Cheers: It is Suntory Time!!

Leaving Takamatsu via ferry we arrived on the island of Shodishima.  It was scenic and enoyable though a bit longer than expected as the ferry we took landed further away than we anticipated.  Another ferry ride and we arrived in Himeji at the perfect time for dinner and the best ramen known to man kind.  

  

We camped in a wonderful park overlooking the coastline where we arrived to find all to ourselves...or so we thought.

Starting around midnight and then every hour after until dawn by raucous partying teens setting off hanabe (fireworks) and shining lights on the strange tent in their local park, we didn't exactly sleep as we would have hoped.  Never the less we started our day as positive as we could heading for the "White Crane" castle in Himeji. We only were able to see this amazing beautiful structure from the outside however due to the holiday season leading to choking crowds of sightseers, both Japanese and foreigners and 2 hour lines just to get in the building.

  As Chiara and I have realized about ourselves at this point, we really enjoy these amazing old structures but they are certainly not what is the route of our enjoyment on this journey so after walking the grounds for an hour, a few photos and a quick stop at the local udon shop, where they make the noodles by had right in front of you (YUM!) we hit the rode heading north.  

(Rolling our the udon noodles)

In front of us lay Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto.  All places Chiara was excited to see.  We hoped to get a night in a real "camground" which are surprisingly rare in Japan and can be pricey, in order to get a shower and wash some clothes.  We arrived at our intended camping destination north of Kobe around dusk only to find hordes of families camping, bbqing, and sitting amongst loads of things that they carried to the campground that, based on the small sizes oof the homes and cars, must have involved every bit of extra money and space they had, in order to celebrate the holiday.  Ugh, the same damn holiday that had been tripping us up for more than a week.  

(View from the campground)

Long story short, we were turned away...they actually turned away foreign cyclists and denied us a place to put our tent for ONE night!  Dumbfounded, we tried everything we could but only met the famed "death x" as we call it where they use their arms in form of an "X" in a way of saying "No way, not going to happpen".  Exasperated and exhausted we turned to them and simply stated (though they had no idea what we were saying), "Ok, then we will walk up the hill to the park above and camp there".  Acting like we won a small victory (which we absolutely didn't as we just wanted to shower more than anything) we trudged back up the hill and plopped down in the field for what turned out to be a restful, quiet night.

Kobe was a neat, small city witth some interesting old achitecture.  

We debated trying the very expensive Kobe beef but decided neither of us had a palate that would discern the difference so ate at a nice cafe and headed out of town.  Along the busy taffic streets we rode from Kobe to Osaka/Kyoto we met our kindred spirits (in reverse) David and Eleanor.  

   

(Eleanor and David)

Easily passing an hour loitering outside the "7" and exchanging travel stories and consoling one another with tales of surviving the unrelenting heat, we had to tear ourselves away and head in ourr opposite directions. (We alll lamented the fact that we were not heading in the same direction as they seemed like a couple with which it  would be fun to tour).  

(Osaka at night)

We camped a quiet night along the river outside Osaka after passing through some very lively and colorful little neighborhoods and trying to get into a loud, smokey bar filled with the sounds of an energetic live band (but alas turrning away when we found the cover to be exhorbanent).  The next stop Kyoto... or so we thought.

A slight turn from the main route to avoid some heavy traffic and narrow shoulder led us, to my though maybe not Chiara's glee and excitement, to a little slice of heaven called the Suntory Whiskey Distillery.

  It could not have been planned better and we whiled away an hour in the tasting room and museum sipping on some of the most unique and inexpensive and downright  good single malt whiskies I have had in my amateur tasting experience.  We came to find out later that this distillery has recently won the prize for the overall best whiskey in the world beating out perrenial favorites from the US and Scotland, which was too much of a surprise after tasting these little treats.

We were a little more "relaxed" after our foray to whiskey nirvana we the rode the last leg to Kyoto, excited to meet our next warmshowers host, Ken.