Tokyo

All photos by the Goodwin Project

We were taken by our host to her friends house who does tea ceremonies. This was a great experience to be had. Drinking macha, a well ground green tea and afterward playing an old game who princesses played. Gillian and I won so we got a free ice cream later that day.

Stone path in a rock garden we visited in Kyoto. Zen gardens were really amazing here. Hundreds of years in the making!

Leaving a hostel in Kyoto. We just had to shoot this shot.

A place in Japan called Nara is known for a mass amount of dear spread throughout the city. These deer are considered divine and sacred. With that thought in mind the first deer we saw we tried to approach and pet when all a sudden in made a fart sound and stomped on Gillian's foot. This is another deer much nicer who just wanted a little bite.

A happy cool morning coming down from the top of these beautiful mountains in the  Kyushu area. After riding for about 10 hours the day before coming down is always a pleasure.

Fukuchiama, Kyoto Prefecture

Shiso

 delicious Shiso juice

We are now staying with a host in the hilly village of fukuchiyama (north of Kyoto).  Sayaka (our host) decided to move to the countryside to escape the busy city of Tokyo.  She has restored this traditional Japanese house and now runs a home stay.  We are helping make a foundation to restore a guest room.
Working on these farms and meeting new people have definitely been the highlight of this trip.  Japan  has the friendliest people I have ever met.

Aso

Volcano in Kumamoto

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Camping near Iwakuni in a dinosaur park. Strange little park at the very top of a mountain. Nobody in sight, just about 10 life size dinosaurs. This one I think is called the Markomegasoreass.

Kumamoto
The mountains are beautiful coming down but oh my is it a walk up!

This couple saw us camping one night and asked us to their house for coffee the next morning.  They had just finished building this log cabin.

Our host family's house in Kumamoto.

A traditional Japanese house which had been restored by Jiro (our host). Jiro and his family practiced permaculture and had many ideas to build a house the right way. We heated our baths and coffee with wood and made dinners over a fire place too. He said a typical suburb house was just a box with life support systems.

Nago

Other cyclists we met on the ferry from China to Japan.
We had a great time talking with them and asking lots of tips about traveling by bike.
We parted ways in Osaka, they headed up to Hokkaido where the weather is cool and the hills are numerous.

camping in Japan

ferry to Japan

Shanghai

We woke up at 4:30am thinking we could get everything packed on our bikes and head out of Wuxi before anyone woke up.  There were two ladies doing their exercises when we walked downstairs.  They started giving us some tips on how to pack our bikes and we gave them a handful of things that would not fit. 
We made it to Shanghai with no problems and even met this guy cooling off under a bridge.  He rode with us the rest of the way to Shanghai.

goodbyes