The First Japan Coast to Coast Ride, June 2010
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Pref. (Pacific) – Itoigawa, Niigata Pref. (Japan Sea)
The three amigos in Hamamatsu.
Japan Coast to Coast was set up in February 2010 with one clear and immediate goal – to organize a ride from the Pacific to the Japan Sea across the Japan Alps. Using this major challenge to raise money for a worthy cause was an important aspect, but the focus was on completing the ride itself. In the end the three of us, Lowell, Mark and Tony managed not only to complete the ride on schedule but also to raise more than ¥600,000 along the way.
Read a bit about what we said before embarking on that challenge in June 2010.
And a bit later we gave thanks where it was due!
The 2nd Japan Coast to Coast Ride, October 2010
Nagoya, Aichi Pref. (Pacific) – Tsuruga, Fukui Pref. (Japan Sea)
Starting from Nagoya Port
For the second coast to coast trip, we decided to make it shorter in the hope that we would get more people involved. Having crossed Honshu at its widest point, we chose the shortest distance, a south-to-north ride that could be completed in just two days. And after the anti-climactic arrival in the drab coastal town of Itoigawa in June, we selected a nice beach park in Tsuruga where we could round off the ride with a barbeque.
The riders, in alphabetical order:
- Evan Bakelaar
- Koji Esaki
- Mark McBennett
- Dolan O’Neill
- John Reynolds
- Yusaku Sakakibara
- Lowell Sheppard
- Tony Torres
- Chris Zarodkewicz
Tohoku Coast to Coast Challenge – September 19-23, 2011
JC2C co-founder Lowell Sheppard and rider Stuart Ayre completed this ride from Niigata City on the Japan Sea coast to Matsushima on the Pacific coast over four days, and did so in the midst of one of the strongest typhoons to hit Japan in recent years. About 330km in all, and with three mountain passes along the way, it was a particularly challenging ride made all the more difficult by the landslides and flooding that completely blocked the way on several occasions.
1st Annual Tohoku Cycling Festival – September 23-25, 2011
Unfortunately, the damage wreaked by the typhoon was such that we felt compelled to postpone this weekend festival. The entire Ojika Hanto peninsula, the venue for the festival, was without power in the days leading up to the scheduled event and residents were busy cleaning up once again the aftermath of a natural disaster.
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