Japan Tour 2023

Also interested in carradicr panniers if and when the time comes 🦅

For cooking I have a Lixada titanium stove and a 750ml pot. I've used this set up thoroughly for years and think it's great. I also have the Lixada french press which is exactly the same but with a press, extra handle and spout.

1. Great size for one person. Easy one pot meals.
   
2. A Coleman C300 fits inside with space (cut down a micro fibre flannel and fold it around and it's then snug
   
3. Cheap. £20 for the whole set up I recall.
   
4. It sounds like a jet engine afterburner when it's going which is just cool
   
5. You can drink from it too as the rim cools quickly but contents stay warm.
   

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I can 2nd https://www.airalo.com/ for an ESim that works on phones with that functionality. I have done this recently in Japan.

I was often buying breakfast and the occasional lunch from convenience stores and got a bit fed up with it. They do sell good quality food but remember it's in small portions. Even a bag of peanuts is quite small, expensive and designed for nibbles rather than serious energy supply. This also applies to chocolate.

I have a Trangia. For travelling I think the benefit is you can get fuel from any DIY store rather than having to obtain a certain sort of gas bottle. Might need to figure out the words for meths in Japanese though.

You probably know this already but some people are suprised that Kyoto is a big fairly industrial city. It's not all like the images of temples and shrines we see online. Infact, travelling by train I was amazed at how the cities from Tokyo to Osaka and beyond all seem to merge together without much green in between.

Thanks all for the advice on e-sims (got the airalo app) and cooking. I think I'll try and take a basic one pot ethanol system. I already have an MSR kettle and could probably just take one of the can stoves I've made. If I realise that this is insufficient I can always detour to a camping store and buy more pots or whatever.

Route wise I'm still mulling over whether it's better to take the southerly "Tokaido" route or the more northerly "Fukuoka" route, both on japancycling.org. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Fukuoka route, the Tokaido route seems to be a bit busier. I guess I just need to pick one, but right now I feel like I'm getting premature FOMO.

The top route is Fukuoka, bottom Tokaido. Tokaido seems to have better tourist provisions.

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New drive train is here. Should allow a 24/34 low gear, which I assume will be enough.

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Sadly the bashguard interfered with the FD so had to be dropped. However I think the build is plenty cheugy without it.

Already worrying that my high gear is not high enough, but I guess that's after pedalling on the flat unloaded. I think in the future I will look at running something like a GRX double with a bigger than specc'd cassette, but well, this got the job done for minimal cost (25 for the RD, 40 for the cranks plus another 20 for a new small chainring)

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I had the same issue RE front mech on a friends bike - I had to set the front mech height as if there was an outer ring. So basically to clear the chain guard. Then it all worked fine.

Thinking about the Japan trip has started to get scary so I've focused on getting a niterider mount for my rear light and a 3D printed widget (thank you @MrE ) for the front light. Thinking about tiny irrelevant things like this will surely sort it out.

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Bit of a faff, but if lacking a computer with an sd card reader, putting the garmin sd card in your phone and moving the gpx from there works too

The endless fretting over small things is too real. Then you end up with a toothbrush cut in half and your multitool left on the couch at home.

Another test run, now with the new gearing. Took the train to Bury St Edmunds, rode to Southwold, then back via Norwich. The new gearing is good, though I dropped a chain twice, I think when shifting up from the small, which is annoying because I've got quite conservative rings on there (24 and 39). It was nice to never max out though I think I got close on a brief 8% er.

A few things I was anxious about did happen and I managed to deal with them. I set up the tent in the dark without much issue. I got a puncture that didn't seal and the tyre fell off the bead but I managed to use a worm (never needed one before) and get the tyre back on the rim with my frame pump. Also I needed to transfer a new route from RWGPS to my Garmin ETREX and my gaggle of cables etc got the job done.

Some Touring Thoughts(tm):

I should carry more ziplock bags.
I would do better with a side entry cage on the seat tube.
Dry bags seem a bit overrated, I would like more stuff sacks
I need to get a hanging toiletry bag (any recommendations?)
Setting up the tent then retensioning it after an hour made a big difference in internal space.
I need a new sock for carrying my tent pegs.
I should carry something that can patch a sleeping mat
I wish I had a 56cm frame and a frame bag...
Not sure what to put on the rear, carradice super c saddle bag? My small front carradices? Identical size panniers to my front ones? Taking full size rear panniers seems overkill given how much space I have.

I include a selection of benches used for resting

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I need to get a hanging toiletry bag (any recommendations?)

If you're in London, Muji do a couple of fairly compact ones

https://www.muji.eu/product/hanging-box-case-16044.muji

https://www.muji.eu/product/hanging-case-with-small-item-pockets-9764.muji

All of your touring learnings resonate with my experiences, except for:

Dry bags seem a bit overrated, I would like more stuff sacks

Get more stuff sacks for sure, but drybags are gold dust for the days when the forecast lies and it rains all day (north coast 500 being the case in point). Especially when camping, keeping stuff vaguely dry for multiple days seems to require a lot of focus and strict storage rules. Having multiple drybags is good for keeping the ‘dry’ stuff separate from the ‘slightly damp’ separate from the ‘beyond hope’.

I need a new sock for carrying my tent pegs.

I have just the pair (new) for you.

Appreciate the above recommendations. I actually won a whole bunch of second hand dry bags so I will be taking them with me. I'll probably take a mesh stuff sack for carrying clothes that need washing though.

Further bike tinkering today, and I have a salsa side entry cage coming. If it's lowered enough that I can avoid using the passport cage lowerer then I can drop the Arundel cage a little and maybe fit a big klean kanteen in there, or at least a nalgene.

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Boring one, but there's a couple of these google maps overlays with useful information like

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1ZBVjXbJKXFgt7AFBFQlSn5Zx3to&hl=en_US

and

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1VIUEaa4Vn6B7r3CJliRKM9jn3Ao4Xf9l&hl=en_US

Which are nice and all but kind of annoying when your route is in ridewithgps. Anyway I learned that if you copy the map layer, then export the ridewithgps route as gpx you can add it as a new layer in my maps, so you can see both the map information and your route. Might be an obvious one to some people, but wasn't to me. I'll probably do it for any tour I do in futureas it makes it a lot easier to see if a route is going to pass by something that's only listed on google maps.

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Oh also I managed to have my first anxiety dream about the trip last night! I dreamt I arrived in Japan and had forgotten to bring my bike.

I've done the route from Tokyo north on this map. You can find my story here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/338639/

Hope it helps.

Procrastinating a bit as the time gets closer. Haven't managed any longer rides to further dial equipment which is a shame.

I did double check my charging set up so I can fine tune the cables I bring with me. The white box is an AA battery charger which also acts as a battery pack when it's full of batteries, which is a nice solution for the issue of How To Charge My Etrex because it also removes the need for a big battery pack.

Need to check my rotors + pads to see if they're worth replacing before I go.

Also need to get a bike box.

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yeah triple check bike box as we flew to japan 3 weeks ago and when we started unpacking our bikes i remembered i left my seatpost + saddle to workshop.

I see you have mentioned the free camping map above already, but maybe you didn't see that you can download it as kml and upload to your Etrex too.

Awesome, I did not know that!! Thank you for the tip this is the kind of crucial touring info that I've been trying to add to this thread for people.

How was your trip?? Where did you go? Got any crucial info for me?

Oops commented was directed at me... but basically my route was:

• Started in Tokyo and rode to Mount Fuji
  
• Fuji to the Irago peninsula (fantastic!)
  
• Took the short ferry ride across to Toba
  
• Toba to Kyoto
  
• Kyoto -> Nara -> Osaka -> Kobe
  
• Shimanami Kaido
  
• Hiroshima
  
• Fukuoka
  
• Back to KitaKyushu and took the Ferry back to Osaka
  
• Lake Biwa
  
• Gifu and back to Mount Fuji
  
• Back to Tokyo
  
  

It was about 3000km riding in about 20 days on the road. Seems like you are already much better prepared than I was. One maybe not so well documented thing I found was that there are large-scale underground bike parking facilities in most major cities that feel safe enough to leave non-valuables with your bike as many people leave the jackets/commuting clothes etc. So I would park up at one of these, unpack my valuables and leave everything including bike bags and go off and explore.

In Tokyo I stayed in Sakura Hotel/Hostel Ikebukoro, which was pleasant and cheap. They also stored my bike travel bag in their luggage room for no cost because I was staying a night at the end of my trip.

Awkward to remedy if you have a specific saddle preference! My partner can beat that though - forgot to pack her wheels. Was gloating about how light her bike box was to her friends in the airport - that was shortlived, aha.