Fukuyama and Onomichi

When we last left our intrepid heroes, they had a few hours to kill before they could check in to our overnight bus near Tokyo Station, so we headed to the station, dropped off our heavy backpacks in a locker and did a quick search of the area and found a bookstore we hadn't been to before, the Marunouchi Book Center. 

It was an impressive nine floors of books, including almost half a floor dedicated to various computer books. 

Um....ok....

After spending over an hour browsing, we grabbed some overnight rations at a nearby Lawson, grabbed our packs and headed to the bus stop to board the bus

The bus trip was uneventful, for the most part. It was a comfortable ride, mostly, though anyone my size would have trouble fitting in the seats, especially when the guy in front of you insists on reclining all the way back for the entire ten hours. We made several stops on the way at rest stops on the highway, which are some of the nicest, cleanest rest stops you'll ever find. A family of swallows agreed, and made a nest in the men's bathroom of one.

We arrived in Fukuyama, a town just northeast of our starting point, at 6:00am. Japan doesn't do mornings very well, so nothing, not even the train station, was open, except for a few 24 hour convenience stores. Every electronic device we had was now pretty much out of juice, and we needed a place to plug in, and after a night on a bus we also needed a shower, so, with our last remaining battery on our iPhone, we searched for an internet cafe. Nothing came up at all, but we did find a sentou (public bath) about a mile from the station. 

Fukuyama has a Rose festival every year, and the streets downtown were still covered in them. 

We also got to meet the town mascot. 

Lemme guess, her name is Rosie.

We located the sentou easily enough, but as the Japanese usually bath in the evening, it was also closed. Rather desperate, at this point, Sumi saw a Pachinko parlor called Cyber down the street, so we figured they may be open and may have an internet cafe inside. Well, we were wrong on both counts BUT 

Shh, don't tell anyone!

at least we got to sit down and charge our phones. 

Sumi found a real internet cafe on the other side of town, so with the train station now open we headed out in search of a shower and internet. Well, after about 40 minutes of walking, we found said internet cafe, but were informed it was "members only". What the apologetic young man was trying to say was that we needed to sign up like you would at an old fashioned video store to get membership and then could use the services. This, of course, requires a local address. He did, after some searching, give us a map with an onsen marked on it, but that would have been another few miles of walking with our increasingly heavy backpacks (they each weigh about 20 pounds) in the heat (it was already 80 degrees by 9:00am). So, we gave in and decided being filthy tourists was ok for now, and headed back downtown for some sightseeing.

We had until 2:00pm before we could check in to our hotel in Onomichi, so we threw our packs, which we were starting to detest, in a locker and headed across the street to Fukuyama Castle. 

Apparently, there is a sizable Christian population in Fukuyama. This is the large r of two churches, as viewed from the castle grounds

Important historical samurai whose name we could not read

It was quite a nice museum/park area with a restored castle (the original burned down at the end of WWII), some nice walkways and an nice old park, probably built in the 1950s when they restored the castle. 

This looks way too fun to be allowed in the US. Someone might scrap their knee.

I'm sorry ma'am, there is a height requirement for this ride.

With several hours still to burn, we grabbed some lunch at what can only be described as a Japanese Denny's. My omurice (omelet stuffed with rice) was passable and Sumi's caesar salad was fine, except for the impressively gelatinous boiled egg that was included. 

How do you even PEEL an egg that soft?

After lunch we figured we'd head to our hotel in Onomichi and see if we could check in a little early, so we hopped on the train to Onomichi.

Onomichi is a small, sprawling seaside town, with a castle of it's own. 

Heading to our hotel neat the station, we weren't allowed to check in early, but did get to drop off our bags. At this point we STILL had a few hours, so we took a walk along the river that runs through town (and empties into the ocean).

There is a local sculpture whose work is all over Fukuyama and Onomichi. He liked nude women so much that's all he did. This one inexplicably has peacocks, as well.

Finally 2:00pm rolled around and we were able to check in to our tiny room that could barely hold our luggage and us at the same time. A/C and a shower made everything much better. So much better, in fact, that we ended up taking a nap….a five hour nap. Waking up with that feeling that you know you slept too long, we blew our chance at assembling our bikes today, as the sun sets around 7pm. We resigned ourselves to doing laundry and getting ready for tomorrow morning. Setting the alarm for a painful-looking 4:00am and hoping we can get to sleep after the "nap".

Graduation Trip, Here We Come!

So, after 9 straight semesters of school, including summer, with no break, I finally graduated. What better way to celebrate than to head off to Japan for a few weeks and go cycling through an island we've never been to?

So, my last exam of my hardest semester was Friday, we attended some friends' wedding on Saturday (yay Jim and Julie!), attended a 3.5 hour graduation ceremony on Sunday, then had a frenetic two days to pack, get the house in order, remember how to both disassemble and pack the Bike Fridays, actually disassemble and pack them, run all the errands that needed doing (shopping, Traveler's Checks, 170# of cat litter, 50# of cat food, etc) and get down to Chicago Tuesday night.

We arrived at the Hyatt Regency (best place to park and fly from) and were given room 2114 (so close!). When we arrived and unpacked our myriad of electronic devices to charge before tomorrow's marathon flight, we found that our youngest cat, Miya, had given us a going away present

Chewed through :(

So, we basically have a brand new MacBook Air that we cannot charge. Luckily, we will be in one of the electronics capitals of the world in a day, so finding a replacement charger wouldn't be a problem. But it DID mean that we were out of luck until then.

The flight out on Wednesday was the easiest we have ever had, from start to finish. Almost no line at security (in O'HARE!!) going to Toronto. No trouble getting our bags transferred in Toronto, no line AGAIN in Toronto security, where we could leave our shoes on and our toiletries in our luggage and somehow still feel safe, and, most surprisingly to us, was the speed in Japan itself.

From disembarkation to our hotel was less than two and a half hours, which included getting off the plane, going through Immigration (usually an hour long ordeal itself), waiting for and getting our luggage, going through customs, stopping at Kuroneko to ship four of our bags to our starting point for the cycling trip ($73 for almost 200# of gear to travel halfway across the country!), stopping at ChibaGin, the bank that does currency exchange in the airport to change our 40 traveler's checks (they never have denominations larger than $50 at our bank), finding and getting on the shuttle bus, checking in and entering our room on the 10th floor of the Hilton Tokyo in Narita.

So, there we were, in a 5 star hotel that has no wireless internet and a laptop we can't charge being the only way we can plug into the broadband connection in our room. Japan is a wifi wasteland, for the most part. We could have sat in the lobby and used their slow cafe wifi, but after almost 22 hours of travel, food and sleep sounded better. The hotels in Narita are in their own little corner of the city, so walking to a restaurant is out of the question. You are pretty much stuck eating at whatever hotel you are staying at. Well, the 5 star hotel we got for free with my frequent flyer points had, well, 5 star prices for its restaurants. We just wanted something simple and light. They had a "cafe" which boasted a $21.50 veggie sandwich. Seriously.

They also, fortunately, had a convenience store in the lobby. $10.42 got us each 1.5 ham and wasabi mayo sandwiches, a small tube of Chip Star (Nabisco potato chips), Japanese apple juice (aka Nectar of the Gods) and a liter of bottled water. A feast! (pictures will be forthcoming, once we arrive in our hotel on Saturday). Afterwards, it was all we could do to crawl into bed and watch some bad Japanese TV (a "comedic panel" discussion of the commonplace molesting of women on crowded trains and how they could deal with it) and pass out.

Friday morning, after almost 12 hours of sleep, and we were ready to get moving and start enjoying vacation. So, a shuttle ride to downtown Narita, an hour long "Limited Express" train into Ueno and breakfast at Anderson Bakery in Ueno Station got us going.

Across the street of the FINALLY finished road construction (it had been under construction since our first trip to Japan in 2007) was the famous Yodobashi Camera Company, which sells anything and everything electronic, where we picked up a replacement power supply for the laptop.

Good news: Universal Bad news: $65 we weren't planning on spending.

Then a trip across town to the real reason we came to Tokyo: lunch at Rasoi. Simply the best Indian curry in Japan (and probably outside of India). The small restaurant in Meguro is always busy at lunch, with patrons waiting outside for tables to become available to eat a lunch special consisting of a small cabbage salad (the only Japanese part of the meal), a piece of Nan as big as a plate, a bowl of spicy curry (they don't tone it down for the spice-weak Japanese palate) and a cup of lassi for under $10.

That's it. We can go home now.

With several hours to kill before our overnight bus ride to Fukuyama, we headed back to Ueno and stopped at the Wired Cafe in Ueno station, where we could access some rare free Wifi and listen to records of a bunch of American songs covered by Japanese musicians who could mostly pronounce them while getting online. Also, they have some great desserts. Berry shake and 70% cocoa brownie.

That's it so far. Tomorrow the real adventure begins, as we figure out how to put our bikes back together, hope everything still works, and get ready to leave Sunday morning for two weeks of cycling! We'll also get the internet and camera sorted out so we can post our food pict...I mean the visual record of our trip!

The Maui Oceanfront Marathon!

It felt very weird leaving the hotel 15 minutes before the race, but we chose this place because it was about 4 blocks from the starting line. Arriving at what we thought was the starting line (actually the finish line), there was hardly anyone around, and I started getting nervous. Turned out it was just about 400 feet down the road. The corral for the runners was about half as big as it needed to be, and many of us were scattered all around the gates. This wasn't going to be a fast start.

The race course was gorgeous, running out and back along the ocean and among the tropical vegetation.

Heading out. The whole course was on the highway along the ocean. Traffic was great. Everyone slowed down. Many people waved

VERY welcome shade towards the end of the run.

We had surfers, fishermen, gardeners and people in random trucks cheering us on as we ran past. Getting to see the sun rise over the mountain as we approached the halfway point was also pretty cool. Due to my lack of time to train properly and our rather active last few days, I wasn't expecting to run very fast, and I didn't, but it was a fun race.

I ended up 16th in my division, Sumi was 26th in hers. And, most importantly, we both got fish medals!

Fish on the front, turtle on the back

Tonight will be an ocean dinner cruise for the marathon participants. I'm looking forward to being a little pampered! Until then, I think we're going to do our best not to move too much :) Snorkeling is a great full body workout, but it takes it's toll.

A "Day Off"

It was supposed to be a relaxing day before the half marathon. We started with a walk up Front St. along the ocean, intending to head up to a restaurant we had heard good things about. It was about 1.5 miles, so we figured it was a good way to keep loose.

Someone had other ideas..

The walk up to Star Noodle took us past the boat launch we used the other day for our great boating trip, past the Cannery Mall, which rather obviously used to be a pineapple cannery and is now a mall, and through a new industrial park at the base of Puu Kukui, the local volcano. It is said to still be active, in that it should erupt every 250 years or so. The last eruption was 1790, so I wouldn't want to live in the nice new condos here in about thirty years. Past the Maui Trapeze Acrobat School (seriously) and a dry dock that holds the Baywatch Hawaii boats

Never saw the show...

is Star Noodle. The two of us, being television ignorant, didn't know until today that Star Noodle is a restaurant by one of the Food Network's Top Chefs, Sheldon Simeon. This meant nothing to us, other that it would probably be crowded.

Luckily we got in right before the lunch rush are were able to get some seats at the bar (no tables left by 11:30). The food was very well made, though not all of it was to my taste. We ordered...a lot of food, figuring we'd probably never be here again and probably never eat Top Chef food again, so why not?

Singapore Noodles. My favorite. Curry, vermicelli, bean sprouts, peppers, onions, chicken and shrimp, though I got mine without shrimp.

Garlic Noodles. Excellent if you like dashi(fish broth). I don't, and it was too overpowering for me to enjoy. The garlic, scallions and hoison sauce were tasty, though.

Pork Buns. Awesome if you use the horseradish sauce that comes with it. A bit strong, though, as the pork is actually pork belly and, thus, 90% fat

Yakitori. This is very close to what you get in Japan. Sauce was good teriyaki, not too sweet with sesame.

Hot and Sour. Not your typical hot and sour soup. More like bacon soup with a few shrimp in it. Lots of pork, bacon, scallions and what looked like spaghetti noodles. It was actually pretty good, if you like bacon.

Dessert! Malasadas! A Hawaiian donut made fresh when ordered. They were awesome! The sauces are chocolate and butterscotch caramel.

All in all, I'd give it a 4 out of 5, mostly due to personal tastes. The staff was friendly and quick, the food was really pretty good (we ate almost everything). I tend to not care for fatty meat (pork belly, dark chicken meat, bacon) which was the standard fare, but the sauces and fresh vegetables were great.

Sumi got the bright idea that we should really go snorkeling this afternoon, despite having to run 13.1 miles tomorrow at 6:30AM. Once I saw arguing would be pointless, I resigned myself to a slow half marathon and we went to Boss Frog's Dive, Surf and Bike shop

to rent some snorkeling gear and an underwater camera (which we found out about when we got there. I wish we would have had one the other day!). The staff was very good, showing us good places to snorkel and setting us up well for a trip. They also have a great mascot:

So, we headed down to Olawalu, about 6 miles away to the beach and just walked out into the reef. It was amazing how within ten seconds of being in the water, we were seeing fish and coral. It's also amazing how much underwater photography takes getting used to. Sadly, over an hour in the water and we have nothing to show, but trust me, it was cool!

So, we slogged back to the hotel, tired and somewhat dreading the 5AM alarm and the run that will follow.

Whales and Dolphins and Turtles, Oh My!!!

Today may have been the best tourist day of our lives. Not the best traveling day or best trip (I still think cycling through Hokkaido was the best vacation we ever had), but the best day of being a tourist. We booked an all-day snorkeling tour through a company called Ocean Riders, where they were going to take us around the neighboring island of Lana'i to see shipwrecks, wildlife and coral reefs. Light breakfast and lunch included all for $139 each. Sounded fun and was, for Hawaii, rather cheap.

So we geared up and found our way in the darkness to the boat launch at 6:30AM. They had given us directions with landmarks, but with virtually no streetlights, even at 10MPH, we drove right by the church with "Jesus Coming Soon" out front, at first.

Captain Patty and First Mate Jason quickly organized the twelve of us, had a nice breakfast of granola bars, fresh fruit (which on Hawaii actually means, fresh) and juice for us while they gave us instructions and stowed our gear in various places. The boat was small and the fourteen of us were about all that could comfortably fit, and by comfortably, I mean there were seats for about six and the rest of us were sitting on the sides of the big inflatable raft that was the boat. It was a good thing, for this and other reasons I'll mention later, that everyone on the tour was younger and/or in good shape. There was only one couple older than us, and they were experienced divers.

So, on our way to the first snorkeling stop, we must have seen four or five pods of humpback whales at varying distances. We only brought Sumi's iPhone, since nothing we owned was waterproof, and we were going to be in the water all day long, so we couldn't get many pictures while in the choppy water. At the first snorkeling spot, we were told there were a lot of turtles in the area, so we may see one. Well, for these guys, by "may" they mean you may have one come up and shake your hand. There were many green sea turtles hanging out in the reef, and, by following their instructions (don't stop directly over a turtle, they don't like that), I had to stop swimming entirely, so I didn't accidentally smack the turtle that came up to say hi. He hung out with me at the surface for a few minutes getting some air and staring at me, then headed back down to the reef. And I wasn't alone. Most of us had Close Encounters of the Turtle Kind in our 30-45 minute stop.

After getting us back on board, we headed over to a few shipwrecks off the coast of Lana'i. These are not Spanish treasure ship-type wrecks, but WWII and earlier era boats that ran aground or were purposely beached (the standard way of getting rid of unwanted ships pre-1950s). The first one we saw was an old cargo ship that had blow onto the reef during a storm as it was being towed.

Note the rebar mesh. This is a concrete ship!

The island-facing side fares much worse, due to the more constant sun exposure

 The second, that we couldn't approach as closely, was a 1940's fishing-style boat that was run aground and left to die in the Lana'i Ship's Graveyard.

Our next stop was more snorkeling, where we didn't see more friendly turtles, but an amazing amount of colorful tropical fish and coral reefs in very clear water. No waterproof camera = no underwater pics, sorry! After that stop, we headed to a remote beach on Lana'i, where they used to dump female criminals overboard and let them swim a mile to shore and survive on Lana'i, which was a female prison island around the turn of the 20th century. Had we not all been in shape, we would not have stopped here, since the only way on and off the boat was to swim to/from shore. Sounds easy until you note the five foot waves and steep shoreline. Getting to the island was easy: jump off the boat and let the current carry you to shore. Getting back to the boat was a bit more challenging. You had to time the waves to not knock you on your butt (something we failed at, twice) and then swim against a strong tide to the boat. It was a LOT of fun! The beach was deserted and pleasant, and we got to walk around while they get lunch ready.

Lunch was no-frills do-it-yourself deli sandwiches, pasta salad and chocolate and after a morning of snorkeling and boating in the tropical sun, was absolutely delicious. We spend about an hour relaxing with lunch in the cove, then off to see the northern, more severe side of the island with it's steep cliff faces and sea caves.

Hundreds of these little caves dot the island

On our way to our last snorkeling stop, we came across a school of dolphins and Patty decided to "become one of the pod", and we ran with them for a little while!

You will have to forgive the videographer. Sumi was stretched out over the bow of a boat, hanging a few feet over the somewhat choppy water with her iPhone. I chose not to think about either her or the phone ending up in the ocean and just enjoyed the dolphins.

Our last snorkeling spot was possibly the best, with a vast, colorful coral reef complete with turtles, lobsters, schools of tropical fish, and visibility of up to thirty feet underwater.

Minus the shark and manta ray, that's about what we saw

On the way back, we followed a bunch of fighting male humpback whales as they vied for a female's attention. Imagine some cats play-fighting on your living room floor. Now imagine those cats are 35 feet long and weigh about 70,000 lbs. And they're only sort of playing. And there's about five of them. The water would have been a bit choppy without them fighting, and with it, I was afraid Sumi's phone would end up at the bottom of the ocean, so no video, sorry.

So, at the end of our trip, it have been almost nine hours out at sea, we had snorkeled at three separate reefs, each with it's own unique flavor, seen sea turtles, humpback whales and dolphins up close (some up VERY close), viewed shipwrecks, walked on a deserted beach, swam in the ocean, sailed around the island of Lana'i, got quite the history and nature lesson and enjoyed some good food and friendly company. I know we were lucky to have a really nice, laid-back group of passengers with us, but I can't give enough praise to Patty and Jason for just a wonderful trip. They were amazing, and I would recommend this excursion to anyone with the following caveats in mind:

You need to be in shape to get the most out of this. Their site says no one with "severe back or neck problems or pregnant women". I would go further and say if you can't swim for several hours, can't handle a full day in direct sunlight, can't handle very jarring and bumpy rides and are unwilling to pee in the ocean (you're out all day in a tiny boat), you shouldn't go on this trip. If you can, this is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable excursions you will find at a very reasonable price.

So, after that unpaid advertisement for Ocean Riders, all we had energy to do was get some dinner at the aptly named "Penne Pasta" restaurant a block from our hotel. The food was very good family-style Italian at a Hawaii-reasonable price. I had the vegetarian baked penne, Sumi had the whole-wheat?(we don't think it was) spaghetti and we shared a bruschetta. All of it was very tasty and we stumbled home and retired at....5:00? It was an exhausting day.

Tomorrow is our first unplanned day, and if my muscles right now are any indication, will be a very quiet, boring day.

Aloha from Maui!!

Aloha! It's the only Hawaiian word I know!

Well, that's not true, technically. I also know "thank you" (mahalo) and "Merry Christmas" (mele kalikimaka).

Here we find ourselves in Lahaina, Maui for the Maui Marathon! Sumi and I, due to a very busy fall semester, are running the half this year. Oh yeah, and Sumi is here for CME (Continuing Medical Education), which means she's supposed to be hard at work studying, taking notes, etc.

Yeah, right.

We got in last night after about 16 hours of travel (10 of them on a plane) and collapsed in our very nice hotel/condo at Outriggers Ainu Nalu. This morning, we got up at 6:00 and headed out to drive the Road to Hana, which is an amazingly winding, narrow road that goes around the eastern edge of the island, through bamboo groves, rain forest-like areas and along the coastline. About 30 miles of the road is at 15 MPH or less, with many stretches where only one vehicle can fit at a time. It was the most harrowing, yet enjoyable drive I've ever taken.

Bright, sunny day

Volcanic rock archipelagos dot the coastline

Black sand beach

 Absolutely beautiful. The trip took almost seven hours out and back, with some rain on the return trip. I would highly recommend this drive to anyone that finds themselves in Maui. Leave at sunrise, return before sunset. I would never want to drive this road in the dark.

A typical view from the car. Rock face on one side, steep drop on the other, a road too narrow for two vehicles and a curve so sharp, you can't see more than 15 feet ahead of you

These little guys were all over the shore

Rush fans, you KNOW what was going through my head every time I saw one of these signs!

Many nice waterfalls along the road, too

After the long drive, we hit the local Safeway (only real supermarket in the area) to pick up some food for breakfasts and snacks. I knew things were going to be expensive in Hawaii, but I still had some serious sticker shock

Seriously? That's, like, $3.69 per scoop of raisins!

Everything was about twice as much as back home. We decided that eating out for lunch and dinner would actually be CHEAPER than making it ourselves. Heading back to the hotel, we decided to take a quick walk to downtown Lahaina (about 2 blocks away) and see the wharf and a really old tree Sumi had read about. On the way in, we saw a map listing some downtown attractions

An Exceptional Tree?

And then, a block later, we saw the tree

Those are not separate trees, that's all ONE tree!

It was absolutely huge. The tree took up about square block, with about seven or eight branches that formed full-sized trees of their own (including rooting into the ground) but all actually originating from the main tree. I've never seen anything like it. Or heard anything like it, either. It sounded like every bird in the city was there. We could barely talk.

That was it for the jetlagged duo today. Tomorrow, we leave bright and early (6:30AM meet-up) for an all-day snorkeling and whale-watching excursion. Sadly, there won't be any pictures of the day, since it will be largely in a glorified lifeboat in possibly choppy water. I will leave you with a sign from one of the national parks we visited on the Road to Hana, proving that the Japanese do not have a monopoly on amusing signage.

Ancient Burial Airport....