Monday was a multimodality travel day: a short bike ride
from Kokura to Mojico (at the northern end of the island of Kyushu), a half
mile walk with our bikes through a pedestrian tunnel connecting Kyushu with
Honshu (the main island of Japan), a short hilly ride to the train station in
the town of Shimonoseki, and a 91-mile ride on the bullet train from
Shimonoseki to Hiroshima. Figuring out how to get our bikes on the train, and
getting them there, was the by far the most difficult part. Our initial
inquiries about taking bikes on trains got the response that it was impossible to do so,
but after much researching on the internet we learned that bikes could be taken
on the bullet train if they are placed in bicycle bags. Fortunately, we found bike
bags at Nafco, a Home-Depot-like store. We needed two bags each to cover our
bikes such that no parts were showing. We arrived at the train station 20
minutes before the train departure time, took the wheels off, stuffed the bikes
in the bags, and raced down the track (as fast as we could go, lugging a bike
and two saddlebags each), making it onto the train without a second to spare.
We'll have a little time to be tourists in Hiroshima before
taking another train tomorrow, to Kobe. After that, our cycling resumes, and
we'll spend the next 14 days on a roundabout route from Kobe to Tokyo.
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| Buying bike bags |
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| The bridge from Kyushu to Honshu. Bikes are not allowed on the bridge. |
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| Entrance to the pedestrian/bike tunnel adjacent to the bridge |
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| Walking through the tunnel |
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| At the train station, carrying a bagged 25 pound bike and 25 pounds of luggage (which explains the fretful look on Carol's face) |
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| Bullet train (this picture, downloaded from the web, is exactly what our train looked like) |
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| In Hiroshima train station: the first bagels we've seen since arriving in Japan |
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| After the trauma of the day, enjoying an all-American snack at the Hiroshima train station: bagel, cinnamon bun, Coke Zero |
