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Day 11 I Love Okinawa Soba!

Apr 1 • Blog, Okinawa • 988 Views

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I left Saboten Smile in the morning to go back to Hana-chan family’s home in Ginowan. I have diving lessons scheduled for the next few days. The weather forecast said it was going to rain. Oh, I hope I can go as far as possible before it starts raining. Well, about an hour after I left Nago, it started raining. And then it started pouring. I kept cycling with my rain clothes, but after a while I couldn’t see very well any more. My sunglasses were getting too much rain drops I wished I had windshield wipers on them. So I stopped at an Okinawa soba restaurant. When you say soba in Okinawa, it’s completely different from the buckwheat noodle soba that you’d get in the mainland Japan. The Okinawa soba noodles are white and much fatter, and it’s topped with big chunks of tender, slow cooked pork. This dish has become my favorite in Okinawa. It’s warm, hearty, cheap, full-filling, and just plain delicious!!! While I was eating, the rain stopped and I was a
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Day 9-10 My Wheel Doesn’t Turn

Apr 1 • Blog, Okinawa • 898 Views

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I cycled from Hana-chan family’s home in Ginowan to Nago to see the northern parts of Okinawa. I am to come back to her house so I can get a diving license. Hana-chan and her husband are diving instructors, and I am finally going to take lessons to get the diver’s license, which had been my dream for a long time. Because I had a few days before then, I decided to go cycle up north. As you head to the north, the scenery becomes even more beautiful and you start to see a lot more trees, beautiful beaches and nature. Hana-chan made me onigiri lunch, so I stopped in one of these beaches and ate in sunshine. Just when you think everything is going so well and smoothly along the coast of these beautiful beaches, something unexpected happens. Of course. The bike rack on the back of my bike slowly fell down onto the wheel and the wheel didn’t turn any more. There was a small incident back in Kyushu, which had probably loosened some bike parts. At first I didn’t know why
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Day 7-8 Hello Okinawa!

Mar 31 • Blog, Kyushu, Okinawa • 917 Views

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After 25 hours of a rather rough ferry boat ride, I arrived in the evening in the port of Naha. Naha is the capital of Okinawa prefecture. A friend of my friend came to get me with her 8 months old baby (crying), and we headed to have dinner at an Okinawan restaurant. Orion Beer is Okinawa’s staple, and that’s how they welcomed me and we became friends over Okinawan food. Okinawa’s famous dish, goya champuru (stir-fried bitter melon), is delicious and Orion Beer goes down the throat at a good pace with this kind of dish! This dish also includes pork, tofu, and eggs in it. After dinner, I slept like a dead in my new friend Hana-chan (Hanako’s nickname) family’s home in Ginowan, When I woke, she and her husband had made breakfast. Okinawa has many American military bases, and that culture can be seen in many aspects including food. Spam is one of those. I hadn’t been such a fan of this, but, when in Okinawa, do as Okinawans do. I love home cooked meals
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Day 5-7 Kagoshima to the Ferry Boat

Mar 31 • Blog, Kagoshima, Kyushu • 761 Views

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After a good night sleep that I hadn’t had for a while, it was time to pack in the morning in the stranger’s home in Tsuchikawa, Kagoshima. It was so nice to have a toaster there in the morning. I’ve come to appreciate having something that we take for granted in our everyday life such as a toaster, hot water, electricity or a roof. The toast and coffee were hot, and gave me energy to go on for another day of cycling. Cycling over a hill after leaving Tsuchikawa was a beautiful port town of Hashima, Kagoshima. There I found flags of Japan and England. I had to stop and see what that was all about. It says that 19 Samurai took off this port on a boat prepared by a British trader, Mr. Glover, in 1865 for a three months journey to reach England to study language, science, culture, and military technology in London University, etc. Their newly cultivated knowledge later helped modernize Japan, and that is why this monument was made in this port. They left Satsuma (the old
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Day 4 Strangers So Kind in Tsuchikawa, Kagoshima

Mar 25 • Blog • 749 Views

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After the onsen and dinner was a hut in a park for the evening. Wow, can you believe this monument was just sitting there empty in a beautiful park with flowers and other hand-made monuments? My laundry got even more wet by the morning since it rained overnight, but the sunshine in the morning and drying on the back of my bike did the trick. I’d bought mitarashi dango the day before. It’s little mochi’s on a stick, with sweet sauce on it. This was one of my favorite sweets when I was growing up (it still is my fav), and I had this as a part of my breakfast in sunshine in this beautiful park. I found a giant Ponyo monument in the park. It took me a few seconds to figure out what it was. Ponyo is a character from Hayao Miyazaki’s film that I love, love, love! If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. Here’s the movie trailer: I don’t know why, but everything is huge around here. I found a giant Snoopy in the hills after some back-breaking hills.
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Day 3 Beautiful Amakusa

Mar 23 • Blog, Kyushu • 767 Views

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After feeling and looking a worm, it took me a while to get out of the sleeping bag. I couldn’t sleep very well as I was cold, but the morning was beautiful, and the sun was shining. I put my palms together and said thank you to the small shrine in Ueshima. Amakusa is today’s route, and these octopus signs were everywhere. Amakusa and the surrounding area are made up of small islands. They are well known for such great seafood, including octopus, shrimps, and many fish. Amakusa and the towns around are absolutely beautiful to cycle in. Today’s lunch is the fresh sashimi bowl and udon. What a feast. Amakusa’s octopus, squid, scallops, toro (tuna belly), nori, and wasabi. Accompanied leaf is “shiso” which is also known as Japanese mint. These fish were all taken that morning, and could not get any fresher. Absolutely delicious, and you cannot imagine how much you’d pay for this quality in Tokyo. I prayed for road safety with Amakusa’s octop
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Day 2 Kumamoto City to Ueshima

Mar 23 • Blog, Kyushu, Video • 893 Views

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Soon after we left Kumamoto City in the morning, we came across 14 brand new shinkansen (bullet trains) lined up, and lots of media people. It was the press day, the one and only day for these brand new Kyushu shinkansen to be shown together, before their real operation start in a week. How lucky! Bicycles make you go much slower than cars, and you get to find things that you would not notice otherwise. I was so happy to see them like this, and one of the two models that will be running in Kyushu Shinkansen is called “Sakura”, the same name as my bike. I felt like I’ve met by bike’s sisters. We were cycling towards Amakusa, along the coast. This route is absolutely amazing on a bike, and I recommend it to anyone for a day out with a picnic. Beautiful mountains on the left, beautiful coast on the right. Wow, I cannot believe I’d never been there before, when I grew up so close! Ariake Sea is famous for its nori farming. Nori is the seaweed that you see in s
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Day 1 Leaving Home to Kumamoto

Mar 23 • Blog • 907 Views

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So the day came. After having headaches, stomachaches and sleepless nights in anxiety for the unknown world of my cycling tour, I had to leave. My bike wasn’t done until the day before, which made me wake up with stomach pain. I didn’t know if I had everything I needed in my panniers. What in the world did I pack in those things?? Inside of head was upside down, and I kept telling myself that everything will be just OK. I prayed at my grandfather’s alter (video above), which made me calm down before I left. “Are you OK?” “NO!” I was lucky I was able to leave with Biciclown and cycle with him for the first 6 days in Kyushu. Like I said in my first blog, I am completely new to cycling, let alone cycling tour. This is going to be epic in so many ways. The first mechanic problem happened 15km after we left home, in the middle of a traffic junction. I kicked the front mudguard and it bent completely and almost broke off. The wheel was stuck and need
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Day 1-5 Recap Video!!

Mar 20 • Blog, Kyushu, Video • 873 Views

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Watch this recap of my photos and videos from the first 5 days in Kyushu! Lots of foooood!!!
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Japan Needs All Our Help

Mar 19 • Blog, Japan Disaster Relief, Okinawa, Video • 1088 Views

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On March 11, 2011, on the day after I started my Japan cycle tour, magnitude-8.9 earthquake hit off the shore of Japan, unleashing a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and leaving enormous destruction in its wake. That area, that route, were exactly where I was going to cycle through in the coming months as I head north. During my cycle tour, I hope to entertain and educate friends around the world about the food eaten in Japan. I wanted to show Japan’s wonderful food and beautiful scenery to all my friends around the world. Now, I will still continue to do so, but I do feel that my project has an even bigger mission, to help Japan recover from its huge wound. Let’s help those who have lost their home, hometown, and their family in the blink of an eye. Japan is in serious need of help. The processing fee of fundraising for the Japan tsunami relief is matched by Charity Platform & Just Giving. 100% of your donation will be used for the rescue effort of this event. Relief! Don
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