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.

    

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.  

Perfect Strangers

One month in the books and we are still finding a way to get along...and at times even thrive, on this journey of ours.  

Not that there have not been a few bumps, in the road, on our bodies, on the bikes, pretty much wherever they could be honestly, but we are taking them as they come and building on our missteps.  We will pretty much be invincible by the time this is done...or not, but either way there will be some great stories.  Now for today's  adventure...

We road in from Imibari where we spent a night with a nice Japanese woman, Neo, and her husband in their small, traditional home.  She fed us a nice meal in the morrning and we once again braved the blazing heat heading up the coast.  

The riding was mostly city other than one beautiful hill where we stopped to take in the view.  Stopping regularly for snacks, water, A/C'd stores, and the like we made it to our destination.  We spent  two, nice air-conditioned nights in a hostel/hotel in the quaint port city of Takamatsu. The nights indoors are so replenishing on one's soul (it may sound dramatic but words never have felt so true).  We had our first taste of a local favorite, tako-yaki, a little ball of cooked dough with octopus inside, which is delicious and mostly sat around and enjoyed not doing anything in particular.  It is nice to be off the bikes and walking around the towns.  This one in particular has a wonderful outdoor covered shopping region that covers a good quarter of the city with food, restaurants, shops, and lots of people watching. 

 We continued on by boarding  a series of ferries to cross the inland sea, as they call it, to Himeji to continue our journey up the undulating, lush landscape of Japan.