From California to Utah

From Japan to ?

Frolicking in the Pacific beneath Fort Ross.

Utah Mountains in the clouds.

Happily snowboarding!

Home.


Well, this blog has been neglected for far too long. Yes, the trip to Japan is over, but that was just the beginning of our adventures. Since Japan, I've been trekking up and down the California coast with my partner in crime Jon Good as well as snowboarding, nordic skiing, and rock climbing with him in Utah. And Diana, adventuress that she is, embarked on a solo trip to Paris to bring in the holidays, the New Year and her birthday (pics and report to follow). And she did it all herself. And, I'll let you in on a little secret: we'll be off on another adventure in a foreign land before long. Any guesses?

Happy New Year Everyone!

parting shots

In the forest at Dewa Sanzen.

Temple lodgings atop Mount Haguro.

Sunrise from our room atop Mount Haguro.

The climb up to Lake Mashu.

Lake Mashu in Akan National Park.

home and scary-tired (and pics of scary things)

Scary bears all over Japan and this is the only one I saw.

OK, not scary.

Scary beetle. Notice size of screw for reference.

OK, not scary UNLESS it wakes you and you think it's a bear.

SCARY Godzilla headlamp for 5 yr olds that is now mine.

it's good to be home. diana and i managed one last long day today (actually we got to do today, july 5, 2007, twice. my do-over day was great. how was yours diana?) and boy was it a long one. 24 hrs long, to be exact. but, we are home now and it's so nice to be back. we hit the pacific coast at about 9am this morning and, coming in a bit south of sf on the airplane, i could see that the coast was hidden in that ca fog that i know and adore. and, we got a rare treat this morning: coming in for a landing our plane, a huge double-decker 747 (?), landed parallel to another huge plane. they looked so close that our pilot had to announce in multiple languages that the plane beside us was not, in fact, going to crash into us but just going to land along side us, 75 feet away or so! it was quite a site and got my heart rate up a bit.

diana and i are already cooking up a party (a slide show party, yea!), so we'll keep you all in the loop. we've got lots to tell (blogging is not as fun when you're in the middle of a trip, i've found), so there is still a story to tell and with a slide show of say, 2000 photos or so, it'll be a long one (fact: combined we have close to that number of photos, but we promise, promise, promise that we won't subject you to every single one of them and certainly not every picture of bark that we took ;-)). so, until then, sayonara.

jen

oh tokyo!

To the dump!

What, you might ask, are these sweet children doing?

Very seriously taking notes for school about this!

we'll the bike leg has been over for some time now, and we've been busy here in tokyo. the city itself is a huge mass of concrete, neon, and wall to wall buildings. it is very, very easy to lose oneself in any given neighborhood, not only because of the seemingly circular route of the streets, but also because there is just so much to see. every neighborhood presents itself as a maze of alleyways, side streets, and commercial strips. there are people, people everywhere and more often than not, they are on bikes. bikes on the sidewalk, in the street, and parked in rows at every shop in the city. we've seen moms with two kids in bike seats (one on the front one on the back) and one on her back, fast asleep. we've seen old men, young school girls and boys, and grandmothers doing the daily shopping all on bikes and all while navigating tokyo. and, it all works. it is truly a revelation to see how useful the bike can be in such a big city.

diana and i are just back in tokyo from spending two days in the mountains at dewa sanzen. the three mountains of dewa sanzan are among the most sacred in japan. we had the opportunity to take our first shinkansan train (bullet train) and traveled about 400 miles northwest of tokyo to the town of tsurouoka. the train line that we traveled on is one of the most expensive in the world. from tokyo to the port city of nigata (1/2 the trip distance) a train line was built in the 1980s that cost over 1.5 trillion yen and put the japan rail line into a huge amount of debt. the cost per kilometer: 6 million yen! the main reason for the expense: almost the entire line to nigata runs through the mountains. long, long tunnels through volcanic rock!

the mountains were beautiful and we stayed at the tippy top of one of the three sacred mountains. out lodging atop mount haguro sat among a lovely cedar forest and abutted the temple and lodging of the monks who still practice an obscure from of shinto-buddhism that was once practiced in japan. we had the most amazing view of the valley below and the mountains in the distance. one morning we awoke to a breathtaking pink and deep red sunrise, and this morning to a valley enveloped in a foggy mist. it was amazing.

more later. someone else wants a turn on the computer. forgive any errors. xx jen and diana

last leg

Hey, gimme back our tent!

Still laughing about our tent relocation.

Japanese cranes, Hokkaido Japan.

This couple is helping to save the Japanese crane from extinction.

Ino's Place, Sapporo Japan.

Our last day of biking across Hokkaido was a long one. We woke at 3 am (remember that,s when it gets light, plus faithfully the Ha Ha crows, are there every morning to crow their HA HA alarm... think very large obnoxious crow creature) then rode for 12 hours to the marshlands about 30 km north of Kushiro, where we planned to catch the train to Sapporo the next day. We navigated with our faithful guide, the Touring Mapple (a road atlas for motorcyclists that we love to death!) to some smaller back roads, and ended up on a serene and lovely cedar forested, rolling hilly, narrow road, east of Tsuri, the town we would sleep in. There were one or two farms, but otherwise, no houses or anyone out there. It was the one road all trip that wasn,t marked with signs and at one point, we happened upon a woman walking down the road with her fishing gear. I stopped to ask if we were on the right track and she was very excited that we spoke english and called happily up the road to her husband, English, english! Well, we were lucky becasue he spoke the best English of anyone we,ve met all trip. They were both sweethearts. He had moved out to this part of Hokkaido from Osaka to `take care of the cranes`. We were near the protected Japanese Crane marshlands and he had taken it upon himself to feed two sets of cranes and their babies. He asked if we would like to rest before continuing onto Tsuri (we were on the right road), and invited us up to his house where he showed us the cranes, their babies, and told us all about the cranes and their life. Sorry, we haven,t figured out how to post pictures! We have great photos of our friends and the cranes. He fed the cranes fish he is raising in his pond, and fed us the most delicious apple juice and biscuits we,ve tasted. Well rested, we were ready to finish the journey, back down (and up)some more sweet roads into Tsuri, where we ended at another onsen.

It,s early mroning, and we are waiting for a taxi to take us to Tokyo. It,s been wonderful to recup. at Ino,s Place, Jen,s favorite place to stay in Japan.

yes, we are still alive!

and we:re having a great time. we have sucessfully crossed hokkaiko by bike and are now in the most northeastern part of the island. today, saturday june 23rd, finds us on the western side of shiretoko national park and it is foggy and cold. we have spent the last 10 days riding at least 8 hrs a day and, for the most part, the riding and the weather and the people have been fine! we:ve camped in the middle of nowhere in the rain and awoke to foxes eating our food, stayed in ryokans with incredible outdoor onsens (hot springs) with spectacular views, and have eaten more food than we need but with great relish. the food here is amazing and we have yet to have our fill of fish, miso, and pickled vegetables for breakfast and dinner. the pocky on the other hand (think sweet pretzles with chocolate coating), we:ve had our fill.

Yesterday, we climbed the shiretoko pass, on the shiretoko peninsula. It is incredibly wild and diverse with many great sounding birds, owls, deer, bears, and lush with so many plants and trees. We were right on the coast, then climbed up to the snow covered pass (where you could see the ocean!) It was 14 km up to the top and 14 km down. Up was hot in the sun, the summit was shrouded in cloud, and it was foggy and cold the whole way down. We came face-to-face with a spotted buck munching on grass on the descent. It was quite a surprise! He appear out of fog just like that! So beautiful. Anyway, we were shivering on the way down, but our keen noses smelled the sulphur, and as we neared town, along the rushing river with steam billowing up, we spotted people with their little soap buckets crossing the bridge to the local public onsen. We got warm again quick. This was the only place so far where the japanese ladies weren,t afraid to stare. In fact, they got quite a laugh out of my bike shorts, but Jen is certain it was my little butt they were laughing at. They were having quite a good time making fun of me! They continued to crudely gesticulate about how to clean ourselves. It was really funny and we all laughed a lot. The water was this gorgeous milky blue. It was the best way to end the day. We weren,t allowed to camp in the park last night beacause of all the bears, so, it was another japanese inn with outdoor onsen for us. Who says bike touring in japan is hard? Plus we have tour-busses full of cheering old folks. They love us!

we are off to put in another 8 hrs day on the bike, and by monday we:ll be back in sapporo. we:re headed towards kushiro where we:ll catch a train back to sapporo and then we:ll be on to our tokyo adventure. until then, sayonara!