Lessons learned

Mileage: 2503km!!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to our little corner of the Internet.  We have made it to the end of Japan! We’re a little sore, but no worse for wear. I gained a couple more bruises (no surprise there)  but we aren’t meant to make it to the finish line in perfect condition.  Where’s the fun in that? That sounds kind of boring to me.  The important thing is we made it, AND we still like each other enough to stay married.  😉  Getting here hasn’t been a piece of cake.  As our dear, recently departed co-worker Danny Mac was fond of saying,  “We laughed. We cried… All the emotions!”.

As we have been rolling through some towns we garnered a few looks and comments about us being “professionals”, which put me into a bit of an imposture syndrome loop. We don’t really see ourselves as professional bicycle touring aficionados.  Sure, we got the gear. We have absolutely done some serious miles and hills.  Does that make us professionals?

I don’t really see myself as a newbie to cycle touring either.  I certainly don’t have the same expertise as others do.  I have always considered Steve to be more of an expert in cycle touring, having completed 2 other big trips without me, and he continually insists that he is not a professional.

With this in my mind I thought maybe you would enjoy some lessons I have learned.  Some were already known but needed to be learned again…

Lesson 1: The coast and railway lines are your friend. These are generally a lower, more consistent grade.  Generally.  However, if you see a rail line doing a corkscrew on the map, you’re in for a serious leg day.  The same rule applies to flowing water.  Following the direction of water flow = a good day. Going against the flow… You guessed it. Leg day.

Lesson 2: Speaking of leg day… Watch out for ‘Freds’.  Steve and I both follow a blogger that calls himself “Bike Snob NYC”.  He refers to the Spandex/Lycra wearing, fast carbon bike riders as ‘Freds’. Freds really enjoy climbing hills. Something about those spandex shorts seems to magnetically attract Freds to mountains. So, if you see a Fred on the road in front of you, there’s a good chance there’s a big hill coming up. In addition to loving spandex, Freds also love leg day… they LIVE for leg day… You cannot stop a Fred from leg day.  The only thing that can stop a Fred from leg day is the threat of a little bit of rain; they don’t like to get wet. Sprinkling some rain on a Fred is a bit like dropping a cat in a bathtub. We’re just kidding, of course. Anyhow, the Japanese Freds have all been really nice and smile and wave at us as they zip on by, and we curse them and their light loads under our breath as we gasp for air.

Lesson 3: Keeping properly hydrated is soo important and can affect your performance and mood for even a few days. I’ve done a good job banging myself up with some slow motion toppling over due to dehydration.  Which isn’t like me and all happened at the end of very long, hot and tiring days.  Nothing serious was hurt except for maybe my pride, but let’s face it, with the amount of sweat and dirt I have been covered in the past couple months, that was already a bit of a slippery, slimey slope.

Lesson 4: Always carry spares. Perhaps this is a by-product of our jobs spilling into other aspects of our lives, but this is something Steve and I don’t seem to have a problem with but I figure it is worth mentioning. Perhaps we often get called professionals because of our heavily loaded bikes but I am thankful for the fact we have spare parts and are pretty self sufficient.  The rough shoulders we have been riding on with the overgrown shrubs have shaken the hell out of our bikes.  We are constantly having to tighten our shifters, two of my panniers have broken and needed some ‘MacGyvering’, and I even lost a spacer and allen screw for mounting my front pannier rack to my bike.  Spare hardware to us is crucial and I wonder how the other folks who ride with a lighter load are faring.  Maybe they have to make frequent stops at bike shops? In any case, I am thankful for the spares. 

Lesson 5: “Why are you doing this?” This is probably the biggest question.  It’s a question we all have about various parts of our lives.  It changes day to day and that’s okay. What’s important, as I have been reminded numerous times recently, is that life is short.  Nothing is promised or certain. When faced with a shitty part of the day, I always like to ask myself “What are my choices?” Generally it is moving forward or turning around. Turning around is not an option, so best to suck it up and keep going forward!

Lesson 6: You do you!  Need an extra day to rest in town?  Go for it.  Need to do lower kilometers days? No problem.  It’s your ride, who the hell cares?!

Our ride took us to see some interesting things.  My favourite days cycling, since we took a break in Tokyo, were Shikoku island (south of Osaka), and cycling the Shimanami Kaido (7 bridges).  We camped only a handful of times since Tokyo as the fall season is upon us now and we have been finding many of the campgrounds closed for the season. We did get lucky though, and scored a couple of sweet campsites along the way.

Some cycle tourists seem to go for the couch surfing thing, or illegally wild camp, but that’s not really for us. Like lesson 6 says: You do you! For us, we like a dry place to sleep and our own solitude.

We dodged some nasty weather and visited Hiroshima for a couple rainy days.  It was a grim reminder of the dangers that go along with nuclear weapons.

Sometimes, in place of having to climb up and over mountain passes, we get to cheat by riding through a tunnel. They’re dark, and the traffic noise inside is insanely loud, but it’s still kinda cool, and it sure beats the heck out of climbing over the mountain.

One particular tunnel was special as it was for pedestrians and bikes only, and took us deep underwater to cross from Honshu (the main island of Japan) to Kyushu, where we completed our trip.

From there it wasn’t much further to our final destination in Japan: Fukuoka, where we celebrated our accomplishment by joining some locals in their version of Octoberfest, because, why not?!

Now we are off to continue our journey in South Korea. So wherever you are; Cheers! Prost! Kanpai! Sociable! See you on the other side.

-Rachel and Steve