After spending more than 24 hours on a three-part plane odyssey
(Vancouver to LAX to Tokyo to Miyazaki), we reached the starting point of our
bike trip. Miyazaki is a city of 400,000 on the island of Kyushu, the most
southwesterly of Japan's four main islands. We'll be spending the first 12 days
of our month-long trip on Kyushu, before crossing over to the island of Honshu
(the large island on which Japan's major cities -- Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and
others – are located).
Today (Wednesday in Japan) was our day for getting ready
for our cycling adventure, which begins tomorrow morning. After taking a taxi
from Miyazaki airport to our hotel, we set off on a 2-mile walk to Hino Cycles,
the bike store to which we had shipped our bikes from Boston two weeks ago. Our
bikes were waiting for us and, with the help of Google Translate, we asked the
bike shop owner to do a few final tweaks to get our bikes into great shape for
our ride.
 |
| Changing money in Miyazaki |
 |
On our walk to the bike shop. It's striking how everything
is spotless and everyone is incredibly polite. |
 |
| The bike store where we retrieved our bikes |
 |
| Performing the last few tweaks on our bikes |
 |
| Cycling back to our hotel. We're getting used to riding on the left side of the road. |
 |
| Stopping on route at a "hole in the wall" for lunch, where we ate noodles mixed with who-knows-what. |
