Hi all.
On April 10 I headed off to Kyushu, Japan’s most southern main island, for one month. I have finally sorted through the photos enough to post a few here so I'll let you know about my trip. I did not post a journal on any of the major sites but I did do a short Instagram post with a few photos every day so that friends and family could tag along, My Instagram name is cycles_for_food. If any of you would like to check it out you're welcome to have a look without clicking the follow button.
How was the trip? In a word, fantastic. The people were as gracious as ever. In fact, on my first riding day, it was a whole 1/2 hour before I was given my first gift of an iced coffee, and I don’t think a day went by where I was not gifted something like a bottled water or tea while sitting in front of a convenience store.
Getting there was easier this time, partly because I’m getting more experienced with packing the bike, and partly from scoring a business class ticket, with a 2X32kg luggage allowance, for less than the price of economy.
The weather was much more pleasant for cycling this time around. Daytime highs were in low to mid 20s compared to 30 plus every day last time. There were more cloudy days and rain this time, but only once did I ride in torrential rain for more than half an hour, and never did it rain an entire day.
Last year I used my phone and GoogleMaps-AppleMaps for navigation. It was frustrating, to say the least. This time around I added a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt GPS, and used Komoot for routing. Let’s just say that Japan still presents a challenge to navigation programs. Or perhaps it’s just user error.
![Smiley :)](https://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
Here are some random photos showing some of the varied terrain. Next post I’ll get in to the trip itself.
1 Along the Arita river near Imari. The National Highway is across the river. The path on this side was used by local farmers and their Kei-tora (mini pick up trucks)
2 All the blind corners in Japan have these convex mirrors. They really work once you get used to them.
3 A lovely tiny road running through small villages, just 50m from the busy National Highway. It went on for many kilometers.
4 Kyushu is very mountainous, and I spent a lot of time on roads like this.