Camping (and bears) in Hokkaido

While putting together our packing/purchasing list last night, V and I had a brief discussion about whether or not we needed bear sacks to keep our food out of the reach of hungry animals while camping. In the US, this is a definite "yes"--almost anyone who has been backpacking through the Sierra Nevadas can tell stories of late-night visitors rummaging through their supplies.

However, we have no idea about the types of wild animals we'll encounter in Japan. My guess is that we'll see quite a few in Hokkaido and Tohoku, but not so many in the southern regions. Regardless, it's another item on our "need to research" list.

I spent a little time on Google this morning looking for info on this topic, but was almost immediately distracted by this great article on camping in Hokkaido: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/mar/29/japan.camping. It reminded me of the reasons that I enjoyed living in Hokkaido--the large open areas and beautiful landscapes are evoke the best parts of the western part of the US. From the author's description of the bells that were attached to their packs, it sounds like there are other similarities--bears can be a problem for campers in northern Japan. It looks like we might need those bear sacks after all...

Building the bike #1 - Bottom bracket & cassette

Kelly's trials and tribulations while building this will be added soon...

LHT Build: Shopping for components

Before I could start putting the bike together, I had to find all the parts first. Common sense, I know, but when I started this project I didn't even know what I had to get. So the first task was putting together a list of all the parts and where to get them.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not--I'm notoriously bad at finding things on the internet), I had a hard time compiling a detailed list of all the required parts. Most of what I found was incomplete and/or too high level.

The parts list is below. PLEASE note the following:

1. I'm going to keep editing this as I go through the project, so if you don't see a note below that the list is finished, assume it's NOT.
   
2. This list is for a touring bike--it may not be very helpful if you're looking for info on how to a build a road or mountain bike
3. This is a simple list of parts--I'll try to go into more detail about exact part details as needed in later posts
   

With that said, here's what I have so far:

1. frame
2. fork
3. bottom bracket
4. crankset
5. pedals
6. chain
7. front derailleur
8. rear derailleur
9. rear cassette
10. rear wheel
11. front wheel
12. front cantilever brake
13. rear cantilever brake
14. brake cable hangers
    
15. seat post
16. seat
17. seat post clamp
    
18. headset
19. headset spacers
20. headtube cable hanger
21. downtube cable adjusters
22. brake levers
    
23. bar end shifters
    
24. handlebars
25. handlebar tape
26. brake cables
27. brake cable housing
28. derailleur cables
29. derailleur cable housing
30. stem
31. rim tape
32. tubes
33. tires
34. cassette guard (optional - do a search for "dork disk" to see how the biking community has split over this seemingly innocuous piece of equipment...)
    

Still a work in progress...

Our rides

After a LOT of comparison shopping, V and I finally came to a decision about the bikes that we wanted for our trip. Based on our budget, our choices were pretty limited (there are not very many true "touring" bikes out there for less than $1500), and it came down to either the Trek 520 or the Surly Long Haul Trucker. The Trek is a nice bike, but the Surly has quite a few features (better gearing, for example) that made it a much better option in my mind.

We could have simply bought two stock LHTs, but I decided that it would be much more fun to build one up from scratch. This is probably overly ambitious for me, since I've never built a bike before. However, I'm hoping that the process will make us much more capable of fixing our own problems when we're out on the road next year.

I'll try to post progress on the bike build here--keep in mind that I am in no way an experienced bike mechanic, so my goal isn't to provide detailed instructions for others to follow. However, I will try to provide enough info to make things easier for other beginners like myself.

From A to B

After countless hours poring over maps and guidebooks, we have finally finished planning the route for our trip. The total length is almost exactly 2,500 miles (we're conveniently ignoring extra distance for getting lost).

You can see the routes here (they're in separate maps since the Google maps tool starts having issues once the route goes over a certain length).

1. Fukuoka to Iwakuni
2. Iwakuni to Onomichi
3. Onomichi to Himeji
4. Himeji to Kyoto
5. Kyoto to Nagano
6. Nagano to Tokyo
7. Tokyo to Yamagata
8. Yamagata to Morioka
9. Hakodate to Wakkanai

Except for the journey through Tohoku (northern Honshu, roughly from Tokyo to Morioka), this route is based almost completely on the wonderfully detailed descriptions on japancycling.org. If you have some time, take a few minutes to read through a few pages in the "Length of Japan" section--V and I couldn't help feeling even more excited about our trip after reading about the summer festival in Gujo ("While dancing, forget everyday life and also forget yourself. Forget everything and express your deep feelings!") and the beaches near Unomichi ("If you are feeling lucky, you can try to dig some oysters. Residents might even lend you a digging tool.
How about some spaghetti with olive oil and oysters for your evening camping meal?").

Some of the things I'm really looking forward to after planning this route:

• Biking across the Seto Sea via the Shimanami Kaido Bridges
• Visiting World Heritage sites like Himeji castle and Shirakawa-go
• Riding over the highest point in Japan's road system via Hirayu Pass
• Seeing the small villages of Tohoku
• Showing V around the areas I remember from when I lived in Hakodate
• Seeing the northernmost point of Japan near Wakkanai

Now that we have a basic route set out, V and I feel much more confident in estimating the time (and money) we'll need to complete the trip. If anyone else finds the maps useful, please let us know!