Cornering Techniques

I found a great article for tips on cornering and also a YouTube clip to reinforce it.

http://www.bikesplit.com/bsa7.htm

Greetings in Japanese

The first time I had a chance to speak to a Japanese person was when I was 9 years old at a tourist spot just outside of Melbourne.  I was already learning Japanese at school  and it was my first encounter with a Japanese person.  It took a lot of persuading on my mother’s part to get me to go up to the Japanese lady to greet her. 

I walked up, said Konnichiwa, and before the lady had time to reply I ran off.  Not sure why, just shyness I suppose.  Anyway, I found a good YouTube clip for learning greetings in Japanese.

What Blood Type are You?

‘What blood type are you?’ is a common question that I get asked here in Japan.  Most westerners don’t have a clue, myself included, but  Japanese seem to know.  My wife even seems to know my blood type, based purely on my personality!  ‘O’ apparently!

Read this story to find out more about the subject.

http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia29/en/wonders/index.html

Japanese Currency

With all the new sights, sounds and cultural differences that hit you when you arrive in Japan, it is sometimes difficult to get your head around the currency.  Why are there so many zeros!?  I found the best thing was to take off the last 2 zeros to get an idea of how much it was in my home currency.  For example, 1,000 yen is about $10.

Here are some pictures of the currency; http://www.boj.or.jp/en/type/list/yuko/data/now.htm

I have always wondered who the people are on the notes.  If you are interested, here they are;

1,000 yen note- Hideyo Noguchi (was a prominent Japanese bacterialogist who discovered the agent of syphilis in 1911.

10,000 yen note- Yukichi Fukuzawa  was an author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan.

5,000 yen note- Ichiyo Higuchiis considered to be the first professional female writer in modern Japanese literature.

Keeping up with Tanakas

We must have had 50cm of storm snow! It was one of those mornings where everyone was out and removing it all.  The Sato’s down the road were doing it the manual way.  Snow removal is such a regular occurance in Hokkaido that some people have snow-blowers, bob-cats, and even small graders to make the job a bit easier.  There aren’t any Jones’ in Hokkaido, but one way of keeping ahead of the Tanaka’s is to have a snow removal machine bigger than their’s.

 

 

Me, I like the manual way.

The Postie in Winter

There is a great mail service in Japan, post even gets delivered on Saturday’s.  It wasn’t an easy delivery day for Suzuki san on his motorbike, but he smiled for the picture, and even gave me the ‘peace’ sign which suggests that it wasn’t too bad.  His bike had snow tyres, but not the studed variety, so riding with one foot down seemed to be the choice method for staying upright.  As he skidded and fish tailed down the street, I wondered to myself whether postmen are paid danger money over winter in Hokkaido.

A Tip for Smoother Pedaling

One-leg pedaling is another approach to adding strength (and variety to your indoor training at the same time). Normally, when you pedal with both legs, the leg that pulls the foot through the bottom of the stroke and back up to the top of the 360 degree “cycle” is under used (as the other leg, when pushing the crank through the downstroke has significantly more power and thus allows a bit of slacking).Learning to pedal a complete, 360-degree circle with both legs working together will make you a better rider. Practicing with one legged drills will embed this idea into your pedaling style. 

1. Warm up on the trainer for 20 minutes while pedaling with both legs.
2. Unclip one foot from the pedal. Rest it on a chair or stool just outside the left pedal circle.
3. Pedal at 90 rpm using your right leg, using an easy gear until you get accustomed to the feeling of one-leg pedaling. The muscles that lift your thigh and push the pedal over the top will fatigue quickly at first, but you’ll improve rapidly.
4. After a few minutes, switch to the other leg.

Bike Tours Japan Website is now up

Our website is up, so please check it out;

http://biketoursjapan.com/

We hope you like some of the pictures

Perfecting your pedal stroke

I found a good article for better pedaling technique.  To read the full article, please find it here; http://www.bikesplit.com/bsa4.htm

 

 

 

So I’ve talked about the possibility of increasing efficiency and power by pushing forward over the top of the pedal, stroke, and lifting the weight of your leg on the recovery or backstroke, but there’s one more crucial point of the circle where we can generate energy output. This is the range of motion between points (4) and (6) on Figure 2. At this point of the pedaling action we can use our well-developed runners’ hamstring muscles. I know many of you with cleated bike shoes already utilize this part of the pedal stroke to your advantage. This motion should be the second most powerful part of the stroke when you get it right, after the dominant downward push from your quadriceps muscle group. The sensation of pulling backwards from an extended leg should feel like scraping something off the bottom of your shoe.

 

Each range of the pedal stroke contributes a different amount of force with inherent muscle strength limitations. I estimate that the forward push over the top contributes about 10%, the down stroke about 65% (including the small calf push near the bottom), and the pull back about 25%.

 

To get the most out of your cycling, you need to analyze your pedal stroke and identify the weak spots. There’s more involved with efficient pedaling than just pushing downward with a lot of force. I’ve identified three points of your pedal stroke where you can gain energy output: Pushing forward over the top, pulling back at the bottom, and lifting the weight of your leg as it moves back up to the top during the ‘backstroke.’ Cycling isn’t a natural motion that we’ve repeated every day since childhood. Try to develop this pedaling power flow as I’ve described; it will be worth the effort. Without any extra work to increase aerobic capacity you can gain speed by perfecting your pedaling technique.

Onsens, a great Japanese cultural experience

Natural hot springs (onsen) are numerous and highly popular across Japan. There are many types of hot springs, distinguished by the minerals dissolved in the water. Different minerals provide different health benefits, and all hot springs are supposed to have a relaxing effect on your body and mind, especially after a day on the bike.

Hot spring baths come in many varieties, indoors and outdoors, gender separated and mixed, developed and undeveloped.  An overnight stay at a hot spring hotel or guest house is a highly recommended experience to any visitor of Japan.

Below are the way that you take one of these baths;

1)	Take off all your clothes in the changing room and place them into a basket together with your bath towel. Coin lockers for valuables are often available.

2)

Japanese hot springs are enjoyed in your birthday suit, or naked. Swimming suits are not allowed in most places. However, it is the custom to bring a small towel into the bathing area, with which you can enhance your privacy while outside of the water. Once you enter the bath, keep the towel out of the water.

3)	Before entering the bath, rinse your body with water from either a tap or the bath using a washbowl provided in the bathing area. Just rinsing your body is usually sufficient unless you are excessively dirty, in which case you want to use soap.

4)	Enter the bath and soak for a while. Note that the bath water can be very hot (typical temperatures are 40 to 44 degrees). If it feels too hot, try to enter very slowly and move as little as possible.

5)

After soaking for a while, get out of the bath and wash your body with soap at a water tap, while sitting on a stool. Soap and shampoo are provided in some baths. Like in private Japanese bathrooms, make sure that no soap gets into the bath water. Tidy up your space after you finished cleaning your body.

6)	Re-enter the bath and soak some more.

7)	After you finished soaking, do not rinse your body with tap water, for the minerals to have full effect on your body.