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Musicisgood's Shikoku cycling journey

There's a few more pictures.
It really got hot I'm going to save his 95°, I am took two two brakes and finally I did a search for hotels so I found a hotel that was reasonable price I mean I didn't get many kilometers in today because 95° weather in the sun no I don't need to prove nothing to myself.

The countryside is so beautiful but it's really nice about most of this is that there's a student bicycle path for you don't really have to endanger your life along the road and although as many pro cyclists don't use it I don't care I use it.


So many shops that have closed down.
 
Well let me see if I have a few more pictures. July 17th Monday I believe maybe Tuesday I am really should check the calendar.

This is where I put myself for almost 3 hours it was like 95° weather too hot to cycle so I stayed under the shade here at the grocery store for about 3 hours I had a strawberry soda which actually made you more thirsty or finally bought a bottle of water in about 3:30 I guess I took off and there I decided I had to really find a hotel for tonight which I did so I can recuperate from the heat I don't mind going up three to four hours on mountains in the shade but 1 hour and 95° weather with no shade even flat surface I'm not trying to prove anything to myself especially in July.
 

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musicisgood said:
the roadway to the the famous river but it was 11 km long and I went to kilometers maybe three and I turned back it was getting I had other stuff to do and I wanted to take down the tent and start.
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I try not to comment like this, but it puzzles me how you can get to one of the most primo cycling spots in japan and then only do a small bit of it because you "had other stuff to do" and other places to go.

My goal would be to stay and to go up and down the river 2-3 times--and not just that but explore the area, too.

I guess we have different outlooks/priorities.
 
I agree with you but 11 km I had to go to I guess the primary and I knew it was going to be like 95 degrees heat later in the day so I really had to turn back and take down my tent and start the morning I had I have a time schedule I got to be back and Yamaguchi for well have to visit the hospital again and then on the 21st so I don't have much time I got about 100 I don't know 70 more kilometers not too for sure yet so yeah I understand where you're coming from I mean this is the best River in Japan and I even posted about the lady who has the sailboats but I just didn't have time I have a knee injury and it's really acting up sometimes in the morning I will probably really should be walking with the cane but when I get back to Yamaguchi I'm going to get another X-ray done and then she would happens but yeah I agree with you man like this is once in a lifetime opportunity but I did get to see the river I did count by the river and I made it an effort to get down to where everything.
 
He's almost at the end of the trip and ran out of time. That happened to me on my motorcycle trip around Japan. My last day I had to skip the leisurely routes and take the expressway, riding 660km in 12 hours to get back to Tokyo.
 
Dang, gotta give you credit for having the guts to rummage around in this deranged bicycle hoarder's stuff. Looks like you weren't brave enough to sneak his picture though.
 
July 18th Tuesday I took off at 4:00 no 3:45 in the morning and it's:45 so no sorry 5:45 so I've been traveling in 2 hours and I've done 21 km in 2 hours.
I'm going to get to Uwajima. I hope to get that you would dream of buy 10:00 maybe before it gets too hot right now the clouds are breaking up and it's going to be another hot summer day.

Also I've had six tunnels to go through which wasn't too bad because there was hardly any traffic and a couple of them were pretty long.
 
It's 8:30 in the morning I haven't really covered that many kilometers I just walked up another mountain and thankfully the good guys that make the tunnels made a tunnel there's a picture of it this one is for pedestrians and bicycle people.

For some reason the pictures aren't uploading on my camera.
 
Thursday July 20th.
Today l completed my touring of Shikoku. I left on June 29th from Onomichi, Hiroshima and started with doing the Shimanami kaido cycling route of the bridges and camped on one of the islands. Started the 1000km cycling route of Shikoku at Imabari and ended it up in Matsuyama.
22 days of a challenge I've been dreaming about for the last 25 years. I post more about this later in the day. Thanks everyone for all the help and encouragement. More adventures coming? I hope so.
Matsuyama Castle


Dogo Onsen

 
musicisgood said:
Yes you should do it while that dream is fresh. I waited 25 years because there was a reason for it but I never let that dream let go.
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At this point doing the tour isn't the challenge, it's sharing the photos and stories! I've been sitting on a hoard of images since my pilgrimage in 2015, and at this point I'll probably make another lap around the island before those ever go public

What's next on the bucket list?
 
There's a program in Japan for foreigners to work on farms.

For some reason I had the link on my phone and for some odd reason I can't even Google that link anymore and I can't find the link on where I posted it on my friends on WhatsApp.
It's called farm canvas, but I've been googling that and I can't get nothing or something comes up where there's nothing this page the my screen is blank maybe you guys can find out what it is it was called farm canvas and it's provided by a private company in Tokyo I believe and they work with the farmers and they arrange the the foreigners to work for them basically from my understanding it's around 1,000 yen an hour you work 6 days a week they provide a house and food some farmers will charge you for the housing and food some charges some Farmers won't charge you for either one.
But my destination if I can swing this working on a farm it will be an open Islands somewhere maybe miyako Jima I don't know until I get back and do a few things that I have to take care of before the end of the month and then work on this farm canvas deal she would comes up.
Since I have national insurance I'm thinking if if the local city governments have something to do with them assisting foreigners to work on the farms before I don't have to go through this agency. Do you know anything about that.
 
Congratulations, @musicisgood! That was quite an adventure! I enjoyed following your daily moves and envy you for your invaluable experiences with Japanese rural life. I have toured Japan often on the bike, but it was always a race against time because you had to do something next Monday morning.

Thank you for sharing your fantastic imagery!
 
hmm I'm afraid I don't know about those things, I have only cursory knowledge of volunteer opportunities like WWOOFing, but since they're mostly for travelers the only exchange is room and board, and no payment is made as that would be violating labor laws. Sounds like you've got no issues working in Japan legally, so you have a lot more flexibility, you just need to be connected with farms that need workers.
 
Yeah I have to work legally I work anywhere really but I like the freedom now and actually I need the money to travel because my social security is not that big and Japanese pension money is like I mentioned before you like two weeks worth of food and you get paid every two months but yeah there's a program that we're foreigners come over here on a working Visa to special working Visa and they can stay from 3 to 6 months or even longer maybe and the girl that I met cycling here on this island I knew about the program earlier but she is doing the program and she gave me the link and fight it for some odd reason he's just not on my phone and it's not on the internet but it was called farm canvas and.com I guess but yeah I am looking forward to just keeping busy and enjoying what I can and just keep busy really that's all. I'll let you know if I can find it again but I'm really interested in it especially if they got the pineapple fields and sugar cane fields down in Okinawa it's probably more my my speed really of working the apple season is over with the grape season is now the peaches are now the oranges probably a little late now for the oranges but corn maybe if I was in Hokkaido right now potatoes I think the season is over for potatoes because my garden I had to really take them out at the end of May but I really couldn't I didn't have time until June and and you have to
 
Ah sounds like working holiday visas, which Americans don't qualify for but many other people do. To my knowledge that's the only way to get a short term "working" visa without sponsorship.

At any rate, looking forward to hearing about your next adventure, wherever it lands you
 
I also couldn't find anything with such a name the sites I found are:

This is for working holiday but as long as you can legally work probably you could do it too.

Working Holiday in Japan

Working Holiday in Tokyo, Kyoto or all over Japan up to 1 year. Work, travel and live in Japan: World Unite! takes care of all the formalities, your accommodation and assists you in finding the right job!
www.world-unite.de

This is for travelers so just room and board.

Work in Japan in exchange for free room and board with Worldpackers

Find affordable work exchanges in Japan. Read reviews from previous volunteers. Share your skills, meet new friends and immerse yourself in a new culture with Worldpackers.
www.worldpackers.com
 
You beat me to it. I was just going to post this same link.

EDIT: I went down quite the rabbit hole on this one, but I'll just post one more link that I found interesting if you read Japanese.

全国の農山漁村の体験・宿泊がさがせる、農泊ポータルサイト

農泊ポータルサイトは、日本全国の農泊に取り組む地域と農泊を体験したいユーザーをつなぐ情報発信サイトです。農山漁村の泊まる（農家宿泊・古民家宿泊など）・楽しむ（農業体験・漁業体験・伝統体験など）・味わうをカテゴリから検索できます。
nohaku.net

Ok, two links. This is a summary of guest worker programs in Japan, with a focus on agriculture. Again in Japanese.
 
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Yeah it's really strange because it was called farm canvassing farm canvas and I don't know I told two other people about it and I can't find it on the address on the WhatsApp when we were chatting so I have no idea what happened to it but it's run out of Tokyo, and I guess there's two guys that own that run the program it's been around for a long time that's for sure it's nothing new I heard about it several years ago.

I actually just want to travel in Japan and work where I'm traveling and I think it fits my way of life I have a permanent residence a card so that's no problem. I also have a place with the legal address here in Japan so it's just something that works kind of like a wanderer just wandering around Japan.
 
Hi JREF members. I made it back safe. Thank you all.
I'll update this post with current pictures later today since I now have a computer.
22 days of pure "put the foot on the medal" cycling. What and adventure. The most fun part was pushing my bike up the mountains, no joke LOL
 
Great to hear you made it back safely! I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your pictures. You should write a digest of your trip's highlights, publish it in a journal, and add a map of all the places you visited.
 
thomas said:
Great to hear you made it back safely! I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your pictures. You should write a digest of your trip's highlights, publish it in a journal, and add a map of all the places you visited.
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I don't know how to do that stuff. Sorry.
 
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