One of the challenges of writing this blog has been coming
up with new superlatives to describe the wonders that we've been seeing and
experiencing; we've run out of them so we'll have to start reusing them. Before
arriving in Japan, we had no idea how beautiful it is. Today's ride was along
the spectacular northern coast of Kyushu. The coastline was rocky and rugged in
some places, and had gorgeous beaches in others.
One of the highlights of the ride was a stretch of beaches
with large breaking waves that drew large numbers of surfers. We stopped for a
break at one surfing site and chatted with a surfer who is originally from
Edmonton, Canada, and has lived in nearby Fukuoka for the past 14 years. In
addition to surfing, he's an avid road biker and mountain biker, and he raved
about how great this area is for him to engage in all of these activities.
Our destination today was Fukuoka, a city with a population
of 1.5 million. It was full of pedestrians, cyclists, and cars, and modern
gleaming buildings were everywhere. We weren't surprised to learn that it was
named by Newsweek as one of the “Ten Most Dynamic Cities” in the world in 2006,
and was ranked as the 16th most livable city in the world by Monocle magazine
in 2011. What did surprise us is how little known the city is (at least by us,
who had never heard of Fukuoka before planning this trip). Perhaps it's because
the name of the city can't be mentioned in polite company :)
Here are some images from our ride today (note that the reason most of the pictures on this blog show Carol's backside is that they're taken by Peter while biking, with one hand on the handlebar and the other hand snapping photos)
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| One of the surfing sites we passed |
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| A surfers' hangout |
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| Our view of Fukuoka as we biked into the city |
