About 4 weeks to late.
Ok, I've got a lot to catch people up on, and I really don't fell like writing down all the details. There are a lot, and some stories I just can't tell properly.
I'm going to use this blog to write the highlights, and observations more than day to day accounts like a travel blog because, well I'm not exactly traveling anymore.
But first a rough outline of the trip.
Highlights (I might expand on these more later):
Day 1
Craig's dad flying us to Japan
"Traditional Japanese Bar" that served Teriyaki. As a side note I saw McDonnalds has a Teriyaki burger on the menue, Teriyaki was written in Hiragana, with no kanji, like the Japanese didn't know what to do with a word that they didn't invent.
Day 2
Met some kids in Yoyogi and played a modified version of tag with them, in the rain. We all got super dirty.
Day 3
Got our bikes from bumbfuck Tokyo. Everything was broken, I ended up spending 100$ on new breaks. Although Craig did talk / flirt his way out of paying taxes.
Day 4
Continued fixing bikes, had a fantastic dinner with some of Craigs friends. We went to this amazing Italian place. Japanese are great at putting their own spin on different ethnic foods.
Day 5
Finally started riding, we rode to about where I live now, and camped on Tamagawa river, where I will go waling on Saturday. Hella sketch, but a damn good story. I'll tell it later
Day 6
Rems bike suffered a catastrophic failure. We got delayed by 2 hours and eventually made it to a town outside of Machida, which is 10 stops away from where I live by train. Stayed in a Toyoku inn, actually had a good nights sleep instead of sleeping in a hammock.
Day 7
Had to take a rest day because of Craigs knee, wasted 3 hours playing in an Arcade.
Craig accidentally managed to set up a date the rest of the story is his.
Day 8
Finally on the road, in the mountains. Highly recommend biking through Japan to anyone who has the chance, the views were amazing. It looked a lot like the Olympics actually. We ended up camping by a mountain river. That night it rained, I got soaked in the tend with out a ground cover.
Day 9
Had our pictures taken for a local paper. Rode on, in the rain. Oh so much rain. Mom, that "waterproof rain jacket" you gave me is anything but. We rode / walked 60km in the rain that day. But the mountains made up for it. Also the fuji-gokyuu are amazing. Need to go back and hike around them.
Day 10
Did about Jack shit in the hostel. Partied with some Aussies. Also proved that the American stereotype of being loud when drunk is undeserved. That honor belongs to the aussies :)
Day 11
Spent half the day taking our bikes apart. Took the train to a bumbfuck town called Mishima, on the Shinkansen tracks. There I had about 30 seconds to decide if I wanted to spent ridiculous amounts of money going to Hiroshima, or if I wanted to try and crash the dorm. I opted for the dorm.
Ok, thats the vacation in very brief. Settling in stories, observation, and pictures of my all to cheep and big dorm will be forthcoming.
