CricketsTales

Home
CricketsTales

I may not travel where I intend to go,
But I shall end up where I need to be. Walking, Biking, and rambling around the world.

Fun and informative travel bits from expeditions around the world.

17/08/2024

The trip is finished! Here are some final stats:

Total Distance: 6,604KM / 4,103Mi
Avg speed: 19.8kph / 12.3mph
Altitude Climbed: 54,914M / 180,165ft
Broken Spokes: 1
Longest consecutive period without rain: 3 days
Bowls of Ramen: 22

11/08/2024

I was jumping up on this barrier to drape my tent over to dry, when I landed my sandal didn’t and flew off my foot! It fell down the 7m/21ft fall down between these concrete blocks.

I scrambled into the hole outlined in red and scrounged around like a goblin searching for treasure under a hill. It took a few minutes but my sandal was recovered. It had fallen to the LAST ledge before the ocean and was mere inches from the ocean. I surprised an elderly Japanese couple when I clambered up in euphoria.

‘Always wear the adventure strap on a sandal’ is the lesson a wiser man would learn.

09/08/2024

Yea, I’d say I make the most out of a hotel room. Why?

With the constant rain, my gear is really taking a beating when trying to get dry. I try to get a place a week to shower and give my gear a chance to dry.

Strangely, the longer this trip has gone on the more “off” these hotel rooms have been smelling…

06/08/2024

I travelled to the smaller island of Rishiri where there is a michelin stared ramen restaurant. This island is home to some of the worlds best kelp fields and the key to this ramen is in it being a “double soup”

Instead of a miso or soy broth, the chef created a way to make a broth from the kelp itself resulting in a very ocean’y and richly flavored broth. It was awarded its star in 2017.

04/08/2024

When I started this journey five years ago, the goal was to see what Minnesota looked like around the world.

The 45° parallel runs through Minneapolis, Bordeaux France, Turin Italy, Yellowstone National Park and here I’ve caught up to it in Hokkaido!

02/08/2024

Regarding todays incident:

Look, all I’m saying is when you name
your farm this, you can’t be upset when a bachelor cyclist shows up and starts asking questions.

At the very least I think it’s misleadingly advertised.

31/07/2024

I reached the northernmost town in Japan. Just over 3,200mi of riding so far. I’ve got just about two weeks left for a victory lap!

29/07/2024

Sapporo is home to a month long summer festival. It really throws off Oktoberfest vibes as it stretches across city park. By stretches, the pavilion tents are 5 city blocks long!

27/07/2024

I’ve looked and looked for traditional gardens. A core belief of the Japanese garden is that it must not be completely visible in any one location- there must be an element of surprise and unknown at all points.

Traditional garden planning also involve a bridge which is representative of the crossing between the spirit world and the reality. Once I found this garden it did not disappoint!

25/07/2024

I have really enjoyed stopped at the Japanese Castles. Many have centuries of history attached. This particular one was one of the last standing in an 1860’s revolution and withheld one month of siege.

Many are reconstructions, such as this. Touring inside however the ancient foundations are visible.

23/07/2024

How many monkeys do you see? When I saw the Monkey Crossing sign a few hours ago, I immediately thought: “huh. that’d be cool”

and then promptly forgot about it.

Until a troop of monkeys ran over the road above me on a power line and jumped into this tree. I almost fell over in joy!

22/07/2024

This is Shibuya Crossing. It is the most trafficked pedestrian crossing in the world with an estimated 3,000 people crossing every time that the lights changes, every two minutes!

On a weekend there are an estimated 360,000 people a day. It’s been estimated that 1.5M people a week use this crossing!

20/07/2024

I took a rest day and biked up to the end of the road of Fuji. While it was cloudy and foggy at the time, when I left the volcano said goodbye

16/07/2024

I’ve really enjoyed riding in the alpine valleys. there are lovely forest roads to explore.

14/07/2024

The cleanest drainage I’ve ever seen.

13/07/2024

This man is the 15th generation owner of this indigo dye shop. It’s been operating in the same
manner for over 450 years! I saw him washing his dyes in the street and stopped to learn. The specific color indigo is on the hanging banners on the wall.

12/07/2024

I’d like to imagine the phone call to the sign shop:

“Hiroshima Signs, how can I help?…..Yup, we can make large signs, that’s not a problem……Sure something that really represents your business I can do that…Yup, I have just the idea.

Oh and where can we deliver to when it’s done?…oh yea I know that place. It’s one block down from the elementary school”

And I still have no clue what it’s advertising.

09/07/2024

It was a quick mountain descent, and with this view I considering going back up to start it all over again!

Address

Website

http://cricketstales.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when CricketsTales posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to CricketsTales:

Videos

How many monkeys do you see? When I saw the Monkey Crossing sign a few hours ago, I immediately thought: “huh. that’d be cool” and then promptly forgot about it. Until a troop of monkeys ran over the road above me on a power line and jumped into this tree. I almost fell over in joy!

This is Shibuya Crossing. It is the most trafficked pedestrian crossing in the world with an estimated 3,000 people crossing every time that the lights changes, every two minutes! On a weekend there are an estimated 360,000 people a day. It’s been estimated that 1.5M people a week use this crossing!