waddo

Somewhat out of the ordinary, for those interested.

Prowler 

Thanks. I was, just yesterday, thinking it had been a long time since you had created a new video. Very timely here on the cusp of spring weather.

DW_Thomas

Thanks for the fascinating tour. The photography is great!

waddo

We do our bike tours according to fixed national holidays, so yes the videos should be released like clockwork! The winter and summer trips are the longest so usually take about two months to edit.

And yes the plum blossoms are out now and we have 18 degrees today so I am already planning and looking forward to our golden week trip.

waddo

Glad you enjoyed it.

metalrideroz

Some obscure spots in this one. I felt maybe the music was more prominent than usual which lead to a different feel? My bike doesn't leave the shed when it's that cold haha. Good work.

waddo

The Goto islands are pretty far and only get a few visitors in summer. I never met anyone who went there and I've been in Japan for 20 years. With the churches and empty roads it's a fantastic place for a bike tour. We hope to go back.

Music levels are the same as usual but the dynamic range is always extreme in my vids from very quite just in the background to so loud the neighbours complain: depending on what the video is showing. Maybe on this vid there was a larger percentage of the latter.

As for the cold, if you dress for it and have good camping gear you don't notice it most of the time.

Prowler 

Finished watching this one. I found the European churches interesting and troubling. Their Western European architecture and iconography and statuary seem to want to dominate the countryside and suppress Japanese culture, history and landscape. I’ll probably anger some folks but it really bothered me. Arrogance. That one awful great brick lump should be moved to the abandoned coal mine site.

A very interesting film, maybe more so with that content.

waddo

In actual fact those churches were built on remote islands because Christians were persecuted and killed; and so they fled to safely build their churches. On the mainland (Kyushu) houses had secret dens where Christians would hide from officials. Discovery meant death. I am an atheist myself but I have no problems with Chinese being Christians and Indians being Muslim. There is nothing superior about Shinto and Buddhism (imported from China!); and religious belief surely knows no national borders. As someone living in Japan, I found the Churches refreshing and emotive and they give the video a very special quality. I would say the only arrogance is thinking that Japanese should stick to their autochthonous beliefs.

Prowler 

^^^^^^ Good perspective. Thanks.

fiddlehead1A

[QUOTE Christians were persecuted and killed; and so they fled to safely build their churches.

yeah, I enjoyed that video very much, thanks for your efforts. There is a great novel written years ago by Endo Shusaku titled Silence that gives good picture of Christians and their persecution In Japan at that time.

waddo

Glad you enjoyed the vid. My favourite is always the one I just finished, so at the moment I cannot really evaluate it. But the unusual content (for Japan) certainly captures my imagination.

Thanks for mentioning "Silence." I actually have the film version of that on my entertainment hard drive--though I never bothered watching it. I will check it out this evening!

biker in japan

Hey waddo I just noticed that you post here. Cool. I've been watching your videos on YT and commenting. Where do you think you'll be in June in Japan. I should be in Toyama somewhere and heading up to Aomori, then to Hokkaido. Well, maybe you can give some good suggestions for me on my travel. I'll PM you if you don't mind.
I'm down in Yamaguchi-ken by the way.

waddo

In June we are just at home in western tokyo slaving away. Our summer holidays are always during the obon time and again we will go to Tohoku.

biker in japan

OK, thanks. Must be a fast pace life there in Tokyo. Yamaguchi, kind of kick back life style.

waddo

Must be a fast pace life there in Tokyo.

Actually if you check some of my vids on youtube for example the walking up our river, our neighbourhood, and the river bike rides etc you will see that it is more rural feeling than many rural places. I hate cities myself but we have racoon dogs, herons, egrets, bats flying about in summer, fireflies etc all outside our door! Yuki wants to move to the country and after our Goto trip has discovered we can buy a liveable house there for one million yen! It's tempting but employment here is easy (self employed) and, as I say, it's a very very nice area.

What are you doing in down in Yamaguchi?

biker in japan

Well, the wife has a business here and I've been helping out, but now it is time to see Japan on bicycle. She is not into camping so I go solo.
I'm currently looking of campsites in Niigata that are free, but now having any success in finding any. You have any recommendations that are close to the sea?
Thanks.

waddo

As you may have noticed, we only occasionally use campgrounds and only when they are free. It may not be your thing, but if you notice a beautiful peaceful place with no people and flat ground, consider the possibility of camping there. When locals come upon our wild camps, usually retired people on their early morning walk, they always chat and never complain about us being there. Of course when you leave there should be no trace that you were ever there.

On the other hand, this web site lists free camp grounds. There are actually many many many all over Japan and this list is not comprehensive. Google Earth and Maps also shows them if you zoom in on an area where you would like to stay.

https://camp.tabinchuya.com/en.html

fiddlehead1A

Thanks for this Keith. I can hardly believe that this site exists.