Chapter Two Is Offically Over!

Two days before C2C started, Day 1 of my school's annual two-day Culture Festival took place. The festival included a calligraphy exhibit. When I went to that exhibit to check out the art, one piece in particular caught my eye.

It was a piece that was based on the Chinese character meaning "step" or "pace."

Even though my Japanese isn't all that great, I was able to understand the message that went along with the character.

Roughly translated, it reads as follows:

"If you take things one step at a time, you will undoubtedly be able to accomplish something big."

Wow, what a perfect prelude to C2C, eh?

Indeed, when people ask me how the heck Jody and I biked the length of Japan in only 13 days, one thing that I stress to them is that we took things one day at a time. I know that sounds a bit corny, but trust me, it works!

There were three more pieces of art associated with this ride, so it's time to share those, too.

First up, we have this cool poster, if you will, that Jody created before C2C started.

Granted, during the ride we didn't see Fuji and we didn't see any cherry blossoms (since those are only around in the spring).

Nevertheless, the poster is really cool, for at least two reasons:

For one, Jody and I certainly did "Bike Japan."

For two, the poster gives you, for the first time, an accurate look at the complete route that we took.

Awesome work, Jody!

Next up is this cool Xmas ornament.

Some of you might think it's less impressive than Jody's art, but keep in mind that it's one of a kind. Better yet, yours truly made it (at an English camp I worked at in October).

Jody is now the proud owner of this masterpiece, since I sent it to him to commemorate our ride.


Finally, we have this beautiful calligraphy that Minami, a student at my school, made. (She made two, so that both Jody and I could have one.)

The three characters down the middle mean "bicycle" and the two on the side mean, as you may know, "Japan."

How cool is that!?

***************

The only thing left to do now is say "Thank You!"

Thanks to Teun for inspiring me to follow in his bicycle shadow and imagine doing this ride in the first place.

Thanks to Mike for lending us "Mike's Mighty Megalight" once again.

Thanks to Yasuhiro for hooking me up with a bike box for Jody's return flight to L.A.

Thanks to Guy and Kumiko for all their fantastic support.

Thanks to all the Couchsurfers who let us stay with them along the way.

Thanks to Mir for hosting us for a night in Ikuno.

Thanks to the guys at Nakayama Bicycle Pro Shop for fixing my spoke.

Thanks to Mr. "Eastgate" for throwing a post-ride party for us.

Thanks to Minami for the awesome calligraphy commemorating the ride.

Thanks to everyone else we met on the way.

Thanks to everyone who followed this blog in any way, shape, or form.

And, last but not least, thanks to Jody for pulling me to the finish of yet another epic ride.

Stayed tuned for A2A (or D2D?) later in 2012!

I'm Yama and I'm out!

Videos

Unfortunately, the official C2C media man (that would be me) forgot that he wasn't only a photographer, but also a videographer. Thus, there are almost no videos from C2C. The main reason for the lack of videos, however, is that the only videos I could take were with my camera, which means the video quality is not ideal. Nevertheless, I've posted two of my videos below.

This first video (as is the next one) is from the morning of Day 5, as we rode from Akita to Tsuruoka. The video shows one of the calmer moments of the ride, when no cars were passing us. The video also shows you how Jody almost always stuck to the white line on the left side of the road, for safety's sake, whereas I generally rode slightly to Jody's right, so I could see where I was going and so I could protect "The Mule" from traffic, at least in theory.

I took this second video about a minute after I took the first one. This time you can see the kind of traffic we sometimes had to deal with. The truck that passes us is one of hundreds that did so on the ride, but this time the truck actually gave us some room, which wasn't always the case.

Note: I took both of my videos without the use of a helmet cam.

Quotes

I originally had the idea for this post back on September 14, or Day 2.

It's really a shame that by now I have forgotten most of the funnier quotes of C2C. I know I posted a few in at least one early post, but the next time we ride, I've got to do a better job of recording quotes, somehow.

You see, just about every time a great quotable (I'm making that adjective a noun!) happened on this ride, I said something to Jody like, "I've got to remember that one." Inevitably, however, I would forget them by the end of the day.

Perhaps next time I will just have to force myself to pull to the side to write a quote down as soon as I hear or say one worthy of being recorded.

Heck, knowing Jody, he'll just add that job to one of the infinite jobs he's already assigned me, anyway, such as: route maker, hotel reservation clerk, translator, interpreter, photographer, blogger, money lender, ferry ticket buyer, and water boy.

I can just hear him now:

"Pull over, quote man. Better get that one in writing for the blog. And hurry up, yo, because I don't wait for anyone!"

Anyway, here are just a few last classic quotes from C2C.

Enjoy.

*****

This exchange took place at the end of Day 1, after I asked Jody to check to see if he could find a small piece of molded plastic (that protects the prongs of a bicycle fork during transportation) that I had secretly chucked into one of his bags after we had unpacked our bikes (in order to make my ride a few grams lighter!), since I was worried that I had actually left the piece at the airport.

Jeremy "I shouldn't have said anything about this until the end of the ride."
Jody "Trust me. I would have found it tonight when I dumped out my bag."

*****

This exchange took place shortly after we woke up on the morning of Day 2.

Jody: "I had a good night's sleep last night. I'm ready to knock out 200K today."
Jeremy: "Yeah, except we have to ride 250."
Jody: "Huh?"

*****

This one took place in a convenience store, on one of the first days of the ride, as Jody spotted a super-small package of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Welcome to Japan, Jody.

Jody: "What is this, infant size packaging?"

*****

This one took place at our hotel in Tsuruga on the night of Day 8. We were at the front desk, asking about the weather for the following couple of days. I gave Jody some pointers so that even he could ask some questions. Incredibly, Jody came up with his own way of saying "Thank you." when we walked away. You'll only get it if you know Japanese. (Actually, it's so crazy, you might not even get it then!) It basically translates to "Pleased." or "I asked you to do me a favor." Way to go, Jody!

Jody: "Onegaishimashitaaaaaa."

*****

Finally, this one took place on the last day of C2C, when Jody's bike was making all sorts of annoying noises. It's the first time I had ever heard Jody swear.

Jody: "F$%# you!!! ... Not you (Jeremy), my bike."