One Week… Really???

This time next week, Rosie and I will be sitting in the small bar owned by our friend Hikari in the outer Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, rocking out to some tunes, having some good food and, I’m sure, a glass on something or two…

There are a lot of things like this coming up in the next three months. Experiences I understand because we’ve planned them or researched them but about which I actually have no way of forming an expectation that I feel will even come close to the reality of how great this trip is going to be…

Tomorrow we box our bikes, try to work out what to check in and what to carry, and no doubt pay for quite a bit of excess baggage… Tonight for me was a full bike pack. Every single thing that I will take, other than the clothes I wear to the airport and the things we will collect in Tokyo are now on my bike…

 

Now, some of you are going to find this really boring, but I have had a lot of people getting in touch or asking at the shop about what I am carrying… So, the following is a detailed gear list of everything that is on board and why, and includes those things that will be collected in Tokyo before we depart. Hopefully this answers all the questions…

 

Revelate Designs Handlebar Harness

Ortlieb 22litre dry bag with MSR Holler tent and two Exped inflatable down sleeping mats in their own thin Exped dry bag to protect them from moisture on the tent if we are forced to pack it wet. Bunch of MSR alloy tent pegs and some extra nylon rope for making a clothes line of securing the tent in high winds.

 

Revelate Designs Pocket

Passport, wallet, maps, sunscreen, chamois cream, Leatherman Skelletool, lip balm, little bit of snacky goodness maybe…

 

Revelate Designs Gas Tank and Jerry Can

Whole lot of yummy stuff to eat… Canon IXUS camera…

 

Revelate Designs Custom Frame Bag

Arm and leg warmers. Pearl Izumi Barrier Shell. Polarfleece Buff. Santini cycling cap. Spare tube. Spare spokes, one for each side of each wheel of both Rosie’s and my bike. Shitload of zipties. MSR Dromlite 2litre bladder for cooking and just-in-case drinking water.

 

Ortlieb Backroller Classic Panniers

Right – This is the one that will be going in the box with the bike. Mont Helium -12 down sleeping bag and cotton/silk blend liner (so my bag doesn’t smell toooo rough after a few weeks). MSR Dragonfly multifuel stove, one litre fuel bottle and small maintenance kit. Cannon IXUS chager and three spare batteries, whole lot of 32gig SD cards for pics and video. PowerMonkey solar charger – hopefully this guy will keep my iPhone running for a few days between proper stops. Black wolf inflatable pillow. Basic first aid kit. Mavic cycle touring shoes. Black Diamond headtorch. Small toiletries kit.

Left – This is the one I will take as carry on luggage. Basically has two sets of knicks and jerseys, with a bunch of layers to add. One light and one merino undershirt. Proper waterproof jacket and pants. Books (lonely planet and some language stuff) and maps. Down jacket. Some thermal sleeping kit, underwear and a tshirt. The only other clothes I will take I will wear on the plane – jeans, tshirt, trail shoes. A bunch of my cycling kit, especially the jacket and shell can easily double as casual kit…

 

Pro Storage Bottle (beneath downtube)

Lezyne SV10 multitool (because it has a T30 torx key that all new Shimano chainring bolts take). Michelin tyre levers. Roll of electrical tape. Spare hanger for me and an emergency hanger for Rosie. Stein cassette tool. Spoke key. Two sets of Avid BB7 brake pads. Park tyre boots and glueless patches. Proper old-skool patches and rubber cement. Couple of chainring bolts, two quick chain links, random M4 and M5 bolts stores in the (many) extra bolt holes on a Salsa Fargo…

Two Zefal Magnum one litre bottles and a Lezyne handpump mounted on the fork leg.

In Tokyo, we’ll buy cookware, basic crockery and cutlery. This will likeley mean I need to move my sleeping bag and some other stuff to the deck of the rack but that’s no big deal. I’d also really like to pick up a couple of very small, very light folding stools so we always have something comfy to sit on at meal times, but we’ll see how we go.

There is no room on my bike for food, that’s going on Rosie’s bike. I’ll haul all the big stuff, may even take her sleeping bag if we need and she’ll have plenty of room for our meals. Rosie is AWESOME at keeping track of what food we have (she always knows what I have in the pantry or the fridge way better than I do even if she hasn’t been over for a week) so I think it’s best she gets to keep an eye on it…

 

I guess we’ll see how tomorrow goes, but that really should be it for the organising and packing… I do have a little bit of a route to work out properly during the week that will take us to the west coast of Honshu, but I am getting good at that.

It’s my birthday on Wednesday. I was supposed to have root canal therapy that morning but they had a cancellation and moved it to yesterday – it’s actually a piece of cake, no pain at all and actually a little less expensive than I had anticipated – so I am looking forward to just enjoying the week and looking forward to Friday when we fly.