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"Adventurous Cyclist", the fun of cycling in Japan, my adventures

adventurous cyclist

turtle speed cyclist
May 16, 2019
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I moved to Japan in 93 with my family and got a Japanese driver's license shortly there after.( I also had a motorcycle license, but my wife wouldn't allow it to be transferred on my Japanese license) I maintained my Japanese license in good standing, even got the "Gold License", but in April of this year my license was not going to be renewed. Yes, a very sad day in April for me. So, my story with a bicycle began in 93 with a Mormon missionary trading his bike for a few guitar stomp boxes I rarely used. (His 2 year mission in Japan was up). The bike was kind of a put together type of bike. (These days the missionaries go to Asahi Bike and pay up toward 800 bucks) That bicycle I kept for some time until one day it got stolen. For 20 years my transportation around was 100% by bicycle, unless the wife was in the car and I drove. For the last 5 years here I bought 2 scooters. I had to sell the last one. (no drivers license now) So on May 30th I went to a bike shop to place an order for a Giant R3 Escape Cross Bike. ( to tell you the truth I didn't even know what a Cross Bike was) So now my life is back to a bicycle and cycling in Japan, and it is what I truly want to do, along with camping, sightseeing and whatever else pops up. My new bike was actually delivered to the house on June 6th. Cycling now begins for me. Here is a picture of my new bike.
I did take it out for a 10 minute test ride and I feel it's the right bike for me. I'm happy. By the way, I named my bike "Nellie Bell" after my childhood bike.
My reason for this thread is to share with the members here of my travels mostly in western/southern Japan. So I'll be posting regularly on this thread of "my cycling adventures". :)3 bike in front of deer.JPG
 
Congratulations on your new bike and stay safe. Looking forward to reading your adventures! :)


Thank you , Thomas.
I need to figure out how to use the Android and post pictures with it on the forum. Someone PM if you know how.
 
June 7, 2019
Today the weather was rainy, windy and just not a good day to hop on the bike. So what did I do today.

1. Went shopping for a shirt. (I'll post a picture)
2. Open up the package which included the Giant Bike manual. And a big surprise. ( picture coming)
3. Went shopping for a waist belt pack. ( I'll post a picture)
4. Down loaded Giant Manual "official site" . It's in English. Will start reading tomorrow

I'm not sure how to write anything when I post the pictures, so I'll try it and find out.


This was the surprise. A key chain from the shop owner. He didn't tell me about it. Real leather.
I started looking at the Manual. Mostly pictures. It's in Japanese. Yikes!16 Lotto shirt.JPG
A new shirt. I dig the color. 17 waiste belt pack.JPG
This I bought at Donkey Hotei for on 500 yen. Matches , well almost the color of my bike
15 Giant  bike manual.JPG13 Ishii key chain.JPG
 
June 8th 2019

I took my bike for a 10 minute ride. As you guys said, go slow. Yep! Need a pillow on the seat now. LOL
Didn't have anytime today other then post on TCC and read a few threads.
 
Ever think about starting a blog?

TL , sorry I don't know anything about blogs or even how to start one. I did notice that TCC has a blog folder but I wouldn't know where to begin. So I just decided to do something like this. It's more of a thing for me to get organized in the beginning and for the members here to read something and give suggestions on what I'm doing or attempting to do.
Thanks though.
 
That's good the guy included some free gifts with your new bike. I got nothing when I bought my new bike.

Here's the Giant Owner's Manual in English.

I did notice that TCC has a blog folder but I wouldn't know where to begin.

Regards the blog, All you need to do is start a thread in the blog folder and then you've got a blog😃 What you're doing here is the same thing. It's just a different folder of the forum. It might be fun to post some of your adventures around Kyushu and the like in the blog folder next time.

How was the rain Yamaguchi in the end? It looked pretty bad on TV.
 
That's good the guy included some free gifts with your new bike. I got nothing when I bought my new bike.

Here's the Giant Owner's Manual in English.



Regards the blog, All you need to do is start a thread in the blog folder and then you've got a blog😃 What you're doing here is the same thing. It's just a different folder of the forum. It might be fun to post some of your adventures around Kyushu and the like in the blog folder next time.

How was the rain Yamaguchi in the end? It looked pretty bad on TV.

Looks like he gave me these free. (see pictures)

9 deluxe air pump.JPG
Looks like it is a 2500 yen value

11 lock and key.JPG

Heavy duty lock. Not sure of the retail value, but its nice. Although I bought a nice lock a Kmart (no key) I'll be using the no key for now.

13 Ishii key chain.JPG
The key chain is really heavy duty. I could easily see paying 25 bucks for it.

Thanks for the website on the Manual. Be reading it today.
The blog thing, I guess I'll keep this going till things get "adventurous". I'll talk to Thomas then to possibly move it to the blog folder.

The rain in Yamaguchi was heavy, not sure of the damage, but here in Ube about 1000 households were without electricity.

Hey the cheese I bought came out good on the yaki curry. Its one of my favorite dishes that the wife makes when she's not angry at me. LOL I took her to a new 2nd Street recycle store yesterday. She was happy. :)
 
I only take my phone so I can call if there's an emergency. And if you mount your phone like that, the immediate next problem you're going to have--and be posting questions about here--is battery life. (And then maybe google maps is not quite working like you thought it would, how to make it give you directions, or how it didn't show you something...

I look at maps at home sometimes if planning to go someplace new/different (or to see where I went), but prefer to just take it as it comes once I get on a bike. Or if it's not on the one I have, I stop by a local bookstore and look over a Mapple, which is far better than google.

Part of my attitude is because I need reading glasses to use a phone, and I'm not going to be dragging those along whenever I ride.
 
Have fun and stay safe out there!


Thanks Matt
One thing that is nice in Ube is that we have sidewalks where all the school children ride their bikes and the sidewalks every where in the city. Actually from Ube to Shimonseki , sidewalks are almost there. There are a few places where they don't exist and I've been on them roads and its scary as all h...
 
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I only take my phone so I can call if there's an emergency. And if you mount your phone like that, the immediate next problem you're going to have--and be posting questions about here--is battery life. (And then maybe google maps is not quite working like you thought it would, how to make it give you directions, or how it didn't show you something...

I look at maps at home sometimes if planning to go someplace new/different (or to see where I went), but prefer to just take it as it comes once I get on a bike. Or if it's not on the one I have, I stop by a local bookstore and look over a Mapple, which is far better than google.

Part of my attitude is because I need reading glasses to use a phone, and I'm not going to be dragging those along whenever I ride.

I really have to use reading glasses also. But I was thinking of short videos going along the beaches, but I'll learn.
 
I bought this from Amazon to use on my last bike. It works fine.

Wow so cheap. I'll check into that one. At the motorcycle shop in town the prices start at 3500 yen and up. Don't have the money for that.
Thanks.
 
June 9th
Thanks to one of our members here I was able to get the Giant Bike manual. So today I read up to page 7.
Got to put in the longest ride since June 6th. Wife still needs to call the car insurance to put bikers insurance on it.
Yesterday went to a wholesale joint and bought some "German cheese". Is it any good? Well, I made some pizza dough this morning , so let's see the pizza right! :)

I guess I worked up an appetite, not really, need to get rid of some old man age fat on me. ;)

This is what we had for tonight's dinner.
18 pizza 6-9-19.JPG
 
June 11, 2019
Spent the day looking for bicycle insurance. Yahoo, Soft Bank, no luck. Will try AU Sonpo today. Did find out that everything is done on the internet.
Took an 1hour and 30 minute ride. Longest ride now. Did have to walk up the hill, gotten old I guess these days. Stopped and took a few pictures of the rice farmers just 10 minutes from the house.

19  rice farmer with planter  Ube.JPG

Rice farmer. Years ago I'd meet them at the road while they were having lunch. I had my own rice balls and a few of the farmers were WW2 veterans and spoke some limited English. Sad to say, but many of these farmers have retired and some of the fields are planted by their neighbors.

20  old lady farmer  Ube.JPG

Very common sight to see elderly ladies still working the garden. Years ago, the old generation would keep their .... and put it into the rice fields. Also, many may not know this, but before fertilizer the farmer would collect the leaves from the forest and use it as fertilizer.

21  lady watching husband planting rice.JPG

Lady watching her husband do the planting. I wonder what's on her mind.

22  rice fields  Ube.JPG
This shows you about the average size of the rice fields. Notice one field is empty. Becoming very common these days.
 
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