A damp squib, Japanese cycling and wild camping


“What if there are bears? asked Sian when I mentioned that we would be doing our first wild camp. Turns out that when she had googled the idea it had lead her to “10 tips for wild camping”, which of course mentioned bear spray, bells and other bear scaring devices. Essentially most of the bears are in Hokkaido ( Japan’s most northerly isle) but it still hasn’t stopped her being a little more nervous in the dark. It also hasn’t stopped me doing bear jokes, such as mentioning that the everpresent kites circling around are in fact leading bears to humans, much like the honey bird in Africa leads humans to bee’s in return for a bit of honey.

So we left Kyoto post typhoon, which as it happens turned out to be a real anti climax. As good Brits, we had panic shopped in the supermarket and got some supplies for dinner in and decided to hunker down in the B and B whilst presumably rooftiles got ripped off and all shops closed down. Except that the Japanese are made of far sterner stuff and life went on quite normally. The only evidence of anything in the morning was an occasional larger twig on the road.

It has taken us about 3 days to get to the Northwest coast of Japan and as I write this we have a view from our camp of the Sea of Japan. Getting here has taken us past Lake Biwa, the largest inland lake in Japan, a centre of tourist activity and once the centre of freshwater pearl cultivation. As a tourist spot, you will come across the most garish hotels, including a pink behemoth of a hotel that was topped by 4 green griffons staring at a statue of what I can only presume was Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. You can only imagine what the discussion would have been at the planning committee. “Yeah, can’t see any problem with that, fits in really well with it’s surroundings……

The views have been stunning, and the cycling becoming a little more energetic as we start having to encounter ups and downs as we cycle along the coast. Fortunately the Japanese have come to our aid, as they love building tunnels to avoid you having to go up and down too much. Which is good. What is bad however, is the less than pleasant experience of having to go through them as cyclists. There is plenty of space, but what you never experience is the noise in a car. Everything is amplified and you lose any sense of being able to tell where the noise is coming from. 
Post tunnel emergence steadying flask of gin. 
Cycling along, you hear a sudden rumble coming from behind you that gets louder and louder. You concentrate on the road ahead, but that noise gets louder and soon you are sure that a massive articulated lorry is behind you. Your imagination goes into overdrive, and you are convinced that he is concentrating on his mobile phone rather than his driving. And then - a tiny little postman pat type of car simpers it’s way past you and into the distance.








Lake Biwa. The structures we believe are to do with the remnants of the pearl culture
The vast majority of the roads are in good condition, and more often than not where the road is busy there is an alternative cycle track that we usually make use of. 







There are also numerous “konbini” or convenience stores everywhere that do a mean cup of coffee and some form of carbohydrate laden cake ( our current favourite is two pancakes stuck together with butter and plum jam) for the ridiculous price of £1.50!

One of our favourite pancake haunts. Other convenience stores are also available
Another great view of Biwa taken from one of the numerous bridges over rivers that drain into the lake












Anyone that tells you Japan is expensive either hasn’t been here or has stayed in high class hotels and gone to posh restaurants. You can easily eat in a ramen shop ( meat and noodle soup, christened slurp shops by us due to the noise of those eating) for £4 each, and most other dinners would cost no more than £8 each depending on what you ate. Wild camping is of course free, but it’s not too hard to find accomodation for around the £40 mark.

Our first wild camp site. Not too shabby.
Actual Japanese campsites are quite hard to find, often need 24 hours reservation, apparently have more rules than golf and make you do bizarre things like camp on elevated sections of wood. So we have been wild camping, an activity that the Japanese seem fine with. Virtually every village or town has some form of grassy section with benches and covered areas and very often with loo’s close by and we have been camping there. Our experiences so far have been really positive, and the views that you end up with from these areas far surpass anything we have achieved in a defined camping area. No bears yet, although I have had to escort Sian to the loos for that final time before retiring for the evening.

Looking onto the Sea of Japan. Quite a busy little surf spot,
but today we had the place to ourselves.

More views of the Tsuruga peninsula. Where are all the
people?








“Shoesuh” shouted the lady as we went into a sento (bath house) for the first time. We had done our homework as to the required etiquette, but just failed to spot the point that you change out of your shoes. That done, the rest of the visit went well primarily because there are lots of other locals there that you just follow to get it right. The overriding theme is that before you get into the hot bath you have to be scrupulously clean - so all your shampooing and rinsing is done first. The main reason for Sian’s initial nerves is that all of this is done in one’s birthday suit. It doesn’t take long however to realise that nobody is remotely interested in your state of undress and all in all it is a great experience and you come out feeling truly refreshed and clean. The other great news?- £4 each!

More wild camping. Waiting for Sian to put up the tent whilst
I drink a cup of coffee.


Attending to necessities. Before you all go sexist here, I did
play a full part in this task, mainly by doing the manly task of
using google translate to decode what the heck to do.







Waiting for Sian to take down the tent whilst
I have breakfast. It is a hard life.












Sunset over Biwa.

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