Vacation!

Sometimes you just have to get out- out of the rat-race, out of the city, out of the country even. These are my chronicles of the times I reached escape velocity, whether under my own steam on a bike, or by car or train. Feel free to take your time, my friends, and soak in the wide wealth of experiences and far-flung exotic places as if you were soaking in the steaming hot water of a rural hot spring onsen.

Shimoda’s Beaches, Izu

Skimboarding, Hiratsuka Beach

Hole-digging, Kugenuma Beach

Shimoda has some of the most beautiful and pristine yellow-sand blue-ocean beaches in all of Japan.  Shirahama, Tatadohama, and Ohama beaches are gorgeous, sun-kissed, and every time I’ve visited them- about 50% empty. Skimboarding is a lesser-known cousin to surfing, though quite different in the approach. Where surfers go from the sea to the beach under the sea’s power, skimmers go from the beach to the sea under their own power. I’m something of a life-long addict when it comes to digging holes at the beach. I’ve been digging holes since I was a kid alongside my Dad, fending off the sea, arming sea-shell soldiers along a sand-fort battlement, willing the walls to hold and the moat to stay fast.
. . .

Hole-digging, Shimoda Beach

Arakawa River Ride I

Arakawa River Ride II

I’ve always loved to dig holes. My earliest holing memory is in the back-yard with Joe as young kids, and us keen to dig a hole down to Australia, with what must’ve been toy plastic shovels. Last weekend Jason and I took a cycle-camping trip north up the Arakawa river (wild river) into Saitama. We set out on April 27th and came back on my birthday, the 28th, covering 170km in total, free-camping overnight in the grass by a day-time BBQ area. Jason and I revisited our old Saitama free-camping ground via an 80km ride up the Arakawa river, this time with Can. Mike in tow on his new black Trek, as well as assorted women who took the train and buses to meet us there for a BBQ.
. . .

Tama River Ride

Kentucky, USA


The Tama river has been a steady and recurrent part of my life for as long as I’ve been here. Riding it to its source in the mountains has seemed like a grand idea ever since I got a bike. Kentucky- the land of Abraham Lincoln, Bluegrass music, Bourbon whiskey, the Kentucky Derby, some of the biggest losses in the Civil War, and all the family on my mother`s side.
. . .
Leave a Reply