Day 2 Pix: Bifuka - Sapporo, 246 km

Jody standing with our first night's host, Matthew, a fellow ALT, in Bifuka. I took this picture at 7:35 a.m. on September 14, just as we were about to start Day 2. We planned to get an early start and indeed were getting one, which set a positive tone for all of C2C. Comparatively, B2B was a disaster, since we usually just got up whenever.

The road on the morning of Day 2 was practically deserted.

Here's Jody struggling to open up one of his first onigiris. Unfortunately for him, he failed to follow the instructions (Steps 1, 2, 3) and therefore had a bit of trouble with the packaging. Instances like these are what add to the fun of being in a foreign country.

Jody's wearing his arm warmers in this shot, taken at 7:54 a.m. Lucky for him, the temperature quickly shot up from the low 60's to the low 70's within the next hour, so he could go back to riding sleeveless. This shot reminds me a bit of one of the colder mornings that we had on B2B. I never had to worry about losing Jody in northern Hokkaido because of all the arrows that pointed right at him.

This logging truck was another reminder for both Jody and me of riding through Washington on B2B. This truck was pretty harmless, but later on during the ride, we had quite a few close calls with truckers.











Here's a view of beautiful northern Hokkaido, somewhere between Bifuka and Asahikawa.


















Jody inventing another unconventional way to mount his bike, as he did on B2B.















As we got closer and closer to Sapporo, the relatively quiet road we were on took on more and more of a highway look, giving us a preview of things to come.

Day 1 Pix: Wakkanai Airport - Bifuka, 175 km

The beautiful view we had from the airplane of the road we were about to ride from Wakkanai Airport to Cape Soya.

Jody, standing in front of our bike boxes after we landed at Wakkanai Airport, showing off his "I'm Huge In Japan" shirt. We arrived at the airport, waited for our bikes, took a few pictures, and then got to unpacking and re-assembling our bikes. We hit the road at about 12:25, about an hour and 15 minutes after landing.

The first road sign we saw pointing the way to Cape Soya (Soyamisaki), shortly after leaving the airport. Notice that the locations are also written in Russian!

As you can see, the roads on the first day of C2C were mostly vehicle-free. Unfortunately, the only other day with very little traffic was our final day of riding.

We made it to Cape Soya by 1:15 p.m., roughly 50 minutes after we left the airport. Jody's fast pace was an instant reminder of what I had coming. On B2B, I only rode (kept up) with Jody for about two consecutive days, but on C2C I essentially had no choice but to stick to his back wheel for two entire weeks.

Here's Jody finally taking his first sip of water, about two hours into the ride. By then, one of my two bottles was probably already empty.

Here I am, cruising along past farmlands in northern Hokkaido, on the way to our destination for Day 1, Bifuka.

Stats Now Online

Hey folks! Here are a few brief updates.

1) I have edited each day's headline and added each day's ride stats (at the end of each post) so you can see in numbers what Jody and I have accomplished.

2) I am happy to report that Jody has returned safely to Los Angeles. He has been there for a little more than a day.

3) Today at lunch I noticed that I was having a much easier time eating with chopsticks (right-handed), so I am pretty confident that my hand will soon be back to normal.

4) I will be adding lots of photos soon, so please stay tuned!

That's all I have time for now. Back soon!

Day 13, Miyazaki City - Cape Sata: We Slayed Japan!

We just arrived at my place and it's 1:25 a.m.

We finished C2C today. All is well!

It's a great feeling of accomplishment.

I'm taking Jody to my school tomorrow (today) so he can show off his amazing skills.

More soon!

Time for bed!

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 115.54 miles (185.943 km)
Elapsed Time: 9:52:55
Time in Saddle: 6:38:20
Average Moving Speed: 17.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 41.1 mph
Calories Burned: 6774
Elevation Gain: 5479 ft
Max Elevation: 575 ft*
Average Temp: 77.7 F

*The biggest climb of the day ended with less than 10 miles to go on C2C.

Day 12, Honai - Miyazaki City: Almost There

We took the ferry to Kyushu this morning and then decided to go for a little bike ride with one goal in mind: Make it to Day 13.

As I type this, we are in Nobeoka, making a pit stop at my buddy Guy's house. We will be hitting the road again soon, since our destination for tonight is Miyazaki City.

Good thing we are taking this break, because Jody is in top form as usual, and he is giving me a punishing. If you saw him today, you'd never know that there are more than 2300 kms in his legs from this ride alone. Then again, I am hanging in there just fine.

More later!

OK, I'm back, typing this on an annoying Japanese keyboard that has a tiny, tiny, tiny space bar and that keeps switching from English to Japanese...

Our fairly lengthy pit-stop in Nobeoka was really worthwhile. It gave us a chance to share some ride stories with Guy and his wife, fuel up (nice sandwiches, Kumiko!), do some maintenance (Jody's bike has been making a lot of noise, so he borrowed some tools from Guy to see if he could quickly fix the problem --- no such luck), borrow a pair of gloves (in my case, that is), and buy a new pair of socks (since my one pair was absolutely reeking!).

We made it from Nobeoka to Miyazaki in record time (in other words, really fast!), because, well, as I said earlier and say practically every time I write these posts, Jody is a machine. Granted, I am keeping up with him, but I would never ride this fast by myself.

I checked the weather forecast, and it looks like perhaps the fantastic post-hurricane weather might leave us for a while tomorrow and bring some rain, but maybe we'll get lucky and have another nice day.

We've been telling all sorts of random people about our trip, mostly just saying things like, "We just rode here all the way from Hokkaido, in 12 days." The usual response, as you can imagine, is something like, "Great!" At the beginning of the trip, we were telling people what our destination was, but now that we are almost there, we switched to telling them where we started...

Tomorrow we plan to leave fairly early, probably around 7:30, so that we can finish around 4 or 5 p.m.

Since we are so close to the finish, I have been getting a bit emotional, or at least pretty happy, letting out a bit of a "whoop" or similar exclamation more and more. Naturally, it's very satisfying to have made it this far and I really look forward to finishing this. The excitement probably won't last very long, however, and then we'll both go back to our "normal" lives...

Doing a ride like we are, well, most people just can't relate, so even when we tell them what we are doing, as great as they might think it is, after two or three seconds, they forget what we did. For us, though, it's much greater, since the accomplishment gives us a bit more self-confidence than we had to start with...

Anyway, not much happened during our ride today. We had quite a bit of climbing from Beppu to Nobeoka and then mostly a long, flat stretch into Miyazaki. During the earlier part of the day, we had a lot of headwind to deal with, but later, that was not the case.

OK, that's all for tonight. It's already midnight and time to go to bed.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 122.95 miles (197.868 km)
Elapsed Time: 13:54:30
Time in Saddle: 7:02:48
Average Moving Speed: 17.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 42.1 mph*
Calories Burned: 7455
Elevation Gain: 3999 ft
Max Elevation: 1222 ft
Average Temp: 78.5 F

*This was a record for C2C and happened on a long descent leading to a town called Ume, near Nobeoka.

Day 11, Fukuyama - Honai: TBA

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 125.52 miles (202.004 km)
Elapsed Time: 10:40:32
Time in Saddle: 8:03:21
Average Moving Speed: 15.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 35.0 mph
Calories Burned: 7090
Elevation Gain: 4019 ft
Max Elevation: 287 ft
Average Temp: 78.3 F

Day 10, Ikuno - Fukuyama: It Can't Be Epic Without A Hiccup

Believe it or not, we are still right on schedule. We are in (well, near) Fukuyama, our last stop in Honshu. Tomorrow we head to our third island, Shikoku. We plan to take a very scenic route, so all things considered, it looks like we have picked a good day for tomorrow's ride. In other words, the weather should be perfect, and we should actually be able to take some good pix.

We rode about 200 kilometers today, from Miriam's place to our next host Kenji's place. We didn't get here until about 7:45 p.m., but we would have arrived three hours earlier if it hadn't been for a little problem I had: a broken spoke on my rear wheel.

Long story short: About 150 km into the ride, I noticed that one of my rear spokes was busted. (I will explain later.) We pulled over, called my buddy Guy, and waited for him to look up some bike shops for us, since he had Internet access and we didn't. After several phone calls and visits to three shops, we finally made our way to a shop that could help us. Yeah, so I got the spoke replaced, and it turns out my rear hub was in desperate need of a good cleaning, so that was taken care of, too. (Huge thumbs up to Guy for his assistance.)

Otherwise, not much happened today, but the weather was great, we had a good ride, we had a nice breakfast at Miriam's (thank you!), and we made our latest goal. All in all a great day, really.

I apologize for the lousy post today, but I am really tired. This is the latest we have stayed up on this ride, I think.

No injuries besides the usual aches and pains, no rain, cool place to stay.

We are certainly excited that we are on schedule and we can smell the finish line. The broken spoke today, though, was just a little reminder that it ain't over until the fat lady sings. We have started thinking about the finish, but we are still taking the ride one day at a time.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. When we arrived in town, we went out to eat at a curry place. Normally, that would have been plenty, but our host took us out for dinner immediately after that. We had tons more food, and we finished it. Then we went to a convenience store and I grabbed an ice cream. And now we are at our host's house eating snacks and drinking a beer, only our second of the ride. It still blows my mind how much we eat!

OK, that's all for tonight.

Thanks for following. More to come soon!

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 121.97 miles (196.261 km)
Elapsed Time: 12:03:53
Time in Saddle: 7:17:50
Average Moving Speed: 16.7 mph
Maximum Speed: 38.8 mph
Calories Burned: 7060
Elevation Gain: 2861 ft
Max Elevation: 1382 ft
Average Temp: 76.4 F

Day 9, Tsuruga - Ikuno: Wet, Wetter, Wettestest

Mother Nature came through like a champ today, dumping bucket upon bucket (upon bucket upon bucket) of water on us.

We got our usual early start (we left our hotel at 8:00 this morning), but we easily could have left even earlier had the weather been better. See, we stared at the rain for a good 30 minutes before finally taking off. The funny thing is, the first block that we traveled was under an arcade, so we were able to put off the inevitable for a couple of extra minutes. There was even a red light at the first intersection we hit, which gave us a precious few more seconds of dryness.

From then on, though, it was wet, wetter, and wettestest.

I'm telling you, the rain was coming down hard for most of the day, the roads were overflowing with water, and we got splashed on countless times by passing cars.

We also almost got run off the road by one ridiculously biker-unfriendly driver. That was the closest call I've ever had while biking. The guy's truck was literally 3 mm from by right arm. Scary.

Anyway, I'm writing to you tonight from our host Miriam's place in Ikuno, in Hyogo-ken, which means we made it yet again to our destination.

We had a miserable, wet, cold, mentally draining day, but we survived. We survived by doing our best to ignore the elements and simply ride on
The good news is, tomorrow the weather should be much better, at least by around noon. You cannot imagine how happy we will be to see the sun, if and when we do. The past three days of riding have pretty much sucked!

Tomorrow we have a relatively big day ahead of us, but if we make it to our destination, we'll almost be able to smell Kyushu, the final of four islands that we plan to slay...

As for our health, well, Jody's hands are doing much better, but my right hand is still in bad shape. I'm able to type just fine, but I am useless with chopsticks. I simply can't grip very well with my right hand. Luckily, I don't have any pain, but I'd rather be 100%. As for my legs, well, the left one was giving me some trouble today, so I'm hoping it feels better tomorrow. Just about every day of riding I wonder if my legs will give out or not. So far so good.

One other "event" for today that springs to mind happened on the way here, at a convenience store. I stopped to ask for directions, basically to ensure we were headed in the right direction. (We have yet to get lost once!) When I told the clerk what our (not final) destination was, she replied, "Wow, that's far!"

I felt like smacking her over the head with a frying pan when she said that. The last thing you want to hear when you are tired, wet, and cold is that you have a lot of riding left. I knew there was no way we had far to go, so I told her, "No. We just rode here all the way from Hokkaido. Hokkaido is far. Asago is not far!" Nevertheless, she insisted that Asago was far away.

When I called Miriam and told her where we were, however, she seemed really surprised, in a good way. "Wow! You guys are really close!"

That was more like it! Music to my ears!

So obviously distance is relative, right?

OK folks, that's all the time I have for now. It's already 10:30 p.m. so it's past my bedtime.

Night night and talk to you soon!

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 107.54 miles (173.068 km)
Elapsed Time: 8:38:54
Time in Saddle: 6:53:47
Average Moving Speed: 15.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 32.2 mph
Calories Burned: 6227
Elevation Gain: 1677 ft*
Max Elevation: 1003 ft*
Average Temp: 69.4 F

*The Garmin failed to record accurate elevation on this ride, probably due to the fact that we were riding through a hurricane...

Day 8, Toyama - Tsuruga: TBA

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 123.36 miles (198.528 km)
Elapsed Time: 9:06:46
Time in Saddle: 7:20:56
Average Moving Speed: 16.8 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.7 mph
Calories Burned: 7078
Elevation Gain: 2415 ft
Max Elevation: 732 ft
Average Temp: 64.9 F

Day 7, Nagaoka - Toyama: At Least It Wasn't (That) Windy

Jody and I knew what was in store for us today and we got what was promised: Rain, and lots of it.

Yesterday we rode through drizzle compared to today. Today was just ugly. We got pounded pretty hard by the wet stuff, but, as the title says, at least it wasn't (hat) windy.

We managed to ride our 200 kilometers by 4:45, after departing our hotel this morning at 7:45, making it a 9-hour day. As per usual on this ride, we didn't stop very much or for very long, almost always choosing convenience stores as our rest stops.

We usually use the restroom, stock up on food and drinks, rest for a while, and hit the road again.

The great part about stopping is that we can actually relax and chat about whatever comes to mind, since when we ride we barely talk, as crazy as that sounds. I also usually try to teach Jody some new expression in Japanese, whenever we stop, which is really fun. You should hear him speak Japanese. He talks like a robot, in super slow motion: Excuse --- me........... Where ---- is ----- the ---------------- onigiri?

The bad part about stopping is that on days like today, our bodies cool down and we start to get cold again, which makes it that much harder to get going again.

When we stop, we often look for the snacks with the most calories. I have eaten cookies with about 375 worth, for instance, as well as an apple pie today with about 475. It's amazing how many calories we consume. Well, it's amazing how many calories I consume, anyway, since Jody just eats rice balls.

A couple days ago, we were riding so far without stopping that I even rationed my food while riding, consuming about 100 calories every 30 minutes for about 4 hours. I even managed to unwrap and eat a rice ball while riding! Yeah, that was a bit wacko, but luckily nothing happened to me. Anyway, in the meantime, Jody ate nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Crazy.

Yeah, so as soon as we reached our destination tonight the rain stopped, but right now it's absolutely pouring. We expect the same tomorrow. The rain tomorrow will make today's weather look like a drop or two of water, we believe.

Um... What else can I tell you? We are riding mostly on major roads, which sometimes turn into freeway-like roads, sometimes without warning. We once ended up on one such road but realized it after about 500 meters, so we turned around. Another time, however, we didn't really notice that we were on a kind of highway until it was too late, so we just decided to keep riding, for miles and miles, alongside cars and trucks going about 80 km/h (50 mph).

I got a massage last night, which helped with my legs today, but not entirely. This is simply rough riding. Lots of the roads are bumpy, too.

Anyway, I have to get some sleep! If we can survive tomorrow, we should be OK. By Thursday morning, most of the typhoon should be past us, so we are hoping for sunshine.

Oh, and we are planning to shorten our trip by a day if at all possible, but for now, we are just worried about tomorrow.

As I type this, I tell you, I:m staring out the window at pouring rain. I hope it all passes by morning, but that is about as likely to happen as us giving up the ride.

Ain't gonna happen!

More soon!

Wish us luck!

Today's ride stats: 

Distance: 119.76 miles (192.735 km)
Elapsed Time: 7:49:36
Time in Saddle: 6:30:07
Average Moving Speed: 18.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 39.4 mph
Calories Burned: 7307
Elevation Gain: 2963 ft
Max Elevation: 446 ft
Average Temp: 69.3 F

Day 6, Tsuruoka - Nagaoka: How Do You Like Them Apples!?

It's 2:30, we've ridden about 190 km, and we're already at our day's destination!

We got here so fast for a few reasons:

1) We got an early start, at 6:45.
2) We only made one real stop, after about 100 km.
3) We picked up quite a tailwind, so we were often riding at about 40 km/h.
4) We got battered by rain most of the day, so we were in a hurry to get back inside.

Anyway, I'll fill you in a bit more on today's ride later and hopefully I will be able to post some pictures.

Ciao!

OK, I'm back, but only for a few words. It's not easy typing on a Japanese keyboard...

We are both beat. We went out to eat, twice even, in the past few hours. We've just been walking around, eating everything in sight...

My right hand is still bothering me, enough so that I can't eat effectively using chopsticks right-handed. I can barely eat with chopsticks left-handed, but it's much easier than trying to use my right hand.

We're banged up really bad. I'm having trouble just walking. Jody is, too, but it's a bit worse for me. I think I'm going to try to get a massage.

Worse yet, the weather looks awful for the next two days. Check out weather maps of Japan and you'll see what I mean. It's nasty out. I joked with Jody that we should just leave now, to beat tomorrow's rain.

Anyway, we are trying to stay upbeat through all of this, but the days are getting tougher. Yesterday we had to battle 100 degree temperatures and today we had the complete opposite. I much prefer the sun.

It's 7:30 p.m. and we are just about ready for some sleep. We need to get another early start tomorrow, hope for that tailwind, and bear down and get to our next destination. As you can imagine, neither of us really knows why we are doing this. I guess we have lost our minds.

I think we just have to get past two horrible days and then the sun will shine again.

Sorry again for no pix, but I'm just not in good enough shape to deal with that.

Feel for us!

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 130.24 miles (209.60 km)
Elapsed Time: 10:42:46
Time in Saddle: 7:58:14
Average Moving Speed: 16.3 mph
Maximum Speed: 37.9 mph
Calories Burned: 7403
Elevation Gain: 2441 ft
Max Elevation: 696 ft
Average Temp: 91.0 F

Day 5, Akita - Tsuruoka: In a Word - Exhausted

Sorry for no post yesterday.

We had a mega-long day that wasn't supposed to be mega-long. We rode about 215 km and we didn't get started until about 11:45, because we took a morning ferry from Hakodate to Aomori. We arrived at our host's place at around 8:45, showered up, had a beer, and basically fell asleep.

I thought yesterday's ride was "only" going to be 175 km, so I messed that up a bit. We knew we were in for a long one right away, though, when we saw a road sign with our destination on it, since it told us how far we had to go (190 km, from that point).

Today, luckily, I overestimated the distance, so we had a really short one, just 120 km or so. We arrived at our hotel at 2 p.m. and have been trying to rest since then. Jody is in bed right now, and I was, too, earlier, but I went to the first floor hot spring to try to ease the muscle strain in my legs. I also went to get some food for now (peanut butter sandwiches, homemade) and lots of drinks, since I am probably still dehydrated.

Strangely, both of us are having some trouble with our hands. I can't move the fingers on my right hand together and back apart with my palm facing down. I first noticed this two days ago toward the end of the ride as I had trouble shifting with my right hand. I don't have any pain and I'm able to type this, so I don't think it's anything serious, but it is a bit annoying.

Jody has blisters on his palms and is therefore also having some trouble shifting and braking.

As you can imagine, we are aching in other places, too, but doing our best to hang in there.

Tomorrow we are supposed to ride 200+.

Today we rode through a lot of rain, but that didn't really bother us, since we had a short ride. We stopped several times, which we hadn't been doing up until now, really, and in the morning (before it rained) were therefore able to take more pictures than we had been. Until today, all we really did was ride like mad. This is nuts.

I'm just about out of energy for this post.

I've been teaching Jody quite a bit of Japanese, so when we go into restaurants or convenience stores, for instance, he can ask for water, tell the staff we don't need a bag, ask them to heat up his favorite Japanese food, onigiri (rice balls), and even ask where the onigiri are. It's a lot of fun for both us and the Japanese!

Last night at the Akita train station (we spent the night in Akita, but not at the train station), 5 Japanese college-age girls walked past us so I said "Hi" to them. Then we got into a conversation and they ended up clapping for us when we told them how far we had ridden that day, where we were going, and that we were from America. It was hilarious. I really think they clapped at least three times for us. Too bad I didn't get a picture of them.

We've obviously had similar stories, but that's really all the energy I have. My body is not happy.

Wish us luck for tomorrow!

Good night

p.s. Sorry for not adding the ride stats but Jody has those on his Garmin and I didn't bring that down to the lobby. We will get that info up ASAP.

p.p.s. I never said what was special about 714. It's the number of HRs that Babe Ruth hit...

p.p.s. Since the ride has begun, I have yet to check ESPN.com and several other sites that I normally check, which shows you how little time I spend online. I have no clue what's up in the news, either...

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 79.54 miles (128.007 km)
Elapsed Time: 6:55:58
Time in Saddle: 4:50:37
Average Moving Speed: 16.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.1 mph
Calories Burned: 4481
Elevation Gain:1850 ft
Max Elevation: 236 ft
Average Temp: 78.5 F

Day 4, Hakodate - Akita: TBA

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 133.53 miles (214.895 km)
Elapsed Time: 14:54:41
Time in Saddle: 8:13:15
Average Moving Speed: 16.2 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.7 mph
Calories Burned: 7859
Elevation Gain: 2907 ft
Max Elevation: 814 ft
Average Temp: 82.3 F

Day 3, Sapporo - Hakodate: It's Called A Bumper

We slayed Hokkaido, believe it or not. Today we did another 250 km, for a total of about 675 kms in 3 days of riding. Personally, I can't believe we are here in Hakodate. My body is sore, I'm tired, and I'm also emotionally drained. We ride at a pretty fast pace and we ride for hours on end. Today we started riding at 7:15 a.m. and finished at our usual finish time (by coincidence only) of 7:45 p.m.

The biggest "event" of today was repairing some sidewall damage to one of my tires. The weather was iffy all day, with rain on and off, so at one point we pulled off the road to take our jackets off. While I was putting my raincoat (well, it's actually the raincoat I borrowed from my buddy Guy) away, I noticed a problem with my rear tire. I showed it to Jody and he told me it was my inner tube protruding ever so slightly from the sidewall.

"You can't ride anymore with that tire in that shape. We need to fix that."

So I learned what a bumper* is. It's basically a patch that goes inside the tire to prevent the inner tube from bulging out. Luckily, we were able to patch her up and keep on riding, pumping up the tire with my hand pump. I was glad to have Jody around at that moment to help.

*I have no idea where "bumper" came from, since it's really called a "boot." Nevertheless, my bizarre term makes for a good story, eh? (Addendum to blog: March 1, 2012)

Another highlight of the day was running into a guy named Fabio. He's also cycling down the country, but he's going to camping route, so he has a really heavy bike, which means he cannot cover nearly as much ground per day as Jody and I do. Anyway, we were supposed to have met him here tonight, but unfortunately he ran into some trouble yesterday and ended up one day behind schedule. We ran into him as we were going up one of the many mountains we climbed today.

So yeah, yesterday we covered about the same distance, but today we did way more climbing. That's why today was so huge: massive climbing and massive kilometers.

Some quotes:

Jo to me, about 30 minutes into the ride: Eating already?

Me to Jo, about an hour later: Eating already?

Jo: I'm tired.
Me: Wait... Did you just say you're tired?
Jo: No. I said, "How do you say 'I'm tired.' in Japanese?"

Jo, after we covered about 180 km: How come you haven't said, "I don't know how you do it." yet?
Me: I haven't said it, but I've been thinking it for the past 5 hours.

OK, that's all for now. Not the best post ever, but I claim my usual excuse: I'm tired!

We have an early ferry to catch to Honshu. I really can't believe we have made it this far this fast.

Wish us luck for tomorrow. Talk to you soon.

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 154.71 miles (248.981 km)
Elapsed Time: 12:38:10
Time in Saddle: 9:53:24
Average Moving Speed: 15.6 mph
Maximum Speed: 39.5 mph
Calories Burned: 8903
Elevation Gain: 6962
Max Elevation: 2541 ft
Average Temp: 70.8 F

Day 2, Bifuka - Sapporo: The Great Disappearing Act

We are now in Sapporo! Holy cow. We rode something like 250 km today. We left at about 8 a.m. and arrived at our host's place at about 7:45 p.m. Yeah, long day. And again, Jody rode like a man possessed. He makes it look so easy. It's sickening. Truly.

The funniest thing that happened today was when we lost each other for about 5 minutes. This is what happened, in a nutshell:

Me behind Jody, as usual.
Truck (a semi) on our right.
Light changing to red.
Jody noticed at the last second.
I noticed after the last second.
Jody pulls to his left to stop.
I fly through intersection.
Jody looks back to see if I'm there.
I continue onward, but I don't pedal.
I look back..
Jody is gone.
I ride back to the intersection.
Jody is gone.
Jody disappeared.
I wait and wait and wait.
Finally Jody shows up.
Turns out he didn't see me fly through the intersection, so he thought I must have gotten a flat somewhere way back down the road.
He went looking for me, didn't find me, came back to the intersection.
We re-united. Yeah!

Otherwise, we just rode a lot. Few pictures taken. Little talking done. Just rode. Like crazy. Tired. Going to bed. Gonna eventually come back to this post and touch it up. Sorry...

Some quotes from today:

Jo, as he looks at a drink: How many calories does this thing have?
Me: 27
Jo: That's enough to get me to the next intersection.

Jo: You gotta get that. You're in charge of media.
(As we ride pass a nice sunflower field.)

Jo, as he looks back to see where I am (I am right behind him.): Now that your chain isn't squeaking any more, I can't tell if you're behind me.
Me: Actually, you know I'm behind you, you just don't know how far.

Last night, just before going to bed, Jo: Tomorrow we're not riding as fast as today. No way. I'm too tired.
This morning, Jo: I feel great!

Me, in reference to how fast Jo rides, and how easy he makes it look: I don't know how you do it.
Jo: What are you talking about? You're doing it, too!

Good night, everyone.
Wish us luck for tomorrow, which will probably be our longest day of C2C, as we ride to Hakodate and finish up with Hokkaido. If we're lucky.
Sorry for no pix. Stay tuned.

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 152.71 miles (245.762 km)
Elapsed Time: 12:05:06
Time in Saddle: 9:01:02
Average Moving Speed: 16.9 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.9 mph
Calories Burned: 9183
Elevation Gain: 3054 ft
Max Elevation: 783 ft
Average Temp: 75.1 F

Day 1, Wakkanai Airport - Bifuka: Who's Your Jody?

Jody never ceases to amaze me. The guy is an animal.

All he did today was arrive in the country at around 04:45, start riding at 12:15, and proceed to ride 175 kilometers by 19:45. Of course, I rode the same distance, but Jody pulled me all the way, for the most part.


If it hadn't been for his frantic pace-setting, I'd probably still be about 30 km down the road. I don't know how he does it.

Naturally, he's in bed now as I type this, but that's totally understandable.

Anyway, we all need a Jody to push us past our limits. Who's your Jody?

Some impressions from today's ride:

My knees and lower back are aching, but I'm happy that we survived Day 1. Now we only have 13 to go.

This part of Japan reminds me a little of the northeastern United States. We rode past lots of farmland and dairies, but no rice fields. The roads are pretty empty, as are the towns. The countryside is very picturesque and green.

No bad news to report, which is good news!

Great weather! Hurray for that.

It was great to see Jody again. His choice of shirts for the off-bike time was great, too. It reads: "I'm Huge in Japan"

Tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us. We plan to cover about 250 km.

Sorry for the short post, but I think you understand. I have to get some sleep. More soon!

Today's ride stats:

Distance: 108.88 miles (175.225 km)
Elapsed Time: 6:29:10*

Time in Saddle: 6:27:49

Average Moving Speed: 16.8 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.7 mph

Calories Burned: 6490**

Elevation Gain: 2277 ft

Max Elevation: 659 ft

Average Temp: 69.2 F

*This is inaccurate.

**Jody to me, clarifying the amount: "That's for my body, not yours. You probably burned more, because you look more tired."

Step 1: Put Your Bike In A Box

This is going to have to be short, because the difficulties of blogging on the road have begun. I'm typing this while standing, using the one computer in my hotel's lobby. Not much fun, but the blog must go on! (Sorry, but pictures will have to wait, since I can only do so much.)

So here's the deal. It's just about midnight on the day before C2C begins. I'm in Fukuoka, at my hotel, and I'm heading to the airport in 6 hours. (In other words, I should be sleeping, not blogging!) In the meantime, Jody is on his way to Japan, right now, somewhere over the Pacific. He lands in about 5 hours.

The big news of the day, however, is that I have already overcome my first hurdle, namely, getting my bicycle (that I put in a box) onto the bus that brought me here.

See, public transportation here in Japan is not as bike-friendly as it should be, so the bus company actually told me that I would not be allowed to load my bike (that I put in a box) onto the bus.

Say what? Are you kidding?

At first, the guy on the other end of the line said, "Hold on." When he got back on the phone a minute later, he said, "NG," which is Japanese for "No good."

I don't have time to fill you in with all the details, but suffice it to say my plan was to ignore the guy and take my bike (that I put in a box) anyway. (What other choice did I have?) Except from that point on, I didn't speak any Japanese and my bike (that I put in a box) was a "work of art."

When the bus finally arrived, guess what happened? Nothing. The driver helped me load my box onto the bus and off we went, NQA (no questions asked).

Moral of the story: Don't take "NG" for an answer.

Yeah, so the next step for me is to arrive on time in Tokyo so that I can meet Jody and so that we can catch our flight to the place that no one knows, Wakkanai.

Assuming we arrive on time in Wakkanai, all we have to do is unpack our bikes, re-assemble them, figure out which way to go, and head on out.

Hopefully, things go smoothly.

I've even touched base with the couchsurfer who we are staying at tomorrow night to make sure he can still host us and he can. Yeah! He even gave me vague directions to his apartment (street names are essentially non-existent here) and told me the door is unlocked (I tell you, Japan is a safe place!), in case we arrive and he's not there.

Oh, and the weather for the next couple of days is supposed to be pretty good, which is also nice.

Last but not least, my room number tonight is 714, which is a great omen.

Does anyone (besides you, of course, "Choo-choo") know why?

I'll give you the answer the next time I get to blogging, kids.

Good night!

Dear Jody

Dear Jody,

I've never ridden my bike outside of Kyushu (in Japan, that is), so I have no idea what the roads will be like for most of our ride, but when we finally make it to my 'hood, you're in for quite a treat.

The mountain roads around here are amazing, and I imagine you've never ridden on anything like them.

Some of them are fairly narrow, but open to two-way traffic, and they tend to be quite windy, so, even though there is often little to no traffic on them, you do have to keep your eyes open for vehicles at all times.

Other hazards you have to watch out for are stones, rocks, and sometimes even boulders; potholes of various sizes; ditches along the side of the roads; uneven pavement; twigs, branches, and other debris from trees; running water; moss growing on the road. which can be quite slippery; uneven light coming through the trees; and even animals on and along the road, such as snakes, deer, monkeys, and even wild boars.

I'm not trying to scare (if that's even possible!); I just want you to be prepared.

Also, don't forget that we drive on the "wrong" side of the road over here, the left side.

Even after four years of living in Japan, I still occasionally forget which side of the road I should be on, so I can imagine that you will get confused at times, too, and end up on the right side of the road, which is actually the wrong side.

My best advice to you is: Look both ways and be extra cautious whenever you enter the roadway.

Oh, and as far as you not knowing any Japanese is concerned, well, don't worry about that too much. The people here are really friendly and helpful, so I'm sure you'll be OK. Besides, I've got you covered.

What else?

Oh, yeah, the weather. Well, there's not much we can do about that, but just to be safe, I put in an order for lots of beautiful sunshine every day.

I wish I could be there to welcome you to Japan, but you'll just have to make do on your own for a few hours.

See you in Tokyo, Home Slice,
White Bread

Counting The Days to Hokkaido

It's been a long three weeks since I last posted anything to this blog. Hopefully, you won't have to wait that long in between posts any more. After all, JJxJ is less than a week away!

By the way, I guess I should explain what "JJxJ" stands for, although I bet some of you have already figured it out:

Jody and Jeremy Cross Japan.

The last ride that Jody and I went on was called "B2B," which stood for "Border 2 Border," so I guess this ride should be called "C2C," or "Cape 2 Cape." Somehow, though, while trying to come up with the best name for this ride, we settled on "JJxJ." For a brief moment, I even tried spelling that with a capital "X" (JJXJ), but Jody vetoed that idea right away.

Yeah, so JJxJ it is.

For now, anyway.

You see, I think it's much better if we change the name to C2C.

Why?

Well, then we won't have to worry about the name for our next ride, whenever that will be, because it will simply be D2D.

Right?

All that's left is coming up with a starting point and a finishing point for that one.

Today, on the spur of the moment, I blurted out "Detroit to Dallas," whereas Jody went with "Denmark to Denali." I guess we'll have to get back to the drawing board on that one.

Anyway, over the past few weeks, I've been doing my best to figure out what route we're going to take so that I could start looking for places to stay. Of course, the route we take depends a lot on the availability of accommodations, so I actually had to find some balance between picking a route first and picking places to stay first.

About the only major (if you can even call it that) change we made was for the first two days of riding. See, originally, I thought we should ride down the western coast of Hokkaido all the way to Sapporo, simply because it looked appealing to ride that far along the water. There seemed to be few places to stay along the way though, so I opted to have us ride down the middle of the island, instead. (We'll actually start off by riding along the eastern coastline before moving inland.)

Also, in order to stay clear of most of the devastation caused by the March earthquake and tsunami, we are riding down the western part of Honshu, Japan's main island.

I'll spare you the details about exactly where we're staying, but I can tell you that our list of accommodations looks like this:

Couchsurfers: 5 nights
Hotels: 5 nights
Friends: 2 nights
My place: 1 night

Besides dealing with where to go and where to stay, Jody and I have pretty much finalized all the other details of the trip, many of which I mentioned in my last post.

The biggest problem we had to tackle was how to get back to Gokase from the finish line, Cape Sata. A few days ago my buddy Guy volunteered to pick us up, however, so how we get home is no longer an issue. Two (big) thumbs up for Guy!

With just six short days to go, about all that's left to do is count down the days to Hokkaido.

In the meantime, I've been telling lots of my friends and colleagues about C2C, and I've gotten all sorts of responses.

Some people think we're crazy. （馬鹿じゃないの？）
Some people think we're great. （すごい！）
Some people think we'll never make it. （無理だ！）
Some people simply wished us luck. （頑張ってね！）

All that really matters is that Jody and I support each other, which we do, and that we are confident in our abilities, which we are.

We did it once on B2B.

We will do it again on C2C.

See you at the finish line!