Sayonara, Japan

On our way to Narita and feeling a little blue at the thought of leaving Japan. We have been lucky enough to spend time in Tokyo, Kyoto, Naoshima, Onomichi, biking the Shimanami Kaido, Hiroshima, and Osaka. We have biked along the islands of the Seto, hiked Mount Fuji, been to sumo and soccer and baseball games. We have feasted and enjoyed brief but lovely conversations with people. We have deeply enjoyed living in residential areas where we are among people getting their kids to school and going about their business rather than putting on a tourist show for us. If anything, we were likely the show: big, white people with weird hair and weird bikes--a fair number of schoolchildren would stop and stare, slack jawed, or try out a phrase, or just wave. We ourselves found it almost jarring to be among mostly westerners the last two days in Tokyo, staying at a hotel in Shinjuku.

And there is so much more to see and experience here!!! Skiing in Hokkaido! Exploring Ainu culture, longer bike trips, visiting islands in the far south, exploring the incredible, joyful variety of foods.... We will be back!