Charge News

Day 6 - Tokyo madness.

Another early rise to get the most out of our last full day was greeted by enthusiasm from Akrigg and Ren, who were itching to ride after a day off the bikes (at Shimano). As we cycled through the busy streets of Tokyo towards the busy young and trendy district of Shibuya for around 10 kms I began to realise that the high rises were just neverending in this city. With such a lack of space, there seemed to be a distinct lack of street riding opportunities the deeper and deeper we got into the city. When we finally arrived in Shibuya we were greeted by a thunder, lightening and a torrential downpour. As we took shelter, we watched the literally thousands of people simply cross the road in front of us at each traffic stopping red light. A few things really struck me about Tokyo and they include:

1. Vending machines for soft and alcholic drinks and fags everywhere, and by everywhere I mean that it is actually difficult to be more than a few metres from a vending machine. Nice if you are thirsty though.

2. People wearing masks. I initially thought bird flu had taken grip in Japan unbenknownst to us, however medical masks are widely used amounst people in Japan if they have a cold or flu, to prevent the spread of germs in such a highly populated place. Very considerate eh? and a good idea really. People in London on the tubes would be wise to adopt such a policy.

3. It is very easy to get lost, I did 3 times in one day!

Having got a few shots in the hustle and bustle of the city, we headed out to the port to see if we could find any other street nibbles. Luckily we did. It was 9pm before we returned to the hotel, had a quick shower then out for a few drinks on our last night in Japan. Funny.

Please note images posted here are taken on my point and shoot camera and they are not Paul Bliss's shots! - And if you wondered why we aren't talking about the riding that much, we are saving that for forthcoming articles in Mountain Biking UK magazine so check out Paul's images and what went on riding-wise in MBUK soon.

Japan - 5th day... Shimano HQ visit

Photographer Paul Bliss, Alex and myself got up super-early to catch all the employees coming in to work at Shimano. Nothing could have prepared my for the scale of this company - it is massive. Of the 7000 people that Shimano employ globally, 1700 work at this facility in Osaka. Many of them are cyclists and we managed to catch some riding their various bikes into work. For a Japanese company Shimano is relatively laid back, the emphasis is on team work and if seems the traditional heirachy system seems non-existant. Dress is casual with most employees wearing blue jackets and trucker caps - including Yozo Shimano himself, it makes for a great atmosphere.  In the morning we visited the local cycle museum, which was kindly opened especially for us. The local authorities had donated the land, and Shimano had paid for the building, exhibit collection and still covers the day to day running costs. The idea being to educate people about cycling and in particular young children. This is just one of the ways in which Shimano provides resources to encourage people to ride bicycles. It was a great place with an awesome collection of bicycles from the early bicycles to modern day machines.

We headed over to Shimano HQ for lunch with Shimano's Tatekawa-san, Kim Edwards and Shibata-san. After lunch, whilst the other guys got to road test the new 2007 XTR, on Shimano's private test track, I met and interviewed Yozo Shimano at length. A very humble and well educated man and I was pleased to find out that he was still a keen cyclist at the age of 57. I conducted a candid and in depth interview with this interesting and intriguing man, and I also quizzed Marketing Director Jimbo-san about more technical issues regarding Shimano's future plans and current product developments - again very interesting. The results of both discussions are soon to be published in MBUK magazine and What Mountain Bike magazine.

Later that afternoon we got a tour of the manufacturing facility and saw XTR and Saint products coming off the production line, amazing. It is not until you see the many precision processes and careful quality control systems that go into making these products that you fully appreciate the quality and value of these products. It was a truely fascinating afternoon. The hospitalitly and time that Shimano offered to us was amazing and we had another really great day. Thanks!

It was a 7 hour drive to Tokyo, and Paul Chetwynd managed to get us there smoothly and safely yet again, whilst we all drifted in an out of sleep. We arrived at our hotel on the 28th floor of the Shiodome Tower in the Ginza district of Tokyo at 1 am. We promtly went to bed, as tomorrow was our final full day, and it was to be spent street riding in Tokyo.

Did you know that an estimated 34 million people live in Tokyo?    Check the view from the hotel...

Day 4 - Bamboo forest in Japan

Pic - This was our host for the day, Tamon Touga a practising monk from Kyoto and an keen mountain biker. He owned a total of 5 top bikes including 3 Yetis, a Voodoo and his steed for the day, an Iron Horse MXS 3. He took us to his secret trail up in a bamboo forest behind his temple. What a crazy place to ride! Then afterwards he kindly took us back to his temple, let Ren a Chris to join him in prayer and allowed them to drink some of the holy water from a natural spring at his temple. Touga-san was such a nice guy and generously dedicated his whole day to showing us his trails and how he lived. Thanks! Definitely a bizarre but brilliant day.

It was only a few hours drive to Osaka where we were due to meet some guys from the mighty Shimano for dinner in preparation for our visit to Shimano HQ the following day. My nerves were starting to get the better of me as I was feeling pretty apprehensive about meeting Shimano's president Yozo Shimano the following day for a major one on one interview with him for MBUK magazine.

We met Jay, Kim and Nishioka-san from Shimano for a fantastic dinner that evening, in a Japanese steak house. It was a welcome alternative to the raw fish that we had been surviving on, everything was much more relaxed than I had thought it would be. I felt relieved. 

Please note images posted here are taken on my point and shoot camera and they are not Paul Bliss's shots! - And if you wondered why we aren't talking about the riding that much, we are saving that for forthcoming articles in Mountain Biking UK magazine so check out Paul's images and what went on riding-wise in MBUK soon.

Day 3 - Japanese tour.

Pic- Chris Akrigg checks out the local trails while Ren is more interested in the Japanese girlfriend of one of the local riders.

Dirt jumping in Japan is not a common occurence as we were to find out as we arrived at the trails to be greeted by riders some of whom had travelled over 3 hours to ride these, their local trails. Land for build dirt jumps is in short supply and a sign erected in the middle of  these trails by the local authorities indicated clearly that this land was not for public use.

Ren was almost as intrigued by his Japanese counterparts as they were of him. They kept asking him to do more "pancakies" which we soon worked out meant tabletops. After it had snowed the previous day, it was amazing that we got sunburnt on this second day. The locals were so friendly and we had a great time at these trails, thanks!

It was a long old drive to our next destination, Kyoto. We were in search of a bamboo forest for the next day's shoot, and the word was that we could find one up there. We arrived late, and fell asleep wondering what was in store for the next day and what a bamboo forest would actually look like...

Please note images posted here are taken on my point and shoot camera and they are not Paul Bliss's shots! - And if you wondered why we aren't talking about the riding that much, we are saving that for forthcoming articles in Mountain Biking UK magazine so check out Paul's images and what went on riding-wise in MBUK soon.

Day 2 - The land of the rising sun.

Check out the pic of our guide for the trip Paul Chetwynd, he was completely invaluable on the trip, both for his knowledge of the riding spots, Japanese language, his van and great stories of biking. Paul was there from the start of MTBing and rode as a fully paid up XC racer for many years before heading moving to Japan to set up his own guided tour MTB business "Freeride Adventures".

Today Paul took us to a crazy clay dam, where we spent the entire morning digging some kickers to ride, only to be hampered by strong winds and snow! We cut our losses and headed out for a great XC ride up in the Nagano Mountains. After a long climb the descent was amazing, so smooth and flowing through a cool forest. We hoped to see a monkey, bear or wild boar, but to no avail. Oh well, seeing Akrigg ride XC was pretty funny anyway.

That evening we were treated to another relaxing Onsen hotel down by Suwako Lake, still in Nagano prefecture. The following day would see us heading to some dirt jumps some 2 hours drive away - Ren and Akrigg were excited.

Please note images posted here are taken on my point and shoot camera and they are not Paul Bliss's shots! - And if you wondered why we aren't talking about the riding that much, we are saving that for forthcoming articles in Mountain Biking UK magazine so check out Paul's images and what went on riding-wise in MBUK soon.

 

Japan visit - Day 1

After an 11 hour flight Ren (team Charge), Chris Akrigg (Mongoose / Hyundai), Alex Rankin - filmer, Paul Bliss - photographer and myself touched down in Tokyo's Narita Airport. We were greeted by our guide and rider for the trip Canadian born, Japanese resident MTB rider Paul Chetwynd. We loaded up his van and headed up to Nagano prefecture. It was a long drive, but an immediate introduction into the beautiful and different land of Japan. We passed by the ever dominant snowcapped Fuji-san (Mount Fuji) and couldn't resist getting the bikes out to do a bit of riding to check out a view from a higher vantage point. It was late at night when we finally reached our destination in the mountains of Nagano.

Our hotel for the night was a traditional Onsen hotel - which featured naturally occuring hot spring pools. Upon arrival we were greeted by staff who immediatedly ushered us to our paper walled room, issued us with robes, insisted we remove our clothes, shoes etc and wear this attire for the duration of our stay. They then sat us on the floor and served us a refreshing green tea and some snacks of which I have no idea what they were. Nice though.

Having no idea what we were eating, what people were saying and how to read signposts etc. was something that I soon realised was a bit embarrasing - we had made no real effort to prepare ourselves for this culture, and it showed. Our guide, Paul spent much of his time translating and explaining stuff to us, but in retrospect we should have been better prepared with simple words learned like "please", "thank you", "hello" and "good-bye" so as to show some appreciation for the generosity and kindness of all the Japanese people that we came in contact with during our short stay.

Our arrival at the Onsen Hotel that first evening, was a culture shock - but dinner that same evening was even more of a culture shock. Japanese speaking guide Paul Chetwynd had left us for the night - so we were on our own for dinner. We were escorted downstairs in our robes and slippers into our own private room. No chairs in the room, just a low table, we sat down and looked apprehensively at each other as we placed the chopsticks in out hands. The presentation and service was unbeleiveable, as dish after dish of Japanese delicacies were served to us by Kimono clad waitresses in numerous bowls and plates. The many different raw fish dishes were a daunting task mainly because they were one of the only foods that we were served that we actually knew what it was, but infact it tasted pretty good. Ren was our chief tester, and got well into the eating the dishes - of which 90% was completely new and unrecognisable to us all. A good experience.

After dinner we indulged in a short Onsen bath outside, which was a both relaxing and refreshing prelude to bed. We all slept well on the futon style matresses on the floor, and were surprised to find the blanket of snow that greeted us the following morning.

Please note images posted here are taken on my point and shoot camera and they are not Paul Bliss's shots! - And if you wondered why we aren't talking about the riding that much, we are saving that for forthcoming articles in Mountain Biking UK magazine so check out Paul's images and what went on riding-wise in MBUK soon.