Pre-April Fool's Prank

So this year, April Fool's falls on a Saturday, and since I won't be going to school on a Saturday, I decided to play the joke on Friday. First though, a quick stroll in the past:

Last year for April Fool's, I took a small piece of paper and had my teacher write "koshou" (故障). I then took that piece of paper and in the morning taped it over the microwave timer-dial. Come around lunchtime, there came to be a crowd of about 10 people including kyotou-sensei (the VP), and somebody from the jimushitsuu (staff room) all wondering why the microwave was broken and if somebody was going to fix it or if the repairman had even been called. It went over extremely well as a joke it seemed, but it did backfire somewhat; The first teacher who had seen it had shrugged her shoulders and gone to the convenience store to heat up her lunch. Oops. I had to apologize in Japanese and explain it was an April Fool's joke. That wasn't so funny.

This year, I decided to put a sign on the door to the teacher's room that is closest to the entrance which read: "This door is broken. It will be fixed on April 1st. Please use the other door. Arigato." I wrote the date April 1st to give people a reminder or hint at it being a joke. The only problem is that the sign was too small and all in black (I went back and added some red marker lines and boxes), but it just wasn't believable or seeable enough. A few people actually opened to the door and THEN saw the sign, wondering ever so briefly what to do now that the door is already open, but walking in anyways...

So all in all, a very good idea, but poorly executed. The sign was not big enough, and technically there should have been two, one for each door, and there should have been a little bit more visible with red perhaps. Here's a picture of what I had, the "Arigato" on the bottom being a super hint.

Japan on my jitensha

So Katy, Ben's Mom, asked me a good question: Where have you been on Japan on your bike? Well, I sat down with a map, and drew out approximately the areas I have been with colored lines. The big routes of interest are:
Red line - 8 day summer trip, 1200km.
Purple line - 4 day return from Kumamoto last golden week, 550km.
Brown line - 4 day recent Oita charity ride trip, 550km.
Brown line - 1 day 225km ball-buster from Tamano to Osaka.
Red lines - CJ's area, unknown how many km, but 4 days, think that's approximately right. He'd know better.
Blue line - 3 day weekend, local trip to Tottori, 400km.
Light blue line - Weekend trip to play soccer on Awajishima, 250km.
Green/Gray line - Kobe, recontracting weekend trip with CJ, 2.5 days, maybe 300km?
Brown - Kasaoka, one day ride for a soccer tournament, loop near Fukuyama, 130km.
Don't remember the approximate distance of that one.
Numerous trips from Tamano to Okayama City.
Other frequently visited areas are Bizen (60km 1 way) and Kurashiki.


And that's all she wrote. I am over 13,500km, or over 8,400miles. My goal for the year is 18,000km, but that will take some serious riding, over 1000km each month actually. Below is a route showing all the temples, numbered, in Shikoku that I will visit during golden week for the temple ride, thus covering a fair bit of ground (most previously uncovered in Shikoku).

Golden Week Plans

I fixed the spoke and have begun working on my plans for Golden Week. Here they are both in English and Japanese (although the Japanese has not been corrected yet by a native speaker, so there most likely errors aplenty). If you could think about donating to my ride, I would greatly appreciate it.

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I intend to during golden week, bike Shikoku's 88 Temple route. I am doing it for charity as well (Lymphoma Society, specifically since I have had hodgkin's and time to give something back I think).

Golden week is 10 days. The plan is to set off Friday afternoon and continue on for 10 days and get as far as possible and to as many temples as possible, then go home (it may actually be 9 days, the 10th used to return home to Takamatsu). The total distance of the route is approx. 1400km (have seen 1100km as well as 1640km, so unsure really). If I do not finish during golden week, which is highly probable, I intend to finish using my weekends if possible...

Right now it is myself and possibly my neighbor, Ashley, but others are more than welcome to join at any stage of the ride.

Here's the challenging part: There will be no (at least probably, unless I can convince somebody) assistance van or supply car. Everything you bring, you carry. Thus, things to bring at the minimum (which is the way I always operate on long rides) is a tent, a thermarest (no need for a sleeping bag, it'll be hot in Shikoku), everything you need to fix your bike, and one spare change of clothes. That's it. But that's already another 10-12 pounds (or about 5kg). I would suggest all of this being on a rack too since day after day with a backpack and riding will hurt your back possibly.

The other goal is to put on about 140km a day of riding. Not fast riding, but consistent, averaging probably somewhere between 20-22 km/hr (there are lots of hills in Shikoku).

Last but not least, biking and camping means operating by daylight, thus wakeup will be at about 4am, on road by no later than 5am. On the flip side, you're in bed by no later than 8pm, thus you are still getting 8 hours of sleep a night (more than most of you get on a regular basis probably).

The daytime will be filled with riding, visiting temples, eating, and a morning or two for an onsen if possible because riding ten days without a shower is seriously rough.

This ride is a "back to the basics". You will smell after a day, you won't shower every night (although I towel off every night since that tends to help), but it's a great way to get back in touch with nature and the simple things in life.

Things you would need to participate:
Road bike (might be tough to keep up in a mountain bike)
Rack with all the aforementioned stuff
Money (so you don't starve and can eat at conbini's and stuff)
Adventurous mindset.

If you're interested, let me know and we'll talk more.

Otherwise, great riding, and hope to see some of you on two wheels on a road in the woods, pallaver

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八十八ヶ所巡りの内容

今年の五月のゴルデンウイークに八十八ヶ所巡りを自転車で走るつもりです。十日間中自転車のラックに全部を持ってキャンプの物も運ぶので毎晩そんな風に泊まりますし日の間に自転車に乗って寺を訪れます。更にあの旅は施しの旅になりたいです。おさらく、私は二千三年にホジュキンスと言う癌があった事を知らなくてやられたのせいで今年のゴルデンウイークの旅はホジュキンス癌の基金に寄付したいエベントになりたいんです。私が私にやられた癌の慈善基金に寄付するようになりましたと思いますから皆達が寄付の事で感謝しています。出来るだけ参加して下さい。

二つの寄付する方法があります。一つは合計総額の寄付をする。他の方法はそれぞれの訪れた寺の寄付の慈善の方法です。二番目の方法は私を全部の寺を訪れるようになる激励です。

旅をする時にお偏素の服を着たり全部の寺に寺の納経集まったりすると思います。後で私のウエブサイトに(www.npallaver.photosite.com)写真を入れるつもりし納経の写真も取って置くつもりです。

それも、二つの寄付方法があります。あげた封筒に入れて渡してあげられる。でも、振込みも出来る。郵便局の口座に与えられる。どちらでもいいです。

よろしくお願い致します。

Weekend Tally

The tally for the weekend was also intriguing: 3 flat tires and a broken spoke. I broke the spoke too on Saturday morning heading to Sakanoichi for the meeting point.

While I was retuning the backwheel to compensate (first tightening all the spokes, there were quite a few loose ones it turned out, probably where I went wrong and the reason for breaking a spoke in the first place), I dropped the spoke tuner. Looking down, there was a grate right next to my bike, and I chuckled thinking to myself, had I dropped it and had it fell in the grate, I would've been in trouble.

A minute later, I dropped it again (clammy, cold hands), and it almost did fall into the gutter. That was the end of playing with the devil, I picked up the bike and moved it ten feet forward before finishing the tuning job.

Ended up riding over 400km with a broken spoke on the back (and still going, will fix it tomorrow afternoon in the city). Impressive, I think I'm getting pretty good at self-tuning my tires.

Catered food. Expensive though. Most people brought on their own food like I did. 

HUUUGE parking lot. There were two levels of parking too! 

Diamond Ferry Building. 

Bike with Omiyage and food, bound for Kobe (as the paper sign says). 

 

 

 

 

Too bad it was a little hazy, or else the pictures would really show just how far you could look out. Incredible. 

 

 

 

Here's proof, me in a picture finally. It was chilly, and I believe soon after this picture is when, going downhill at about 60km/hr, I blew a flat in my front tire... 

 

 

 

 

Ok. Now on forward are day 3. It was CJ, Guy (really good rider from Miyazaki-ken), and I, the slowpoke of the group. Great pictures. Again, that story from previous about us leaving first yet being behind everybody still holds true. 

Again, the 3 riders. We convinced Kei to come with us even though he was tired. His price: A free icecream. Deal. Mike (who owed us 20km from the day before when he got a flat and rode in the van the rest of the way in), whimped out from going with us. Lame-o. 

 

 

Ah, scratch that, those are all still day 2. Oops. Here's the cool bridge right before our lodging for night 2, a great big cabin that made me really feel like we were out in the middle of nowhere.