Bags are almost packed!

Good news!


We are getting there!

It was about time, we leave in 4 days :)
Yumi has packed her back and it's quite....er.... empty. We can't weight her backpack, but I'd say it's about 10kg.

 Watch this space, it's worth it! :)

Wanna know what's inside? Click here!
 If you think we've forgotten something, let us know and email us: yumiandthomas@gmail.com



As there is more air than stuff in our bags, we've decided to take shower gel (rather than buying it there, that is. We had planned to take showers) and other bits and pieces I can't think of now.

I'll take my favourite pair of trousers but I honestly don't think they'll survive January. I guess I'll have to replace them with some "Made In Argetina".

We've also packed a box which will be sent to Tokyo by Nico after we leave. Inside are our Bicycle essentials: clothes, trainers, helmets, horn (a really fun one bought by Santa Cécé, you'll find out more in September, hehe), gloves, tent, shirts, bicycle lights and high visibility jackets. It was worth doing it as it costs much less to send all this to Tokyo rather than buying new equipment once we get there. It will also save us some precious time :)

Challenge 2.0!

If you've read us yesterday, you'll know that we want to do our 1,000 push ups in Jan.

I made a huge error though. I discussed that with my step dad Didier, who said he'd join our challenge but would like to add 3,000 abs to it. "Sure!" said Yumi. "Doh"! said Thomas.

Anyway, it's more of a mental challenge so anybody can test themself and do it, so feel free to join our January Challenge. :)

Remember, it's 1,000 push ups and 3,000 abs (any type of abs you can think of) before the 1st of Feb 2011.

Who's in?
;)

Hey!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 !
Kick ass and think positive!

Challenge!

Here we go... The year hasn't started yet that Yumi and I have decided to challenge ourselves in January. No, we won't cycle across Argentina. We've decided to do a 1,000 press ups between January 1st, 2011 and 31st January 2011 .

It comes from a discussion Luke and Matt were having in the office and I mentioned it to Yumi later on that day. As a joke. I couldn't believe she was all serious about it and said "ok".

"Oh crap" I thought, "what did I get myself into?"

I hate push ups. Gimme abs or squats but no push ups!

The hardest about this challenge is that it doesn't seem to be that hard: We "only" have to do 35 press ups a day. Yeah, think about it. :)

I can hear Yumi in the distance "we start tomorrow".

Oh boy...

Cycling across Japan - From Soya to Sata

As you know by now, Yumi and I will cycle from the Northern most to the Southern most tip of Japan.

What is it going to be like? To be honest, I don't know.

What I know is that it's going to be about 3,700 km long. That's about 2,500 miles, but even these numbers don't really talk to me, so I did a bit of research:

3,700 kilometers is the equivalent of:

= Madrid (Spain) to Helsinki (Finland)

= New York to Las Vegas

= John O'Groats to Lands End, a tiny bit less than 3 times
= Paris to Toulouse, times 6
= A lot

Japan's countryside is said to be breathtaking, (which is probably because of the mountainous terrain) and the best way to discover it was to cycle. It all started from the idea to cycle from Tokyo to Makurazaki, where Yumi's family is from, but then we asked each other the question "how many times in our lifetime will we get the chance to cycle all the way across Japan?". Now I think about it, maybe I asked myself this question. Anyway, Yumi agreed on the idea in no time.

Since we were going to start such journey, Yumi mentioned it would be good to do it for a charity, and very quickly, we decided to do it for Advance, for which she's been working over the past 6 years.

In terms of the route, we've been advised to avoid Nagano to Nagoya, as there are plenty of tunnels and it not so cyclist-friendly, so we'll probably go down the west coast of Japan before arriving in Kyoto.

That's it for now.

Ga-la-pa...What? ... Ok!

I met my friend Philippe for a drink a few days ago and got told off for going to South America but not to the Galapagos Islands. I tried to argue that time and money would make it tough to fit it in and Philippe being the fine negotiator he is, said it'd be a good and convenience place for everybody to meet up.

"Why not?" I though; so as soon as I got back home that night, I jumped on my computer and looked into how we could add this world heritage site to our already incredible journey.

I'm not sure yet how this is gonna work, but I'm sure it will. Somehow.

Whoops - we did it again

Cycling during the hottest month in Japan and crossing Mongolia when it is barely 0º was not the best idea, so after some thinking, we've thought about a new route. it's not better, it just makes more sense! I will not dare say it's "final" though..

So, for the update, it will be China, then Mongolia, then China again and Japan.

Voila.