To Kamikochi and Back: Part 1

Google maps is doing my head in, so if anyone has a
better way of mapping and showing you guys my route, let me know!

19/04/27 - Day 1

First day. Almost didn't happen on account of absolutely torrential rain all morning. I kept popping my head out, hoping it would go away, but it just kept coming. Came to about 2pm and I decided I just had to risk it, or I wouldn't get to Lake Nojiri before it was dark. I encased all my camping stuff in plastic bin liners and set out into the maelstrom, ready for the worst. However 30 minutes in the rain slowed down to a drizzle and eventually petered out. Thank the heavens for small mercies.

Most of the way, I snook up a little side street, but about halfway up I had to join the 18, a fairly major road up to the ski fields. Now what you don't notice when driving up in a car, is that it really is "up". You separate the bits of road, not by climb and flat, but by climbing and climbing a lot. Its strange being half way down your gears, chugging up a mountain, thankful for the rest, because you're only slightly having to fight gravity. I knew it would be a challenge with a fully loaded bicycle, but I don't think I appreciated before I got going how annoying it is to be dragging a whole other person's worth of weight up mountains.

As I got to Myoko Kogen, I started to realise that my toes were freezing. I had some pretty durable shoes, but the tops were canvas, so the whole inside was soaked. There is nothing worse than wet socks. Went past a sign that said it was about 5 deg. C. Then it started full on snowing. Thankfully with all the climbing I was doing, my upper body was like a furnace in my rain gear, but my toes...  Oh lordy. Finally made it to Lake Nojiri, which is beautiful, but I had absolutely no energy to look around. About half way up, I'd realised how bad the weather was, so I knabbed a last minute hostel near the lake half way up. They even had an onsen to defrost the remaining toes I had left. Ate a huge pizza, had a beer, now I'm writing this, but exhausted, so I'm just gonna go to bed. So glad I managed to get started today after everything. Hoping for an early morning tomorrow, cause I have to detour a bit and cut through Nagano city to see about getting some shoes a bit more waterproof than today's pair.

19/04/28 - Day 2

Lake Nojiri in the morning

What a day. Had a brilliant breakfast at the guest house before setting off nice and early. From Nojiriko to Nagano city, it was all down hill. Except I couldn't enjoy it so much, cause in this part of the country what goes down must come back up. Nagano city sprawls out in a river basin sandwiched between mountains on either side. The road in is spectacular, as it runs through hundreds of apple orchards. Although sakura is all the rage in Japan, turns out apple blossoms are pretty gorgeous too. I stayed mostly on the outside of the city with the levy road looking down to the river, but nipped in for lunch and an extremely successful trip to Sports DEPO. After yesterday's close call with toelessness, I thought it would be a good idea to get some waterproof shoes. I also wanted to get my bike checked.

For those of you who haven't ridden a bike in years, the front three gears are the main ones, while the back gears let you alter your speed within the limits of those front gears. Yesterday I discovered, predictably while on a fairly steep hill, that I couldn't push down into my lowest front gear for some reason (which is an absolutely terrible place to discover such things.) Got to Sports DEPO, and had a guy have a look at it. Turns out there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I just need to stop being a wimp and pedal faster. You have to be turning your legs at a certain speed for it to work, particularly hard to do half way up a hill. Secret is to go all the way down to bottom gear as soon as you sniff an incline coming.

I also had to take care of my feet. There was this absolutely beautiful pair of orange wide fitting waterproof "GUARENTEED" shoes. I need wide fitting cause I have fat feet. This has no effect on my other body parts, only me feet are... chode-y. Anyway, they didn't have any in my size, so I had to settle for the same shoe in a strange lavender color my mum would love. It's been sunshine all day, but I'm sure they'll be a worthwhile purchase.

After lunch I faced the mountains. I kinda knew it was coming, but didn't quite imagine how climbing 800m in 11km would feel. Every time I saw the 10% slope sign I died a little more inside. There was definitely a point quite near the start where I didn't think I'd make it. Instead of packing in and heading home I just took a ridiculous amount of breaks, and tried to look like I was having a good time for all the incredulous faces peeping out at me from the passing cars.

Group Photo

3/4ths of the way up, I went round a corner and stumbled upon a golf course and clubhouse, all the way up in the mountains. I'd lost the last bit of my pride around the 10th break, so I decided to go in and fill up my water-bottles. I have never felt so dirty, or received so many dirty looks in my life. Finally made it up to the campsite, only to find I'd forgotten my ground sheet at home. Thankfully its nice and dry, but I'll have to try and find a stand-in during my free day in Matsumoto. I'm knaked. Night.

19/04/29 - Day 3

I wrote way too much yesterday, so gonna keep it short. Come on Richard, no one want's to hear about shoes!

The least cool pair of shoes I've ever bought

As a reward for day 2's climb, I followed a couple of canyon and river roads to Matsumoto, for the most part downhill. Got to the Guesthouse at 1pm, way before check-in, but they let me in early cause I know Japanese and smile a lot. Took a well needed shower, washed my clothes, and had an extremely satisfying 2 hour nap.

I was thinking of taking a rest day tomorrow, but instead I'll rest this afternoon and skip it. The 158 up to Kamikochi looks absolutely savage, so I want to get as far up it as I can to break up the climb.

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Sorry this post isn't as well edited as usual. I'm writing on the go. Still working out how much detail is really necessary when I do a daily log instead of my usual one-a-year post. Bear with me while I get the balance right. Next installment is the make or break of the trip, climbing another 1000+ meters to Kamikochi. Wish me luck.

Feeling Blue: Climbing Mountains

Tom came to visit, we had a great time
getting drunk under the cherry blossoms.

I spent January crawling in and out of the cave in my room, avoiding the future, and generally feeling sorry for myself. By the end of the month though, I was sick of being blue. It was time to face up to the mountain, and answer the ever-present question: "So what are you gonna do next?"* Somewhere between here and there a plan has sprouted. But it's not the kind of plan I can just come out and say without sounding absolutely insane. It needs a bit of a preamble.
 
Picking Ladders

Working out the next step was a mountain-like-problem for me because of two mainly self-imposed reasons. For one, I had grown complacent out here teaching Japanese, leaving me completely unprepared to go back into the job hunt world. I hadn't updated my CV in 6 years, and Linkedin still felt like Facebook for parents. I had no idea what jobs were out there, let alone whether they'd take someone like me.

Secondly, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I don't know now either, but back then I really didn't. I couldn't even choose a country. Japan? The UK? And everyone who I spoke to added more choices. "Why don't you come live with me in Australia?" "There's a job here in Canada you'd be perfect for."

Even if I was able to settle on a country, what about the career? It felt like I'd reached that point in life where you have to choose a ladder. A ladder I'd spend the rest of my adult life climbing. Except I'd have to pick the ladder blindfolded, and no one could quite tell me where the ladders went, or whether it was really that great up at the top when you got there. I was so inundated with fairly identical looking ladders, that I almost gave up and crawled back in the cave.

Apparently this is a problem that a lot of people out here teaching in Japan face, so much so that the JET programme set up a two day "After JET conference" to help us make up our minds. First day, a bunch of talks on different industries. Day two, a job fair. I went into it excited, full of optimism that I'd find thousands of exciting prospects for the future, and that one of them would catch my imagination.

It was not like that. The people there weren't even speaking my language. I mean sure, they were speaking English. But rather than talking about job satisfaction and meaning and fulfillment, they spoke about advancement, and how to get ahead of the competition, and the money you could make doing so.

Throughout the course of the two days, it slowly dawned on me that I don't really want to get on many of these ladders. Which is lucky, because if I did want to, turns out I'm not qualified to get on most of them. Rather than helping me find new prospects, the conference slowly killed off various different day dreams I'd had about the future. Translation companies want people with better Japanese. The Olympics wants people with event planning experience. Engineering companies want Science graduates. The only people who did want me were English cram schools. A fair profession, but one without much room to make a career of it. Less a ladder and more of a footstool.

Until I had my one on one "career counseling session". I spoke to this absolutely lovely person who taught at a school in Canada. After listening to hundreds of people talking the foreign language of business and finance, I finally found someone who spoke my language. She spoke about job satisfaction and meaning and fulfillment. A breath of fresh air.

I left the conference, resolved to go back to the UK and become a Primary school teacher. That means getting teacher qualified, either on the job or back at Uni. I got home, ready to make it happen, only to find I had missed the application deadline. By a whole 3 months. And the next application period isn't until October, for programmes starting in September 2020. Another plan, dashed before it even began. Now what am I gonna do?

On the brink of existential crisis, I was saved by some wise words, which I have a feeling my mother would prefer not to take credit for considering the result. She told me to see this time as an opportunity, not an obstacle. An opportunity? My life has no meaning or direction! An opportunity to do what? Well, to do whatever I really want to do. Which is nominally the case for everyone every day, but having a whole year free to fill definitely threw it into relief for me.

I took a look at my life, and thought about what I really wanted to do. Which was a bit awkward, because I had just recently done that and landed on being a Primary school teacher

Climbing Mountains

It's hard to track how an idea came to be. A speech about taking time traveling to work out what you want in life. A friend mentioning a guy who cycled in Asia on his way back home. A random Reese Witherspoon movie about solo hiking from southern California to Oregon, sparking the idea of doing a big solo trip like that. Or the boys here in Japan that somehow talked me into buying a road-bike 4 and a bit years ago. Whatever its origins, the idea took root and started to grow.

I should cycle.
Cycle a long way.
All the way home in fact.

I'd hop on the ferry from Osaka to Shanghai, cycle through China, up into Kazakhstan, down to Azerbaijan and Georgia, through Turkey into Europe, then across the Channel from France. 13,000km,  15ish countries, in a little under a year, poetically taking me from my miniature apartment in Japan, all the way back to the green shores of Albion.

The Long Way Home on the Northern Silk Road

Over the last 3 months I have nurtured this idea lovingly in the hope that it blooms and becomes a fully-fledged plan. Every day, I've been reading cycle touring blogs, pouring over "recommended" lists of every type of camping gear, and plotting out routes through China. I've even been studying Chinese. 我叫Richard. 很高兴认识你!

Now, I will be the first to admit that this plan is a tad ambitious. There are a lot of question marks that really can't be answered now and will just have to be dealt with when I get there. I don't know how it will work out, or if I'll even make it past the first hurdle of the cycle down to Osaka, but I'm rearing to give it a real good go.

I'm starting to feel comfortable with the idea of doing this, as I've been cultivating it up there in the back of my head for months, but there remained the tricky proposition of convincing my Mum and Dad it's a good idea. I was so nervous about what they might think that I kept putting it off, and only ended up telling them because I wanted to write this. I figured I should probably tell them directly that I'm planning on being voluntarily homeless for the next 300 days, rather than hear it second-hand from a blog.

Turns out my parents are brilliant people who will cautiously support me whatever stupid thing I decide to do next. At first impression, Dad seems quite excited, Mum mildly panicked. She's mostly concerned that I'm doing it alone, and that I'm gonna get mugged in Kazakhstan which is completely valid. Thankfully though I will have at least one constant companion with me. I bought a new bike and she's an absolute beauty (which is lucky cause we are going a long way together.)

I'm taking her on a long distance 12 day test run over Golden Week.** This is of course to make sure I don't go insane being alone for that long, and that I actually enjoy cycling up hills carrying half my life on the back of my bike. I was thinking of keeping the blog updated every few days or so about my progress. If this goes well, I'll be buying a ferry ticket, and heading out to China sometime mid August.

 So there it is. That's the plan. I'm gonna cycle home from Japan. Then I'm gonna get qualified and teach small children. Everything is gonna be fine.

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*Getting out, and staying out of caves is not always an easy process. I've found maintaining to do lists, keeping a daily schedule, and trying to instigate good habits (without beating myself up so much when they don't stick) has been working pretty nicely. Exercise and proper sleep is also doing wonders.

**Golden week is this glorious time of year where a few public holidays line up to give us five or six days off work. But this year, through some divine stroke of luck, the Emperor is abdicating. There is an extra day off for that, and a day for the start of the new Reiwa era, and because the Emperor is so nice, the extra day in between is being given to us too, making 10 consecutive days off. My teachers are going nuts. A 54-year old English teacher told me yesterday, this is the longest he's had off work since he started.