Shirakawa to Hakodate! FESTIVALS!!!

All Photos are here

Shirakawa to Koriyama - ...... cannot remember anything

Koriyama to Fukushima - On the way to Fukushima met a fellow tourer so had been cycling around asia since 2009 after he quit his in vietnam. AT first it was wonderful to chat with him but he started talking about how he in camps in shrines and peoples gardens,his family and his sisters cancer which I did not like, so I said goodbye to him at the station and made my way to some of the local temples.

Fukushima to Sendai - I decided to stay another day in Sendai which I do regret as almost the hotels in the city were full since it was the weekend and the the school hoildays had just started. In the end I had to pay 19600 yen for double room which was all they had left. Although this wasn not too bad as the hotel was the tallest in the area and I was on one of top floors so I got a brilliant view of the city.
Sendai to Osaki - PUNCTURE AGAIN! ahhhh i hate them! and I could not find the puncture or what made it so I decided to replace the inner tube and hope whatever made the puncture had already come out.

Osaki to Ichinoseki -nothing much

Ichinseki to Kitakami - nothing much

Kitakami to Morioka - Upon arrival at Morioka I find out that there is a festival tommorow which is one of largest in Japan containing of 10000 drummers and thousands for dancers. The descion I had to make at that point was clear and I stayed another night (it was wierd that they still had free rooms though). Went exloring around the city during the day and at 3:30pm I made my way to the road were the oarade will take place at 6pm and got a front row seat! Loved seeing the dancers up close and at the end of the festival you get to join them in the festival but I was tired so I only observed.

Morioka to Aomori - So I cheated here and got on the Shinkansen to Aomori....I did this since it would take me several days to get to Aomori which would mean missing some of the best parts of the festival. Also since this is a major festivals most of the hotels in the region are full so I would struggle to find a hotel for several stays.

To recuperate the costs from riding the Shinkansen I willl not be staying anywhere overnight at Aomori and shall go straight to the ferry to Hakodate. The Shinkansen I would be travelling on would be the Hayate a E2 series train that has a maximum speed of 275km/h. Loved this train! had plently of leg room and their was a large amount of space between the seat to place my bicycle ( in a bicycle bag).

The festival in AOmori was brilliant! I bought a yukata so I could join in the festival but I totally failed putting it on correctly and had to go back to the store and ask for help

Aomori to Hakodate - So after the festival ended I made my way to the ferry terminal were I had to wait 3hrs for the next ferry which departed at 2:40am. The ferry itself was very dissapointing all it had was several large lounges and a small resturant which only contained a few seats and some vending machines. But I did manage to sleep for most of the 4hr jounrey to Hakodate.

The ferry arived slightly late at 7am which was not a big deal since I had 8hrs till I would be able to check into a hotel.Soon upon arrival at Hakodate I find out their is also a festival here for a few days but I was tired, my legs were breaking and the festival did not look as grand as the previous two so I decided to spent the day inn the hotel.

Numazu to Shirakawa. I will visit a maid cafe eventually!

Photos are here
WIll upload photos from mito ti Nikko overnight.

Numazu to Hiratsuka - To get to hiratsuka their was only one path which went over mt hakone (850m high).which was so exhausting to cycle up the mountain that in the end I gave up cycling half way and walked my bike to the top. Once I reached the top and I was met with an amazing view of Lake Asashi I decided not to walk not Lake Asahi or visit its shrines since it involed alot of hiking which I kinda hate doing. So I went straight to Hiratsuka and met Jiro who was a fellow cyclist along the way who even offered to let me stay at his house but I had already mad a reservation at a hotel so unfortunatly I could stay at his house.

Hiratsuka to Kawasaki - Was went to cyle to Tokyo but the road kept becoming annoying as it kept denying cyclists access on parts of the road so I decicded to rest in kawasaki were the worlds shortest escalator lived! But to my disappointment when I arrived the escalator was out of order....

Kawasaki to Tokyo - Very short jounrey which gave me alot of time to wander around tokyo after I had checked into the hostel were I visited the local temples and in the afternoon I found out that a festival was to take place that day a road near Ueno station. So I spent the rest of the day enjoying the festival which was brilliant at the start but later on the dancing begun which was very good but they kept on performing the dance to the people on the opposite of the road were the rich people sat and this fat, perverted old man sat. (someone famous I think gave a speech and kept getting up and talking to the dancers) which was very annoying. Then one the way back to the hostel I found an amazing tokayaki stand! loved the staff! loved the food! so I ended going their for the next 3 days.

The next day I visited the the imperial gardens and tokyo tower! Which is stupidly expensive so I only went the main platform (150m high) and not the highest platform as it cost more and thier was an hour wait. While at tokyo tower at the FamilyMart at the base they were selling some lemonade with fullmetal alchemist keyrings! So I bought 2 bottles and their keyrings and then began searching the rest of tokyo for family marts which had the other 4 characters. In the end I only found 3 and im still searching for the last one, I WILL FIND YOU WENDY!

Last day in Tokyo and I went to Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro were I decided to watch Harry Potter and my hope of the movie being different from the book and having voldermort live and Harry die vanished...When exiting the cinema though I found a large book shop were I bought several manga to cheer me up. In the afternoon I went to Akihabara which was brilliant! If only I could buy more items! how I wish i lived in tokyo at that moment! After wandering around the shops I noticed several girls dressed as maids handing out leaflets which showed the location of their maid cafe but since it was late and I needed to leave early tommorow I did not go. BUT I WILL GO TO A MAID CAFE BEFORE I LEAVE JAPAN! I must experience what it is like.

Tokyo to Narita - The typoon was closing in on tokyo and so it began to rain heavily but the jounery was not long and I made it tot eh hotel quickly.

Narita to Mito - I thought the typon might pass overnight but it did not and I ended up have to cycle through it. Compared to the previous day their was little rain but the wind had picked up alot and made it difficult to cycle. A truck driver later in the day stopped in front of me and offered me a lift to Mito since he was worried about the wind from the typoon and whevere or nto I would be okay. But I had my pride and refused which made laugh and he encouraged me to continue and left. Then 2km from were I frist met him he appeared again and gave me a "present" which was a bag full of ion drinks an food. He told me to "FIGHT" and then left again. Thank you truck driver!

I Mito to Utsunomiya - Typoon ad niow passed which made cycling easier and alllowed me to get the Utsunomiya quickly.

Utsunomiya to Nikko - My legs were  almost dead today and it took twice aslong to get to nikko than it should which lowered the amount of time I could spent visiting the temples in nikko.

Kyoto to Numazu

Photos here.

Kyoto to Hikone -　About 2km away from Tokyo my rear tyres valve snapped in half for some unkown reason which caused me to crash into the barricade due to the sudden deflation of the reat tyre. Im just lucky that there was a barricade separting me from the cars or it could of been alot worse. So since the valve snapped I had to replace the inner tube which did not take long but I had forgotten to adjust the rear brakes so they actually worked after I put the tyre back in which come to ahunt me shortly after when I has going down hill and the cyclist ahead of me came to a halt so he could cross the road. So I pulled my brake levers which made me relize only the front brakes were working and since they alone would not be enough to stop me I crashed into his rear tyre whichc caused it to bent and my bike was left undamaged. Since the his wheel had bent and a crack had appeared I offered to take his bike to a bike shop to be repaired but since their was none locally we fixed the bike so at least the wheel would turn and he could walk it home and I gave me 1500￥for the repairs.

Lucky the rest of the jounrey turned out fine and I arrived at Hikone castle which was amazing! looked alot better than Himeji in my view.

Hikone to Inuyama - Another hot sunny day which made it a slow journey to Inuyama castle. The castle was not as good as Hikone but unlike hiknone they did not block off the walk way which goes around the top floor and showed some amazing views.

Since I had spent too much time visiting Inuyama castle I did not have enough time to go to Nagoya which I had orginally intended so I spent the night in Inuyama.

Inuyama to Toyohashi - Along my way to Nagoya the screw which attachs the front rack to the bicycle snapped in half which meant I had to walk my bicycle to a bicycle store to get a replacement screw (my spare screws seemed to have gone missing). This occupied my most of my day as I had a long way to walk and it took time to find a bicycle shop so I ended arriving in Toyohashi around 7pm.

Toyohashi to Hamamatsu - Decicided I would have a short Journey of 40km  today after yesterdays long day rather than the intended 110km to Hamamstsu. The day ended just being really boring as their was nothing to do in Hamamstu at all so I spent the day in the hotel.

Hamamatsu to Shimada - A 70km jounrey which turned out to be a real pain since 18km away from the city their was a large mountain range and had numerous roads going through it. I ended going along 2-3km for 3 different routes to find out they wouldnt allow bicycles to go anoher further due to expressway or tunnel which meant I had to take the longest route alon the coast which did have some nice views.

Shimada to Numazu - Nothing happened here really other than my shoes being torn apart half way along the jounrey which meant I had to buy new shoes in Numazu and the shops biggest size was a 9 and im a 10 so I ended up with shows too small.

Okayama to Kyoto and I repaired my first puncture! sort of...

note: internet connection is slow here so i will uploading pictures 696 - 929 (contains mostly pictures of Osaka and kyoto) when I next iam next at a hotel not a hostel. Also the pictures I have uploaded have not been organised into a set yet, sorry.

all pictures on my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60106678@N04/

Okayama to Himeji -  Annoying journey to Himieji got lost several times as the route I was taking kept changing into an expressway (which bicycles can not go on) so I ended up arriving in Himeji very late which prevented me from visting inside the castle so I only go to very the outside which unfortunatly was under restoration for the next 5 years, maybe longer but it still was a very beautiful castle.


Himeji to Kobe - I had intended to go all the way to Osaka but my wheel had developed a puncture and I had got lost in the middle of Kobe so I decided to stay here. Was not much to see in the middle of Kobe but I had tasted some delicous food for a small stand although I can not remember what any of it was called just that their was an octopus sign outside the stall which might be related?


Kobe to Osaka - Fixed my first puncture! well it lasted until the end of the day before I found out my tyre was going flat again but after I removed my old patch and replaced it with a new patch it was fine. While I was Osaka I visited the Osaka Castle (reconstruction so I did not go inside the castle) which was very impressive from the outside although it was missing quite a few buildings other than main keep which was a shame.On the way out I met Takashi Saita who was from Hokkaido and gave my useful information about island aswell as teaching oragami! Thank you Takashi!. During the night I also felt my first earthquake which was a magnitude of 5.3 which was quite pleasant! I do not know why people in England complain about magintudes of 2 and 3.


Osaka to Kyoto -  On my way to Kyoto crossed paths with another tourer who was an elderly japanese woman who seemed to be heading to Nagoya or going at least in that direction. When i arrived in Kyoto it was bright and sunny but the next day when I would start visiting temples it begin reaining heavily which limited the amount of places I could visit during the day due to my maps keep getting destroyed, which was very irrating. Only staying the 1 day since Kyoto seems to hate an cyclists as it refuses to let us park our bicycles anywhere in the city also it is meant to rain for a couple more days and my camera does not work well in the rain so I have to decided to get a new camera that is waterproof and is of better quailty.

Ogori to Okayama

All my photos are on my flickr account kazuki12 which is located here.

Ogori to Shunan - This journey was about 4hrs long, majority was boring except from when I met this very kind old man he offered me directions, food and water but then he started drag me along to various places and said various things none of which I understood..Then a young driver stopped by and began talking to the old man in Japanese then after a short while the old man waved goodbye and the driver gave me directions to the main road from which the old man had dragged me away from.

Shunan to Iwakuni - This was tiring journey as the road I was travelling on kept going up and up for at least 20km but at least when it started going down  didnt have to pedal at all for about 10km and there were some beautiful views along the way. Which made me glad that I choose the longer main road rather than the shorter more direct road.

When arrived at Iwakuni I was a bit disspointed about the bridge as I had expected it to be longer and that it would be free to cross which it is not unfortunatly.

Iwakuni to Hiroshima - For the first time the route was completely flat with no mountins or hills at all. This allowed me time to visit Miyajima Island which is well known for its temple and torii gate (pictures are on my flickr account). At Miyajima Island I met some fellow gajin who were Americans and kept on complaining about how dissappointed they were about Japan and they would rather be at the hotel than visit Island whcih caused  me to aviod them after I said Hi.

When I arrived at Hiroshima I staright to the memorial park to see the dome and were atomic bomb were there hundreds of tourists surrounding the memorials so it was hard to get a good view. Afterwards I went tot eh castle ruins which loooked so fake even though the ruins are meant to be the castle orginal foundations

Hiroshima to Onimichi - Was annoyed at onimichi only to find 1 hotel here which was expensive but did not give you anything more than a normal hotel would except from  40 inch tv screen. Then the next day I also realized that I had left my combination lock at Onimichi which means  can longer stop anyone stealing my wheels from my bike.


Onimichi to Okayama - Along the way I stopped at the city of Kurashiki which contained several canals and in one of them their was a pair of swans which attracted a large crowd of about 50 people for some reason. Anyone know why Japanese are obsessed with swans? I also met a lorry driver who was very kind and told me about hokkaido and what I visit along the way.Seems as I go north  the Japanese are appearing to more friendly.

Edit: Forgot to mention in Okayama while I asleeep someone locked my bike agasint the fence with their own cable so in the morning I couldnt remove my bike from the fence which meant I had to get help from the local police. Went inside and told them my situatiion with the hand gestures and the little Japanese I know then I went to show them were my bicyle was located was so they could cut the lock and about 10 police
men/woman come with me just to cut a cable! I was so nervous and scared shitless that I was going to be arrested for some reason but in the end it was all fine.

Arrival and the first few days.

Sorry I did  not post earlier this was because I most of the hotels required you to have your own laptop to connect to the internet.

All my photos from the past few days are here should i get a better camera?

Day 1 Arrival in Japan - I arrived at Fukuoka airport at 5:30pm. From the airport I made my way to Fukuoka Toei Hotel by Taxi since I was being lazy and could not be bothered to unpack my bike at the airpot then cycle to the hotel. The hotel was great except it lacked FREE computers they only had computers which you had to pay 100 yen per 5 minutes. I also used my first japanese western styled toilet! I love the way they clean your arse, such a pleasant feeling.

Day 2 - I spent the day mostly wandering around Fukuoka visiting places like the yahoo dome and the beach (no pictures of these as I left the camera in the Hotel room) none of which were that great.

Day 3 - My jouney begins! Set off at about 7am were the day started off cool but as it went along the temperture increased to 35 degrees! Whichlater caused me to collaspe along the pavement and was forced to rest in the rest in the shade for a few hours. Due to the heat I begin to start walking and looking for a hotel even though I had barely done half of my intented distance (30km). I eventually found the vove hotel which had hearts for the v had only had double beds and was very expensive but I was willing to pay since I was exhausted. I only realized it was a love hotel when I arrived in my room to find various sex toys, condoms, and maid costumes for sale in a vending machine and all the channels on the tv only had asian porn. This annoyed me greatly as I had wanted to  watch wimbledon and beezlebub so I left in the morning feeling very dissatisfied.

Day 4 Journey to Mojiko - Did not like this journey since I got lost several times and began to regret not buying a map earlier and the pavement being very thin which prevented me fron cycling at times. I found a hotel for the night near the entrance to the kammon tunnel.

Day 5 - Mojiko to Ogori -　It rained!!!! how I love the rain! kept me cool all day although the rain did cause my camera to break as water had leaked inside of it which meant i could not take pictures of sone orginal Japanese houses and a temple that I had passed along the way, did get a picture of the bridge that connects kyushu to Honshu.

Along the route I taking their was this 1km strech of road through some mountains which had no pavement and was a very narrow road even though it was a ROUTE ( Japanese equilvent of an A-road). Which caused drivers to horn at me so I pulled over and begun walking with bike along the edge of the road were their is ditch which is about 20cm wide adn half a metre a deep. So when a  lorry come speeding down the road I paniked and went closer to the edge of the road and fell in the ditch....but i was already soaking due to the rain so i did not mind it that much. Ended up arriving at ogori around 2pm which wasnt too bad cosidering I left at 8am.

I will try to update the blog every 2 days IF I can.

For those of you who don't know my name is Nelson Joseph Pacey, I'm and 18yr UK citizen and i'm currently on gap year.While on my gap year I worked at Primark for several months to raise money for university next year but  then one day on a whim i decided to quit my job and go to Japan for 3 months since I had the spare time and have dreamed of going to Japan for the past few years due to my love of their culture and animation.

During this trip I will cycling around Japan ALONE as i decided this was the cheapest and the best way to exlpore the country.Hopfully this will add more to the experience of being in Japan. I have only planned the route I shall be taking and not were i will staying each night so I hope their are plenty of hostels with free rooms. or a nice place to camp.

Now back to present were I only have 14 hours till I will be a plane going towards Japan! Where I will begin my journey cycling around Japan! Here is a map which shows roughly the route that I shall be cycling from Fukuoka to my target Wakkanai (northern most point of Japan) and then cycling back down  to Fukuoka.

So far I have spend the past day packing my stuff at the last minute and have found out that I'am 5kg over weight limit for which British airways will charge £40 for this. Which is annoying and I'm still under prepared so will have to buy most of the gear that I'm missing while I'am in Japan. I just hope BA dosen't lose my bike as i do not want to have to buy another one of those.

For those of you that are interested here are my flight details

Heathrow Terminal 5, Flight BA005 departing 13:25 June 22nd 2011

Arriving at Narita 09:05 June 23rd 2011

I then have a 6 hour break to my next flight

Narita (Tokyo) Terminal 2, Flight JL3053 departing 15:25 June 23rd 2011

Arriving at Fukuoka 17:25 June 23rd 2011

From the airport I plan to find some random hotel and were I shall stay the night. So thats it! My next post will be when I'm in Japan and I cab find a free  computer at the hotel or at an internet cafe.