Korea and Japan

A change of plans

From Indonesia we flew to Kuala Lumpur to plan and organize the final portion of our travels. It was nice to return to the same hotel and favorite restaurants that we had frequented during our October visit to Kuala Lumpur. We had decided to head to China before returning to Europe and on the following day went to the Chinese consulate to apply for our visas. Unfortunately, when we arrived we discovered that it was a national holiday (Wesak Day – a celebration of Buddha’s birthday, enlightenment, and death) and the consulate was closed. This meant that we would have to pay more for the visas in order to get them in 2 days or pay the regular fee and wait until the following Monday to pick them up which meant longer in Kuala Lumpur than we really wanted to spend. This logistical glitch led to some reconsidering and investigating of alternatives on the internet and by the end of the day we’d decided to go to Japan, as we’d originally planned before the March 11^th earthquake and tsunami, instead of China. That evening we stumbled upon a huge Wesak parade over in the Chinatown area of town.

Preparations

We spent the next 2 days ironing out the details and buying flight tickets. On Friday we flew to Seoul, Korea and were met at the airport by our wonderful Servas host. “Wait a minute,” you say, “Korea? I thought you were going to Japan!” Yes well, we had managed to find a great guy who has started a business leading bike tours in Japan who was willing to rent us bikes starting in southern Japan (Kyushu) and ending further north in Kyoto. His business is called Japan Biking and you can find him on internet. Given that travel within Japan is pricey and we would be starting in the far south, we decided to fly to Korea and take a ferry over to southern Japan. This plan also allowed us to get a taste of Korea, which turned out to be quite an added bonus.

Seoul

We spent 3 days with our wonderful Seoul hosts and they gave us an amazing introduction to Korean culture, history and food. The food was delicious and there were many vegetarian options. We visited the demilitarized zone/border with North Korea, which was powerful and sad. We drank rice wine and sang karaoke. We went for a walk together with other Servas hosts and had some great views of Seoul. We visited the Imperial Palace, historical houses, a sanitation museum (history of toilets), temples and parks. It was a shame we didn’t have time to visit any of the museums and we left Seoul knowing there was much more to see and do. Thank you Yong Hwan and Young Hee!!

Exploring Gyeong ju and the ferry to Japan

We traveled by bus to Gyeong ju (luckily realizing that we’d bought a ticket to a different destination that had a similar spelling in time to fix the error and get on the correct bus). This was an extremely comfortable bus with big leather seats and lots of space. At first we thought we’d accidentally bought 1^st class tickets but it was in fact the “cheap” bus. We arrived in Gyeong ju around 1:00 which meant there was still time for some sight seeing. We left our bags at the lockers in the bus station, and visited the tourist information booth where the young women inside provided us with an information packed tourist map in English and gave us some advice about where to go first. So we hopped on the local bus and headed out to the Bulguksa temple which is a World Heritage site. Unfortunately the bus had a minor accident (we didn’t even notice until we were standing still for several minutes and then a police man arrived). We waited a while and then finally another bus came along and we could change buses as our driver was still dealing with the police. The temple had many beautiful details and it was a shame to rush through it a bit, but we also wanted to get to the Seokguram temple/grotto before it closed. Luckily we caught the last bus heading up to the temple and were able to walk up to it and back to catch the last bus heading back to town. We retrieved our bags from the bus station and set out to find a place to sleep. This required a bit of searching as our first pick was full, but luckily a hotel around the corner was willing to give us a discounted price making it just as reasonable (and far fancier) as the backpacker hostel would have been. The next morning we explored the town and market and found some souvenirs (metal bowls and chopsticks), camping supplies (giant plastic sheet) and delicious and cheap food in the traditional market as well as some rice rolls to take with us for dinner. We then caught a 3:00 bus to Busan. Arriving an hour later, we found another very helpful tourist information woman and she was able to help us buy mentholated spirits at the pharmacy which we needed for our cooking stove and we’d read that it was difficult to acquire in Japan (which turned out not to be true). A subway ride and then a short walk brought us to the ferry terminal right on time for the 7:00 check in and 7:30 boarding of the ferry. However, once on board and settled into our 2^nd class shared room with fold out mats on the floor we had to wait another 3 hours before the ferry actually departed. A similar situation also existed on the Japanese side, as we docked at 6am but couldn’t leave the ship until 7:30. It seems that the working hours of the land personnel don’t match the actual departure and arrival hours of the ship. 

1^st day in Japan

The tourist information women in Fukuoka were a bit shyer about speaking English than their Korean counterparts and much giggling ensued as one tried to give us directions to the nearest convenience shop where we would find breakfast and an ATM which accepted international cards (most bank ATMs didn’t). Off we went in the pouring rain, as the Japanese rainy season had officially begun several weeks earlier than usual. Luckily it wasn’t cold so getting soaked wasn’t really a problem. From the 7-eleven, we walked on into town to the train station, found out when the next departing train was that would take us south to Izumi (where we would rent the bikes), found a huge book store and bought the motorcycle touring atlas we’d heard was an excellent resource despite being in Japanese, ate lunch and caught the train to Izumi. Izumi is a small town so we weren’t worried about not finding Thomas, our bike rental man. However, finding him wasn’t as easy as we’d expected. We had his address and phone number so our first strategy was to look for a town map (our atlas wasn’t detailed enough for finding a specific address in a small town). This led us to the information desk and ended up engaging the woman who worked there and some other people who I’m not sure worked there but might have been friends or relatives but might also have just been fellow town citizens who happened to be at the train station at that time. Anyway, there was much phone calling (Thomas hadn’t answered his phone when we tried calling him directly as he was busy teaching an English class) and looking at a town map as the tourist information woman and another man tried to find out where Thomas lived. Addresses in Japan are not exactly straight forward as the numbers correspond not to a geographic location but to the order in which the buildings have been built. So even people who have lived in a town for a long time might find it difficult to locate a house just from its numerical address. In the end, they found someone on the phone who knew where Thomas lived, and the woman and man drove us in her car (thoroughly decorated with stuffed animals) to his house! We were, of course, incredibly impressed with this high level of assistance! 

More preparations

We found Thomas just returning from his teaching lesson and he welcomed us into his house. He and his wife, Yuko, were incredibly hospitable especially considering she was due a week later to give birth and was in the midst of getting her driving license before the baby arrived. So it was not exactly a stress free time for them, but they shared delicious food with us and let us sleep in their spare room, thereby delaying our entry into the camping-in-the-rain life that was to ensue. We spent two nights with them, which gave us time to get ourselves and our bikes organized for 31 days of biking. We packed our bike bags and then sent a box with our backpacks and anything we didn’t think we needed while biking on to the man in Kyoto to whom we’d give the bikes in the end. I spent time copying down the detailed route information that was available on a website called Japan cycling navigator and a book that Thomas owned of the top 10 bike rides in Japan. Thomas gave us a tour of a supermarket so we had an idea of some things we could buy for easy camping food. Of course all this planning and packing took longer than expected and we didn’t actually set out until after lunch on May 28^th. There was a typhoon moving through southern Japan, but western Kyushu was on the edge so this just meant that it was raining as we set out. We asked a passing mailman on motorbike to take a photo of us before we left. Thank you Thomas and Yuko!!

Ill prepared

We were immediately soaking wet and with the wind from biking it was a bit chilly. Thus when we saw a woman waving to us and realized it was Yuko’s mother standing in her shop doorway waving for us to stop, we gladly did. And we even more gladly accepted her gift of filled pastries (what she sold in her shop) and towels, which she wrapped around our necks to help keep us warm. While we didn’t understand the words she was saying (she spoke only in Japanese to us), it was clear that she thought we were terribly ill-prepared for biking in such lousy weather and that we needed to be dressed more warmly. She was rather right. The towels helped a lot and proved to be quite useful throughout the trip. Thank you Yuko’s mom!!

Cultural contrasts

Our goal that day was to bike from Izumi to the island called Nagashima, which is connected to the mainland by bridge. Unfortunately we missed a turn off as the road we were supposed to turn onto had no signs at the intersection and we spent at least an extra hour trying to find the correct road. In the end we figured it out (with the help of some gas station attendants) and made it to the bridge at 6:00. Thomas had told us that there was a Dutch man living on this island and that the people at the local produce shop/traveler’s rest stop might know where he lived. We thought it might be interesting to meet a Dutch person living in Japan and perhaps he would be able to help us find shelter for the night. So we stopped at the shop and I went inside to enquire. Forty five minutes later we left the shop with a hand drawn map in hand of where to find this Dutch fellow. Getting the map had once again involved several phone calls and several people (the store employees, customers, and their friends who were called). The man who drew the map for us had driven down to the store and even offered to drive us to the Dutch man’s house but we declined as we wanted our bikes to also head in that direction. Another half hour down the road, the same man appeared again in his car to check on us and we assured him that we were ok and he told us we were half way there. We arrived in the village as it was starting to get dark, and there once again the map man appeared, this time with his wife in the car with him and the Dutch man in another car behind him. It seems he had taken it upon himself to go to the Dutch man’s house, knock on his door and tell him that friends of his were looking for him. Well, the Dutch man was Dutch and not Japanese and we were not his friends. He was civil enough and he did give us a car escort to the nearest hotel to show us where it was, but not until he had told the departing Japanese man (who up to this point was quite happy to have been able to help us find each other) that we were in fact not his friends. It was an interesting cultural contrast and we were sorry the Japanese man had spent so much time trying to help us (he did know that we didn’t know the Dutch man as I’d told him I didn’t know his name or anything about him other than that he lived on the island). After this we were somewhat more cautious about asking for help knowing that people would go above and beyond our expectations to help us. And while it was disappointing that the Dutch man wasn’t interested in socializing or helping us find cheap or free shelter for the night (the hotel he brought us to was nearly 3x our daily budget – so not an option for us), his reaction was a perfectly acceptable reaction according to western cultural norms. We left the hotel he’d brought us to and cycled a few kilometers further to find the campground marked on our atlas. There we found an unused cabin with a porch under which our tent fit perfectly. Thus we managed to stay dry despite the heavy rains that night.

Biking during the rainy season

In the morning we headed north to the ferry terminal and found that the ferry wouldn’t start running until 14:00 due to the typhoon. While we waited the sun came out and we managed to dry all of our wet clothes and gear. That was quite a relief! Over the course of the 31 days we only got thoroughly soaked 4 times which we felt wasn’t bad considering it was the rainy season. In all cases, the sun came out after a day so we were able to dry off before things became moldy. It did rain a lot at night, but usually we had already set up the tent so that wasn’t a problem. We also managed to find a lot of roofs to pitch our tent under, which was especially nice in the morning if it was still raining.

Camping in Japan

We had read prior to setting out that it is perfectly acceptable to sleep in public spaces and our experience confirmed this. Before leaving Thomas and Yuko, Yuko kindly wrote out a polite letter in Japanese that introduced us and explained that we were looking for a place to put up a tent for the night. We used this on several occasions when we hadn’t been able to locate a place ourselves, and in all cases the person we showed the letter went out of their way to lead us to a spot they thought was acceptable for us to sleep. This often meant driving or even jogging ahead of us as we followed on our bikes. On a few occasions we continued on to find a different spot as we weren’t comfortable sleeping in the bus stop, train station or park with no toilet. Clean public toilets abound in Japan and we were always able to find a camping spot with a toilet nearby. The best spots turned out to be parks with covered picnic areas. Our most unusual sleeping location occurred on one of the days we got soaked while biking, and it was still raining when it was time to set up the tent. I wasn’t interested in sleeping in a swamp and managed to convince Machiel that it was ok for us to sleep in the handicapped toilet cabin. It was spacious and clean. The only down side was that there was a motion detector on the light so every time one of us moved, the light came on. But it was a better night’s sleep than we would have gotten had we slept out in the rain and wind that continued on into the morning.

Our route

So over the course of 31 days we managed to bike approximately 1,500 km (932 miles).

We began in Izumi, biked through 4 islands off the west coast of Kyushu, biked east across Kyushu via the volcano Mt. Aso, and took a ferry from Oita over to another island, Shikoku. On Shikoku we biked a circular route south down to the southern most point and then back north to Matsoyama (still on the west coast) where we took a ferry to Yanai, Honshu. In Yanai we had our only true (and much needed) rest day staying with wonderful Servas hosts who treated us to amazing food, gave me a “Go” lesson, took us for a visit to a historic bridge, and taught us about Japanese culture. It was amazing how much just one day revived our tired bodies. Thank you Masumi and Tomoyoshi!!  We continued north to Hiroshima and then east to the beginning of a series of 7 bridges that led us back to Shikoku. On Shikoku we biked east along the northeast coast to Takamatsu where we took a ferry to the island, Shodoshima. There we were surprised to find the recommended route I’d gotten off the internet taking us up and over a high mountain with 18% grades. We managed it and saw some monkeys in the process. We then took a ferry to Himeji, Honshu where we visited the historic castle. From there we continued east to Kobe, Osaka, Nara and finally Kyoto. The final 4 days were extremely hot (getting to 35 degrees) which was harder to bike in than the earlier rainy days. We did get quite the bike tans though (complete with white strip on the side of my face where my helmet strap was), which we were rather proud of.

Roadkill

When biking one is much more in tune to road surfaces and roadkill is a part of the daily sensorial experience. Abandoned gloves were by far the most commonly seen roadkill. Luckily they didn’t smell or offend. Then came snakes, most of which were dead, but we did see a few live ones on the roads as well. Other roadkill were regional. So in one area there were many squished red crabs, whose defense mechanism was tragically outdated for modern predators such as cars and bikes. Another area was full of huge bloated frogs. After the rainy days, the thickest and longest black earthworms I’ve ever seen had met their demise.  And a turtle and a mystery mammal that seemed to be a cross between a possum and a badger we saw only once. It was interesting to compare this to New Zealand where we mostly saw mammalian roadkill such as possums and hedgehogs.

Gifts

The beautiful countryside, quiet roads, free camping and interesting architecture made Japan a wonderful country to explore by bike. However, it was the people we met along the way that made our experience really special. Time and time again complete strangers offered us gifts including drinks, food, a frozen towel (to help keep cool), mosquito repellent, Japanese multi-purpose cloths, and pictures taken on a cell phone which were printed out at a convenience store – and then delivered as a surprise further down the road. I was humbled by their generosity and I hope some of this spirit has rubbed off on me!

Culinary notes

In addition, our homestays in Yanai and Chiba (outside Tokyo) gave us insight into Japanese culture (for example, amateur golfers take out “hole in one” insurance in case they get a hole in one and then are obliged to host a large party and distribute expensive gifts to guests) and an opportunity to taste a greater variety of amazing foods. If it weren’t for those homestays, I’m afraid our experience of Japanese food would have been limited to our daily routine of: rice, tofu, and yummy flavor packets containing spices and seaweed for breakfast; convenience store fare of ready cooked rice balls, egg, tofu, vegetables and noodles for lunch; and soba (buckwheat) noodles with assorted vegetables for dinner – hardly doing justice to Japanese cuisine, but economical and easy for us to cook on our little stove.

Garbage

Japan is a very clean country. So either the cute cartoony signs encouraging people not to litter are effective or somebody is cleaning up the roadsides and parks. I suspect, however, that people just don’t litter as much (we did see a bit) as the rest of the world. This is particularly interesting as trashcans are so rare. I believe we found trashcans in only 2 of the many parks we visited. There was, however, no shortage of receptacles for plastic bottles and cans. In fact next to every vending machine one could find them. On some days we carried our garbage with us for quite a while before finally finding a trashcan in which to deposit it. We eventually discovered that convenience stores and supermarkets often had trashcans, though these were often for separated recyclables and we were never quite sure if we were putting our garbage in the correct receptacle or disturbing the recycling efforts. 

Final days in Japan

We spent our last 3 days in Japan in Chiba, near Tokyo, visiting a family whose daughter I’d taught in Amsterdam. They too spoiled us with amazing hospitality and provided us with a very welcome place to begin recovering from the accumulated exhaustion of having been on the road for so long.  A visit to the children’s school, dodge ball practice (the rules are completely different from the dodge ball I know), the imperial palace grounds in Tokyo, the newly tallest building in the world and local sights in Chiba were the perfect final experiences after our intense biking adventure.  Thank you the Okura family! On July 1^st we flew to the United States to visit friends and family before heading on back to Europe and jobs.

Looking back

How to sum up such a year? It was an amazing experience that we feel so lucky to have been able to have, and certainly we saw places that I never expected to get to see. India was the most colorful and there we learned to endure dust, bumps, landslides and the curiosity/business attempts of strangers. Malaysia was fascinating for the mix of cultures living side by side. There we formed a resolve to limit our consumption of rubber and palm oil as these industries have totally destroyed the native forests (and in Indonesia as well). In Thailand we were struck by the politeness their culture fosters. Laos provided us with new reasons to deplore American politics, and we were inspired by the hard work and good humor of the people we witnessed working so hard to eke out subsistence from a landscape still studded with lethal cluster bombs. In Cambodia we were awed by the prowess of civilizations past and wooed by the huge smiles that were bestowed upon us in the rural areas. In Vietnam we were pleased to find it not that difficult after all to get off the tourist track and thus avoid the hassles we’d heard so much about from fellow backpackers. There, we enjoyed the regional variation of boats and experienced Christmas in Asia. New Zealand presented the most varied and consistently impressive nature, and there we learned that camping can lose its appeal after two months. Indonesia is a land of islands and here we visited islands (physical, religious, cultural and metaphorical) inside of islands. Korea was a marvelous surprise and far too short a visit. In Japan we were impressed by engineering, architecture, and a culture of helping others. We also improved our map reading skills and achieved a goal.

Every country was different, but there were also threads that tied them together in an interesting web of connections: religion, wearing pajama style clothing (and sometimes actual pajamas), napping, people displaying great strength and fortitude as they worked, rice cultivation, drying things in the sun, transportation marvels and smiles.

Would I recommend such a trip to others? I’m not so sure. Perhaps if one tries to do half as much in the same amount of time, it wouldn’t be so wearying. I’m not very good at slowing down and taking rest days. It was a long time to be living the nomadic life and, even with some visits with friends and even some family along the way, we had bouts of homesickness. Did our low budget create more stress? Probably, but it also led to some interesting experiences and I wouldn’t have traded our travel on the local buses in India for a driver and air-conditioned car any day. We have certainly come to think of possessions in a different way. Now back home I find myself overwhelmed while sorting through my bags of clothes and wishing I could continue living in an environment where it was socially acceptable to wear the same clothes everyday if one wishes. Though at the same time, I must say it is lovely to wear different clothes than the same ones I’ve been wearing for months. Traveling light, unburdened by possessions is certainly a worthy ideal, which I guess I am only part way to fully embracing.

Final unsolicited advice

So yes, it was great. But it was also stressful and tiring and not the reveling in the freedom of a work-free year that some may imagine. That said, if there is a place or an experience you’ve been wishing you could do, go do it. Where there is a will, there is definitely a way! Listen to media and others with healthy skepticism. We certainly had enough experiences to learn that it’s impossible to find out what a place or situation really are like without going to see for yourself.

Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115483161265544236321/KoreaAndJapan?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOjNibrEqtWPpwE&feat=directlink

the rest of the Japan photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/111597636453935426850/July262011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLXv_PXSzeiYFQ&feat=directlink