We've got great news today! Finally,our blog Japan By Bike 2012
acknowledges the several queries and requests for its translation into
English. For the occasion, we've got a top-class translator, Angela
Ballone, who has just finished her Doctorate in History at the
University of Liverpool. An enthusiast of history herself, and curious
about Japan, Angela is going to be a core member of our team. She will
be helping us to get our adventure across to the castaways, interested
people and friends, who are willing to follow us in the unknown waters
we are heading to. Thanks Angela!
We've
got a new section in our blog! To say the truth, is under construction as
always in the endemic tradition of Spanish Summers. It is a travel guide which
we have entitled “The Iberian Route to Japan.” It comprises our travel
notes, a short account of the history of the places we are going to visit,
tourist information, timetables of trains and ferries, where to sleep, maps,
where and what to eat... In other words, what we're going to do is a serious
search on google and, once there, we'll expand on the information gathered. In
any case, even though it's a project under construction, access is free:
Please note that at
the moment the Guide is going to be in Spanish only due to the fact that it
will be growing as we go on with the journey and get more first-hand
information. While the translation could be done later on, you could always
contact us in case you have an urgent question about the Guide content.
Only
20 days left. The countdown, the nerves, the consequences of the moving to
another house in hurry, and the piled up work (above all the last two ones),
are among the causes of the last very short posts, which is not going to be
an exception in the future.
Few
days ago, we welcomed into our house or, better said, in the house of Gabriel's
mother, a young couple who lives in Kobe, a city close to Kyoto. They, him Austrian and her Australian, shared with us their experience in Japan.
As the conversation, and the chilled beers, went by we thought we were going to
the other side of the planet not just for a ride on the bike. Everything they
talked about was so great! A honoured society, respectful and hard-working;
competent governors who, if in doubt of not having been so honourable, resign
in haste and can even do the “hara-kiri” (how many among us should take the
hint!); people in love with nature and who care about it because know that
the human being is part of it; and households in
which the grandpa is the leader at the table. However, and like everywhere
else, there are also weak points: the damn radioactive energy freed by the men
and the elements, the contamination, the overpopulation, or the difficulties in
achieving confidence in the Japanese language. As for Spain, the expectations
for the future are not looking bright at all and, perhaps, we thought it might
be time to try up different “airs.”
Although they say
comparisons are no good, and out of curiosity, below we propose a table in
which we have compared some economic data concerning different countries, in
the hope of getting a better idea (even if a faint one) of how this unfortunate economic crisis has
affected Japan:
We write this short
post to share our concerns about this journey. Regardless of how well we manage
to prepare for the travel, how well planned our route is, or how well developed
is the country we are going to visit... nothing escapes the fury of nature,
above all when that comes under the name of “monsoon.”
We've already talked, in a previous post, of the risks that regularly abate on
the Japanese archipelago. Nevertheless, I think we are still oblivious of the
real danger of these nature forces.
This morning we woke
up to the news of heavy rains as the cause of 20 casualties, plus some 230,000
people evacuated, in the Kyushu region. Had we not studied carefully past years
statistics on the weather concerning the regions we planned to go for our
adventure, we would have, most probably, been caught in the middle of the
consequences of this catastrophic incident. We
report the news as published in El Paísnewspaper:
“We have been informed, by a news agency from Kyodo,
that the authorities have ordered the evacuation of some 230,000 people in four
provinces of Southern Japan due to the torrential rains that have affected
these regions in the past few days, and that have caused already 20 casualties
and 8 missing people.”
“The order of evacuation affects the provinces of
Fukuoka, Oita, Saga, and Kumamoto, in the Southern island of Kyushu, where
persistent storms have been reported and many rivers have bursted their banks.”
“The Japanese Metereology Agency has warned that the
intensity of these rains has reached
levels “unprecedented” in the island.”
“In Fukuoka, where 180,000 people have been evacuated
and the level of the water has reached peaks of 110 millimeters in the time of
just a hour this morning, three people have been submerged by landslides, of
which two were rescued, while the third, a 83-years-old woman, remains
missing.”
“Meanwhile the Police continues searching other seven
people who have gone missing in the provinces of Oita and Kumamoto.”
“It is in Kumamoto where the rain has caused the
highest number of casualties, with at least 18 people who have lost their life
because of landslides, or the collapsing of their houses due to the heavy
rain.”
“Due to the rain, the Metereology Agency has kept the
alert up in six provinces in Southern Japan (Fukuoka, Oita, Saga, Kumamoto,
Nagasaki, and Hiroshima). The alert is at its yellow level in more than 30
regions in the South, Centre, and North of the country.”
The unfortunate news of these catastrophes has pushed us
to do something we had been procrastrinating about for too long, a good
travel insurance for “multiadventurous” journey we are about to
undertake. Surprisingly enough, that ended up being not as expensive as we
feared (just 99€ per year, and with worldwide coverage). If you are interested
in knowing more about our travel insurance (even thou we cannot guarantee on
its efficiency yet), check out Seguro Aventura Plus. Still, we really hope
we won't need to check the efficiency of our insurance this time!
And so, without even realising it... it
seems that we've got less than a month left before we leave to Japan! So we
have to get ready for it. That means we have to train daily with the bikes (we
live in a town that could do with less sea costs), we have to finish up the
last arrangements for the journey (such as travel insurance, shopping for the
remaining supplies and tools), and we must finalise the planning of the route
we want to take once in Japan. Meanwhile, we will keep “diving up” into
Japanese culture: today is the turn of the latest technology in matters related
to bikes.
Often, when you travel with the bike in a city
the main worry you have is where and how to safely park. For example, if you
realise you forgot the bicycle chain, then it's instant panic. And that is why,
today, we leave you with a tutorial of how made
in Japan bike parking work:
