Tokyo Visit II

Scenic Tokyo and Kamakura.

Tokyo Visit

After leaving Tokyo June 25th, I was looking forward to seeing all my friends!

Here are pictures of dinner parties in Tokyo.







Me, Yuko and Midori.

Last nites in Tokyo

My Tokyo co-workers arranged Karaoke and Dinner on my last days in Tokyo.
Here are the highlights.

Karaoke Night....farewell party # 1.





Dinner @ CICADA - farewell # 2


Tanaka, Tsuji, Hirota, Kumi, me and Okamoto.

Kamakura

My last weekend in Japan was spent hiking the trails around Kamakura - getting more Goshuin for my book and visting "Great Buddha". Beautiful day, I picked up some pretty cool gifts for friends too.

I got up early to head out before the crowds, alas.. I wasn't early enough but I still had a great time and saw four temples and shrines, including the most famous - Kamakura "Daibutsu" or "Great Buddha".

Sign posted on the hiking path.


I like signs...


Wow, I remember seeing this in that old film "around the world in 80 days" but, I never saw it up close in person until now. It's amazing.


Just to prove I was really there...no, i didn't get the Great Buddha pics from google or wikipedia.


I also found out that the "God of Happiness" was waiting to see me....now that was a facinating conversation.

15 days left....I will miss my Tokyo Friends..

Tokyo Sisters... party Sisters, bike Sisters, Sado sisters...I will miss you.

Kyoto girls:Midori, Iris, Me, and Yuko. Great trip seein the vast array of Temples in Kyoto...
Gosho-in till you drop.

Kiyomizu Temple- my favoriate of all.

After the long 210km ride around Sado Island, I lead the Sado girls in a series of Yoga poses, on top of Truck no less. It was pretty funny, afterwards we all looked around and realized there was a small crowd forming to see what all the Yoganess was about.

Kelly, me, Akio, Kumi.

Me and Naoko - she won second place in the womens for 210 sado ride! Awesome chick, just a great ball of energy. She rides the Jr. bike because she is so small. I will miss you Naoko!

Sumo wresting Events

Sumo Sports Stadium, almost full. Tokyo tournament.


Half-time show...sumo style.

Escape to Sado: Sado Island Long Ride

Sado Island Update! I finally have pics from Sado!! see below....

An island ride 210km (131 miles) around Sado Island - 2 hour Ferry from Niigata perfecture. It wasn't a race, it was a very long, long, long, hill climbing, ass kicking ride all around Sado. Which was a gorgeous island and the entire ride was coastal with amazing rocks and waterfalls at parts. The weather was about 50 degrees but wet, raining, windy, storming and pretty miserable for the first 5-7 hours of riding. Yes, I rode for more then 7 hours....more like 11 1/2 hours. The longest ride I've ever done and the toughest thing I've ever done. Running a marathon might have had my body aching alot more but it wasn't as tough, it was over in 5 hours, but 11.5 hours is long no matter which way you look at it. At about 183km right after my fellow riders told me to pass the last 180km aid station and keep going because they were starting to tell people the time limit was soon approaching... I was spent. I needed that stop, I was mentally prepared to stop and rest and get all ready for the last 30k which were supposed to be the toughest hills we had yet, not counting those we did back at 55k but that was ages ago. But no, I couldn't stop,. I had to keep going and I almost cried I was in such pain and my legs couldn't carry me forward anymore. The sun finally decided to come out as I was climbing and beat down on me which didn't help either, since I was already overheating from the climb, I was done..there was another guy going slow up the hill in front of me and two guys behind me. Then out of no where a Japanese guy on a three wheeler motor something came down the hills and shouted in Japanese "only 250 meters more till this hill is done....keep going, keep it up".....that saved me. So I kept on going and going and going....then I saw another hill up ahead and another, I was thinking to myself, when will these freakin hills end. He came around again, the Japanese guy on the three wheeler, this time he came with even better news, he shouted again and said, "this is the last hill of the course, you can do it, keep on going"....that saved me again! And I kept it up, at 193k the hills were over. I got this new energy for the last 10k and I started passing people like crazy, looking forward to see my friends at the finish line - the other Half Fast cyclists who where about minutes ahead of me Mike, Kelly, Kaz, Sumie, Peter, Ray, Ken, Tsuji, Akiko, and others. It's amazing how all off us unite and cheer each other on. Over the past several months I've made some great friends and many of them where there to see me as I crossed the finish line of the longest ride of my life. What an experience. I did it..... But, why? Yes, I’m still asking myself that very question. I’ll be back soon with more on that later…

The finish!

Kaz, Kelly, Sumie, Peter, me.

Sado Island from Space...

The View Outside our Hostel we like to call it "Chateau cobweb".

Did I mention it was raining, wet, stormy and cold!

Sado girl power!! (Kelly, me, Akiko, Kumi, and Sumie). We ROCK!

A little bit about Sado: Think of Sado as the Alcatraz of Japan., except bigger and no where near the main island of Japan..

Here is a little Wikipedia history on Sado Island:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sado_Island

Exile in SadoWhen direct control from mainland Japan started around the 8th century, due to its remoteness, the island soon became a place of banishment for difficult or inconvenient Japanese figures. The first person condemned to exile to Sado was a poet, Hozumi no Asomioyu, in 722, reportedly for having criticized the Emperor. Exile to remote locations such as Sado was a very serious punishment, second only to the death penalty, and people were not expected to return. The former Emperor Juntoku was sent to Sado after his role in the Jōkyū War of 1221. The Emperor spent twenty years on the island. The Buddhist monk Nichiren Daishonin was sent to Sado for three years before his 1274 pardon, and the Noh dramatist Zeami Motokiyo on unspecified charges in 1434. The last banishment in Sado took place in 1700, almost a millennium after the first.


The Gold MineSado experienced a sudden economic boom during the Edo era when gold was found in 1601 at Aikawa （相川）. A major source of revenue for the Tokugawa shogunate, the mines were worked in very severe conditions. Manpower shortage led to a second wave of "exiles" coming to Sado, although this time it was not imposed as a sentence for a committed crime. By sending homeless people (the number of which was growing in Japanese cities at the time) to Sado from the 18th century, the Shogunate hoped to solve two problems with one move. The homeless were sent as water collectors and worked in extremely hard conditions, with a short life expectancy. The mine at its peak in Edo area produced around 400 kg of gold a year (as well as some silver). The small settlement of Aikawa quickly reached a population of around 100,000. The mine closed in 1989.