Japanese Odyssey - Day Four... yes, cos it is the day after day three...

Day Four - Saturday, 3rd November.

Man my sleeping bag was working too well, 6:30 I woke. And even with the barking competitions throughout the night I felt pretty good.

I had gone to sleep, damp, salty, sweaty, tired... still dressed win bike gear, yes, the blood constricting squeezy kind of bike gear... I even kept my heart rate monitor on. Ha! Dumbass. Why did I bring that? 

I came to, did a quick video of my private shrine/temple/location... Then it was time to be up and running... well riding. Not covered in frost this morning so bonus.

As you can see...

The day started out misty or foggy as you can see. I did rug up; not sure of the elevation but I was in the mountains somewhere and even though it wasn't particularly cold, it was humid. On a side note I have come to dislike humidity it makes cold feel colder and hot feel hotter.

As you can see... the sequel.

As you can see... the shrine was in a park and bonus the park had washrooms... which is very exciting. True story. Now I normally do not get excited with washrooms but when you are in the middle of the middle of nowhere... they are a literal relief :)

As you can see... the sequel - part II

Of course there was the ubiquitous vending machine for my morning coffee and guess what was for breakfast... yes, the delicious ricey beefy thing from the night before. Not quite as delicious cold but better than the seaweedy things.

After quickly enjoying the facilities (pooping), a quick coffee and I'm almost off - just some faffing around for 45 doing god knows what...

The road was small and narrow, it followed the uphill path of a river. I think it was probably the best day of riding I had on the whole journey... well until the night but that's later.

Lucky for you I took a bunch of pics. 

 I came across a lot of bridges that seemed to serve limited purpose... yes, I know what a bridge is for... they just seemed to go nowhere... however, they did provide a number of photo ops.

I'm going up river... 

 This was both the upside and downside of the journey. On one hand I got to see and experience these stunningly beautiful places, but the most I could do was take a quick picture and then race off.

Steep bits.

And the road was really quiet, maybe I passed three or four vehicles the whole time. There were some fishermen around fishing... did I really have to explain?

But... I still had not reached CP 3... I was getting close... kinda...

I was getting close but the road was steep - I actually thought I hit 44.4% grade at one point but it was just my handlebars popping up... steep for me meant slow. I had chosen the steep option for my routing and it followed this path through a tourist attraction - there were lots of people mountaineering... (yes, it was that steep) I remember passing this dad and two girls who must have been 4 or 5 years old... walking at about 2.5kmh... I zoomed past them cos I was going 3.8kmh. 40x46 drivetrain... more than 50% faster! Yes sir.

Let me explain, 40x46 gives me 85% of a wheel revolution for each turn of the front chainring - a pedal stroke. I was probably riding at about 30 RPM cadence. So each minute equalled 25.5 spins of my wheel. My wheel is a 650b with 47mm tires. Therefore each revolution equates to 3.142x680mm = 2,137mm or 2.14m... times 30rpm x 60 minutes gives me 3.8kmh... or... I could have looked at my bike computer...

I'm pretty sure the sign meant 'please park your bike here' pretty sure.

So... not very fast... 

The ride down was easier... I stopped at some kind of market/tourist place to stock up. This is were I came across the organizers - Emmental and Gouda. We chatted suffering, pain, cold, misery, loneliness... all the good stuff.

E&G had been working on their suntans but cos it was cold they were only doing one leg at a time... 

Either that or they only had one pair of leg warmers between them... pretty sure it was the suntanning tho.

The rest of the day was uneventful for me - still chasing CP4 I must have caught it eventually, even though it had been  trying to escape.

Down river.

My knee had started to become painful to the point where it was affecting my ability to ride. By around 7pm I was struggling and looking for options for treatment - Onsen? Massage? Physiotherapist...? Surprisingly in the middle of nowhere there were very few around.

But I did find an Onsen foot bath... let me paint a picture... it is the night of day four, I had been riding for 60 or so hours, my feet had been in the same shoes and socks for that time... the foot onsen was very welcome. And bonus - some random dude gave me two tangerines. He was trying to talk to me but that language barrier thing was a erm... barrier.

I continued after my 'spa' break but I knew my tank was getting empty... and the humidity was becoming tiresome - cold with lots of climbing meant I was soaked in my own perspiration making my clothing heavy and providing diminishing protection... which is the adult version of 'are we there yet...?'. 

I arrived at this town around 10pm, and I figured it was time for a hotel - three nights of roughing it was beginning to take its toll... plus my dynamo was not doing its secondary job of charging my power banks, so I needed power, I needed to recharge both I and my electronics... so hello Google, what do you have for me.

Pretty eh?

Convenience store... power... internet... Ah ha Here is a hotel, only a couple kms away... Did you know that 2kms downhill is a lot closer than 2kms up a steep bloody road…? 45 mins later and I am at the hotel… Even more drenched... But a warm cozy bed waits, a hot shower... fluffy towels... heating... I can peel off my sweaty four day, crusty, cycling gear, charge my electronics, dry my clothes and jump into a real bed… it will be delicious…

If they had a room...

Do you have dogs? Have you ever seen your dog after he/she has done something wrong (ate your steak dinner for example…) the way he/she kinda slinks off, tail between its legs, looking back at you with these big sad, puppy dog eyes… yes? That was me.

It is midnight, my dreams of luxury for the night have been smashed, crushed, stamped on… and I have no place to go… not even a way to a manger, with no crib for a bed… (see what I did then?) Gravel parking lot? Nah. Steep scary, dark, forest full of wild animals waiting to eat me…? Hmmm… nah. Wet, swamp land behind the hotel…? Nope…. not so much.

Where does this driveway go to…? A park!!! With a toilet!!! And a soft, flat, mossy area to sleep on…!!! Really private and quiet…?!! This maybe...? Nah…

Only joking - it was perfect ,and bonus, I didn’t have to pay the $250 hotel rate - well that is what Google was saying… not that I trust Google that much after the road incident anyway...

It is late, I am exhausted but I am also soaked - an old army trick to dry your clothing... sleep in it. Not the most comfortable so can I sleep? I’ll count down from ten. T…

Only 168kms today... damn I am getting slower :( and I only burned 324 calories... pretty sure I burned more than that. Oh, and at some point I had breached CP 4... again memory is poor here but I think it was at the bottom of a something... somewhere... maybe.