Blog | FindingSachi – Japanese Food, Cycling Japan, Foodie Adventures | See Japanese food found on a bicycle tour

Unexpected Turns in My Japan Cycle Tour

Mar 12 • Blog • 661 Views

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Three days ago, I left my home to start my cycle tour of Japan. What was going to be my solo cycling trip is now accompanied by the round-the-world cyclist, Alvaro “Biciclown” Neil, whom we have hosted at our family’s home (see this post if you haven’t yet) after his arrival from China. The timing has been perfect as he was heading to Hokkaido as well, and I am so fortunate to have an expert teammate, who’s also a clown. Life is so unexpected and crazy. I’m getting used to cycling long distance, and I have been enjoying the beautiful weather that has blessed my start. Up till now, I have been exhausted with cycling and the nervousness which gave me such stomach pain for the three to four days prior to my start. I couldn’t sleep well the night before my start, and then the first night, and then the second night, which delayed my first blog from the road. This whole cycling trip is such a new routine to me that trying to locate where things are i
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Wow I’m leaving

Mar 10 • Blog • 1011 Views

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After packing, unpacking, packing and another packing (and some more), I am leaving this morning! I couldn’t sleep very well with this anxious feeling of the unknown, but here’s the day, and I am off. Wow. Can you tell that I’m pretty nervous? What am I so nervous for, I’m not really sure. Other than the serious thigh-burning hills that are waiting for me in this hilly country, maybe it’s the fact that I won’t be wearing blue jeans for a while, which is so completely abnormal in my little world. I will be posting with more meaty content very soon! Smile and be happy, it will be OK!
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Sachi’s Pre-Trip Cooking Lesson Video

Feb 27 • Blog, Cooking, Recipe, Video • 816 Views

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Before I start my cycling tour of food in Japan, I thought I’d show you a staple dish in Japanese home cooking. Watch me cook Nikujaga (Beef & Potatoes) in this video!
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Bike and Bullet Test Rides

Feb 17 • Blog, Pre trip • 727 Views

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Last week my bike has arrived at the local bike shop, Iwai Sport Cycle, where they’re helping me with my bike set up. I was looking forward to this day for so long, and I finally got to test ride. AUTHOR was kind enough to be my bike sponsor, and I will be riding one of their cyclocross bikes. The geometry is supposed to be quite comfortable for long rides. With some experienced riders’ advice, I picked the aluminum model so it absorbs more shock from my long, bumpy rides, over the lighter, stiffer carbon fiber models. As I wrote in my first blog post, I am new to long rides. I hope I’ll get used to it quickly, but like anything new, some pain here and there will be inevitable… To set my fear and pain aside, I am having this bike go through a fun transformation, which should be done in about a week. Let’s look forward to the result. Speaking of test rides, I had the rare opportunity to test ride the brand spanking new N700 shinkansen (bullet train) on Sunday. Its real operation i
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Lanterns and Pork Buns in Nagasaki’s China Town

Feb 7 • Blog, Kyushu, Pre trip • 845 Views

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Though I have not yet started my cycling adventure, I want to share with you what I’m up to in my preparation days. I have a bright red update from the city of Nagasaki this time. To take a little break from sitting at my desk, I visited China town in Nagasaki with my family two days ago. For a couple of weeks during the Chinese New Year time, the whole city center of Nagasaki lights up bright and shiny in their annual Nagasaki Lantern Festival. I had never been to this festival before, and I was excited to see so many red lanterns hanging above us and the big dragon dance on stage. Besides so many beautiful and colorful lanterns, there was food, food and food, everywhere. Fluffy melt-in-your-mouth pork buns, sweet sesame balls stuffed with red bean paste, kids at a fruit shop selling strawberry covered in chocolate… the town was full of happy energy in a warm lunar new year celebration. Nagasaki, its name globally known for the atomic bombing of 1945 as well as Hiroshima, is a hilly p
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Preparation Takes Juggling

Jan 28 • Blog, Pre trip • 1162 Views

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The moment you decide to do something new in life, the doors you didn’t know existed start to open. Through the doors, you find a whole new world and friends awaiting on the other side. That is what’s happening right now to me, right here at my parents’ house in Japan. Last week, a cyclist has arrived in our house in Fukuoka, Japan. He has cycled all the way from Spain on a bike like a war tank, with 80kg of stuff in his panniers. He’s been cycling for 6 years through Africa, Middle East, India, China, Mongolia… 61 countries to be exact, 86,023km so far. On top of that, he’s a clown. A clown is in da house!!! His name is Alvaro Neil, aka Biciclown. He’s a clown cyclist on a world tour project, “Miles of Smiles Around the World.” He has been making thousands and thousands of people smile, by performing his juggling and magic to the most humble around the world for free. I didn’t know him until my friend Lander told me about him while I was
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2011 Is Going To Be Delicious!

Jan 7 • Blog, Pre trip • 1380 Views

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Happy New Year! I wish everyone a year full of big smiles and laughter. Well, it’s the new year again. It seems to come quicker year after year (they say it happens when you get older… what? I didn’t catch that ). I don’t think I’ve ever created a new year’s resolution in my life (or I just don’t remember), but this year I can say that I have come up with a pretty good one. I will go cycling! A long cycling trip to be exact, from Okinawa, the southern tip of Japan, all the way up to Hokkaido. This is going to take months. Just to give you an idea of what a challenge this is going to be for me, the longest cycling I have ever done in my life was up to two hours at a time, and that was just strolling along the beaches in Los Angeles, followed by a glass of beer and French fries. The “daikon legs” (legs like daikon raddish in Japan, a phrase for women’s big legs with no definition) nurtured by the soft couch and fluffy bed are g
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