Which country is the best for cycling?

Full cycling route on Strava – https://www.strava.com/activities/645…
Thuong’s Strava – https://www.strava.com/activities/645…
Gopro 4k cycling video

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Why foreigners leave Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2GtYnQzi2w

Why we are leaving Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ6Ay6EttQs

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They carry popular brands like BESV ebikes, specialized ebikes, TERN, and more.

More bike shop tour videos

• Trek store in Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJyHa…
• Specialized Store in Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_DL…
• Cannondale store in Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-VG_…
• Y’s Road Osaka – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW-8S…
• Folding Bike Warehouse – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMdGB…

More info about this bike shop Motovelo Hoshigaoka モトベロ 電動アシスト自転車の専門店
website: https://www.motovelo.co.jp/store/

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This is the full 4 hour bike ride tour video filmed in 4k for your viewing pleasure.

This video is part of a West Japan Cycling Trip series we did in September 2020.

See our full playlist here.

Today’s ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/4057663844

Gopro 4k cycling video

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This video will go into detail about my experience getting my Japanese driver’s license.

Gaimen Kirikae (外免切替)

It is oriented towards people who are transferring their licence from their home country to a Japanese one. This is known as Gaimen Kirikae (外免切替)

It was a long process that took me about 2 months in total, between all of the paperwork preparation, translation, various applications, driving school practice, and the driving test practical exam (which I failed on my first time..)

This tutorial is very long and detailed, so here are some timestamp links to the main talking points.

Also, here is a link to the Supermelf PDF Guide for Driving in Japan and Passing the Driver’s Test, which was a huge help! http://www.supermelf.com/japan/ajetdrivingbook/DrivinginJapanandPassingtheDriversTest.pdf

00:55 Why am I getting a license?
02:15 International license?
02:45 Switching to a Japanese license (外面切替)

Part 1
04:13 1.1 – Required documents
07:30 1.2 – Submitting documents + application
09:45 1.3 – Vision test & knowledge test
12:10 Blessed & cursed countries

Part 2
13:25 2.1 Practical exam scheduling + info
17:00 2.2 Driving school practice
20:14 2.3 Practical exam test day
Why I failed / How I passed
28:06 Total costs and time

My driving license application was done in Aichi prefecture (Nagoya), which is famous for having a low passing rate for the practical exam driving test (only 20%). One of the guys I met on the driving test day was on his 5th attempt (which he failed).. I was pretty happy to pass on my 2nd attempt, and even though I had to spend almost $400 + use some paid leave, I’m excited for the new opportunities having a driving license in Japan will bring.

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It’s a bit of a long story, and I didn’t want to just do it sitting in my room since it was such a nice day outside, so I went out for a nice ride on the mountain bike to the nearby mountains. Deciding to learn Japanese has possibly been the biggest life changing event in my life so far, and I’m so happy I committed to it despite all of the ups and downs throughout the process.. Join along on today’s ride where I share my story of how I started studying Japanese and how I ended up coming to Japan (now is my 3rd time)

This video is fairly long and is mostly me talking the entire time. I tried to keep it as short as I could, but there’s so much I could talk about with this topic and so much more I want to go into detail about, like strategies and tips I recommend, but I figured I’d save that for another video.

If you want to see more videos about learning Japanese, please let me know in the comments!

The post My Story of How I Learned Japanese & Moved to Japan どうやって日本語を学んだの？ appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

今日はモリコロパークのサイクリングコースを紹介したいと思います！

This park is an amazing cycling facility nearby our home in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture Japan, which is just east of Nagoya.

愛知県の長久手市にあります。私たちの自宅からほぼ５キロだけでよくここに遊びに来ます！

The Morikoro Park cycling course is open only to bicycles, and completely closed off to all other pedestrians. It is a very wide path with lots of space for safe cycling, and the course is about 5.1 km in length.

There are distance markers along the course, as well as rest areas and even restrooms, along with many other park attractions that you can stop at. Eventually, this park is also going to turn into a Ghibli theme park of sorts..

One extra thing to be aware of on this course is that you must stop and get off of your bike after each lap and walk back over to the start if you want to do another lap.

More information about the Morikoro Park Cycling Path Usage

This course is free to use if you bring your own bike. There are also lockers that you can use for free to store your valuables.

You can also rent bikes (kids or adult size) for 100 yen ($1) per lap.

You must wear a helmet on the course, and sandals must have an ankle strap.

Once you arrive, make sure to sign your name on the sign in sheet, and write the number of laps you completed next to your name once you finish so they know you are no longer on the course.

Access to Morikoro Park

Most people go by driving over with their bike, or riding over, but there is also a train stop right at the entrance on the LINIMO train line which connects at Fujigaoka (the end of the Higashiyama line).

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You heard correctly, the naked festival! This festival includes literally thousands of (mostly drunk) men running around the streets with little to no clothing on.

The event is held in Inazawa, which is only a short train ride away from where I live in Nagoya.

Here are a few pictures that we took from the event, but your better off watching the video to see the full action.

We also ran into Victor (gimmeaflakeman), a famous YouTuber in Nagoya, Japan.

Overall, the event was very entertaining, but once was enough for me. Certainly worth the visit if you’re around when it’s being held.

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This is one of the larger fireworks festivals in all of Japan, with thousands of fireworks and spectators. We took a JR train from Nagoya station 20 minutes to Gifu station, where we had to walk another 45 minutes to get to the spectating area for the fireworks area. Buses were also available, but there was a huge line and it didn’t seem to be worth the wait.

Rain was possible in the forecast all week, but apart from some extreme heat and humidity, there were no problems. We were deeply sweating by the time we reached the fireworks area, but we compensated for that by having some beers and eating some festival foods, including jaga-butter (じゃがバター), okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), and ika-yaki (いか焼き).

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Course Profile

The cycling route and course profile from Nagoya to Jurou waterfall in Ena, Japan. Roughly 130 kilometers

Link to ride on strava.

Ride Start

The day started off with a fairly relaxing pace and a nice little early ride snack at Artigiano (アルティジャーノ), a bakery with a beautiful exterior/interior, in Tajimi, Japan.

Never too early for sweets

After eating, we slowly made our way towards Ena. It was an extremely hot day, however, and we both quickly ran out of water. Luckily, we weren’t too far into the country yet, and we were able to find a supermarket to restock on some fluids.

As we approached Jurou waterfall, we found a nice family-run curry shop. By this point, we had already been riding for a few hours and were pretty hungry, so we decided to stop for a quick lunch before continuing the last few km to our goal.

Mountain curry with some locally grown veggies

The staff was very kind and even gave us some free freshly grown tomatoes from their garden! Definitely stopping here again when I ride out this way next.

Arrival at Jurou waterfall (寿老の滝)

We continued on our way for the last few km and finally arrived at the secret Jurou waterfall, where some children were already cooling off in the water.

Cruise at Jurou waterfall (寿老の滝)

After a long, hot day in the saddle, we couldn’t wait to enter the cool water!

Cruise “meditating” under the waterfall

After cooling off in the falls for a bit, we were attacked by some Japanese hornets (スズメバチ), which apparently don’t like when you try to knock them away. When they feel threatened, they call their friends, and will group attack their target, regardless of size. These creatures are actually quite dangerous and getting stung numerous times can lead to death. Not wanting to stick around for more of their friends to come, we quickly departed to start our journey back home to Nagoya.

Random discovery of
道の駅 おばあちゃん市

Bradley’s GPS wasn’t working quite right, and I didn’t have the course loaded, so we randomly were making our way back by just riding Southwest, and then we came across this random tourist spot, which translates to something like Grandma City’s Road Stop (道の駅 おばあちゃん市).

This extremely large watermill caught our attention, so we decided to stop by 道の駅 おばあちゃん市

They were selling one of my favorite Japanese snacks, Gohei-mochi (五平餅), so of course we got some, even though we had to wait 15 minutes (worth it).

I was really impressed with the entire area of Ena (恵那). There were so many beautiful sights and unexpected surprises on this ride.

There was a fairly large dam nearby the shops as well.

Although I started the ride not feeling that great, I was feeling fantastic towards the end. Maybe it had something to do with all of the pastries, curry, and other snacks I ate along the way. In any case, it felt great to be back on the bike again after a few weeks off, and also catch up with my good mate, Bradley.

VLOG / Video for today’s ride

Here’s a video that Bradley put together about our ride.

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