Three's Company

To start with we had the most enjoyable ride from Osaka to Kyoto, which was a nice change after which we visited the innsanely busy Kyoto Station and then we met up with our Warmshowers host, Ken.  Ken is the only Warmshowers host in the much-visited city of Kyoto, so needless to say he is a busy guy that has tons of cyclists staying with him.  He had a very nice small apartment that he graciously welcomed us into and gave us maps and information with which to explore this beautiful, ancient city.  Kyoto was once the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years, and it is chock-full of castles, shrines, temples, gardens, geisha, and the natural beauty of the mountains and stream that surround it.  There's too much beauty see in two lifetimes is Kyoto but we did our best to wander and were rewarded with ancient wonders, lazy rivers, good weather, and fun hosts.

             

  

Scenes from Kyoto's many sights

We camped at Ken's for a few days, and on our last evening theere we made dinner and shared with Yoko, Ken's neighbor, and Remy, a French cyclist.   Remy made  crepes for desert.  YUM!  Thank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful 3 days.  

  

Ken and Yoko

With Remy, who is doing a world tour by bike

We decided to head in a southeast direction along the coast to yet another ferry.  Along the way we experienced some amazing views, mildly treacherous, busy, and narrow roads and more torential rains but luckily they lasted for just one night.  The heat and humidity have begun to wane so we could finally enjoy the scenery ,stopping for photos and not feel like the flesh was melting from our backs.  We had two very nice camping nights and then found our way into Toyohashi where we met our next Warmshowers host Aaron (or A-Aron for all your Key and Peele fans) a Spaniard living and working in Japan, his 6 year old son, and his amazingly welcoming and generous landlords.  By Japanese standards Aaron lives in an extraordinarally large apartment with a great view. We sat out each of two nights drinking beer, whiskey and sochu with him and his landlords talking about everything and nothing while eating little treats of nuts, cheeses, octopus, and ham.  It was truly an international experience.  We are very greatlful to Aaron for welcoming us so openly to his home and feeding us amazing food.  His hosting is well worth going a bit off the usual cycle touring route in Japan for all those looking for experience rather than just seeing the sites.  

     

A-aron, his fun 6 year-old, Augie-son and his wife (probably spelled wrong).  Augie-son had a huge antenna on the top of the building and he was in radio contact with people around the world, even a Pole living in North Korea.  Crazy.

We have also been lucky enough to meet someone that knows a bit about what to see and how best to see it...that meaning a gorgeous train ride north from Toyohashi into the Nagano prefecture and the southern part of the Japanese Alps.  This was only our second foray into train travel and was one of the best decisions we made based on our situation.  We had only about a week left in Japan and were hoping to see something other than busy coastline as we headed into Tokyo.  This afforded us the opportunity to ride in comfort up into the beautiful countryside and then ride our way out of the mountains back to the coast and our last Japanese hosts prior to finishing the trip in Tokyo.