The path wound on and on for what felt like hours and I was certain now that I’d completely lost Route 18 altogether. My imagination began to wander. Perhaps I’d stumbled into a time vortex along an old and mysterious samurai trading route of the Edo Period. Would I lose my head to the blade…
Category: Japan Travel
The Warm Shower of Kochi
Tokushima – Ikumi 65 miles I slept well in Miguel’s air-conditioned apartment; recuperating handsomely from the previous night’s lost sleep. Having a late’ish lie in, I left Tokushima at around 8am. By 8:10am, the furnace of the sun had reduced me to nothing more than a fleshy puddle of sweat. An hour or so later,…
Debating a Pilgrimage…
Tokushima With the ocean over my left shoulder and the bulk of Tokushima’s 80% mountainous land mass to my right, I was all set for some steady progress. Shots of caffeine at regular intervals played a crucial part in allowing me to attain full consciousness at the helms. Without this most perfect drug I would…
The End of a Nonartistic Far East Meltdown
Takamatsu – Tokushima 50 miles ‘WWWWWEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIAAAAAA!!!!’ another mosquito whizzed past my ear. ‘Right that’s it!’ I proclaimed. I’d had enough, I looked at my watch, 3:30am. But it didn’t matter, I was packing up camp, regardless; exhausted, angry and disgustingly sweaty. I cycled a short way in the darkness, before deciding that it might be…
The Beginning of a Nonartistic Far East Meltdown
Naoshima At Miyanoura Port I was greeted by a massive artificial red pumpkin. The 12ft-tall larger than life incarnation of the popular cultivar, was modelled by Yayoi Kusama. This was to be the first of a plethora of public art installations that I’d see. Various artists from across the globe found themselves indulging in the…
The Keihanshin Jungle
Kyoto – Kobe 47 miles Plying the concrete jungles of the Keihanshin, the metropolitan region where Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe all meet, saw me exposed to a brutal 37°C heat. The sun beat down fiercely upon the road as its rays refracted upwards, giving a constant mirage effect. I found myself going through some 2…
Clammy in Kyoto
Kyoto I would awake with a hangover. Kyoto was only my second prolonged stop since Hokkaidō, some three months previously, and it acted as the perfect excuse for an absolute skinful. Arising out of bed, yawning like a barbarian and then groaning like a zombie, I stumbled from my hotel room and out onto a…
The Rave by the Lake : Aftermath
Nagahama – Kyoto 58 miles Boom, chicka-boom, chicka-boom… Come 7am and I was still wide awake. The same song continuously blasted away without remorse. I’d just experienced my first Japanese all-night rave and the Japanese themselves at their most unruly. On a plus note, I did manage to survive the night without getting my head…
The Rave by the Lake
Fukui – Nagahama 83 miles I awoke early to a selection of lurching footsteps, creeping around outside my tent. Fearing that I was about to get molested by the walking dead, I grabbed a pile of wits and chanced a sly glance through my tent’s involuntary secret peep hole. I was relieved to find that…
The Phoenix
19. Fukui Heading out of Kanazawa, I met up with my old flame, Route 8, as I journeyed into Fukui Prefecture. Route 8 was as feckless as ever, with its limited hard shoulders and hordes of trucks that bounced along the heavily fractured bitumen without a care in the world….
Tokyo to Tokyo 