BEE Japan

Are you BEE 2010 material?

Salem — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:57:09 +0000

The 2009 Tour finished earlier this month, and all of us are busy as…dare I say it…BEEs…trying to readjust to “normal” lifestyles. Ashley, Heraldo, and I have all returned to the US, all unemployed and though I can’t speak for all of us I’m pretty sure we’re happy to be back. Rocio and Lindsey are [...]

It’s already over? BEE 2009 Final Report

Salem — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:06:13 +0000

The morning of Monday, August 3rd, didn’t start off the way one who is about to engage on a 10 week bicycle journey hopes: rain. The skies of Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost city, were gray and trickling down slowly trying to dampen our departure on the BEE Japan 2009 Ride. Not the best omen, but [...]

Minamata: Hard to witness, but easy smile

Salem — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:54:00 +0000

“After cycling everyday for over 6 weeks, what part of the body hurts the most?” This is a question we put on a recent BEE pub trivia game that we used to raise money while in Hiroshima. Most people made good guesses: legs, knees, lungs. All have certainly ached at one time or another (sorry, the [...]

Roads not to take: Route 36 between Sapporo and Tomakomai

Salem — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:58:06 +0000

On August 10th we headed out from Sapporo to Tomakomai to catch the ferry to Honshu. Up until that point most of the roads in Hokkaido are memorable–clear blue skies, miles of picturesque farmland, wide, spacious lanes we could feel safe on. But that all changed on the 36, which I have crudely nicknamed the arsehole [...]

To ride or not to ride when it’s pouring rain, you have a mountain to climb and the thunder makes your heart stop

Ashley — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:33:13 +0000

On September 29th, we left Ueki and the yummy cooking of Lloyd and Kay, to climb mount Aso. For some reason, we were riding quite fast that morning and reached our meeting spot where the 265 and 325 much earlier than expected. Lindsey and I opted to take the most direct route to Merriemont, the [...]

from Yamaguchi to Kyushu 9.24-28

Ashley — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:30:34 +0000

Hi all. We`ve just come out of a few days of intense rain on the road here. But the forecast thankfully looks sunny for the next few days. There`s some rumor of two typhoon colliding in the path of our ferry to Okinawa on Tuesday, so we`re hoping that changes somehow!! Yuji, a guy we [...]

Hiroshima

Rocio — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:25:29 +0000

After a few days camping, we arrived in Hiroshima where we were hosted by Paul and Joy, a couple full of energy who ran a triathlon on the day prior to our arrival, and their two lovely children, Felix and Niya in a spacious house they reformed a few years ago. Bike Ride and beach [...]

BEE table manners

Salem — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:51:59 +0000

I am on my second plate of spaghetti here in Fukuoka and I think the staff is getting a little worried. They are probably wondering how many more I can eat, and with my tan, what planet I am from. Cant really blame them–weve been eating between 4000 and 5000 calories a day for about [...]

6 Islands, 5 Ice cream flavors: The Shimanami Kaido

Salem — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:09:56 +0000

Today we rode from Shikoku to Hiroshima back on Japan’s main island, Honshu. We had parted ways back when we took the ferry from Wakayama to Tokushima, from where we rode lengthways across Shikoku. The Simanami Kaido is a series of 7 bridges that connect 6 islands between Shikoku and Honshu across the [...]

Tokushima Day 2: Clean-up and the long & winding road

Salem — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:59:43 +0000

The day started as ideally as possible: in a tent on a rocky riverbed in the cold mountains of Tokushima. Ideal minus the rocks & cold. I would have preferred a soft bed, but because I had arrived in the dark the night before I didn’t really have the eyes to scout out [...]