The Norikura skyline is Japan’s highest road peaking at 2702m, it’s also a beautiful cycle. Unfortunately due to it’s altitude the road is not open all year round. As far as I can make out, according to the above sign, it’s open for bicycles from July to September from 6:00 to 18:00 and in October…
As I arrived into Takayama the rain thankfully stopped, so while I was still very wet I wasn’t, at least, getting wetter. Given the afternoon was already old I headed straight for the couch surfing host I was staying with’s place. Passing the headquarters of some strange new religion on the way. Simona, the host,…
I left Kyoto, riding down the beautiful Kama river to start with. I was riding from one former Japanese capital to another: Nara, though it was 1200 years since the city had held this position. The ride between the two cities was pretty uninspiring as it was mainly on narrow busy urban roads. Nara itself…
I thought it would be interesting to see how much I ate on a typical day in Japan, some Japanese food didn’t have a ready analogue with western food so I’ve tried to describe it: Breakfast 2 small bananas around 100 kcal 2 tuna onigiri/rice balls 386 kcal 1 mystery flavour onigiri/rice ball 154 kcal…
I was sad to leave Imabari and the Tokunaga family; it’s always difficult to say goodbye to people who have been so kind. Off I went though, once more I would be crossing the Shimanami Kaido, the series of bridges linking Shikoku and Honshu. I wanted to get across as fast as possible as another…
Day 15 – 7 October The next morning I woke and decided to give my bike a much needed clean. I wasn’t in a massive hurry again as I’d arranged another Warmshowers.org host for that evening. After cleaning my bike I set off up the western part of Shikoku’s coast towards Temple 39 about 50kms…
Day 12 – 4 October I woke on the 12th day of my pilgrimage with the sound of the waves susurrating against the shore. Surfers were already in the water even though it wasn’t yet 7am. Today I’d be trying to get round the temples of Kochi city. I hadn’t thought this would be too…
Day 9 – 1 October Leaving Agustin’s in Tokushima, I embarked on what I knew would be a tough day. Looking at the elevation profile I could see I had two temples both up at 500m and with very steep climbs to reach them. First I had to work through a couple on the flat,…
Day 6 – 28 September Riding off from my new friends at the drum club I began to make my way once again towards Temple 1, near the town of Naruto. The ride started off nicely along the coast before popping me up and over some more of the ubiquitous Japanese mountains. It got pretty…
Hey I finished my trip across Kyrgyzstan and China, made home safe and sound and staying here already a few weeks. Numbers are not exact as sometimes in a rain my computer didn’t work, so you have to add another 300-500 km. Last day to Beijing I cycled for 15 hours and made a distance…
Riding ROUND 