Due to so much happening during Day 7, I’m going to split this up into two entries. If you want to read the first part, head on over to Day 7 Part 1

Stats are for the whole of Day 7, not just Part 2.

Day 7, Part 2
??? - Niigata, Niigata

Distance: ~30 km of cycling
Average: n/a
Max: n/a
Total Distance: ~570 km

I was off in the middle of nowhere, plodding up a mountain road, surrounded by a lush green forest. It started to sprinkle, and I kept going, hoping that the rain wouldn’t get too strong.

Up and up and up through nothing but mountains and forest.

Then the chain on my bike snapped.

I had been pumping along, suddenly lost all resistance, then looked down to see that where my chain should be, there was only air.

I had no spare.

Fuck.

I got off my bike and walked down the road a little bit. About ten feet back I found what I was looking for: my poor, poor snapped chain crumpled up in the grass on the side of the road. Pissed beyond belief, I picked it up, went back to my bike, and walked my bike up the road some more to the stopping area offshoot of the road that’s common on steep mountain roads with lots of switchbacks.

Flipping my bike over, I proceed to rethread the chain and try to figure out how to use the chain tool on my multi-tool. I had never changed a chain before, so this was as good a time as any to learn. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that I needed an allen wrench to even use my chain tool (well over a week later, back at home, I realized that there’s a hidden separate allen wrench in the tool, but I didn’t know that at the time).

Once I realized that I truly was very much stranded, I went around yelling and generally being pissed off. Soon after, I decided to be more productive and flag down the next car I saw and hope they have an allen wrench. About fifteen minutes later, I saw a car and flagged it down.

It took me quite some time to explain to the guy that I was asking if he had an allen wrench simply because I had no idea what “allen wrench” is in Japanese. Eventually he figured out what I was trying to say and gave me the great news that he… didn’t have one. Just as I was about to give up, thank him, and wait for the next guy he asked me where I was going.

“Nagaoka.”
“Nagaoka, eh? I’m heading to Aizuwakamatsu.” (Aizuwakamatsu is in the direction I was coming from, Nagaoka the direction he was coming from)
“Oh, in that case…”
“Ok, load your bike up! Let’s go to Nagaoka!”
“???!?!?!… :-)”

With much joy, hapiness, and gratefulness, I took the luggage and wheels off of my bike and loaded it up into the back of his car. I was stoked to get a ride to Nagaoka, plus I was finally out of the rain.

We had a good 50 km or so car ride ahead of us, so we got down to chatting and eventually had a pretty interesting conversation. I told him all about my trip and what I was doing and what happened, then he told me why he picked me up.

Apparently in his much younger days (he’s in his 60s now) he used to be a huge fan of mountain hiking/climbing. He reminisced about how sometimes his trips would go far from planned, but oftentimes when there would be misfortune on his trips, a good Samaritan would come along and do their best to help them out. He said that when he saw some cyclist obviously stranded along the road (made more obvious by my enthusiastic waving him down) he knew it was his turn to return the favor that so many people had bestowed upon him. As I sat in his car, with my bike in pieces behind me, I gratefully thanked all of the people that had helped this man when he was younger.

For his profession, he worked as a construction consultant, a role which would make today not only the most eventful, but also the most educational. He was born and raised in Niigata, and when the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake (平成16年新潟県中越地震) struck, he was there. On the way to Nagaoka he took a detour to show me the effects of the earthquake, of which many are still visible nearly four years later.

While driving around the area, he showed me houses that are still in the middle of rivers and many other houses that are abandoned due to earthquake damage. He took me to rivers that had their routes permanently changed due to landslides. There were bridges that were submerged and other bridges that were made useless due to the river’s path changing. He showed me photos of before the earthquake–one that shows a mountain that was previously there, then I look up to see a sheer cliff in the present-day. There’s a river that used to go left but now goes right.

There were many families that lived and farmed in the valley, but the earthquake and subsequent flooding and landslides wiped everything out, so now they’ve rebuilt houses on the mountains and only keep their farm equipment in garages in the valley. The land in the valley is the only arable land they have, so now they travel down the mountain into the valley every morning to farm, then leave the valley in the evening to go back home.

He knew all of this because he was the construction consultant who personally walked miles and miles of roads immediately after the earthquake, assessing the roads and bridges and deciding which ones were passable, repairable, or had to be destroyed. His firsthand experiences with the earthquake and subsequent reconstruction efforts allowed him to give an amazing amount of insight. Aside from the luck of him simply helping me out when I needed it, meeting him became a huge educational opportunity. My main regret is that I surely missed out on some bits of interesting information solely because the entirety of our conversations took place in Japanese, of which mine is still a work in progress.

Eventually the mood of what had turned into a tour left the earthquake behind and turned into him showing me one of the great prides of the local area–Nakayama Tunnel (中山隧道). For the people who study Japanese they might notice something odd about the name I just wrote in kanji. I’ll give a little paragraph break for you to think about it.

Ok, done thinking! First off, there are two tunnels: the aforementioned Nakayama Tunnel (中山隧道) and the newer tunnel that runs parallel to the first, which is also Nakayama Tunnel (中山トンネル). They’re both translated the same into English, but the Japanese obviously differs.

The original tunnel’s name writes “tunnel” using the native Japanese word 隋道 (zuidou), whereas virtually all modern tunnels in Japan now use “tonneru” (トンネル), which is simply the English word “tunnel” transliterated. I just found this little bit pretty interesting, as in English both tunnels are translated as “Nakayama Tunnel” and seem to have the same name, but in Japanese it’s easy to tell them apart. Anyway, what is this damn tunnel anyway and why is it so special?

It’s so special because it’s a nearly 900 meter long tunnel that the people of Kashiwazaki City (柏崎市) dug using no machinery: using only their hands and pickaxes and shovels, over a period of 16 years. It then served as the primary route to the other side of the mountain for the next 49 years, until the new tunnel was built with a tunnel boring machine.

Hanging out at the entrance. This entrance has been rebuilt from the original. If you go further back in the tunnel you it reverts back to the original dirt walls.

Ten years ago, a movie was made, Horumaika: Tebori Nakayama Zuido no Kiroku, depicting the creation of the tunnel, with many of the local residents serving as extras during filming.

The movie poster for 掘るまいか 手掘り中山隧道の記録

There’s more information in English over at the Asashi Shimbun’s article on the tunnel and some info in Japanese and more photos if you’re so inclined.

So moving on from the history lessons, we eventually arrived in Nagaoka. After driving around and asking some people for directions, we soon came across a bicycle repair shop. I went in and asked the guy if he could have a look at my bike and my chain and see what he can do. We brought him out to the car, and as soon as we opened up the trunk and showed him my bike he stepped back, waving his hands saying, “No, no, no, I can’t help you with that.”

Why?

The reason is, and I was actually expecting this, was that I don’t have one of the oh-so-common mama-charis (utility bikes) that 99.9% of people here ride. As soon as he saw a “real” (or as he called it, specialty) bike in the back of the car, he immediately didn’t want to lay a hand on it. He said that trying to fix it would be a learning experience for him, plus he simply wouldn’t have the proper parts.

“Well, that’s no surprise, but do you know of a bike shop that actually can fix it?”
“Yes, but not in Nagaoka. You’re going to have to go to Niigata for that.”
“Oh. Thanks.”

I asked my wonderful new friend what to do, and said that we should get on our way to Niigata, a further 60 km away. Sweet beans.

We headed out of Nagaoka and got on the expressway to Niigata (note to show how awesome this guy was: expressway tolls are NOT CHEAP). While on the expressway he pointed out that way off to the west you could just barely see some of the mountain peaks Sado Island, the island that was the real destination for my trip. Refer to the map at the top of this post; Sado is the big island to the west of Niigata.

Since he had brought Sado up, it occurred to him to ask me how I was planning on taking my bike on the ferry. I replied that I was simply going to just take it and see what happens. He said that he’d do one better and call up the ferry company to see what their policies are concerning bicycles.

He looked up the number on his phone, called up the ferry company, and inquired about taking a bicycle on the ferry. To my great surprise and disdain they said that they’d charge me the price to bring a motorcycle, which is an extra 2,000 yen ($20)

Um, what?

I’m going to have to spend money to get my bike fixed (if I even can), earlier spent about 7,500 yen on an unplanned hotel room in Tajima, still have to spend 10,000 yen for the taiko concert on Sado, and now I have to pay 4,000 yen more than expected (for round-trip) to bring my bike with me? Eh…

No.

I pretty much decided right there that I wasn’t going to Sado and was going to skip the Taiko festival. Well, damn that I had to cut out one of the main purposes for going on this trip, but my wallet was getting depressingly empty.

With that settled, we eventually found our way to the recommended bike shop in Niigata, and they said they could get my bike fixed, no problem. Holy hell, relief has come!

After unloading my bike from Mr. Awesome Guy’s car, I thanked him profusely before he finally departed. He had long ago given up on going to his original destination of Aizuwakamatsu and said that he was just going to go back to where he originally departed from that morning–his house in Niigata. The many hours and miles he drove today ended up being for the sole purpose of helping me out, though he surely hadn’t realized it when he left his house that morning.

As he drove off, I remained amazingly grateful for everything he did to help me. When the time eventually comes, I’m not going to hesitate to help out another traveler, especially a cyclist/hiker, in need. We need more people like him.

The rest of the day wasn’t too exciting. The shop installed a new chain on my bike to the tune of 4,000 yen then I rode around the city, exploring. As night fell I took up residence in an internet cafe, where I spent the night.

And I slept well.

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