Pedals, Patience, and Panoramas

Winter is coming, but thankfully, we’re just one day away from Sapporo! Tomorrow marks our final stretch of the bike trip, and we could not be more excited. Hokkaido has been incredible, but has tested us with freezing temperatures, ongoing bike maintenance, and long days through the hills. We are now at 1,700km (just over 1,000 miles!) and have a final 100km day tomorrow to complete the journey.

It's been a rollercoaster of bike maintenance for Jared’s bike, specifically. After two unfortunate accidents in the last week, his bike somehow continues to roll down the road with a rear rack that’s been re-bent multiple times, now zip-tied and held on by a MacGyvered rack mount made from hardware-store parts. Jared has luckily walked away from the accidents almost unscathed with only a bruised knee and later his shoulder, neither of which have limited our riding. The hub on the front wheel is making an odd sound that is likely coming from a damaged ball bearing, but without the right tools to service the hub and only 100km left on the trip, we made the decision to hope for the best and carry forward cautiously with our eyes on the road and gentle maneuvering. At this point, just getting the bike to roll to Sapporo and both of us in one piece will be a feat.  

On the bright side, I’ve learned a lot about bikes that I didn’t know before and we’ve been approaching each situation together with solution-based mindsets. However, I would be lying to say that our spirits haven’t been tested. With the 5:00 AM wakeups in 2-5° C temperatures (sometimes feeling like -3° C), a bike with chronic flat tires, maintenance demands, and the unavoidable hills and headwind, we’ve been doing our best to stay positive. Food has been a main driver for me, and it’s been a pleasure to cook with somebody who appreciates eating good food as much as I do. The views have also been stunning, and we’ve been lucky to see some really nice wildlife including foxes, deer and yes, one more bear (thankfully from afar).

After several demanding days on the road, our rest day today was planned at the last minute, but was very appreciated after five days of cycling and one ferry day. With a beautiful sunny day yesterday and forecasted rain for today, we chose to cover two days’ distance in one, marking the longest day of the trip at 117km, followed by a day off today. It ended up working out perfectly as I was able to find my snowboard set up at a second-hand store, and we caught up with some friends and family. Jared also had the chance to plan out his train travel that will quickly follow our bike trip, so that he can return his bike back to Kyoto. We are now feeling rested and ready to finish our journey, hopefully rolling in before dark on two functional bikes.

We spent today at a Warmshowers host in Kutchan, just outside the ski town of Niseko Grand Hirafu, that I will be working at this winter season. Kutchan sits at the base of Mt. Yotei, an incredible volcano that I have captured on my “Everyday Japan” page alongside many other photos of the beautiful valleys surrounding my upcoming home for the season.

Our Warmshowers host, Ryosuke, is an avid cyclist with lots of experience cycling around the world. One of the most notable trips we heard about was his 14-month journey cycling all around Japan. We had an enjoyable two evenings together sharing stories of travels, cycling and plans of future trips. I had the opportunity to use his kitchen and enjoyed making BBQ chicken sandwiches last night, followed by rice with Hokke fish and bok choy this evening. He had a special mini oven that was specifically designed to cook fish!

It's bittersweet to be on the final steps of this journey, but I know that we have maximized our travels through northern Japan and I look forward to the next chapter in Niseko. This journey has tested our patience, pushed us physically, and shown us that good food, kind people, and incredible landscapes can make any hardship worthwhile.

I’ll be writing one more post about the bike trip after finishing up in Sapporo before shifting gears into the winter season. Look forward to some incredible stories and photos from the expected 15 meters of snow and a rather ridiculous bike + snowboard entrance photo of me riding into Niseko…