How much I eat to cycle across Japan! (it’s a LOT…)

How much I eat to cycle across Japan! (it’s a LOT…)

This is how much I have to eat in a day to cycle a 100 kilometers across Japan. The plan for today is to tackle about 60 miles from Shiraakawa to Kitakata. So to fuel up for today’s journey, I rolled straight over to Denny’s for some breakfast. Last time I came here, I had the worst pancake experience of my life. So I wanted to run it back. In Japan, they had things like a self-service drink bar, a pretty fat menu, and also tablets for placing your order. So, I went with this kind of nutty spread that was packing both French toast and pancakes, a hamburger log, avocado, cheese fries, bacon, and an egg. The diversity here kind of had me feeling like I was ranking death row meals again. But I will say, despite all the food being covered in cheese sauce, it was pretty solid. And the pancakes definitely redeem themselves. As I got moving, the morning of riding packs mostly quiet winding highways through a bunch of small rural towns and then a mildly heinous bit of climbing into the mountains. The forecast was supposed to be solid until I got absolutely bodys slammed by a rainstorm and shared a brief moment of misery with my brother in suffering. So to warm back up after being soaked to the bone, I found this little house in a small farm town, to grab some grub. Inside, it was just one kind old lady holding down the fort solo, and she whipped me up this absolutely insane spread of this crispy, tangy sauce cutlet, which is the area’s local specialty, and also some miso soup, rice, and about seven other sides. On its own, the meal was electric. But given the fact that I was starving and cold to begin with, all the produce was fresh, and each dish was homemade, this easily entered the satisfying meal hall of fame. She even gave me a free cup of iced coffee to aid me in my journey. Then, I made my final push through a little bit more rolling farmland with some mountains that I’d be facing soon on the horizon before finally rolling into the legendary ramen city of Kitakata. Tonight, I’m staying in a guest house. So, after chatting with some local kids, I headed inside to my room, which ran me for about 50 bucks a night. Then after washing up in their public bath, I went to go grab my first ever bowl of Kitakata ramen, some fried rice, and guoza. The ramen comes generously dressed up with strips of roast pork and has this really nice and light broth that clings right onto the bouncy and curly noodles. See you guys tomorrow.

This is everything I eat in a day on my bikepacking trip across Japan! Today, we travelled from Shirakawa to Kitakata!

#foodie #shorts #japan #japanesefood #whatieatinaday #bikepacking #shirakawa #kitakata