Never ending story - Part 5: Takao

My bike was again where I left it, however this time there was a note on it telling me that parking here was not permitted and that I should please contact the local police station. (I double checked and still couldn't find a 'no parking' sign, also I was not possibly in anybody's way... as I wrote earlier, I just think that parking is basically prohibited in whole Japan and only allowed there signs explicitly tell you, what is basically nowhere expect on parking lots that usually demand a fee.)

If I get a ticket I will pay it (at least they didn't tow my bike) but I didn't intend to do the going there to apologize and being told why everybody has to park on proper parking lots etc. Also, today's trip was quite far so I didn't have that much time to amuse myself with local police officers who are more scared of me (because they deliberately think they have to talk English to foreigners like me) than I am of them.

Just when I was preparing to leave, a local approached me.

• "So this is your bike. It's not allowed to park here.
    
• "I'm sorry, there aren't any signs and I'm not in the way of anybody, so I thought it's ok to park here. I'll remove the bike immediately.
    
• "Within the city, you can't park on the street" he stated, confirming my theory about not being allowed to park anywhere in Japan at all. One long growing out of the tip of his nose began to bug me. It must be really lonely for a hair to grow on such a spot...

• "The bike was where for a whole week." he continued (wow, what a long time, a whole week!) "I was worried about that bike. I thought maybe it's stolen and somebody just dumped it here; or maybe somebody came here to go hiking and had an accident so he didn't come back to his bike." (Actually a valid point, I guess you would really appreciate that attention if you were in the forest with a broken leg. On the other hand, it doesn't help you at all if somebody's worried but doesn't send the cavalry.)

I told him that I arrived late and preferred to go home with the train instead continue to drive as it was dark and it would have been dangerous.

• "I see. Also I can see that it really is your bike as you have the keys for it. But as I already informed the police about this bike, can you just shortly drive there and tell them it's your bike and that there are no problems?"

That was actually  exactly what I didn't want to do. 

• "Thank you very much for your concerns and I am really sorry to have worried you. Unfortunately, I am on a very busy schedule today and if I don't leave right away, I will again not make it home with the bike." I tried to sneak my way out of the situation.

Finally I convinced him that it would be much better if he informed the police again as he started the whole thing in the first place.

At last starting my tour, I thought back about Germany. Instead of worries, some folks would be upset about somebody doing something that is not allowed and they would try to get him a hard time about that no matter if they would be effected by that or not. Also the discussion with the miscreant (me). once they would get hold of him, would have been different. I like Japan.

 I headed away from Tokyo again, back to mountains. First, I was driving along lake Okutama with it's scenic shores. Autumn was now much closer to winter, so the beautiful colors of the turning leaves were about to be gone and grey and brown were the dominating colors.

Leaving the lake behind, I entered the mountains. Climbing up, the view was incredible. But the time of the year demanded its toll, not only was it pretty cold, also the street was covered with fallen leaves, half rotten and wet - in one word: slippery. I decided that it would be better if this were the last trip for the year. 

 Something warm after a cold day on the bike

tan tan men and gyoza :)

Last mountain pass for this year! 

Never ending story - Part 4: Okutama

Meanwhile it seemed pretty normal to park my bike somewhere, hours away from where I live. Again another weekend, again another bike trip that began with a train ride. This time the target was to go from Chichibu to Okutama, another popular recreation spot for Tokyo's Metropolitaners as it is more or less easy to reach by train and somewhat in the mountains. I remembered being in Okutama several times as a student when we were about to explore yet a new cave or climb a mountain.

Still sunny, every weekend the temperature dropped a tiny but recognizable bit. 

From Chichibu, I entered a road leading along a gorge. Deep down the emerald green water, surrounded by trees in all colors: yellow, orange, red, brown, green. (Ok, not all colors, e.g. blue was missing. But I'm sure somewhere in Japan, there's already a scientist working on that.)

After the road become more and crowded, I decided I have enough time to take a detour (to be exact: to go up a street that was a dead end). I crossed the river and followed it on a really empty road on the other side for a while. With really empty I mean me and two monkeys who were crossing the street, slowly first but when I approached they hurried into the woods where I guess they were watching me warily.

The monkeys are quite a common sight in the Japanese woods. On the last three tours, I would always meet some them: in Chuzenjiko, close to Nikko, a monkey just opened a door to a shop and went inside as I passed by. I guess he wanted some of the food on the shelves inside the shop but I hardly believe he had some money to buy it.

The sights of monkeys on the other tours were less spectacular, just crossing the street or sitting somewhere on the shoulder of the street munching some monkey food. However they were always too quick to be captured on a photo. (Not an art, usually I would be driving so I had to stop, drive back, look for my camera in my back pack before I could even get ready to take pictures.)

Having left the monkeys behind, I arrived at a old temple that looked decayed at first sight. Once I got entered the temple, I encountered a group of young Japanese who offered me some tea so I rested for a bit and chatted. As it turned out, they came here for a Zen Gasshuku, so they went to temple over the weekend to get up really early in the morning, meditate, to temple work and so on. 

Already making plans to do this myself in my head... ;) 

Leaving the temple behind and going back to the street, I had to cross the mountains to get to my goal. After some steep inclines, quite high bridges and long tunnels, I reached the other side. Meanwhile I was in Yamanashi prefecture, quite close to Mt. Fuji which I could see beautifully in front of me.

Heading back to Tokyo, again I followed the water, passing scenic lakes on nicely curved roads.

Only this tour would have justified buying that motorbike. :)

free Ama Sake to warm up 

KPI - Curve Performance Indicator

the small line on the edge of the tire is the part I didn't use yet.

the smaller the better... :)

Finally, I arrived at Okutama. The area is so popular for hiking (and it was a weekend) that I had to wait 30 min in front of the local hot spring before I could get in. Parking also was difficult, but finally I found some corner in the middle of the residential area, only a few minutes from the station. It took me 2 hours by train to get back to Tokyo, so technically, I had been driving away from Tokyo instead of homewards this time.

Kangeiko

Kangeiko means cold training. Many Dojos (Karate schools) gather in the winter to train e.g. in the morning or over the weekend. At the Kangeiko in Freiburg in Germany, everybody will jog every morning through the snow in the black forest for 3 days; and sometimes the snow reaches up to the hip. In the Hombu Dojo (JKA headquarter) in Tokyo, the students gather early every morning for one week and run through Tokyo as kind of a long warm up for the training.

Each of those kangeiko is a great experience and they're all hard. However, there is only one true way of doing a kangeiko, only one way of making it a really cold training:

Meet outside in your karategi, warm up thoroughly and then, stand in freezing cold water for the rest of the training.

For me, it started with a Christmas present I sent to Matsuda Sensei, whom I know for quite a while now and who always shows great hospitality when I visit him. Having received the Christmas present, he called me to say thanks and then he continued "and in January, you are coming to the Kangeiko, aren't you. Everybody's expecting you."

So on that January weekend, after a nice dinner with too much food and plenty of drinks, mixed well with some Karaoke, the Sunday of the kangeiko was there. My light heartedness I had in Tokyo had already been gone the day before when it started snowing and apparently it hadn't stopped for the night.

Everything was white and beautiful - and cold.

Beautiful view of Fuji san from the Shinkansen

After having eaten more than enough, the Sensei decided that Sushi would be nice...

We met underneath a bridge to prepare everything, a fire to warm up, huge kettles for the hot soup and the Japanese equivalent of tables and chairs: blue plastic blankets to sit on; but even the bridge didn't protect us from the heavy snowfall that day and the wind blew the big snowflakes everywhere.

So the theory about being able to go into the river in the winter in the middle of the Japanese Alps is the sauna effect: if you're really heated up, than the cold won't harm you.

As I was seemingly the special guest, it was my honor to give the instructions for the warm up. The easiest way to get sweating is to move the big muscles, which you can do easiest with big movements. On the riverbank, on big pebbles covered with snow, moving back and forth with big movements is not what you do. Once you have a secured stand, you will be so happy about this that you just stay. Nevertheless we gave our best to get the temperature up.

After the warm up comes the river. With freezing cold water. Being the instructor, I didn't have too much choices than to just go in without hesitation (being a role model). Unfortunately everybody else was not the instructor and could easily hesitate. So there I was - together with some other brave guys, upper body naked and collecting snow, lower body in the river - waiting for everybody else to finally decide to join so we could start and get this over with.

waiting for the others to join...

Again Matsuda Sensei left me the honor of leading the training. 

When you're in a river, there are several things you can't do, push ups being only the most obvious. Also I had like 10 seconds to prepare the whole training, so all we did was pretty basic. Basic of basic. 

After finishing, Matsuda Sensei found easily and excuse to make us do another 100 Choku Tsuki (which was even more basic that my instructions) and then, as a timeless classic, the "wet Mae Geri" (straight kick). Trying to kick I found out that I couldn't feel my toes anymore and that I can't really stand on one foot. Somehow I still managed to follow the commands and finally, we left the river again, finally leaving the cold water and stepping on... wait a minute, snow is not really warmer than water, is it??

very very basic

With no control over my feet whatsoever I hobbled to the fire to warm up, and after getting changed I receiving some hot sake and my hot soup. 

It didn't stop snowing for the rest of the day, but we made this a fun picnic. Compared to the river, everything else was pretty warm.

preparing mochi on an assembly line 

Udon soup

 uphill snowball fight - not fair :P

snowman (incomplete)

extreme uphill snowball fight...

Visit to Mino

After the kangeiko, I was taked on to visit the nearby city of Mino, famous for its old houses with Udatsu roofs.

Utsuda is a special structure from the Edo period (17.-19. century), a heightening on the sides to prevent fires from spreading throughout the city seen on houses of wealthy merchants.

Sake brewery

 free sake - how great is that!

 new sake, still sparkling, fresh from the barrel
(in the background, the press to filter out koji, the rice pomace)