I had a Burnout Syndrome… I finally got up myself to write about my bike journey to Europe. Sorry,this is kind of old stuff and already passed a few months but I still want to post & share this now otherwise I never will. Europe just melted my heart too bad XD I got a burnout…
I love traveling with my bicycle. I took my coffee bike and went to Leeds and Budapest in May. This was my 1st time being to Europe and there were some big reasons I went there.
♥Reason 1: Meeting my best friend Monika in Leeds. It’s been years to see her; I first met her in Kyoto, Japan and became best friend through the bicycle.
Here are some photos I developed of my trip to Leeds. I was there for only 3 days but had a good time to ride around the city with some friends. Thanks to Monika + Marek and fixed gear leeds crew!
♥Reason 2: Meeting Linda - Candy Cranks author from Budapest. Wowww! Candy Cranks is the great tool to make cool bike friends all over the globe!! I’d never met Linda but we are now really good friends!! Viva Candy Cranks!!
Thanks a lot to Linda to make my trip so much fun, helped me out, put me up and showe me an awesome time!! Hungarian people are so nice and kind. I love Budapest!! (and Gosser Lemon beer!)
♥Reason 3: ECMC (European Cycle Messenger Championships) in Budapest. I am not a messenger but I like to hangout with them and watching the messenger race. They are pretty tough and hardcore cyclist. I love their life style and crazy parties.
Hi cheeeeez! (Japanese photo peace sign, yaaay! :D)
♥Reason 4: CharRie’s Café (my bike café).
I brought my original coffee beans and all my coffee bike stuff in huge freight baggage backpack from Japan. (It was super heavy to bring them all! :() I was a bit nervous to doing my coffee bike at ECMC for 3 days by myself because I had no friend, only a few Japanese around this event. I knew only Linda and Sinya (organizer of ECMC) and I wasn’t sure if European would love my Japanese coffee… but I had a confidence to make people to love my coffee so Linda was in love♥ yay!
… was sexy ; ) ♥Thanks everyone!
Many people stopped by my bike café, having my coffee and happy talks…♥ It inspired me a lot!! I didn’t charge for my coffee but everyone tipped me good. Thank you!
♥Reason 5: Cheering my messenger friend Izuru from Naogya. He came with his wife and 2 years old son. It was their late honeymoon as they said. Sweet♥
♥Reason 6: Sightseeing in Budapest. We had a group riding all day long. Riding and hanging out the city by bicycle is the best way to see, feel and smell the local. Too many beautiful castles in Budapest!! I felt like I was in Disneyland!
LANGOS tastes sooo good! (especially when you get drunk at midnight like mexican burrito)
Needless to say, traveling with a bike and meeting some bike friends across the ocean are always great. Even if we don’t see each other, we can still have a good friendship through the bicycle. Bicycle unites people all over the world.
It took a lot of courage for me to do my coffee bike in my 1st time being in Europe and 1st time doing my coffee bike out of Japan. The bigger try is, the more worth it has.
Thanks Meg! Viva Candy Cranks! can’t wait to see this chainring on my bikkkke!
Circlesdid great job! The frame is all hand painted by Shinya (owner of Circles), I asked him very complicated flower patterns. Shinyadid amazing job on hand paintwork and matching all parts to be dressed up. He shows his excellent taste in customized bike from his experience of learning and working at fashion industry for many years.
This is my 1st new customized bike♥ My 1st bike is very old NISHIKI from San Diego and I didn’t expect that I was going to be a pedal freak until I met Circles bike shop in Nagoya. Cirlces helps to define what cycling is and leading the way in showing people how to have fun on two wheels and find on your way to open up of new world. Shinya said that “You can do anything on your bike.” That’s true. So I do my Coffee bike there.
So, my next target is to win and be on the podium at the Bang King track race coming up in August this summer!
I met my best friend Nikon sometimes around 2008, I started shooting the photos of girls on bikes just for fun as my self satisfaction, didn’t know about flickr and any bike websites. One day, I was in a street Keirin race event “Bank-King” sponsored by Circles in Nagoya, I met Yohei, the photographer/editor of a magazine, he said “where can I find your photos you’ve taken?” and I was like “NO WHERE!” then he told me about flickr and I started meeting many people who is fascinating to me all over the world. The bikes and photos unite people and they inspire me a lot.
So, now I’m able to share of my photos through websites like Candy Cranks, Flickr and anywhere. And yeah, I’m going to be bold to say, I’m in a magazine! It’s COG, yay! I would say COG is more like photographic collection, not like magazine, all photos are very artistic and high quality. I wrote the article about the back stage of Love Wheels Nagoya Calendar and some of my photos are in a page of the all girl’s alleycat race, THE NADESHIKO CUP (CMWC Tokyo.) It reminds me the greatest time of CMWC 2009 in Tokyo.
Check out the newest issue vol.8 of COG.
Featured stories are Women’s Keirin History/ les six jours de Grenoble/ Empire/ Alex Singer/ Street Gallery, Toronto/ Ed Wonka LaForte/ Christina Peck/ Las Vegas/ 700 CMX Evolution/ CMWC Tokyo/ Los Angeles/ more…
Many thanks to my friend Yohei and all editor of the wonderful magazine COG!
On May 2nd and 3rd, we had the Love Wheels Nagoya Calendar Girls Ride to Kyoto city from Nagoya. It’s only 45 minutes on the Bullet train, but we rode 180km for 15 hours in one day. We got started pretty early 5:00am, expected to get into trouble in case. We’ve got road bike, MTB, single-speed, city-bike and I was the only one got on a fixed gear bike!:D We all girls were not experts in long distance ride and had no idea what awaited us…
We got a special guest to join this ride, Jess from Candy Cranks author in Tokyo! We were getting pumped at Japanese bar for the long distance ride next day.
Started 5:00am. We got 8 girls, 2 body gurards and 3 Circles crew (supported us until their bike shop opens at noon.)
Got lost… (searching the route on the i-phone & map)
Jess on the GPS.
26 km more to Kyoto city…
Arrived guest house at 9:00pm
Kampaaaaaai★ This is the greatest time at the long ride:)
I am so HAPPY that we all made it 180 km riding with no injury!! One of the girls were almost retired. There were so many dramas we made. It was great to see the Love Wheel Nagoya Calendar Girls are patient and tough.
This is the longest riding in one day. I am glad that I made it with my fixed gear so I feel like I can go anywhere I want from now on, but I still have sore my legs now…
FSCX (Free Style Cyclo Xross) is held in March sponsored by Circles in Nagoya. I feel like spring has come here.
We’re getting more girl riders challenging the race this year, yaaay!:D These girls are not real racers, thats amazing to see them getting sloppy, riding on ditches, steep slopes, deep mud and carring their bike with pretty muddy faces. It was pouring rain the night before race, some places got very muddy and slippy, we all could expect some funny things would happen in this race.
Nagoya girls organized the NUTS! monthly alley cat race this time. We made check point easier than usual for any girls can win and hid some funny & weird questions related to LOVE. (e.g. What would you say when you propose to your partner? / What’s the name of love hotel in your sight?)
Last check point: You must put make-up on lipstick & cheeks and make kiss-mark with your name on it.
THE BICYCLE made by dude’s kisses…xoxoxoxoxo
*The Best Kissers*
The cafe was covered by hand made cookies and COG chocolate.
After the race, NUTS! girls wore mama’s aprons themed like a sweet home and had chocolate party at local cafe in Nagoya. KAz (Miss February: Love Wheels Calendar) is very crazy for chocolate, she just wanted to play with chocolate and bicycle together. This is it.
Chocolate track stand contest: Each girl took turns for hanging a chocolate bar for a guy on track stand to eat it all.
I always wished to make people happy with my hand brewed coffee on bike. My dream has come true on Valentine’s Day!
Charinco (Bicycle) + Rie = CharRie’s
HAHA… I’ve been studying hand brewed coffee techniques at a local café and tought it would be cool to serve to my friends and customers at Circles which is my favorite bike shop in Nagoya and has a big influence on my life. The owner of Circles let me use a little space for setting up my bike café as a Valentine’s special event. I always make miracles at Circles so I did it! I sold out 100 cups of coffee at the 1st day, yaaaaay!
Rum Ball & Gateau Chocolat made by Izumi & Rie
*Thank you for coming*
￥300 with chocolate treats (￥200 for a Refill)
Hand made milk caps.
Wrapping cube sugar.
CharRie's bike café totally matching the colors with Circles.
Circles offered me to do this every Sunday starting on March 7th *Thank You*. I have a crazy friend “Crankee“, he invented his BBQ SURLY, we will put our bike kitchen toghether next time!
I have a confidence with my coffee, it is actually soo GOOD!! Please stop by Circles in Nagoya and say hello to my coffee bike when you ever get a chance to visit Japan.
Thanks a lot to Circles and everyone who stopped by and had my coffee, to all my great friends who supported to put me up and had awesome happy time together.
I’ve been lazy and just finished sorting out my great memories of bike trip to Australia. I miss the weather back thereee, it is snowing here in Nagoya today, awwwww! so I would like to share some pics of my holidays to keep warm here like the sumer time…
Riding in Melbourne is great. It’s really flat and everything is close together so it is easy to ride around.
I went to see my friends there. I met these lovely messengers at CMWC Tokyo.
The funniest guys in Melbourne! Gotta see Brian & Lane if you are ever around there. They know how to throw a party. It is really great to have cool friends all over the world.
Melbourne was over 37℃, I was just about sit down in the shade of a tree… then 2 guys on bikes came up and said “Are you Brian’s friend?” I was like “Yeees…” Mmmm, I recognized him by his dread locks hair from CMWC tokyo. We didn’t know each other, he is from Dublin and Im from Nagoya but we start getting some drinks and became friends. It was just an accident that we met in Melbourne but it happens when you ride a bicycle!
For New Years Party…
Swimming in the living room!?
OMG these guys were so hilarious! They have a swimming pool in the living room, RAD!!!
Ausie BBQ
Exploring the city...
Lots of good coffee shops in Fitzroy
NUTS! tee & Love Wheels Nagoya Calendar. *Thank you*
Thanks a lot to everyone who made my trip so much fun, to all the great people I met who helped me out, put me up and showed me an awesome time. All the things made me want to move into Australia more. Im definitely coming back soon. See ya!
Hello mate! I went to travel around Sydney & Melbourne with my best friend Nikon & NISHIKI for my holidays. It is summer time there, Gotta Go now!
My biggest reason to come out to Sydney was…
Meg and Tarn
“MEET THE MEG!”
Tarn, Rie and Meg
As you can expect through the Candy Cranks blog, Meg is one of the greatest and nicest people you ever meet! I met Meg at CMWC Tokyo and became great friends. I didn’t know anyone in Sydney but thanks Meg! Candy Cranks screwed up my courage to make a lot of new friends in Sydney and all over the globe!
Meg and her partner are so kind and took me a lot of cool places. They’ve got their own work space for bikes hidden the back stage of the Sydney Theater Company, looks soo sick! I was riding my bike on the stage as an actress in front of NO audience, hehe… (Rie in Sydney by Meg)
Cross Sydney Harbor Bridge by bike
on Sydney Harbor Bridge
Emily and Rie
★Emily's Candy Cranks★
Sydney Sunday Nite Crew
Group Riding
Emily & J just found this warehouse, so D O P E...
Sydney Sunday Nite Crew
Great to see messengers working in the city!
Ausie burger is HUGE!!
I like riding in the city to explore bikes and coffee. It is the best way to feel the local culture, I think★
Bicycle leads me to meet great people. I like Japanese proverb;
一期一会(Ichigo-Ichie)： Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur.
I was so impressed that people in Australia are so nice and friendly. Also Wine, Beer and Coffee are absolutely my type of taste. I will definitely move in this year!
Thanks to Meg, Tarn, Emily, J, Sydney Sunday Crew and messengers. It was great to meet u all! Awesome time. Cheers Sydney!
Viva Candy Cranks! I can’t thank you enough for sharing this. I have received lots of wonderful comments through this awesome blog. It is amazing and impressive! I hope everyone of you enjoy our 1st virgin stage here…
Konnichiwa! I’m a leader of Gacharinco! - the 1st fixed gear bicycle dance team in Japan. We just wanted to have fun with dancing and bicycle together!
Music + Bikes + Dancing = three of my favorite things!
Sydney | London | New York | Tokyo | Berlin | Los Angeles | Milano | Boston | Dublin | Vancouver | Amsterdam | Paris | San Francisco | Zurich | Nagoya | Singapore | Nashville | Honolulu | Shanghai | Toronto | Salt Lake City | Houston | Portland | Glasgow | Kansas | Budapest | Atlanta | Jakarta | Chicago | Seattle | Memphis
