Tokyo bound

It’s a short post this week. This time tomorrow Chris and I will be on a plane bound for Tokyo. And while I don’t normally like long flights, I'm looking forward to the chance to sit down and do nothing for a while.

The past month has been a flurry of busy work days, weekends in the garden and painting our new garage (yay, more space for bikes), and evenings spent catching up on household jobs and coordinating various tradespeople. Plus, of course, planning for our trip and fitting in the odd bike ride. So, I am more than ready for a break.

We’ve got three weeks in Japan. We’ll have several days being dazzled by the city lights in Tokyo and a few days to recover at Fujikawaguchiko (one of the five lake areas near Mt Fuji) before we head to Hiroshima. From there we go to Onomichi, where we join a one-week bike tour of Shikoku (the smaller of Japan’s four main islands). Then it’s several days in Kyoto to experience ‘old Japan’ and as many temples, shrines and gardens as we can cope with.

I’m looking forward to every part of our trip for different reasons but I’m expecting the bike tour to be the real highlight. As with our trip to Taiwan last year, we’ve opted for a fully inclusive tour with Grasshopper Adventures. The tour company provides bikes and helmets, organises all the meals and accommodation, and takes care of the logistics - transporting our luggage, making sure we know where to go, and dealing with any mechanical issues along the way. We just have to turn up and ride.

Over the week, we’ll cover 385 kilometres, cycling across the small islands that make up the Shimanami Kaido (the road connecting the main island of Honshu to Shikoku), through valleys, over mountains and along the Pacific coastline. Along the way, we’ll visit some of the 88 temples on Shikoku’s historic pilgrimage trail, learn all about sake, have a go making traditional washi paper, and do some kayaking. We’re also expecting to sample lots of delicious food and experience traditional ryokan accommodation and onsen bathing. It’s going to be awesome.

We’re not quite as prepared as we should be for the cycling. We’ve kept up basic fitness over the winter and the distances (40-75 kilometres most days) will be no problem. But we’ve done very little hill riding (just one tough climb in the last two months). However, there’s not much we can do about that now.

We’re also planning to ride in a few other places. For our first day in Tokyo, we’re joining a city bike tour, which will take us around many of the well-known areas (Shinjuku, Harajuku, Roppongi, Ginza and the Imperial Palace). The tour comes with a warning not to book if you’re not used to cycling in traffic, so it will be an interesting experience. Depending on how we feel, we might hire bikes in Fujikawaguchiko and Kyoto too.

I will try to do some extra posts while we are away. As usual, it will depend on time, energy and good wi-fi connections. But I am sure I can at least manage a few photos.