Kanagawa - Selfie Ride

Is this thing on?

Hey, welcome to Cycle Around Japan.

I'm Michael Rice, they call me Mikey.

It's Kanagawa prefecture, Odawara City.

And it's an amazing place.

I can't wait to show you around.

To enjoy the "new normal," we came up with the idea of what we call a "selfie ride."

Ah, this is a really beautiful place.

This time, our cyclists will film themselves.

Michael will be exploring his local neighborhood to discover some unique sights and sounds.

Let's ride!

Michael lives in Odawara City, in Kanagawa, one of the prefectures adjoining Tokyo.

Okay, so welcome to Odawara, and welcome to the place we made after Corona started and all the bike events stopped.

So, we started a cafe just because we had nothing else to do and wanted to do something to help cyclists.

Michael's lived in Japan for 30 years.

In 2020, he moved to Odawara and opened this cycling cafe.

Michael will be shooting his "selfie ride" himself, with help from a support cyclist.

Mini cameras are attached to the bicycles.

A total of four cameras will help capture various angles.

They also have 360-degree cameras on their helmets.

Let's do this!

Stay tuned.

Okay. I'm off!

Have a great trip around Odawara!

- Thanks!
- See ya!

Michael heads for the heart of Odawara City.

He'll take us to some interesting places he's discovered on his daily rides.

I see the ocean!

We're now just five minutes from Michael's cafe.

Oh, look at this.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, this is Odawara.

The ocean here is so beautiful.

Wow, did you see all those jumping fish?

Wow.

This is amazing.

Odawara is one of Japan's leading port cities, and it's home to a famous local specialty we're about to see.

Ah, here it is.

This is the kamaboko.

Good morning!

Michael loves this long-running kamaboko shop.

I really love the atmosphere of this place.

And actually, I found this place on my own, after I moved here.

I was wandering around by bicycle and I stopped here and thought, "Wow, this is something different, something unique."

Kamaboko is a traditional Japanese food made from steaming or frying fish paste.

Ah, that looks delicious!

So the food has arrived.

I can't wait to try this.

Wow, look at that.

OK, so first I'll try this one.

Oh, it's good.

It's the white meat of the fish, and has a black pepper.

Mmm.

This is really good.

Tashiro san, are you in there?

Hey, welcome!

Tashiro Moritaka, the eighth generation owner of the shop, is a friend.

- When did your family start this business?
- 240 years ago.

Back in the day they used a huge stone mortar
to grind the fish into paste.

Using a big stone gives a really fine grind,
which is the secret to a great taste.

We essentially use the same technique today,
so our kamaboko tastes the traditional way.

In the old days, Odawara was a key stop on the major highway connecting east and west Japan.

Travelers on the highway loved the town's kamaboko.

Tashiro has made it his mission to preserve this traditional taste, the pride of Odawara.

Our historic kamaboko shops were rather
imposing and not so inviting for casual visitors.

I wanted to make a store that people
would feel easy about dropping in to.

What does your shop name mean?

The top character is "uroko."

Oh, fish scales.

And the bottom one is ki, meaning "lucky."

Lucky fish scales.

That's a pretty interesting name.

Next up is another famous Odawara product.

Michael brings us to a place where they make Odawara chōchin paper lanterns.

At the kamabokoya-san they had it as a symbol, at the wharf they have it as a symbol, at different places in Odawara.

So I want to learn more about the history of these chochin.

- Can I come in and look around?
- You're welcome.

This is lovely.

Invented in the 16th century, these lanterns are Odawara's most famous handicraft.

What makes Odawara chochin unique?

The way they fold up into their base.

That's so interesting.

At night you open it up and put a candle inside.
In the daytime it folds down for easy carrying.

I see.

Small and easy to carry, these lanterns were treasured by travelers on the old east-west highway.

The writing is really cool.

Can you make one with my name?

Sure, that's easy.

Please.

You can get a custom chōchin with anything you want written on it.

Yamazaki Takashi was taught these skills by his late father.

Today, he and his mother run this workshop, the last one still making lanterns in Odawara.

Fantastic!

Wow. It has my name on here.

Mikey.

"Mai" is the kanji for "mau," which means to dance or perform, and so, "a performer."

And then "ki" is energy.

It's really special.

Thank you so much for doing this.
You've made me really happy.

At Odawara's annual summer festival, the town is illuminated by hundreds of these lanterns.

We moved on from candles to electricity,
but people still want chochin.

It takes years of training to make them well.

I think it needs a whole lifetime actually.

I chose Odawara.

And I thought that the people would not welcome me because I was, first, from another country, and then from Tokyo during the middle of a pandemic,

coming into their place, and I thought...

But the people are so nice in this area.

The people are so friendly and so nice and so patient and so welcoming.

Beautiful ocean.

Okay, so we've made it to one of my favorite spots in Odawara.

Michael visits another of his favorite spots.

Hi there! I'm Mikey!

- I'm Egoshi. I'll be your instructor.
- Great!

Ready to start the adventure?

Here's my instructor.

It's a mountain bike course in the midst of Odawara's forest.

There are sixteen trails here, all created by professional trail builders.

It gets steep here.

It is so cool in the forest.

Oh!

Ah, now this is fun.

This is really a playground for cyclists.

Yeah, this is totally different than road biking.

Next, Michael will visit some places near Odawara he's never been to.

It will be a little adventure for both him and us.

Oh, the cosmos.

Hello!

Good morning!

What a beautiful place this is!

So they said there's a place right up the river where I can catch fish.

Ah, cool place!

It's a camp site on the banks of a mountain stream in a village called Kiyokawa.

Ooh, it's cold!

The water's beautiful.

Nice clear water.

Ah, they're chasing fish.

Fish? That catches Michael's interest.

Oh, well done!

Look, it's moving!

OK. It's time to go fishing!

I've never just fished with bare hands.

In Japan.

I've done it in Canada.

On this selfie ride where he's doing it all himself, of course, Michael must catch his own lunch too.

It's like hide and go seek.

Ah, there's one!

I can't see anything.

I got one!

It's Michael's first time to try grilling fish himself.

So black!

Looks like he's having some trouble.

- Should I put the last one on too?
- No, I think it's just a spare.

How good at cooking will our cyclist turn out to be?

They're so slippery.

It's hot!

OK. I hope that's good.

So now, I'm just gonna wait for them to cook.

Looking good, looking good!

Ready to eat.

Itadakimasu!

OK, this is the fish.

Oh, it's good!

Can you see that?

This "selfie lunch" turned out pretty well!

Next, Michael visits another place he's never been to before: Manazuru, a town next to Odawara.

Ah, awesome!

So beautiful!

Yeah, I really like the atmosphere of this little village here.

Very relaxing.

Dried fish shop.

Dried fish, a Manazuru specialty, catches his attention.

Freshly caught fish are salted and dried in the sun.

I was just riding by and saw your lovely shop.

What's good about Manazuru?

Life is nice and slow here.

I like this town so much, I come
and help here on my day off from work.

The population of Manazuru is about 7,000.

More and more people are moving to this town, attracted to its traditional atmosphere.

Wow.

This old growth forest really has amazing energy.

So this is the way to the mikan farm.

It's a farm specializing in mikan, a kind of citrus fruit.

Let me show you around the farm.

This is farmer Matsumoto Shigeru.

On his five hectares, he has 5,000 mikan trees.

I love mikan.

A wonderful Japanese fruit.

Sea breezes and the sunlight reflected off the ocean give these fruits a special sweetness.

The ones more exposed to the wind get
a little bruised, but that makes them tastier.

Am I doing it right?

Yes. You don't have to cut so close to the fruit.

At this farm, you can try picking mikan yourself.

Very sweet.

We use as little chemicals and
pesticide as we can on our farm.

Partly because our home is right in the field here.

And to grow our mikans as naturally as possible.

- You can't make an enemy of nature, right?
- True. That's a fact.

Matsumoto takes Michael to see a special corner of the orchard.

- These are your family graves?
- Yes.

This is the resting place of his ancestors.

The Matsumoto family have been mikan farmers here for around 130 years, passing the tradition from generation to generation.

A third generation of families
now comes here to pick their own mikans.

You can buy mikan anywhere,
but it's something special to pick them yourself.

Eating them in sight of the sea
is why people love to come here.

You could be here hundreds of years
and never get tired of this view.

To end the ride, Michael heads to a point with a great view of Mount Fuji.

Come on Mount Fuji!

Be there when I get there.

I want to show everybody the view.

Right there.

That's the view I was looking for.

Mount Fuji.

Beautiful.

OK! 10, 9, 8....

Time for the final selfie of the ride.

I made it.

Perfect!

You don't have to go far to discover amazing places.

Why not try exploring your neighborhood by bike?