BEE Japan

I`m sitting writing this in the city hall in Wakkanai as the sun shines down despite the weather forecast of rain. As Kura san from the city office said;
“It must be the BEE Gods!”.

We`ve been here since the evening of the 30th and the hospitality has been wonderful. We were met at the station by Kura san and Furakawa san from city hall then we were escourted to our accommodation at the Midori no Yu Rider House. Designed for motorcyclists and cyclists (but really for anyone with a spirit of adventure) these houses are dotted all over Japan (many of them in Hokkaido) and make the ideal stopover if you don`t mind chainsmoking obachans and loud company.

We arrived late and as a result cooked late so while we were all tucking into our vegetable spaghetti feast all the other guests stared at us in a most perplexing manner. It took us a while to realize they were waiting for something and when we asked we were met with the reply, “eating is over. Now is bar time!”

We had stumbled upon the most regimented party in history. Once we indicated that we didn`t mind if everyone else started `bar time` there was a flurry of activity. The main lights were put out, the chintz lams were put on and as the mirror ball started spinning the Mama san of the house grabbed the mic and started part one of the evening; jikoshokai time. Jikoshokai translates as `self-introduction` and so it was that all 20 of us around the kitchen table had the mic thrust into their hand for the delivery of a short self intro in Japanese replete with booming echo courtesy of the karaoke machine the mic was plugged into. Once that was over we were told it was now time for karaoke but only for 1 hour 30 min at which time talking time would commence. Of course, during all of this there was picture taking time (a polariod that everyone signed), drinking time (100 yen got you as much shochu as you could stomach), group singing time, cleaning up time and bedtime.

On Thursday we were moved from the rider house to our current camping spot at the wakkanai breakwater dome; a 200m long arched protective shelter that forms part of the breakwater along the seafront.
We also had our bikes looked over by Togawa san who has been fixing BEE bikes for many years.

In the afternoon our friends from Fukui, Holly and Eben rolled in after having ridden for a week from Tomoakomai and in the evening our final BEE team member Cat joined us as well.

And so after our first night of camping on concrete we headed for Wakkanai (Wapi) FM to record an interview with Gorou san then at lunchtime we had a meet and greet with the deputy-mayor who wished us all very good luck on our tour. He also was proud to tell us about Wakkanai city`s efforts to be green by installing wind farm in the surrounding hills and solar panels on some buildings in town.

Finally, we were taken by Hyogiji san and Kura san to the hill that over looks the city. We were promised 360 degree views and we werot nt to be disappointed once we got the the top of the observation tower on top of the hill (who they need the tower I don`t know). We could see as far as the outlying islands of Rishiri and Rebun and also all the way up to Cape Soya, our destination on Sunday.

For now team BEE is preparing kit, checking bikes, planning a veggie BBQ and enjoying everything Wakkanai has to offer before we head out on Sunday.

Tomorrow we`ll be heading for the library for a spot of playtime with the elementary students, we`ll be taking a trip on the coastguard launch to learn more about Wakkanai as a strategic position (Russia is only 43km away) and we`ll be participating in the Wakkanai South Pole festival; the biggest event of the summer where we will be joining the city employees in dancing the night away (not too much though- we do still have the entire ride ahead of us!).

Remember to email us at teamleader@beejapan.org and check out our photos on flickr by clicking PHOTOS at the top of the page.