Japan 2015: The last onsen

Onsen in Japan is a hot spring and/or public bath.  I had an onsen experience earlier in my Japan trip, and was looking forward to repeating it.

My son Tim and I had been riding our bikes for about 60 miles this day, our last travel day, and I was hot and sweaty.  We arrived in the town Tomakotomai around 3:00 PM, and our ferry wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:00PM, so we had some time to kill, and I was really in the mood for a bath.  But where could we go?

Tim searched his phone, but came up empty.  As we rode into town on the bike path/sidewalk, we rode up on two Americans in black pants, white short sleeve shirts, on mountain bikes.  I guessed they were missionaries from the LDS church -- correctly.  "How's it going?" one asked me.  "Oh, we're doing OK.  Say, do you know of any onsen around here where we could get cleaned up?"  "Uh, no, I don't."   "Well, thanks anyway."  And off we rode.

However, because of traffic lights, they caught up to us, and he proposed "How about if I ask a local person in Japanese if they know where one is?"  "Nah, no, you don't need to do that."

But by the next light, he had engaged a local fellow and was deep in conversation with him.   We stopped and hung out with his partner, making small talk.  Tim was impatient, but I held out hope this could actually get us somewhere.  As minutes ticked by, it got harder and harder to wait and keep up the small talk.  Finally he came back with a small scrap of paper, on which were written 6 Japanese characters.

"This is where you want to go.  Head down this road, and when it turns left, go straight.  Keep an eye out for these three characters; when you see them, you're there.  And if you get lost, show this to anyone at a convenience store and they'll point you in the right direction."

So, clutching that little scrap, we headed out.  The road did bend left, and we did go straight.  Block after block, I'm scanning every sign, but no match.  The road turns into an industrial part of town, and it's hard to imagine an onsen anywhere near here.  There is a bike path, but the road is 6 lanes wide at this point and all I'm seeing is warehouses.

Finally, I give up and stop at a gas station where there are two fellows painting the metal gutter around the perimeter of the station parking lot - every gas station has these.  I show one the scrap, and he recognizes it, but has no way to tell me where it is.  He speaks no English, I speak no Japanese.  His coworker, however, does have a small smattering of English, and he tells me to go down to the bridge, turn left, then left, then left again.  Progress!

We go down a few long blocks and eventually there IS a bridge to the left!  Over we go, and then left at the next street.  But then what?  Left immediately?  Don't know. Keep going!   So we go , and go , and go, and nothing.  Time to ask directions again, this time at a tire shop.  The guy helping me recognizes it and implies it's three roads down.  But what's a road?  We go three roads, turn left, and wind up at the back of a driving range.  No onsen in sight.

I'm beginning to lose hope, but I really want a shower and I think I'm close.  Tim is just hanging on, following me where ever I go, U turns and all.  We've gone at least two or three miles from where we started.

I see a drug store in a strip mall, and pop in. I show the slip to the cashier, who recognizes it but can't figure out how to tell me.  She gets someone else, who gets someone else, and he draws a map. We are nearly there! It's right around the corner, according to the map.

And when I turn the corner, there is a huge building.  I see people coming in and out with small bundles, likely clothing, and I guess we are there.  I show the paper to some guys who just showed up and then confirm:  We are here!

The onsen experience

Enter the onsen, take off your shoes.  Put shoes in a locker, along with a 100 yen coin as security for the key.  Then head over to the machine to buy a ticket (800 yen).  Now take that ticket and key to the front desk, where they trade you that key for another key, which goes to a larger locker, and a towel and washcloth. Now you can enter the locker room, disrobe, put all your stuff in the locker, and attach the key with a plastic spring loop to your wrist.

Head over to the shower room, sit on a stool, and get clean.  Pump bottles of shampoo, body soap, and conditioner are available.  Handheld shower, with a lever to give you 10-15 seconds of water, and soon you are clean.

Now feel free to partake of the hot springs, pools, tubs, jetted tubs, outside pool, as you wish.  Getting too hot? Sit outside or dip into the 60 degree tub.   This onsen's outside pool was covered with little rubber duckies. I thought it was charming.

When you've soaked enough, head back to the shower stool to rinse off, then get dressed, dry your hair, and you feel like a million bucks!    Take the locker key back to the front desk, trade for your shoe key, unlock your shoes, get your 100 yen coin back.

Best 800 yen I ever spent!

I wish they had onsen in Seattle.

Dead Baby Bike 2015

The Dead Baby Bike ride/race/party is a counter-culture favorite for people who like ink on their skin and riding bikes.  It starts at various places around Seattle and people race/ride to the finish in Georgetown, where there is beer, music, food, and various activities.  It has to be seen/participated in to fully appreciate it. I've been coming/participating off/on for 8 years.

Tonight we started at the Elysian Brewery on Capitol Hill in Seattle.  People gathered and waited for the 7:00 start time.

Once 7:00 hit people funneled out onto the street.  As we left the staging site, we were prompted "Don't stop - roll through lights and stop signs" - and we did.  I don't know how long the whole group of bikes was, but we did what we were told - ride together, and keep moving, rolling through stop signs and lights (green or red).  It was a blast, and mostly downhill. When we finally got onto Airport way, we had a tailwind, so it was easy pedalling to Georgetown.  The whole ride was about 5 miles.

Mass ride to the party
Bike parking at the site is at a premium:

Once we got to the party site I found the main area quite empty:

It was a short line to get a "water bottle" for $15.00 -

 good for unlimited refills of beer at one of the two mobile keg tap sites, being operated by the Rat City Roller girls.

There is a stage with rotating bands for the evening.  They start out kind of mellow and ramp up as the night wears on.  Video of Band number one

As it got later, people who had come for the party and not just the ride filled up the main area, and spilled out to secondary sites.  Some bikers started using the nearby ramps to do some trick riding.

There were food trucks, and I had a roast beef and swiss sandwich.  This was in the window of the food truck:

There are all kinds of bikes here, lots of custom jobs including this side-by-side tandem that was fitted with a flaming ball on top:

Flaming tandem bike video

The party backs up to some railroad tracks, and a few urban artists were painting on the warehouse wall in real time. I've never seen taggers at work before:

You never know what you're going to see at DBB party -- including a fellow with his pet Monitor:

Further down the street at the secondary area, they had some bike races going on with little kids bikes.

Kids bike races video

After that was over they used the kid bikes for the 'bike toss' - how far can you throw a bike? on the same course.

By this time, the main area had filled up:

The second band took the stage. I told you they get less mellow as the night wears on!

Second DBB 2015 band

By 9:00 I had seen what I had come to see, had enough beer, and was ready to head home.  Got my bike, rode up Airport way, and then over the I-90 bridge.  Saw a nice evening sky over Seattle:

RAMROD 2015 ride report

RAMROD is an annual event in the Seattle area. It's a 150 mile bike ride going into the Mt Rainier National part, with 10,000 feet of elevation.  The name stands for Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day.

Mount Rainier:

It starts in Enumclaw, WA, heads to the south Park Entrance near Ashford, climbs almost all the  way to Paradise but detours to Inspiration Point to so as not to interfere with park operations.  It's still 4800 feet up.  A descent, then a shorter climb up Backbone ridge, a descent, and then you're at 100 miles with one climb left: Cayuse Pass, 9 miles of 6% grade, much in direct sun. It's  grueling climb for the strongest riders.

Once you get to the summit of Cayuse, there's about 37 miles left to Enumclaw that is about half downhill and half flat, or a little hilly, with some long flat straight stretches right into the sun.

I've ridden this ride 3 times:

In 2012, I did it self-supported twice.  Once I needed a  lift up Cayuse, the other time I made it on my own power.
On Thursday, July 30, 2015 I did the "official" supported ride.

This is my ride report:

My RAMROD: Had breakfast at the Enumclaw High School, rolled out at 5:30. Felt really good for the first 2 hrs, I swear we had a tailwind. Plus the route is downhill for a spell. Did OK getting to Eatonville, being passed by one paceline after another (pretty well behaved pacelines). Stopped before Ashford at the gas station C store for a corn dog - I find I do better with savory food on these rides, and it's pretty hard to find, they tend to emphasize simple carbs, peanut butter and jam, and fruit.
Made it to the Park entrance OK, and then slogged up the long hill to Inspiration point water stop. Not feeling too frisky on the hill which varies from 2% to 6% here and there. Somehow my odometer was a mile off so the water stop/summit was further than I expected - a mile up a 5% hill further! Did great on the descent and then Backbone ridge attacked me. It was longer than I remembered. Stopped a few times in wider shady areas to catch my breath for a couple of minutes.

At the bottom of the road where the park entrance is, a number of people were DNF'ing due to the heat. I thought I'd give Cayuse a try. It was flat-ish for two miles and when it tilted up I knew right off I wasn't going to make it. They say "If you're gonna DNF, do it early" - so I put my bike next to a tree and stood next to it at a wide spot. Less than a minute later, a sag car stopped to check on me, and I said "not doing great" -- "Do you want a ride to the top?" - Yes! He had two other riders on board, so we crammed into the back seat, put the bike on the rack, and up we went. This was about 3:15 PM. I was listening to the radio comms and I guess people were DNFing all over, the SAG cars were very busy. I told him if he needed space, I could hop out at the summit of cayuse and ride to Enumclaw, freeing a seat for someone who needed one, and that's what we did.

The ride to Enumclaw was uneventful - just 37 miles, with about half being downhill grades of various pitches, and the rest flat or light hills, with some long stretches of flat straight road heading right into the sun. It wasn't horrible.

I made it into Enumclaw around 7:00 PM, got my ice cream and headed home.

I'm probably in the 5% "slowest riders" group, I was getting passed right and left all day. When I got to Enumclaw there were 600 riders already finished.

Takeaway: If I want to do these long rides (and that includes SIR brevets over 100k) I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do some real training as in intervals training. Not sure I have the time or desire for that at this time, so my riding for a while will be an occasional commute to Bothell or a periodic 100k to get another RUSA P-12 award.

It was a good day - except for the heat!

I'm going to start a new ride: RAMOD-WCP (without Cayuse pass). I've done that one twice now and the full RAMROD self supported once. I think I've checked RAMROD off my bucket list.

Thanks to Myung Hong for the bypass - I did my best not to waste it.

I saw Ross Carey at the Park Entrance and Lynn Kuhlman pulled my "start tag" off my bib. Also ran into someone from SIR and another bike friend I know from church - and him three times - Backbone food stop, deli stop and the finish line.