Friday 26 September 2025

Considering we slept on the floor on a futon mattress I had a good nights sleep. I was still awake early, but felt well rested. We got the bikes from the garage where we had stored them the previous night and then headed to the restaurant for breakfast. We were early by about 10 minutes but didn’t want to change the schedule with the breakfast staff, so we had our coffee and waited.

When the morning cook saw us at the table, he bought us our breakfast straight away. What an awesome breakfast it was. He set the two trays down in front of us. Then explained what was on the trays – The fish was grilled and it was a local Japanese fish (similar to mackerel), miso soup, salad and rice in a soy sauce broth. He forgot to tell us that there was an egg on top of the rice. I was so pleased that we had chosen the Japanese breakfast. It looked and tasted amazing.

After breakfast we loaded our bikes and headed out towards Hamamatsu. We thanked the staff, what a lovely place to stay.

Today’s planned ride was anything from 35 km to 47 km. Sometimes RidewithGPS, Garmin and Google maps have different ideas as to which way we should cycle. RidewithGPS won today and got us to Hamamatsu at 37.6 km. It was a lovely route with the occasional sections on Highway 105 which is a busy road. The Pacific Coast Cycle Route would have taken us down to the coast and then back up to Hamamatsu. As we had plugged in the address to the hotel the Garmin didn’t add the extra 20 kms to the coast.

We went through some nice villages. Ralf really likes the roof-line on these houses. He was going to suggest to Diane and George, our neighbours, that when we need our roofs replacing we could do them in this style.

I have no idea what this tree is, I loved the texture.

We passed a massive Corning Factory. It was in the middle of nowhere. When Honda built their first car factory in Ontario they built it in an area that was primarily farm land (Alliston). One of the reasons for this logic is that they have a work-force close by that is well paid and no longer farming.

Farming here, as in a lot of places is tough, and less people are following in their families footsteps and working the small farms. Most of the rice farmers in Japan are over the age of 60.

It was another hot day, with a slight cooling breeze. Fortunately we were done by noon.

Before going to the hotel we decided to find a bank to get some money. When we were in Taiwan last year, the 7/11 had ATMs with no charge or low charge fees to withdraw money. In Japan the banks and the ATMs charge a similar fee about 100 yen per 10,000 yen, so about $1.00 per $100.  We went to the bank and it would not accept Ralf’s card. We went into the bank and the kind lady offered to help us at the ATM. It still didn’t work – the card was too big!!

We went to a FamilyMart where we could withdraw a weeks worth of cash for a $5.00 withdrawal fee.

We were still too early to check-in, but the staff were very nice and gave us a map to find a good coffee shop. At 2:40 we returned to the hotel and they checked us in. Yes, the bikes are back in their bags and in the room.  Alternatively, we could have left them outside the front door. Once we were showered we headed upstairs to get all of our washing done. It is nice that a lot of the hotels have laundry facilities for the guests.

On the map of restaurants we found a German Restaurant/Bierkeller. Of course we had to try it. When we walked into the restaurant we asked in German if they had a table for two. The poor hostess looked like a deer in headlights. We laughed and switched to English, it was funny at least to us.

The beer was good, the food was good, having to order through a QR code was not fun and having the food delivered by a robot was interesting.

Watching my German husband eating German potato salad with chopsticks is something I never thought I would see.

Thursday 25 September 2025

Not a bad night’s sleep. We had a larger bed (2 twins). I was awake at 4 but was able to go back to sleep until 6:00. This place does not serve breakfast, and the café didn’t open until 9:00. We were packed and ready to go at 8:15. We headed out and had a breakfast of champions at a 7/11: Boiled egg, cheesy bread, hash brown, a banana and a coffee – protein, carbs, vegetable, fruit and caffeine what more could you need.

I had planned a route to Hamamatsu, a distance of 85 kms because it was flat and along the coast. Ralf persuaded me last night that we should continue to do shorter distances, if we must make changes to the itinerary so be it. We are supposed to be enjoying the ride.

Map of this section of the Pacific Coast Route

The Pacific Coast Route, which is the general route we are following is a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it takes you on a busy Highway and other times it takes you along a lovely coastal route. We are using a combination of Ridewith GPS and Google maps. It seems to be working and is keeping us away from the busy highways. Often the route directs you down paved farm roads, which makes if far more interesting than having to concentrate on the traffic.

We had found a traditional Japanese guesthouse to stay which was about 50 kms from Yazui so that is where we were headed.

The route was lovely today, we cycled along the coast and saw surfers, we cycled inland and saw rice being harvested and we cycled up a slight hill to see a large smelter plant with huge slag heaps surrounding it. We did have a head wind today.

Surfers

Not sure why Lady Liberty is here at the surfing beach. As we cycle along the coast we notice a lot of the flood protection and Tsunami gates that are in place.

We also met and chatted to our first touring cyclists. They were from Brazil and on a two-year world trip. I got the feeling that they were not enjoying Japan. They had started in Hokkaido and Lari indicated that there were a lot of bears. I had read recently about a few bear attacks on hikers. Lari and Jean were a really nice couple. It was nice to chat to touring cyclists again. I invited them to stay with us if they decide to cycle across Canada. We shared blogs and YouTube info.

Lari said there seems to be several Japans. The north is beautiful and remote, with smaller population. Tokyo is Tokyo!! And the south is big city after big city and too much noise, population. They have also struggled with the lack of English spoken.

We arrived at our Japanese Guesthouse about half an hour early, I was expecting a small house, but it is quite a large complex. We were allowed to check in and the lovely lady working suggested we could leave our bikes outside or in a large garage. Ralf investigated the garage, and we were able to leave them safe and sound in the garage.

As this was a more traditional guesthouse, I had mentioned to Ralf that he should take his shoes of at the door. Ralf asked if he should take his shoes of at the door. No, she said O.K. here. She checked us in early and with the help of google translate and the camera translating text, we were able to work everything out. It is a traditional Japanese room with tatami mats. We roll out a futon and have linens and a quilt. It will be interesting to see how I sleep tonight. The Guest house does not have private bathrooms, there is a room with sinks, toilets down the hall and public bathing, which I thought would be an Onsen but is actually a large hot tub. There are instructions on how to use the public bathing pool. Remove all your clothes, and store them in the locker provided, shower and wash everything thoroughly, soaps and shampoo provided, then you can get into the hot tub. It seems very odd not to have a private bathroom, but we thought we should try at least one traditional guesthouse

It is a very peaceful place. There is soothing music in the common areas, everything is very clean, and the hot tub was wonderful.  This place is not in a major city or even a town it is a bit out of the way. There is a restaurant on-site, but it wasn’t open tonight. Fortunately, they have various ramen noodles and rice and curries available for purchase and a microwave and hot water.  Not an evening meal for champions, but it was o.k.

Tomorrow we have the option of a western breakfast or a Japanese breakfast we opted for a Japanese breakfast. No idea what we will get, life is an adventure.

Wednesday September 2025

I am not getting a good night’s sleep, I keep waking up at 4:00 and struggle to get back to sleep. I should be sleeping like a log with the fresh air and exercise I am getting. This morning I was ready to get up and moving at 6:00 a.m. at home I must set an alarm to get out of bed at 8:00.

Ralf opened the drapes, and we realized that we had a stunning view of Mount Fuji from our hotel room. What a beautiful site.

View from the hotel room

The provided breakfast at the hotel was excellent. It had everything from cereal, croissants, boiled egg, to miso soup, fish, salad hot beef sauce and everything else you could possibly think of.

Breakfast buffet

After breakfast we rebuilt the bikes and were ready to leave. An older Asian gentleman was very interested in our bikes, and we told him we were cycling from Tokyo to Hiroshima. He appeared impressed and gave us the thumbs up. He might have not been so impressed if we told him were only doing 50 to 60 kms per day.

Last view of Mount Fuji for a while

RidewithGPS found us a nice route out of Fuji and almost all the way to Yaizu. We went through a traditional Japanese Village and then GPS tried to direct us on to the Highway.

Map of walking trails

Village photos

Ralf spotted some stairs and from looking at the map realized there might a temple, so off he went up the stairs to check it out.

Temple photos

We followed the East Coast Route Sign but got a little confused as it took us down to the highway and indicated that we cross a busy four lane highway. First, we had to negotiate the train tracks then press the pedestrian traffic light button, which would stop the traffic on busy four lane highway so that cyclists could safely cross the road.

Crossing the highway

Doug Ford would have a heart attack – he just recently said that bicycle lanes should be removed because they are dangerous to cars.

The traffic was busy in areas and the route was not as scenic as yesterday, but not too bad really. Then we got Mochimune, we were stopped by a postie who told us the road we were going on was not passable. The tunnel had caved in two-years ago and was slowly being rebuilt but we were not able to go through it. We had to go over the big beejesus hill that we had wanted to avoid.

This meant another 22 km ride and over hills again, we had already done 49.5 kms. I noticed that we were near the train station. We went to have a look and there was a train going to Yaizu.  We asked a young fella if he could help us buy tickets while he was also packing his bike to go on a different train. We packed the bikes into their bags, packed the panniers into the blue bag and lugged the whole lot onto the train. Of course, the platform for the train to Yaizu meant that we had to go downstairs and then back up again, fortunately there was a lift. Those ruddy bags were heavy, but we managed to manhandle them all onto the train and off again at the next stop.

We rebuilt the bikes and got to the RePort Hotel and settled in.

The RePort Hotel is a really cool place. It is a converted Fishing gear warehouse.  The owners have converted six of the storage areas to rooms. The ground floor of each space is the shower and toilet facilities and a place to put our bikes, and the second floor is a large space with beds, table and chairs, a fridge and a kettle. It could do with a couple IKEA chairs. It has an industrial look to it, but very cool looking.

Photos of RePort Hotel

The front of the building houses a reception area and a café. There is a Food Court with various restauranteurs sharing the space and providing different foods on different days and times.  There is also a co-working space. Approximately three private office spaces with all the equipment that can be shared – photocopier, printer even paper and inks. This is where we could get wi-fi which allowed us to find a place to stay for tomorrow and Friday/Saturday in Hamamatsu.

Back to the room to drop the computers off and then out for dinner. But….. Ralf told me not to come upstairs!!!!! There was a large spider on the wall. I have arachnophobia, I can barely look at a spider on a screen let alone have one in my room. I am getting better, if I see a small one in the garden I deal with it, if I see a web and a spider I don’t scream. However, when I see Ralf trying to find something bigger than a coffee cup to catch it in then I begin to panic. I stayed downstairs, I could hear Ralf talking to the damn thing – hell you are a big bugger, wow you move fast etc. Then bang with his slipper, then three more bangs, and its dead and he sends it out of the window. He had tried to relocate it, but it wouldn’t co-operate, so it had to be killed. I am not posting a picture of this beastie. Ralf has one on his Facebook page.

We left and walked to the restaurant that was recommended to us by the owner of the hotel and was only a three-minute walk-away. It was busy, the staff was very friendly but spoke limited English a fella at the next table helped.

We had Tuna Jaw, which is a specialty at this restaurant, freshly caught. They have a limited supply it was really good, cooked in a soy and ginger broth.

Enjoying dinner

When we got back to the room Ralf checked to see what kind of spider it was. Yep a Huntsman, they have them in Australia, we didn’t see one when we were there. If I had known that this monster was here in Japan, it might not have been on my bucket list.

Tuesday 23 September 2025

The rooms at this hotel were supposed to be soundproof. I am guessing if you were in the front of the hotel you would not hear the trains. However, if you are overlooking the train line as our room did you heard the trains. Another poor night sleep for me.

Room with a view – Train tracks and the bullet train leaving

The breakfast was served from an adjoining coffee shop. We choose a Croque Monsieur and a coffee. We had to have two of them because the half croque monsieur was not going to be enough for our ride to Fuji today.

We left our panniers in the locker area and started to rebuild our bikes outside of the hotel. The new person at the reception told us not to leave our panniers in the storage area. Ralf very firmly told him we would move them after we have rebuilt our bikes. When Ralf says something very firmly even I do as I am told.

Locker Room – plenty of room for the bikes to have been stored here

While we were rebuilding our bikes a fella asked if we were on a bike tour. This is the first person who has spoken to us on this tour. His English was very good, well it would be, he was from Vancouver. Wouldn’t you know it the first person to chat to us was Canadian.

We knew today’s route was going to be a challenging start. A 5 km long hill with grades ranging from 7% to 14%.

“Der seine rad liebt der schieft” If you love to ride you love to push. Today started with the push. We took our time and by the time we had walked and pushed for 5 kms we were at the top and had downhills all the way to Fuji City. Fortunately, the wind was in our favour and on the push up the hill we were in the shade.

After the hills the route took us along the coast and we had a lovely tail wind. We had nice views of Mount Fuji along the route.

Fuji is a very industrialized city. As we passed the various factories we could smell paper pulp, steel smelters and rice production, what an assault on the nose.

These statues were part of a stonemasons yard.

We got to the hotel earlier than the three o’clock check-in. We were not allowed to check in early.

This hotel the Nishimura had some very strange rules, but the staff were nice.

When entering the hotel, you had to take your shoes off and put them into a locker, then put the provided slippers on – no shoes past the green carpeted area or in the room. All wheels on the luggage had to be washed – wipes were provided. Of course, we couldn’t take the bikes into the room unless they were bagged.

When we did check-in, the young staff were very helpful. One of them showed us where we could leave our bikes – in an open parking lot or underneath the hotel canopy for Y500, ($5.00). We didn’t bring our heavy-duty locks, so that was a no go. Back into the bags they went. The staff did allow us to use the luggage trolley to take all the gear upstairs in one go.

The afternoon staff spoke quite good English and provided the Information Sheet to us in English, one of them also gave us a sheet of recommended restaurants.

The room was the first room that had separate shower, toilet and wash basin. It was a bit crowded with all our stuff in there.

After showering we walked to a Japanese Ramen restaurant close by. We walked in and the waitress pointed to a Board with the menu, you ordered what you wanted and paid and then sat down. Of course, we couldn’t make heads or tails of it, even using google translate. We asked a young man if he could help. He pointed to the top three things and said Special of this place. O.k. then that is what we ordered.

Mine was pork ramen and Ralf’s was pork ramen with extra pork. It was so good. On the table there was a selection of condiments including chilli oil, garlic (cloves), soya sauce, red radish. I had noticed an older couple adding the garlic, there was a garlic crusher provided on the table.  When in Rome….. we added two garlic cloves and it was even more delicious.

Back to our room and ready for bed. Although the staff at the first hotel were rude and we started our day by pushing the bikes, we had a good end to the day.

Monday 22 September 2025

What a difference a day makes. After yesterday’s nightmare we decided to shorten the distance until we were acclimatized to the heat and humidity and riding heavy touring bikes again.  We were supposed to have got to Odawara yesterday and have the time to visit the castle. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Today we decided to cycle as far as Odawara, check out the castle have some lunch and then continue to Atami. A very manageable 52.97 kms.

It was a lovely ride with tail winds and cooler temperatures. I think the highest the temperature got today was 24 degrees.

Just after leaving Chigaski and crossing a bridge we spotted Mount Fuji.

After about 20 kms of riding we finally joined the Pacific Coast Route.

 Pacific Coast sign and Tsunami sign

Several times today we passed signs that indicated that we were in a Tsunami zone. Basically, if a Tsunami hit that area we would be under water.

The Ride with GPS route was pretty good but tried to direct us away from cycle paths that might be in a Tsunami zone. We ignored these redirections and followed the Pacific Coast Route signs even when they directed us down a steep set of stairs and onto a cycle path that paralleled the highway for about 5kms.

Steps and pathway

We arrived at the castle at 11:45, lots of time to see the castle and have a comfortable 25 kms ride to finish the day.

The castle was built in 1417.There were many wars and sieges from 1590 to 1632 and the transfer of power from the Omori family to the Tokugawa Hidetada Shogunate. In 1633 the castle was severely damaged in an earthquake.  A lot of the castles built at this time were built from wood, and many were damaged due to earthquakes and fires. This castle has been rebuilt several times: 1633, 1703,1853, and 1923 all damages were due to earthquakes.  From 1870 through to 1927 several of the structures and surrounding areas were sold.

As we cycled up to the main castle, they were undertaking some excavations. However, a lot of the original property that would have included parts of the town and residences for the tradespeople and the Samurai warriors who protected the castle were no longer part of the property.

The castle tower was rebuilt in 1960, the Tokiwaga Gate was restored in 1971, the Akagane Gate was restored in 1997, and the Umasdashi Gate was restored in 2009.  The tower/castle is now a museum with various exhibits on each floor. It was nice to see a lot of the information signs in English and there were pamphlets in 4 different languages available.

Castle Tower and Main Gate

View of the Moats

Leading up to the castle and the excavation work seen from the top of the castle

There were a few climbs towards the end of the ride. I managed all of them apart from the last one to the hotel, it was an unexpected hill. It was really lovely ride today.

When we got to the hotel, things went pear-shaped. We usually take our bikes into our hotel room or are allowed to leave the bikes in the lobby. Not this time the man on reception rushed out and told us in no uncertain terms that bikes were not allowed. I had mentioned during the booking that we were arriving by bike. “No bikes”. I asked where we could store them. No bikes in the hotel. When I asked him again what to do the with the bikes he said No English. He was very rude.  The lady at reception came out to try and smooth things out. Do you have bags for the bikes? Yes, but we must remove the panniers, remove the front wheel, fold the bikes then put them into the bags. No, she said, you don’t have to fold the bikes just put them in the bag. It was getting ridiculous.

While we were unloading the bikes and preparing to put them into the bags, the man came out again and told us not to leave the bikes where we had parked them. We told him that we were putting them into the bags. It was so frustrating. If the hotel was carpeted, I could understand it, but it was cement floors, even in the rooms. We got the bikes into the bags and took them up to the room. Both of us were furious.

To cap it all the restaurant we had chosen was full and not taking any more customers!  Hopefully tomorrow will improve.

Sunday 21 September 2025

This turned out to be a disaster of a first day riding in Japan. We didn’t make it to Odawara (72 kms).

We had a good breakfast at the hotel and then repacked our panniers and loaded the bikes. I had managed to create a ride with GPS course to Odawara for us to follow. We had to try and connect with the East Coast Pacific Cycle route and then we will follow that route all the way to Osaka and towards Hiroshima.

We were late leaving Kawasaki, (10:00 a.m.) and it was already over 25 degrees. We headed out of Kawasaki and it seemed like forever to get out of the City, the next City (Yokohama) seemed to merge with Kawasaki and then the next city merged with that city. It was not a pretty route, and we didn’t take many pictures.

Eventually we started climbing and I was so disappointed with myself. I had been training all summer, I felt fit and strong. However, I forgot Marco (the new folding touring bike) was much heavier than my new Trek and I was carrying about 20lb of weight in my panniers. I was also about 10lbs lighter than last year’s ride in Taiwan.

After only 25 kms I was struggling to get up the hills. Some of the hills were steep – 14%. The heat was getting to me. I have never had leg cramps while cycling and today my right calf began to cramp. On one hill. Ralf pushed his bike to the top and then came down and pushed mine. I lay down on the ground, I was struggling.

At 25 kms, I told Ralf I didn’t think I was going to be able to do another 45 kms. We had to revise the route, It was over 35 degrees. At 35 kms as we were arriving in the City of Chigasaki I told Ralf I was done, both of my legs were cramping and I thought I was suffering from heat stroke. Ralf found a hotel in Chigasaki, and we carried on to the hotel. As soon as we got in Ralf cancelled the hotel in Odawara, fortunately no charge to cancel.

The route was not very pretty and so we didn’t take many photos. Nicest part was along a bike path and fields (4.5 kms)

The hotel was lovely, and the staff were really nice. We went out for a lovely meal at an Indian restaurant. A good end to a bad day.

Saturday 20 September 2025

Although we had allowed ourselves two full days to recover from our flight, I think we could have started cycling today. We had booked the hotel for three nights and we had to make good use of the time. I had no idea what we were going to do today until I did a bit of research and found a Buddhist temple and gardens nearby. I suggested to Ralf that we could walk the 3+ kms to the temple and take the train back to the Central Rail Station which is only a 5-minute walk from our hotel.

After breakfast and to start our morning, we did a little load of laundry so that everything is clean when we start riding tomorrow. The hotel has washing machines for guests to use, it was cheap and convenient.

The population of Kawasaki is 1,538,262 people (2020), it is the 8^th most populated city in Japan. Kawasaki was a very industrial City with major manufacturers such as Hitachi, Kawasaki and steel manufacturers. Although it still has a lot of industry near the port area it has reinvented itself and has art galleries and a symphony.

As we walked towards the area of the Daishi Temple and gardens, I found it really interesting to see the different neighbourhoods and the density of the areas. This three-level parking structure was near a small apartment block.

They also used the same idea for bike storage.

There were a quite a few cyclists, most of them older people although there were a few younger ones on commuter bikes. Moms used these bikes to transport their children, baby in the front, toddler or young child in the back, mom in the middle and a basket on the front to carry the groceries. Who needs a car when you have this type of transportation to get around?

Within the area of the Buddhist temple is Daishi Park and Gardens. We spent about an hour wandering through the gardens, it was very peaceful.

Ralf called to me to tell me he had a hitch-hiker.

Kawasaki Daishi was founded in 1128 and is the headquarters of the Chizan School of Shingon Buddhism.  The temple’s original structures were destroyed during the war, and its current buildings are modern reconstructions of Heian Period architecture. The main hall (Dai-Hondo), constructed of steel and concrete, was built in 1958 and houses a statue of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Japanese Shingon Buddhism. Several of the temple’s other large structures, such as the main Dai-Sanmon Gate and an octagonal, five story pagoda, were built in the 1970s and 80s to commemorate various anniversaries.

The street leading away from the temple had a lot of knick knack shops. Mostly food related with candies being the most popular store. As you came into the street there was a rhythmic banging. The candy makers used their chopping knives to bang on their table to attract attention, they then took the warm candy mixture and cut it into small cubes.

The most interesting store was a chop-stick store. I know that sounds ridiculous, but they had such a variety of chop sticks and sizes. Who knew that chop sticks came in different sizes? There was even a measure so that you could get the right size. At the end of this trip, we will be buying chop sticks as our souvenir.

We walked about 5 kms to the temple and decided to take the train back to the Central Station. Very adventurous, no English instructions on how to buy tickets. The only instructions were to go to station staff. We managed to get two tickets and instructions as to which platform to wait for the train. We got on the next train that arrived and hoped it would take us to the Central Station. Fortunately, the announcements on the train were in English and the last stop was the Central Station.

Tomorrow, we head out on our bicycles to Hakone area.

Friday 18 September 2025

I have not missed a day of posting, we lost half a day due to the time difference. We left Canada on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon.

After a good night’s sleep, we were awake and ready to go at about 8:00. We had a few things to do today: put bikes back together, check on keeping the boxes at the hotel, and finding the rules about taking the bikes on the train when we return from Hiroshima.

After breakfast in the restaurant at the hotel, we (o.k. Ralf) proceeded to put the bikes back together. It only took him a few hours and we were ready for lunch. Unfortunately, during the packing we (again Ralf) forgot to put a bike pump into the bag.  We discussed whether we needed one as we could pop into a bike shop to pump the tires back up to the correct pressure. However, if we get a flat on the road, we will need a pump. We found a bike shop only 80 metres from our hotel.  OMG I think we died and went to heaven. What a shop – two floors the first floor had the bikes, everything from a Brompton to a Pinarello and everything in between, the second floor had every bike tool and bike accessory you could ever want and some you really don’t need. Awesome bike store. We did buy a pump.

We asked at the reception of the hotel if they would save the bike boxes for us, and we would stay here on our return. Unfortunately, they said they couldn’t keep the boxes, so we trashed them. We will look at a hotel in Tokyo for our return to Tokyo at the end of October. Hopefully we can find a hotel with airport services.

We wandered over to the train station and found out we could bring our bikes on the train so long as they are in a bag, and we will need to book the bikes in advance. As soon as we get into Hiroshima, we will book the train tickets and the bikes. Ralf will get to ride on the Shinkansen (bullet train).

View from Lazona Kawasaki Plaza near the train station

A successful day, finishing with a drink on the rooftop terrace.

Rooftop terrace

Wednesday 17 September 2025

Finally, after months of planning we are on our way to Japan.

Our house-sitter, Rob, arrived on Tuesday, he seems to be very nice. Callie greeted him in her usually way, flipping onto her back so that he could rub her belly, which he dutifully complied with, another servant for Queen Callie.

Today we were up at 4:00 a.m. to be picked up by Howard’s Taxi Service to take us to Ottawa Airport.  The taxi arrived promptly at 5:30 and with the bikes and bag in the van we headed north.

We always give ourselves plenty of time at the airport, when we are travelling with bikes. Although, Air Canada indicated a two-hour check-in, we arrived three hours prior to departure.  Most of you will think I am crazy arriving so early, however, you never know what to expect when you have to deal with the over-sized bike boxes.

Of course, this time it went so smoothly we were waiting for 2.5 hours at the airport. I couldn’t believe how quickly and easily it went. There was a fella at oversized check-in counter greeted us with a Hello Bonjour, he asked all the usual questions: where are you going, are these bicycles, any batteries, any compressed gas etc. After weighing the bikes, he sent the blue bag (panniers etc.) through the regular channel and told us to go to the over-sized baggage handler who was less than 50 metres away.  Ralf is supposed to have free baggage allowance as retired military, but we did have to pay the “special handling cost” of $50.00 per bike. He told us that everything would go to Tokyo Haneda Airport, and we would not have to re-check our bikes/bags at Toronto.

The cheerful man at the x-ray machine asked us to open the boxes and waved his magic wand over them. He lifted them through the x-ray machine, and we were done and ready to go through security and passport control. It took all of 20 minutes from arriving at the airport to saying goodbye to the bikes.

Bye-bye bikes hope to see you in Tokyo

We had a coffee and then headed through passport control and security. Again, we were through in record time. I had everything electrical in my front pannier/back-pack (laptop, iPad, bike computer, every connector you could possibly think of you could ever use. I was convinced that they would pull me aside as I had enough wires etc. in that bag. The machine was very hi-tech, it scanned the bag, then if there was anything that looked suspicious it moved it from the conveyor to the side and was searched by hand by security personnel. Mine was sent straight down the conveyor to my waiting arms. No problem with Ralf’s handlebar bag which had two cameras and more batteries and connectors!!

Then we waited until our flight was called for boarding.

Birchbark Canoe Display at Ottawa Airport

After a very short flight to Toronto, we hiked the Toronto Pearson Trail. Although we flew into Terminal 1, and we were flying out of Terminal 1 we managed to get our steps in for the day walking from the arrival gate to the departure gate. Our layover at Pearson was just over 2 hrs. By the time we had disembarked, hiked the “Trail” and found our new departure gate, we had to wait less than an hour before boarding.  By this time, we had been awake for 6 hours, time to eat. We had a lovely panini at the airport which we didn’t have to take a mortgage out for, very reasonably priced.

We didn’t see the bikes being unloaded from our Ottawa flight or loaded onto the Tokyo flight. They did arrive safe and sound in Tokyo.

The flight to Tokyo was long 13.5 hrs, it never seemed to end. I tried to sleep but could only manage a few catnaps. Ralf binged watch Chicago Fire! I watched a great movie – “Can I Get a Witness”. Ralf and I will have to watch it together, it will be a great discussion after watching it together. There was a little bit of turbulence as we came into Tokyo and the cabin staff informed us that they would not be able to serve us the last food service.

Passport Control and Immigration was very efficient, people directing you all the way through. While waiting at the carousel, Ralf asked where the Over-sized baggage came in. The young lady indicated that they will bring them to us. We were both doubtful. Ralf usually goes to the oversized baggage area while I wait at the regular carousel. Within minutes of us waiting, the bikes boxes were delivered to us, there didn’t appear to be any additional damage to the bags. The pannier bag arrived shortly after, and we were heading out of the airport.

Before leaving the airport, Ralf got a SIM card for the phone, and we then got a taxi to our hotel. 

Our room is small, but manageable for the few nights we are here. The hotel has a Happy Hour between 5:30 to 6:30 with free beer.  We were too late to participate but we will partake before we leave this hotel. After a quick shower we headed out for something to eat. We are close to a shopping and restaurant district. We came back to the hotel and ate in the small restaurant at the hotel.

Back up to our room and Ralf fell asleep while I was getting ready for bed. We had been up for over 24 hours.