Getting to Russia

Pictures of the 2 day ferry(the 'Eastern Dream') from Japan to Vladivostok and of Vladivostok. I don't really have the words to describe Russia yet.
Customs and immigration was an absolute breeze once I got past the first lady to whom I passed my passport through a small slit at the bottom of a glass window. With all the horror stories from the internet swirling through my head I could hear my heart pounding as I waited. Then, without looking at me, she passed it back fully stamped and looked towards the next victim, B. Vladivostok is quite a charming city. If I were to make a couple of small corrections I'd remove the pack of wild dogs that we came across and I'd remove 8 of every 10 cars on the road.

Tottori to Sakaiminato

Tottori. A medium sized town on the northern coast of southern Japan...does that make sense? Anyhow, that's where the bus took us. With 2 days until our ferry departs and 120 km to get there we figured it'd be a good test of the bikes. It took a few hours to actually get them together at the bus station. Details like neither of us having ever put our panniers on our racks before ate up some time. Once fully loaded...and they feel FULLY loaded, we headed out in the direction we both thought most probable to get us to the edge of town. Money was an issue at this point...or more precisely, the lack of. As hunger turned to hanger and atm after atm rejected our cards I encounted the unthinkable- a McDonalds. I went in and asked if they took visa, which they did not. Hanger. While waiting outside for B to return from a failed bank run the fellow in McDonalds came out with 2 big chicken nuggets and managed the word "samples" with a bow and gave them to me. I don't quite know what to think about that interaction...I guess I must have looked pretty hungery for McDonalds to give me charity. More accurately, it was the kindness of the Japanese. Even B took a nibble from those fantastic greasy nuggets. Onward for a little while, discovering that pretty much every street has a bike lane and near highways, separated lanes. How civilized! We fixed the food issue by going to a "Lawson's" which is like a quicky-mart that pretty much everybody here uses as they're much more common than grocery stores. Anyhow, they take visa and we scarfed much over packaged goodies. The cheery afternoon ended which a cozy little campsite near a graveyard and shrine. Being culturally sensitive we did our best to remain at a distance.
Woke to torrential rain. Why are we bike touring again? It rained all day and the traffic noise started to drive me insane. Breakfast, lunch, and supper from Lawson's and a campsite near a beach where we were pummeled by wind and rain all night. The next day was better. Woke to drizzle and the weather improved as we got closer to Saikaminto. We had time to have a Japanese hot-tub session and eat at a bonified grocery store for a change and still arrive a little early to the ferry terminal. Except that upon attempting to pay for our tickets I got the "cash only" phrase. When will this end? I thought to myself! We weren't exactly near any atms but I hopped on my bike that seemed like a ferrari now that it was devoid of gear and sprinted in a direction I thought would have a bank machine (or a Lawson's). I felt like a bike-courier on speed(note Japan drives on the left) as I zipped around in search of cash. Finding a bank atm I put my card in only to be presented with about 25 different choices in Japanese only...oh god help me! Lucky for me there was a person entering to use the machine next to me. I did my best Japanese sign language depicting money coming out of the machine and waving my card. He seemed like he didn't want to impose by helping me so I got more intrusive by inserting my card and getting him to come over to show me what button to press. I got the no-no as he waved me off...stop being so polite I thought, I know you won't look at my pin number. More gesticulations for money coming out and then pointed at the panel of choices as I crossed my arms in front of me in an X while saying "no Japanese"...this finally sunk in and he gingerly pressed the withdrawl option. I entered my pin and it spat my card out. "Jesus-H" I mumbled while tearing out of the atm area. Sprinting back I arrived empty handed and drenched in sweat. It ended up that they accepted a combination of mostly US dollars and the few Yen that we had left...lucky for us.

Kyoto!

In our Japanagrams exercise the next choice of cities from Tokyo.
After some bikebox hauling and train travel we arrived in downtown Kyoto. Immediately it was obvious that this city was smaller and less crazy. I was dispatched in search of a place to live for the night and after an hour or so of wandering found a place that was quite reasonable, 9000 Yen per night for both of us. For comparison, the hostel down the street charged 10,000 and another Japanese place with no space charged 4000. With some hand gestures I secured a dolly and returned triumphantly from my hotel hunt. The dolly won me some brownie points as we could load both bike boxes and both duffels and push it with ease. Some may wonder why the bikes are still in boxes at this point. Well, we made the call to visit Tokyo and Kyoto and see their sites instead of immediately hopping on the bikes and going like mad to make our ferry(about 1000km away) which departs 6 days after we arrive. Since having them boxed made for easier train travel we just left them....like x-mas presents, wanting to be opened.
If I was to describe Kyoto in 2 words I'd say "shrines and temples". We saw lots of both - very impressive. We also saw a very cool castle which had floors called 'nightingale floors' that would make chirping and squeaking noises to warn sleeping folks of intruders. I did my best ninja impersonation as I went through to assassinate the shogun. I thought I did alright but a giggling B blew my cover.
To be honest, I was getting a little citied and shrined out by the end of it. Time to think bikes. The boxes had started to become a bit of a "thing". We knew that once opened, it'd change everything. Never having bike toured, we didn't exactly know what to expect so they were a cross between Pandora's bike box and the Bike box Ark of the covenant. In retrospect, we could have built them up in Kyoto and used them to bike around town for a day...live and learn. Instead we did an early morning bike-box-hauling-marathon to a bus stop and boarded the bus bound for Tottori. Tottori, I discovered, can be pronounced many ways-only one of which means the place where we're going. So I'd repeat myself with different inflections and accents until the person in front of me finally understood. *Sigh*, it would be nice to speak a little Japanese.
Off to Tottori.

Japan

Finally! After much preparation (and even more thinking, which can be considered preparing) we got to the airport without forgetting anything (unless you count me leaving a CR2035 watch battery that I was planning to use for my cycle computer and B's Russian phrase book that she was intending to get). The flight itself went smooth (on takeoff I have the unpleasant habit of delaying my sigh of relief until 2 minutes and 30 seconds from liftoff. If you read about plane crashes, they usually happen shortly after liftoff or on landing so after 2:30 I feel that I move into a different statistical bracket with better odds). It seems I also have the unpleasant habit of putting more in brackets than in regular sentences. After landing, immigration and customs were a breeze. I had a small worry that my printed off ferry 'reservations' would not suffice for proof of intent to leave the country but as it turned out the officer was more happy to guess what was in our bike boxes that to ask about travel details. After disturbing the ladies at the tourism counter we managed to get info on how to get into Tokyo and had a small hotel booked near to the Ueno rail station outside the main Tokyo center. I'll omit the phrases we used as we carried and dragged our bike boxes.

Tokyo, I thought, would be hard to navigate and it turns out that I was wrong. Many signs have English and there are helpful maps and people everywhere you go. We visited a few shrines and temples...I don't have the names. Actually, I feel that I did miss out somewhat on details having not immersed myself in Japanese history before coming. Most of my time was spent in cycle logistics and internal debates of which spare parts I should bring, etc.. We learned that a lot of places are closed on Mondays. Seeing gazillions of people around Shinjuku Station, funny fashions at Harajuku, Tokyo National Museum, electronics malls, and anime were some highlights. As was "the french maid district", a place where young women stand in front of their establishments(bars, etc.) in a Japanese versioned french maid costume to entice and welcome customers.

Texting here in Japan is nearly as common as non-texting. The subway is packed with people looking into their handhelds and more than once I nearly smashed into a text-walker. Also, I never realized that Panasonic makes toilet seats! Even the most basic toilet seat has several options, all electronically controlled.