Lucky Isle

Over a year since I first got the idea for this project, I’ve finally finished making all four episodes. Yes, that’s right! The fourth and final episode of Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail can be found right over here:

Per request I also made a trailer for the CJAR series as a whole. Not everyone wants to make time to watch an hour and twenty minute series without having an idea of what it is, so hopefully the trailer helps people know what they’re getting into:

And lastly, my friends Mark and Yumi finished up the Japanese subtitles for the third video from a few months ago. Many thanks to their assistance. The YouTube version has soft subs, or you may watch the version on Vimeo with embedded subs:

And that’s that! I hope you enjoyed the series!

Thanks to Mark and Yumi, the 2nd episode of Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail (Tempoku Line) now has Japanese subs.

This past weekend I completed two projects I’ve been working on–I went to Tokyo and passed my final CCNP exam (yay!), and I finished up the third Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail.

This episode covers the Shinmei Line and goes a bit heavier on rail and a bit lighter on biking than previous episodes. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, if you’re new to CJAR, I’d recommend you start off by watching Episode 1: The Haboro Line and Episode 2: The Tempoku Line before heading on to part three.

It took longer than expected, but I’ve finally finished up Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail: Episode 2 (The Tempoku Line).

If you’re new to CJAR, start off by watching Episode 1: The Haboro Line to get your footing first. Once you’re done with that, head on over to Episode 2:

Since posting Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail: Episode 1 last month I decided to put editing Episode 2 on the back burner for the final stretch of studying for me to take the ROUTE exam for my CCNP.

I ended up taking the exam the Saturday before last. It was a stressful day in Tokyo, but luckily I passed with room to spare. I’ve since started studying for SWITCH, the second of the three exams you have to take to get the certification (ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT).

Anyway, that’s why CJAR: Episode 2 (Tempoku Line) is taking more time than I would have liked, however I’m hoping to have it finished within the next week or so. In the meantime, here’s CJAR: Episode 1 yet again, but this time with Japanese subs!

Many thanks to my friend, Mark, and his girlfriend, Yumi, for translating the Japanese subs. I was thinking about doing them myself, but I was afraid my Japanese would come out way too mechanical. I’m extremely grateful for their assistance.

I plan on adding the subs to the CC track on the YouTube video that’s already up, but for now here’s the Vimeo hardsubbed version.

A few months ago I posted video of the Fukushima Kotsu Iizaka Line. That video, while a cinematic masterpiece in its own right, was actually just a way for me to test out my equipment and get comfortable back in my video creation chair. I had a bigger project in mind the whole time.

This past summer Beth and I spent a month in Hokkaido on a bicycle tour, but it was no ordinary month-long bicycle tour of Hokkaido! We (I) decided to take it a step further and use the trip as an excuse to explore a few of the many abandoned rail lines up there. I first became intrigued with those lines when I did a shorter 10-day bicycle tour up there last year, and it had been lingering in my head since then.

Actually, here’s a photo I took in Hokkaido last year of the train that started all this. I took that photo in the city of Yūbari, a city that used to have an economy based on the local coal mines, of which the train played an integral role. Unfortunately for them, the mines shut down, the economy collapsed, and the city is now somewhat well-known because it’s one of the few attendees at the City Governments That Went Bankrupt party.

Far more detailed info about Yūbari and the decline of rural Japan can be found at the excellent Spike Japan blog, if that’s your sort of thing.

Anyway, Beth and I spent a month following the broken railway remains of Hokkaido’s more prosperous times, and I’m in the process of making the trip into a four-part video series. With all that said, here’s episode 1 of 北海道廃線巡り: Cycling Japan’s Abandoned Rail (羽幌線・The Haboro Line).

Available in 1080p:

Last year I bought Beth a bike for Christmas–a Surly Long Haul Trucker (in green). Why did buy Beth that? It was because she wants to go on rides and tours with me, so I figured it would be prudent to start getting her set up and used to riding.

But there was also a secondary reason… I wanted that bike for myself. This don’t mean I was buying it in her name but going to gank it later; what it means is that I wanted to buy a bike but my current bike at the time, a Trek 7.3 FX was working relatively well and I couldn’t justify buying a new bike for myself, but I could certainly justify buying it for Beth.

Fast forward a few months and my desire to get a LHT increased to the point where I made an agreement with myself that I would buy it but only after selling my Trek. Fortunately for me, a week or two later I had found a buyer and had the cash in my pocket.

Buying the complete version of the Long Haul Trucker (versus buying the frame and selecting components yourself) costs $1,095 if you buy it in the USA or you can buy it in Japan for the equivalent of $1,600 US. I wasn’t a fan of that $500 extra for buying the bike from a store here, so I just ordered it online from the States and accepted the $250 in shipping.

Two weeks later it was sitting in many pieces in my living room and a few days later I had it fully assembled in time to take it on its inaugural voyage to Takizakura (lit. “Waterfall Cherry Tree”), a 1,000+ year-old cherry tree about 60 km southeast of Fukushima city.

Takizakura is the tree on the right. Ignore the people.

Though really, it felt more like I was going to see a huge crowd of people that a tree happened to get in the way of. The line of cars to get to the tree was at least 5 km long from the direction I came from, though luckily being on a bike allows you to ignore all of that and pass the gridlocked cars quite easily.

And that’s the story of getting a brand new bike and taking its first trip to see a tree that’s been around since… well, from a European standpoint, since the middle of the Middle Ages.

Wow, after all of this writing about touring and stuff I suddenly go off and sell my bike.

Actually, I’ve been considering it for some time now, so for a few weeks ago I listed it up for sale on the prefectural JET website. A guy was interested, he stopped by today, gave it a test ride, and purchased it on the spot, as-is, and with cash.

Why did I sell it? It wasn’t ideal for touring. I’ve decided that I want a more touring-oriented bike, and that hybrid just wasn’t cutting it. Now I have the task of purchasing a replacement bike before the weather gets all nice and pretty again (currently it’s snowing).

My main problem is getting over the sticker shock of bikes in Japan versus America. In Chicago, the bike I want (Surly Long Haul Trucker) costs $950. However in Japan the exact same bicycle costs a bit over 160,000 yen… which is around $1,650.

Yeah, that’s a $700 difference for the exact same bike. The only difference is that one is on this side of the Pacific and the other is on the other.

So my goals now are to either find a way to get an American-priced (or at least cheaper) LHT to Japan or to find a similar-quality bike from a Japanese manufacturer or at a cheaper price.

I guess that’s what I get for deciding and ordering stuff only a week prior… both stores I ordered stuff from sent me emails saying that they had to wait on stock before they can send out my items. This means that instead of going to Kyushu, I guess I’ll just make a couple day trips around the Fukushima area.

Awwww.

Spring break starts next week, and I’ve been wanting to do something or travel somewhere within the country for it.

A day or two ago the thought popped in my head to hop on a ferry down to Kyushu with my bike and do an almost loop of the island. This would pretty much be in the same vein as my cycling around Fukushima/Niigata last summer.

Here’s a map so you can follow along at home!

I won’t have enough time to do a proper loop, so I’ve decided to do a truncated loop. The miniscule amount of planning I’ve done (and really all I plan to do until I get there) has me taking a bus to Tokyo then a two-night ferry ride from Tokyo into Shibushi, which is on the south side of the island in Kagoshima prefecture. From there I’m going to try to ride in a general counterclockwise direction while bypassing the majority of the island’s peninsulas.

Once I get to Beppu, famous for its “hell” hot springs and thriving sex trade (not necessarily related), I’m gonig to cut west across the island and bypass the whole heavily populated Fukuoka/Kitakyushu metropolis, effectively shunning the whole northern part of Kyushu.

I’ll probably end up reaching the Ariake Sea on the west then heading south, following the valleys until I reach Kagoshima prefecture again. From there I’ll go southeast, bypassing the western peninsula of Kagoshima prefecture (and Kagoshima city for that matter) and finish up back at Shibushi to catch my ferry back to Tokyo.

———

So those are my plans for spring break. In all honesty, though, it’s all still very much in the air if I actually go or not. I’ve yet to make reservations, and I don’t even know the status of vacancies on the ferries.

Furthermore, today I ordered a bicycle bag for me to put my bag in on the bus/ferry. I also ordered a sleeping bag, which I desperately needed on my trip around Fukushima. While Kyushu is significantly warmer than Tohoku, it’s still a bit early in the year and I can see it getting colder than I’d like at night.

So I’m hoping that those items get delivered fast, as I don’t really want to make ferry/bus reservations before I have gear that I need. I’ll see how it goes.