Last full week in Japan..

Well this is our last full week in Japan. We have already started preparing to leave and about 2/3 of our belongings have already been sent home. It is a regular occurrence to discover things we probably should have kept for the final shipment, but anyway it is too late now. Fortunately I think we all have our underwear.. Along with preparing our belongings we have already started to say goodbye to many of friends. Kate and the children met the children's English tutor Clarence and his wife for dinner one night and to say goodbye.

On a Tuesday I met with a supplier to say farewell. Even though it was a Tuesday night many people still managed to make it out to the party. We had a great time and it was nice to see many old and new friends before leaving.

I also had a farewell party on Wednesday night, but have not yet received the pictures from the outing. It was with my new group members from work. We had a great dinner and conversation. I am still getting to know some of the members and so it was a nice opportunity to spend time together.

Kate met some friends for lunch and a last trip to Mashiko. (I will get her to write up more later)

Colleen's choir group had a nice farewell party for her.

I met a number of the cycling members at the Japan cup course for one last trip around it. Everyone wore their new jersey to look professional for the photo. I think the picture came out looking pretty good.

The only problem was that Ito san and I both had to ride mini-velos. My Cannondale already shipped for America and Ito now lives in Tokyo so he borrowed Maeshima san's girlfriends bike. See for yourself in the picture below, but I think it dropped us down on the pro-looking scale a couple of notches...

We also met the Shionome sans for a nice dinner. Taka san prepared many of the dishes and all were delicious. He made extra maguro for Liam, Colleen, and Kate as they like it. I said it was like half of a Tuna, but they still managed to eat it all.. It was a great evening of hanging out and laughing.

Tonight we went to the Kato's home for dinner. The children really enjoyed playing with Tora kun and Chibi. Again the food was delicious. It has really been nice seeing everyone in the last few weeks, but also a bit draining emotionally. I believe that we will have the chance to see some of our friends again in the future as they are thinking about visiting the US. We should start thinking about what interesting places there may be around our city to take them..

That is all for this week. As we will be leaving our home on Wednesday I will most likely not finish the final post until we are in the US and receive our computer. It means it will be about 2 months and that will include our final few days and a small right up about the trip home.

Thank you for following our adventure.. See some of you soon on the other side..

Kate had her speech and after the ladies surprised her with a gift and flowers.

Kate met Colleen at school for a mother daugher activity.












Before we returned h0me we wanted to purhcase some stonework for our garden. We found a family owned and run place close to our home and decided to purchase from them. Kate stopped by to check on the progress and get some pictures of the father and son as they worked on them.

They even let Kate try her hand at carving some of the stones. She actually got to work on one of the ones that we were being made for us.

This week was my farewell party with my original department from work. A number of the associates I worked with made it out to the party, even though it was on a Wednesday.

At the end of the first party and before the 2nd and 2rd, everyone grouped in front of the restaurant and gathered around. I was not exaclty sure of what was going on, but I was grabbed and then thrown into the air 3 times. It is a good thing that I lost weight over the 2 year stay.

Next was my bicycling group party. All of my friends that I rode bicycles with during our stay were able to go. We had good food and a lot of great conversation. At the end they presented me with my very own custom cycling jersey. Ito sans friend is a graphic designer and designed the jersey. Originally they were going to present it to me at Motegi, but the jersey came in late. It was a great night.

Colleen had her last singing concert. This was the first chance for me to see her in action. She and the other girls did a great job. This time it was for exibition and not competition.

The event was at a Takanezawa community festival, so we also had the opportunity to eat her last choco bananna.

Liam picked up his last udon as well.

Kate had a farewell night out with the ladies.

We had our last Takanezawa community BBQ. The community gathered together. The community is divided into groups. Each group sets up a grill and starts cooking. Everyone chips in during the cooking. We liked cooking this style and decided to buy one of the pans before leaving for America so we can do the same style at home.

The cookout gave us the chance to see a number of neighbors again before we left.

The Yagishta sans (our next door neighbors) also attended the event.

The Nakamichi sans also came over one last time to visit. It was great to see them again and hang out. They are such a nice family..
The children played games while waiting for dinner. We were able to pick up a sushi dinner from the grocery store and hung out for the rest of the evening.




That is all for this post, have a great week...

Motegi 7 hour team enduro.

Today was my final bicycle event in Japan. It was the Motegi 7 hour team enduro. I did essentially the same event this spring as well. In the spring there were 160 teams we competed against, this event had just shy of 300. All week I was watching the weather forecast and it was horrible. A typhoon was coming through and todays weather was dictated by whether the typhoon would pass, or still be here during the race. Well we got lucky and the typhoon hit yesterday, and so today was a little overcast, but with the exception of a few sprinkles it was dry. The course was the same as the spring course incorporating both the oval and road course.

In the spring we competed with 3 members, this time only 2. The team size is limited to 5 members. After the spring event I planned to put together a 5 member team to try to win, but unfortunately everyone had other commitments, so Maeshima san and I decided to just form a 2 member team. There were 2 other teams of friends from work. We named the teams 3S1 Cycling A, B, and C teams. The other 2 teams originally had 3 members, but unfortunately 1 member could not make it, so they competed with 2 members as well. Maeshima san and I both rode wearing my old Ohio State jerseys. We figured it made us look like a real team (his is covered up in this photo).

For this event a number of pro riders came to ride the course. They were not competing against us, but many times they would push the pace. There were members from the Blitzen, Bridgestone Anchor, etc. Yukiya Arashiro, Japans #1 pro rider for Bbox came out as well. He competed in last years Tour de France and finished 3rd in one stage. The pro riders would rotate in and out of the race taking turns riding with the lead pack.

The family came out later this year, so I did not get any pictures from the beginning of the race. Maeshima san made me start again, and I was able to join the top group. As a result I was able to ride with many of the pro riders including Yukiya san (actually I drafted off of him for a bit..) My original plan was to try to stay out for up to 3 hours on the first round, but the pace was too high and I could only last about 1 hour 50 min.

Before the rider change I sped up and went around the main pack to give Maeshima san a chance. At the pit we quickly changed the leg band with chip and the Garmin and Maeshima san was off.

He actually caught the top group, but the pace was too high and so after 2 laps he was kicked out the back. Regardless he was able to keep a high pace during his turn and I was able to get a much needed rest.

Doing this event with 2 members is pretty tough. Both Maeshima san and I were both wiped out after each turn. My general training was about 1 hour to work in the morning and 1 back home. Really for this type of event it is not enough.

All three teams were able to finish safely. Because this event was about 2 times the size of the spring event there were a lot of people on the course at the same time, and as a result a number of accidents. Kate saw one in front of the pits that knocked the rider out. He was carried away in an ambulance. Hopefully he will be OK.

Here is all three of our teams 3S1 A, B, and C after the event.

and 3S1 Cycling A team only. I was trying out my 1 handed technique with the bike, but I do not yet have good confidence in it, so I had to keep my eye on the bike and hand ready.

Our final result........ 10th (out of about 300). We were the top 2 member team that competed in the event. The fastest team had 5 members, 4 teams above us had 4 members and the rest 3 members. I am actually really happy with the end result. Our overall average speed was 24.28 mph/39.07 kph. That is 1 mph faster than our 3 member spring team did. From our group the 3 member C team came in 169th avg speed of 19.6 mph and our other 2 member B team was 190th avg speed of 18.96 mph.

Since it was Halloween there were a handful of teams that participated in costume. This one is an eggplant team. Of course competing in costume makes it really tough to do well. Not sure were this team ended up, but most likely towards the bottom.

Kate and the children, along with the Shionome's, were able to make it out around lunch time. Everyone is a little sick now and so they got a slow start on the day.

The family was able to walk around a little, watch the event, as well as participate in a number of the activities that Motegi has to offer. Liam's favorite was the go-karts. He has said a number of times that when we return he wants to get one. I just keep saying, we will have to see..

Well I am really tired and it is late, so I am going to bring this post to a close.

Hope everyone has a good week..

Japan Cup 2010, drums, and dancing.

This weekend was the Japan Cup Cycle road race. It is the largest 1 day professional road race in Japan (maybe asia) and it just so happens to take place in our city.

The course this year was the same as the all the other years. The course is hilly and there are 2 major climbs per lap and 1 very technical descent..

Along with the pro race there are also amateur races. Of course last year I participated in one of those, but the results were not as I had hoped. While descending the backside of the first major climb, I slid and ended up popping my tire. Later my friends informed me that my tire was not recommended for wet roads and was mainly for time trials. This year I did a little research before the event and purchased a set of Michelin Pro3 Grip tires. These tires are good even on damp roads...

Kate and the children road with me to the event. My race was at 10 am, but registration was at 8:00. First I picked up my numbers and chip for the bicycle. All the times are recorded by a small chip that attaches to the front fork and so I also had to zip tie that to the bike.

After getting the numbers and chip on my bike I road to meet my friend Maeshima at his car so we could warm up. While going around a corner a woman stepped out in front of me and while swerving to miss her I went down. The wreck blew a hole in my leg warmer and left glove, scrapped my shoulder, hip, and leg pretty good, as well as the bicycle. Frustrated I got up and continued riding to meet Maeshima for the warm up. After stopping at his car I made sure the bike was in good working order and we went ahead and warmed up. Just like last year we headed to the starting line 1 hour before to guarantee a good starting position. Because there are so many entrants to the event they split the race into 2 groups. Our group started 3 minutes after the first. The start line is identical, but the staging location is not. Maeshima san confirmed we were in the correct location multiple times, but immediately after the first group started the second group rolled in behind them and not from our staging area. As a result at the start we ended up 2/3 of the way back in the pack. This is not a good place to be as the leaders start to ride off before you even start moving. As soon as the gun went off I made a move to the outside and was able to sprint around the group up to about 15th before the start of the climb. This can be a little dangerous as you elevate your heart rate before the climb, but I didn't have much choice. As we started climbing I kept pushing and midway up the hill I was sitting in 3rd. This year I somehow ended up riding for Jitensha No Mori and so I have the blue jersey in the middle of the picture below.

In this picture you will noctice 5 of the people are all riding for the same team in the pack. I am 2 or 3 from the left and one of the few that are not on that team. That information comes into play later.

Liam was able to take a little video of the first climb big climb. That is were Kate and the children stood to watch. Up further there were 2 other groups of friends from work cheering me and Maeshima on. I have to admit it did help a little to keep the motivation up.

While waiting for me to get back around Liam went looking for the guitar that Jake, Rachael, Liam, and Colleen found at last years event. Sure enough it was there..

I was able to survive the first downhill with little trouble. In fact this year I wanted to go faster, but the group I was with were a little tentative on the corners and so I just stayed with them. Maybe half way around the 1st lap we started catching the slower riders of the first group. The biggest challenge that created was in figuring out exactly who I was racing against. I really had to pay attention to who was where. Waku san, another friend from work, came out again this year to watch. Last year, due to my wreck, he never actually saw me. This year as I passed the corner he was at I was able to wave to him. I survived the second major climb (country club hill) with little trouble and that led to the second and last big hill. I felt pretty good at the bottom, but was climbing at about 100% of what I had left.

Midway up the climb the guy in front of me slowed a bit. I didn't have enough reserve to sprint around him and regain contact with the group, so I just kept trudging along. You can see it in the video below.. The first 2 riders that pass are riders from group 1 that are being caught. I got back in contact with 3 of the riders, but 2 had slipped ahead going over the top of the hill.

While descending, again I wanted to go faster, but was stuck behind 2 other riders. At the bottom of the hill I could see the 2 lead riders ahead in the distance. I fell behind one of the riders in my group and started the chase. When he got tired he moved over and it was my turn to chase. After I lost power I moved over for the next guy to make pace, but nobody came through. That was when me and the other guy chasing realized that all the members left with us were on the same team as the riders in front. Many people don't realize that cycling is actually very much a team sport, but it is. Without the help of the other 4 riders me and the other guy took turns chasing. About 3 kilometers from the finish we caught one of the riders. I actually thought we caught both, but was confused by all the group 1 riders that we were catching. 1 kilometer from the finish a rider attacked hard. I went with him figuring he was going to take it to the finish, well he didn't and that left me at the front. I gave a little acceleration thinking I could separate from the group, but when I turned around and checked there was a group of 4 riders right on me. I couldn't sprint from there (too far) so I slowed a little and the 4 went around. I gave one last sprint before the finish line and was able to get past 2 of them, but 2 just squeaked in before me. In fact if you look at the times on the internet results page you can see 5 of us received the same time. I ended up 4th in my race. I thought we caught everyone, but I guess one got away in the traffic. Since the groups race separately it is difficult to compare times from one race to the other as the overall speed is dependent upon the overall lead groups speed, but if you combine the results from both races I would end up 14th out of about 200. It is easy to find my name on the results page as it is the only American name (this page only shows top 10 places for each)..

Japan Cup Challenge Race results

As this was our last Japan cup, Maeshima san and I posed for a picture together in front of the start finish line.

After the race we went to the food court to get some lunch. While there we ran into a couple of the pro riders. Liam wanted their autograph so I took him over. They are Gerald Ciolek and Johannes Rrolinger from the German team Milram. There English was really good and they were friendly, we chatted for a few minutes and then let them alone.

After lunch we took the train down to Utsunomiya to watch the Pro criterium race. It is a new event this year. The main event is still on Sunday on the same course I competed on, but now they have a criterium the day before. We met Hiro, Makiko, and Tora to watch the race together. It took some time, but we were finally able to find a place along the 1 km course that the children could squeeze up to the fence and we could watch from. The race took a little less than 2 hours. It was fun to watch the riders fly up and down the main street. Thomas Palmer from team Porsche was the winner of the event. The local team Blitzen placed 9th. When the race was finished, Timothy Duggan (team Garmin slipstream) pulled up to Liam and gave him his arm warmers from the race. Liam was super excited, it made his day.

The next day we went to Utsunomiya in the morning to watch traditional Japanese dance. Kate had received tickets to the event from a friend and so we decided to go to it first and then out to watch the pro Japan cup race. While walking around before the event we stumbled on a food fair. There were a number of booths with fresh food for sale. There was also a Japanese drum squad playing for everyone to enjoy.

Next was the Japanese dancing. It was in a huge beautiful theatre. The motion of the dancers is really precise. I am glad we decided to go in the morning before the race to watch it.

After we enjoyed the dancing we hopped in the car and headed out to Shinrin Koen for the pro race. We got there with about 2 hours remaining. As we walked to the starting line we were able to see the riders pass a handful of times. I have seen many races on TV, but it was interesting to see how the team cars and riders all integrate into the race.

With all the gear on it is hard for me to tell, but I think this rider is Timothy, the one that gave Liam his arm warmers the day before.

Here a Blitzen member is climbing up the country club hill and attempting to regain contact with the pack. He was never able to get back in the main group. I am not sure where the to Blitzen member finished, but I always try to cheer for the local guys.

As we made our way up to the big hill to watch we saw the breakaway of Daniel Martin (Garmin) happen. I think it was with 3 laps to go when he went. With the help of his team he was able to make it stick and he later went on to win the event.

There are many crazy fans that show up at this event. This is an entire club of bikes with manga painted on the rear wheel.

After the race the children got signatures from many of the pro riders, including the winner. They were both happy to see them and get a chance to get their signatures. Along the crazy fans thing.. This guy wore a gyoza hat and tights to the event. Utsunomiya is know for gyoza so I am sure that is why he picked it, but I wouldn't want to wear that all day.

Thats all for this post, have a great week...