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Saturday, 13 December 2014

27/09/2014 - Cycle Touring Japan - Day 11 - Ghost Communities


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Distance cycled: 90.4km from junction of highways 418 and 91 to warm showers hosts Robert and Jacquelyn just east of Lake Biwa.
Average speed: 18.6Km/h
Moving Time: 4h51m
Elevation Ascended: 1144m
Total Distance on Current trip: 847km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 11,444km
Money spent: $13

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Cycling the route I took today felt very strange, as I cycled through countless kilometers of residential roads seldom did I see anyone; today being a Saturday I expected people outside in their garden, washing their cars, walking their pets but honestly in some places it was dead silent without a soul in sight only being able to hear the tread of my tires on the asphalt, it was eerie and here I was, for self entertainment, half expecting zombies to leap out from behind a well groomed hedge to provide me with some instant shock of fright but knowing there was a reason for the lack of people in these neighborhoods.
I honestly don't know where everyone was but as today was hot, I'm actually quite sunburnt, I could take a shot in the dark and guess that they stay indoors to avoid the sun and heat.
One thing never to buy here is sun cream because all that is stocked on the shelves is sun cream that contains a whitening agent - meaning no tan, whiter skin. This is because white skin means wealth and dark skin is assumed you work in a field and are poor.

Today wasnt so lonely as I did enter areas where I did run into people, these people being very generous too, an old farmer gave me some unknown fruit that I believe now is Pawpaw when I stopped to take photos of him on the roadside as he tendered his farmland. Another couple drove past me, waited for me to catch up and gave me some tasty rice crackers, it was all good and well.
The 90 kilometers I cycled today were mostly on single lane roads alongside highways and train tracks, nowhere else in the world where I have cycled has offered such fantastic cycling with Japan's road network being 99% asphalt (a guess from my experience so far).
I had organized to stay with a couple in some farmland to the east of Biwa lake using the website warm-showers.org, a website that offers hospitality, accommodation for touring cyclists. I met Jacquelyn and Robert in their lovely home and hit it off right away, simply an awesome couple living out their lives in their slice of paradise. As always I offered to cook dinner and made a tasty Thai curry.

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Robert and Jacquelyn’s place situated amongst rice paddies

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