chatting with an ojisan and he likened it to orienteering.
Why use a satnav when you're driving the route? Where's the hardship in that?

Shikoku is rural. They seem to sell more kei trucks and tractors than cars around here.

Day 3 – Monday March 23rd





A clear, crisp and chilly morning awaited me today. A healthy breakfast of fish, raw egg, rice and seaweed was eaten in the company of the other pilgrims before we all ventured off on our different journeys once more. I reached temple 21 before 8am and it was still pretty empty of visitors. The road leading up to the temple was incredibly steep, but it was a great deal more rewarding than taking the cable-car. The view from the temple grounds through the forest was great and I could see the ocean in the distance. It was to be down hill all the way from here today, as that’s where I was heading. I wound my way down the mountain and through the country lanes to join the busy Route 56 along the coast of Tokushima prefecture and on into Kochi.



I reached Tomoya-san’s in late afternoon and had a bit of a rest. In the evening I helped him sort his tomatoes into the different boxes for the different destinations – The green larger fruit bound fruit for the big supermarket chains in Nagoya city and the riper, smaller fruit bound for the local stores. It gave me a small insight into how tough being a commercial farmer is. It’s not only the growing of the crops which takes effort, but there are many other jobs to do alongside this which are just as hard work and even more time consuming.

I have great respect for the way Tomoya-san has sacrificed the financial rewards of his advertising executive lifestyle in Yokohama to fulfill his desire of living a rural life next to the beach in Shikoku. His eyes sparkled with joy as he said, “Shikoku’s the BEST!”


Thoughts for the Day
How times have changed in the last 100 Years (I was talking to an old lady who first walked the temples in 1924)
For farmers, Packing their produce must take as much time and effort as growing it does.


Day 4 – Tuesday March 24th 2009

We rose early and I left Tomoya-san to his tomatoes and headed off along the coast towards Cape Muroto. I made excellent progress throughout the day along route 55 and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day of cycling in the sun. I made it just in time for the Nokyojyo at temple 28, but had to do 36km in 90 minutes to make it in time. Cycling at this pace felt fast to me, but it’s nothing compared to 45km/hr that professional cyclists do in the Tour de France.





Thoughts for the Day

Why do worshippers sound a bell after praying? It sounds like a time's up bell from the TV Quiz "Just a minute"

Day 5 – Wednesday March 25th 2009


I almost lost my wallet today between Temple 33 and 34. I packed away my stuff in my panniers at temple 33, but left my wallet out to buy a drink. I then decided to have an orange instead and I rode the 10km between the two temples with my wallet balancing precariously on my pannier bag.
In the evening I found myself riding along the “Yokonami Skyline”. It was a beautiful sunny evening with an constantly undulating road providing spectacular views across the mountains and Pacific Ocean. It was definitely one of my favourite rides on the trip.


Thoughts for the Day

Why do I only seem to see coaches in the mornings?
What is the point of "taxi henroing"? How boring
What does "Equivocate" mean?


Day 6 - Thursday March 26th 2009


The distances between temples in Kochi meant that today was to be a heavy mileage day. I got off to a flyer but soon realized that “more haste and less speed” would have been the way to go. By my calculations temple 37 (Iwamotoj) was to be found after about 30kms of riding for the day. My odometer had reached 37km and there was still no sign of the temple so I stopped to investigate my maps. I’d overshot the runway by about 9kms. And to add insult to injury, it was the other side of the valley that I’d just descended into. As I U-turned to head back to the temple a walking henro couple asked if I’d forgotten something. “Yes,” I said sheepishly, not adding that it was the actual temple which I’d forgotten.

Towards the end of the day I misread my map again. This time it didn’t cost me much distance, only height. I took the mountain skyline instead of following the coastal route. I never intended to climb over the 450m mountain, but the view from the top was certainly impressive and the free-wheel down the other side thoroughly enjoyable.



Thoughts for the Day
Why do I only seem to see coaches in the mornings?

What is the point of "taxi henroing"? How boring

What does "Equivocate" mean?


Day 7 – Friday March 27th 2009

The most common way to do the pilgrimage is on a guided tour bus and I was always bumping into them at the temples. At temple 39 I received a gift from a bus driver. He suddenly came over, presented me with a sports drink, saying “puresento” and walked off straight away. Five minutes later he was back with a bag of oranges. Again, he suddenly came over to me, said “puresento” and then turned away. Straight away he exclaimed to his passengers, “Wow! He’s got a really big nose, hasn’t he?”


I stayed with a kind elementary school teacher tonight. I’d used the warm showers website again to get in touch with a fellow cycling couple about staying the night. Unfortunately, they were away during my visit, but introduced me to one of their friends who very kindly put me up for the night. Many thanks to Chizuru-sensei and her two children, Michina-chan & Shizuto-kun.


Thoughts for the Day
People can be very kind. I stopped for lunch in a udon café, but the old lady wouldn't let me pay for my lunch.

Chizuru Sensei is being very kind to let me stay too.

What is the point of Taxi Henros?

Day 8 – Saturday March 28th 2009



Today was definitely an uphill day and I headed off into the mountains and the small town of Kumakogen. At temple 44 (Daihoji) I met a cool retired seaman. He told me that he often did day trips around the 88 temples from his home in Kochi and how he’d visited England many times when he was in the navy. He invited me to chant the heart sutra with him. I was still unsure what I was doing completing a pilgrimage and if I really belonged there, but this gesture had the effect of making me feel really welcome as a “henro”.


After I left Daihoji, I only had a short ride through some hills to reach my accommodation for the night. As I was approaching the entrance to a tunnel, a car was waiting in a lay-by. An incredibly attractive lady was waiting by the car. She asked me if I was doing to pilgrimage circuit and then handed me a small packet of home-made cookies which I gratefully accepted. She then offered me a 1000Yen to help me on my journey too, which I vociferously refused. But she slipped it into my pannier bag and ran back to her car before I had chance to return it. People can be very kind sometimes.

Thoughts for the Day

People are not always what they seem on opening impression. 1st impressions are often misguided

Don't be greedy - I received 1000Yen from a beautiful young woman which I really didn't need, but recently I've been fighting for more money from my job Why?

What will Shikoku be like in the future? It's full of old people now.

Day 9 – Sunday March 29th 2009


Today was to be a relatively easy ride. Less than 50kms and all down hill into Matsuyama. The other bonus was that I got to finish the day in Dogo Onsen. It’s said to be oldest onsen in Japan at 3000Years old. It’s also the setting for one of Japan’s best known novels, “Botchan” by Natsumi Soseki. The tourist board go rather over the top on selling the “Botchan” theme, but having read the book it’s interesting to see where it was set.



In many onsens there are often signs saying “No Tattoos”. This is primarily to keep the Yakuza(Japanese mafia) away. With Dogo Onsen being one of Japan’s most famous tourist attractions I was a little surprised to see a couple of my fellow bathers covered in tattoos and their companion missing his little finger – another tell-tale sign of the Yakuza.
Tonight I stayed with a friend of a friend on the outskirts of Matsuyama. After my onsen I caught the train out to Iyo and met Adrian and his family. He instantly supplied me with beer and we were soon off for more at a local izakaya. Thanks to them for putting me up and supplying me (with far too much) beer.


Thoughts for the Day

Cycling downhill is cool

Day 10 – Monday March 30th 2009

With a headache and upset stomach from the night before, I caught the train back into Matsuyama to collect my bike from the underground cycling parking lot. These are like multistory car parks for bikes. As I wheeled my bike over to the lift, I bumped into a bike and knocked it over. This then had a domino effect on the entire row and I was left to pick up about 20 bikes. Not a good start and a sure sign that I wasn’t on top of the world. A visit to MOS burger lifted my spirits somewhat, but it was to be a lethargic day ahead.

It was a beautiful ride along the coast of the inland sea to Nankobo temple (Number 55) in Imabari. The lady from the stamp office (with excellent English) helpfully booked me into a cheap hotel around the corner for the night.

The hotel owner was a kind hearted and helpful old man. He spent 5 minutes photocopying and highlighting a map to show me the way to Taisanji (Temple 56). It was very kind of him to do this, but the temple was on the same road as his hotel. He could’ve said “Just go straight, It’s in 4km on your right.” He was also insistent that I should leave my mobile phone number with him, in case I forgot anything in the hotel.

Thoughts for the Day

Should I cycle to 66 or take the ropeway?
If I take the ropeway, will it be cheating or just being practical with my time requirements?
Do the walkers take the ropeway?

Day 11 – Tuesday March 30th 2009

I had an early start this morning and made great progress. I had the mountain temple of Yokomineji (Temple 60) to contend with around lunchtime. The road to the temple stopped a 3km before the top of the mountain due to the steepness. My guidebook was also warning me that this temple is one of the most difficult due to the narrow, slippery and steep path. I was somewhat relieved to find it didn’t take me as long as I expected. It wasn’t an easy climb, but it certainly wasn’t as difficult as my guidebook made it seem.

Next on my list was Koonji (Temple 61), a modern concrete construction of a temple. I was walking across the compound when I heard “Mr Cant! Mr Cant!” I looked up quite startled. “Who on earth can know me here?” I wondered. It was the priest calling me over, so I went over to find out what was going on. He could see the look of surprise on my face and seemed to be enjoying himself as I puzzled over how he knew my name. “John Cant, from England, Yes? You stayed at the Dai 1 Hotel in Imabari last night, right?”
“Yes”, I confirmed.
“You’ve left your mobile phone somewhere haven’t you?”
“Have I?” I asked obliviously.
“Yes you have. It’s at the hotel in Imabari, Here’s the hotel’s number and there’s a public phone over there. Please give him a call back”
I did as he suggested and duly arranged to collect my phone later that evening. I was hoping to get some good distance in during the afternoon, but any distance I covered on my bike now involved doing it twice more on the train as I went back to Imabari to collect my phone. I stopped for the day earlier than planned and went back to retrieve my phone.


Thoughts for the Day
Do Bus Henros get as much out of the trip as individuals?

Day 12 – Tuesday March 31st 2009

I needed an early start today as I was to visit the dreaded Unpenji (Temple 66) at an altitude of 950m. I set my alarm for 5:30, but couldn’t face getting up and kept hitting the snooze button. Partly a bad habit, and partly in fear of the impending climb, I think.

I made great progress along the main road, before turning off into the hills for Sankakuji (Temple 65). As I climbed up to the temple my bike developed a worrying squeak which I couldn’t figure out why. “Great”, I thought, “Mechanical failure, the prefect excuse to take the cable car to Unpenji”. As I descended back down into the sunshine had turned to showers but the squeak had disappeared. I was also making excellent progress so had no excuses not to cycle to the temple highest temple on the circuit.
The climb to the top was not as tough as I’d feared and I actually enjoyed it. When I reached the mountaintop though it was bitterly cold and I put on all my layers of clothes. The rain turned to snow and the statues in the mist turned the temple into a wonderfully mysterious place. I headed into the warmth of the Ropeway station and for a couple of cans of well earned hot chocolate. I looked on with envy as a couple of tour groups headed down on the ropeway complaining of the cold.




I headed back out to my bike and prepared for the bitterly cold descent to Kannonji. I spent the afternoon dreaming of a beautiful onsen as I contunied along my way. I still hadn’t warmed up by the time I reached my minshuku for the night. But the welcome was warm, the bath was hot and the food plentiful and delicious so I was able to enjoy a relaxing evening.

Thoughts for the day

The guys whose plans it were to build the temples must be very pursuasive.

Carrying all of the materials to the mountain tops to build a temple is must have been crazy work. And then you need to actually build it too.

Day 13 – Wednesday April 1st 2009

I had planned on finishing the trip on Friday, but I still had 19 temples to visit, so it was looking rather optimistic. I was upbeat and ready to roll on the bright and chilly morning as I headed through the Kagawa countryside towards Takamatsu. I needed to do another steep climb to reach Iyadanji (Temple 71) and even from the car park there were a few hundred stairs left to climb to reach the temple complex at the top. Zentsuji (Temple 75) is the birthplace of the pilgrim founder Kobo Daishi and is made up of a large temple complex covering 45,000 square metres. It’s so big that it’s more like a small village than a temple. Unfortunately with my schedule, I didn’t have time to explore the grounds fully and rushed through to get my stamps and say my prayers.



I continued on my way. At the end of the day I had to pedaling hard up another mountain and then sprint up a huge flight of stairs, I was just in time to catch the stamp office at Shiromineji (Temple 81) before it closed at 5pm. Negoroji (Temple 82) is on the same mountain, but my quest to find accommodation nearby proved fruitless and I had to head back down into town and make another assault on the mountain the following morning.


Thoughts for the day
Just by seeing people a few times along the route, you build up a connection with them even without saying much. Why is that?

Day 14 – Friday April 2nd 2009

I had 8 temples to visit today, if I was to finish the pilgrimage. 2 of them had cable cars to reach the mountain top, but I wasn’t about to succumb to using those on the final day of my mission. I made good progress throughout the morning, but with some big distances and looming mountains to come in the afternoon, It became apparent that I wouldn’t finish my quest today. Realising this released me of the time pressure and I settled in to enjoy my penultimate day of travelling.

I met my 1st other foreign henro at Yashimaji (Temple 84). She didn’t speak Japanese and I think she had been having a tough time of things. She’d met a Japanese man while doing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain who’d told her about Shikoku. Like me, she wasn’t particularly religious, but thought it would make for an interesting adventure. It was taking her about 6 weeks and I think she was looking forward to getting back home. I had a great deal of respect for her though as it must have been pretty tough and lonely at times. I hoped to bump into her again later in the day, but that was the only time I saw her.

Yakuriji (Temple 85) is another temple with an incredibly steep road (20% in places) to the top. A grumpy old lady tried to tell me that I couldn’t cycle up the road, but I was having none of that and made it to the top. I finished the day at Nagaoji (Temple 87) before catching the train back to Takamatsu to meet Kayo, Kae and Rie who’d come to collect me at the end of my trip. The hotel we were staying in had a fantastic onsen and later we all went out for dinner. I was conscious not to drink too much beer as I still had a couple of mountains to get over the following morning.


Thoughts for the day

It's much much much more pleasant to not be worrying about getting through a certain number of temples in a day and just taking things as the come
Everyone you meet has their own story and they all usually have intersting things to say.

Day 15 – Saturday April 2nd 2009

After an outrageously big breakfast at the hotel buffet, we drove back to the station at Nagaoji for me to collect my bike and continue on my way to Okuboji (Temple 88). I stopped to apply sun cream to my burnt ears but ended up putting on my raincoat as the sun suddenly turned to rain. I made it to temple 88 and it was with a hint of melancholy that I headed off into the rainy mountains and back to where I started 2 weeks ago at Ryozanji (Temple 1).


I made it through the heavy rain and over the last few mountains to reach my goal. I felt proud to have made it round and compared how I was feeling now to the feelings of excitement and uncertainty of 2 week previous.

I went to the stamp office for get my book stamped, packed my bike into the car and then headed off for a quick bath. I still needed the stamp from Shozanji, so we drove up there in the rain and I recalled my experiences on the mountain in the pitch black 2 weeks previous. We had to run from the car park through the rain but just made it before the stamp office closed. That really was my last temple for the trip and we piled back in the car for the ride to Kochi and some well earned food and drink.


Thoughts for the day

I feel proud to have finished, but wonder what the point of it was.

How many people of done this before me?

What have I learned?

Afterword

The pilgrimage is said to be seen as a challenge with various trials and tribulations. As I look back on my 2 weeks on the road I realize that it’s been a success. I’ve learned things about myself and others. I’ve learned to relax a bit more and not worry about timings and schedules so much. The most enjoyable times on the trip were when I wasn’t rushing around to reach a certain place by a deadline. I also realize just how productive a day can be by getting going early in the morning. I had a thoroughly enjoyable, rewarding and at times challenging fortnight and all in all it was a great trip. I highly recommend it.


Some Stats

Total Distance: 1337km

Avg Speed: 16.8km/hr

Longest Day: 158.8km (Day 6)

Shortest Day: 44.7km (Day 9)

Avg km/day: 89.1km

Temples per day: 5.9

My Lottery Results

Way back in June,along with 130,000 other people I entered the Tokyo Marathon. There are only 25,000 places - so less than a 1 in 5 chance of getting a place and......... I've been succesful. Back when I entered I was feeling quite determined to do well, then, when I saw the number of entrants increasing and my chances of a place decreasing, I kind of lost interest and was looking forward to the story - "Well I tried to get a place, Maybe I'll get a place next year" Unfortunately that didn't happen and I've now got a winter of hard training to look forward to.
I'm doing a 10K race next sunday with a teacher and 8 Students from my School. My aim for that is not to finish last from our group. Let's see........

I'd Better Get Training.....

Tour

So it's time for the Tour de France again. This year it started in London and I'm very disappointed to have missed it (being there in person that is). The scenes looked brilliant.


This year I'd love to see Alexander Vinokourov win. He's always attacking and a very poweful rider. He's from Kazakhstan, but he's not Borat.

You can watch the tour live by clicking here.

I was never interested in cycling until a few years ago when I read Lance Armstrong's autobiogrphy. It's one of my favourite books ever. Very inspirational.

And here's a good Lance Armstron Montage from youtube.....

A Mixed Up Cake Shop

Summer Sumo Mix

We went to the summer sumo tournament last Saturday in Tokyo and then to the room on the night. The music was awesome. An oustanding mix of Jazz, House and Funk. The DJ's we're from a group called Jazztronik. Can't say I know much about them to be honest, but I'll definitely doff my new hat to them. They were fantastic.

This weekend is my old mate Hideaki's wedding, back in Iida. He's captain of the football team I used to play for. It's gonna be great to see all the guys again and it promises to be a belter of a session. Can't Wait!

I've had a couple of days off this week, so I thought I'd put a few songs together that I've been enjoying recently. 
It's a flipping great mix if I do say so myself.
I HIGHLY recommend.
Click on the fat chaps to download..........................



The Tracks -->

Pepe California~Meli-Fali
Midlake~Roscoe
Arcade Fire~No Cars Go
The Pipettes~Pull Shapes
Max Sedgley~The Devil Inside
Simian Mobile Disco~It's The Beat (TheTeenagers Mix)
The Sounds~Tony The Beat (Rex The Dog Mix)
LCD Soundsytem~All My Friends
Tiga~Far From Home (DFA Vocal Mix)
Mighty Dub Katz~GuaGuanco (Ashley Beedle's Heavy Disco Mix)
Tracey Thorn~It's All True (Escort Extended Mix)
Munich Machine~Get On The Funk Train

Crash - Live - Bridge

It's been a relatively busy, but standard week here for me. The only real thing of note was I crashed my bike on Monday. I went round a corner a bit too fast, and badly buckled my back wheel. I took it to my local bike shop to get it fixed on Thursday and was told it would take a week for the new wheel to arrive. "Oh Joy! Another week of catching the bus to school" I thought. But as I'm leaving the shop, the assistant is stood there with a loveley bike for me to use until mine's ready. How cool is that? Service in Japan really is top drawer.

Thought I'd let you know where I live - I just discovered google maps so I've put a pin in for my house, Kayo's house and Mount Fuji. The aerial shot was taken in summer time so Mount Fuji doesn't appear in it's snow capped glory, but it still should give you a good indication of where I'm at in the world.
Where I live. Tokyo is the big splodge of grey a little further to the East.

And here are couple of photos from our little camping trip last week. Indiana Jones style scary bridge.

Podcast and Staying up.

I made my podcast debut last week. One of the teachers at my school runs a couple of websites - Guzen Media and English Teaching in Japan. I went on to mumble on about a bit of my teaching experiences since I came to Japan. You listen here.

And check out this video:


Happy Days - but not for L**ds

School's back and wedding bells

I've been back at school for a couple of weeks now and all's going well so far. My new timetable has been very kind. All of my lessons are crammed together between Monday and Thursday - so I currently get Fridays off. Also – 7 out of 8 classes, I teach with the same teacher - Dejima Sensei(出島先生) So that makes planning pretty easy too. It could have been a disaster if we didn't get on - but luckily we do.

When I joined the school - It was already halfway through the school year - this means that the precedent is already set for the how the lessons work and I have to pick up on that and adjust. But now, I'm here from the start, so get things a bit more my own way.
A lot of my old students have been saying hello to me when they see me around - one lad even mimed fake tears to show me how sad he is that he doesn't have oral communication classes anymore. I'm not sure what to make of it all - The kind and friendly things they say are all very good, but if they enjoyed the lessons so much - why did they rarely do any work in class?

I went to my 1st Japanese wedding yesterday. Two of Kayo's friends from Elementary, Junior High and High School got married - Kanta and Mariko - Big Congratulations to them - or おめでとうございます as they say round these parts.

It was quite interesting to compare and contrast the wedding style I'm used to in England with what I saw yesterday. So here are my top 5 similarities:

1. Lots of Emotion and tears - especially from the bride - but also from the groom, speech makers and the bride's father. The ladies were holding it together a little better - though I did spot Kayo using her hanky a couple of times.

2. Expensive. It seems no expense is spared for a good wedding party here too. Extravagent clothes, wonderful food and flowers galore.

3. A wonderfully flamboyant cake - check out this picture:

4. (Naturally) Everybody gets drunk.

5. The bride looks beautiful - see above photo

There are some big differences, however.

1. Presents. In Japan guests don't give presents to the bride and groom. Instead they receive a gift bag from the happy couple.In our gift bag, we got some nice smoked ham, some beer and a traditional Japanese pottery style beer/green tea cup. "Good deal" I hear you thinking, "not only do you get a feast and a piss up, but you also get a present as well". That's not quite the case - instead of giving a present to the couple, everyone makes a monetary donation - in this case 30,000Yen (£125).

2. Venues. Japan isn't a Christian country; so obviously, the majority of weddings don't happen in churches. Mariko and Kanta were married in a temple, which is the Japanese equivalent of a church, I suppose. However the actual wedding ceremony is only for the close family – most friends aren’t invited to the wedding. Everyone comes for the meal afterwards.

3. Dance. There are no 1st dance antics in Japan. In fact –there's no scope for dancing at all, really. They go to different venues throughout the evening – the afternoon reception is usually held in a swanky hotel and is where the most people are gathered – family who attended the morning ceremony along with friends, colleagues and other family members. After that the is the ni ji kai (2nd party) from about 7:30-9:30pm. This is for the younger crowd – friends and colleagues. Older family members go home at the end of the main reception. This 2nd party is held in a nice bar or izakaya – and again guests pay for an all you can eat/drink deal. After the ni ji kai is the san ji kai (3rd party). This is for whoever’s still standing. We went to a 50’s style American theme club which was a good laugh – but still no opportunity for dancing. Give me a good old fashioned cheesy disco any day.

4. Theatre. I'm not sure how to describe this – Before the bride and groom make their entrance at the reception a big screen dropped down and we watched a photo slide show of each of them growing up. It was very clever and a nice touch, I thought. Then Mariko and Kanta made their entrance and everyone applauded them down the aisle as they go sit alone at the front of the hall on a mini stage. It was all very theatrical – guests join them for photos and then the bride and groom make their way around the hall to have photos taken with each table. At the end of the meal – there’s a final speech from the bride’s father and the groom. Then they disappear to further applause. The screen pops down and we are shown slides and video clips from throughout the day as the credits roll. The credits in this case, are the names of all the guests.

5. No bridesmaids / best man. I thought it was little sad to see that the person responsible for helping with the bride’s dress / flowers etc was a paid employee from the hotel. Japan’s commercialism wins the day once again.

New mp3 player = New Mix

So I bought a new mp3 player last week. A Creative Zen V. I'm delighted with it. They had 2 colours available - White and Black. When I was buying it, the electronic man asked me which colour. "Either is OK".I said. He brought me the black one and a few days later I realised it matches Hull City's colours. Bonus. So I put a Hull City screensaver on it.

So to celebrate my purchase I made a new mix. It's little bit POP, a little bit INDIE and of course a little bit DISCO. You too can listen - Just click on the picture.

A Ride in the Mountains

A Ride in the Mountains

It seems ages since I've done a decent amount of exercise, so I thought I'd do something about it. I went out for a bike ride in the mountains yesterday. I set off at about 12:15 and intended to ride for a couple of hours or so. I got a bit carried away and didn't get in 'til it was dark. While I was out I took some photographs. Here they are.......

This is a really old house on the edge of Shizuoka. The hedge like things you can see in the centre is green tea. Tea fields are everywhere around here. It’s what Shizuoka is famous for apparently.



This is a tunnel being built. I don’t know what these roads are – as there’s already a highway that seems to run parallel to this about 2 kilometres south of here. This road looks like it’s been a long time in the making – and may well be an abandoned project.


I stopped for a drink at the 100 Yen drinks machine – well you have to don't yer?

Looks like hard work up this hill:


But I made it....That's where I was 30 minutes ago:


Check out my cheesy 1st ever video diary:


A hillside bamboo forest:



These next pictures require an explanation:
So I was cycling along this mountain road – it's proper in the middle of nowhere – barely any houses, cars or people for miles around when I came across this spotlessly clean plastic back on the roadside. “What could be in there?” I thought to myself. So I stopped to check it out.


Ah....Some magazines..........

What kind of magazines????
Why! Porn mags, Of course!?!?!


This left me rather confused. Why would someone have a plastic bag of porn mags in the middle of nowhere? And why would they just leave them at the roadside? Japan is a very litter free country usually.......I don't understand.

I carried on cycling up the mountain and came to a beautiful shrine at the top of the hill.

There was an information board in English. People come here to pray for luck in the time of war. And then there was this big list of names – Maybe it’s list of local people who've died in wars or something – I have no idea. They were quite striking, though.

This temple was pretty much at the top. It was about 1000m above sea level – The size of Snowden – and I live at sea level – so as you can imagine it was quite a tough climb. It took about 2 hours or so. I carried on further along the road and freewheeled down the hill.
I came to little village called “Upper Black River”.



It had an onsen, and as I was freezing from the cool wind biting through my body on the ride down the hill.. It seemed like a good idea to stop and warm up. I also had a bowl of tempura soba.

It was now about 4:30 – and I didn't really know where I was. It would be dark soon, so I upped my pace. I had a dilemma at a T-junction. I could either take the quiet country road back towards my house or head towards the main road. The problem with the main road would be that it was a very busy road, and wouldn’t be too pleasant to cycle along. The problem with the quiet road was that the signpost said "高山" - 4km.高山 means “High Mountain”. I didn’t fancy that either. But I set off along it as I guessed it would be much shorter than going around. Fortunately there were road works going on and the road appeared to be closed. I took that as my excuse to turn around and head back towards the flat main road. It took another 1hr 30 to get home – and it was pretty much dark when I stumbled into my flat for a well earned cup of tea.

But I had a delightful day.:-)

大丈夫行って

OK - GO


So I was at work on Saturday and one of my students was telling me she was going to a Music Videos film festival. "Interesting" I thought, and asked her what videos she would see. OK GO came the reply. Now I remember seeing their 1st video a while back and thought it was brilliant - dancing on treadmills - so when I got home I logged on to youtube for another look and found their another one too. Here you go.....


and here's another one......

And then I found out that they started a competition for people to kind of copy them and improve / interpret them. Here's the winners.
I'm loving their songs too.

Another 'interesting' conversation took place in one of my lessons too. I had a class of 4 ladies - 2 middle aged and 2 about my age - and I was going round at the start of the class asking them how they were - an nice easy started for 10, I thought. Anyway on to lady No 4......
Me:                  "So, how are you today, Kayoko?"
Kayoko-san:   "Well, I'm a bit up and down these days. You see I'm going through the menopause at the moment"
I didn't have a clue what to say to that, so I put the CD on and made 'em do some listening. Shocking.

2 weeks on the trot

One of the things that I find mildly annoying about living in Japan is not being exposed to the media (it can be a blessing too, I suppose). If you want to know what's going on you, have to actively go out and look for something to do. So this means I probably miss out on some good gigs, club nights and the like, because I haven’t heard about them. On Saturday, however, I actually went looking for something to do. I called into my local record shop to look at some flyers. Amongst them was a night called Godfather at a club called four4 in Shizuoka. I knew the club, but hadn’t been as it usually hosts hip-hop nights. From “reading” the flyer. I could make out one phrase – “Larry Levan”. It was the only words written in English. Sounds interesting, I thought, so we mulled it over over a coffee. I convinced Kayo it made sense and we popped into some womens clothes shop to buy tickets. We headed home for a bit of dinner, wine and little rest.

I’ve been on a soup tip recently so here’s my recipe for winter vegetable soup with a twist of miso.
Ingredients

1. some carrots,
   
2. some cabbage,
   
3. an onion,
   
4. a couple of cloves of garlic,
   
5. some mushrooms
   
6. a couple of stock cubes
   
7. salt & pepper
   
8. a couple of spoons of miso paste
   

Instructions

1. Put some water in a pan and heat it up
   
2. Cut up the garlic, carrots, cabbage and onion.
   
3. Add the vegetables, stock cubes and salt and pepper to the water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for an hour or so.
   
4. Add the mushrooms and miso paste and simmer for about 10 more minutes.
   
5. Whack it in a bowl and eat it with some bread and butter.
   

I love it – it’s super easy, super healthy, very warming and absolutely freeking delicious.

Anyway....back to the night. Before we went to the club we popped into a wicked little bar called honey roast peanuts for a couple of drinks. We’ll be going back there for sure – it was wooden, warm and cozy.
Got to the club about midnight, exchanged our tickets for wristbands dumped our coats and got straight on down. It’s a small and simple place – a little bar at one end and then a reasonably sized dance floor at the other end. It’s got 4 sets of speakers in the corners delivering perfect sound and a big mirror ball in the middle. The music was proper deep and dirty house all night long – Awesome. I danced in my own unique way for an hour or so and worked up a bit of a sweat on the ramjammed dancefloor and needed to rest. There’s no chill out area or any seats at all, but because they gave us wristbands we could go out and come back again. So we took advantage and went back to honey roast peanuts for a drink and some nourishment. We got back to the club about 3 and danced for 2 hours solid. It was meant to finish at 5 and at about 4:50 they played an awesome Fela Kuti track that seemed to last forever. Someone came on the mic to wish the DJ a happy birthday as he was 50 last week, a birthday cake (complete with candles) was brought and they announced that they were staying open for an extra hour. I was absolutely knackered by this stage so I reluctantly left the dancefloor and headed outside and we jumped in a taxi home – via the obligatory combini store for an icecream and some hot lemon calpis. No ramen tonight though :-( But I did't really care since it was a truly fantastic night out.

Shizuoka is cool!

Weekend in Tokyo

How do?

So I went to Tokyo at the weekend. The main reason was to watch the Grand sumo tournament, but needless to say other events were shackled on to both sides of the sumo.

Friday

I caught the train down after work using the wonderful senshun jyuhachi kippu - or youth 18 ticket in English. It's a ticket that let's you travel anywhere in Japan on the local trains for one calender day at a price of 2375Yen (about a tenner in English money) - Bargain. Kayo leaves work later than me, and I was on a mission to check out some of the
cool record shops in Shibuya. They were delightful and I spent a couple of hours listening to tunes and wishing I had a record deck here in Japan. In the end I settled for a couple of cds Four Tet's DJ Kicks and The Loleatta Holloway Anthology.
I spent most of my time in Manhattan records - great shop, and then Kayo was late so I wandered into the Massive HMV and browsed their wonderful floor of dance music.
Not only are the record shops all stocked full of wonderful music but they're all open until 23:00 or midnight. Respect!

Next I met Kayo and we went to an a wicked izakaya to meet her sister (Nao) and friends. Had a delightful night drinking and eating. It wasn't a good night for my Japanese practice, though since all of Nao's friends spoke much better English than I do Japanese. One of the 1st conversations of the night was about the Japanese music scene - Gazoisan was suggesting that most people in Japan were lazy when it comes to music as they all listen to J-pop rubbish. However, I'd just spent the previous 2 hours in those great record shops so had to argue that it's not quite the case. It's true to an extent, like. J-pop is by far and away the No1 music genre in this country, but they've got some tremendous record shops too. I suppose it's just like England after all.

On the way home from the Izakaya at about 3.30 we called in to an ever so convenient convenience store for the extra unnecessary bottle of headache inducing red wine. O-Yasumi Nasai.

Saturday

So we got up late, had a delightful tandori chicken lunch at a little Indian restaurant in Koenji and then it was off to see fat men in nappies.
On the train to the Sumo, I had the (wonderful?) idea of taking of photo every hour to see how the day progressed. I didn't quite manage to take a photo on the hour every hour - and some of the ones I did take were a bit dull. So here's a general photo blog of our Saturday. The main people featured in the photos are me, Kayo, Tom (my old mate from Nagano) and his girlfriend Hiromi. I'm sure you know who's who.

だから。。。。。A Hungover Kayo on the train to the sumo......



We waited outside of the sumo venue and watched some of the wrestlers arrive. Now before the weekend, I must admit that I wasn't really that excited by the sumo. But as soon I arrived their was a fantastic buzz of excitement around the place. There was an old chap stood near us trying to shake the hands of the sumo guys as they walked past - some were happy to oblige - others were stoney faced scary behemoths. Everytime a co-operative wrestler shook his had he had the look of a six year old in toy town. It was very sweet to see such a happy old man. The other thing I must mention is the the smell of their hair wax. Tradition dictates their hair to be styled in a very special knot. The higher up the ranking system you are enables you to have a fancier knot in your hair. They use a special kind if wax to fix it up and it reeks more than one of my my farts. Smelly!

This is us practicing acting like twats before the wrestlers walked by......



And this is us behaving like twats as the wrestlers walked by......



Hiromi (acting?) as the primary school kid....



And down to the real action.....



Check out the titties.....



We found this chap as we wandered around the arena. He seemed happy enough posing for photos with everyone despite his steely glare. So the girls plucked up the courage to ask. Did you know the average sumo wrestler weighs about 150-170kg - or about 25-30 stone in old money.

Massive.....



Swanky hotel desu ne.....



Then it was dinner time in a super cool bar/restaurant in the middle of a book shop in Shibuya. The lovely Mihoko and Hitomi joined us for dinner too
Flash.....



Followed by some more drinks in another super cool bar. Tokyo is definitely very cool. (Unlike Hiromi and me.)
Twattery.....



Next we toddled off to a fantastic club called womb to see James Lavelle. It was a wicked club - kind of dark like fabric - but a bit more glam with a HUGE mirrorball in the middle of the grimy dancefloor. It also had a fantastic tiny room hdden away on the top floor. They were playing great tunes all night in there. It felt good to be in a PROPER club again. It's been a while.

Womb.....



More dancing.....


and then it was time for the taxi ride home followed by the ultimate way to finish off the day: A beautiful bowl of boiling miso ramen.

Oiishiiii.....