Japan

I'm thankful for all those who helped put on the Oita AJET Charity Bike ride.  I'm also thankful for everyone who I was able to meet: riders, volunteers, and supporters.  They have shared some great pictures that I have posted below... Riding in Japan can be very lonely for me.  I've gotten used to riding by myself.  It's not so bad anymore, but it's always nicer to ride with others.  When I first learned about the Oita AJET Charity Bike Ride a year ago, I was interested in attending.  It would be a nice opportunity to ride new roads and meet others who are interested in cycling.  To top it all off, the monies raised would be going to a good cause. I signed up for the 2016 bike ride and May 28 quickly approached.  While it had been hot and sunny everyday for the previous week or two, the weather forecast predicted rain over the weekend.  Lots of rain. The ride took place in the Usa and Nakatsu areas of Oita Prefecture.  We gathered at Usa Shrine to

May 5, 2016 We aimed to wake up at 5am to catch the sunrise.  That didn't happen.  Erik was sick. Although we can't confirm, it's likely that he got sick from the unknown fruit that we had eaten on the previous day.  We figured if he got a bit more of rest then hopefully we could begin our day a little later than we had originally intended to. Nope.  Erik was sick. It was unfortunate of course, but at this point, it couldn't be helped.  So I began my day solo.  I had breakfast and was really disappointed by the assortment of foods.  I think too, by this point, I was becoming tired of eating Chinese food for breakfast every morning.  Although it's tasty, it's perhaps not the best food selection in terms of health to begin your day with. I walked over to the rental store and rented another moped for the day.  When I first took off, something didn't feel right.  There seemed to be much less power in this moped than the previous days one, but the battery

May 3, 2016 Today was going to be an interesting day as we just had to kill time before our night bus to Bagan at 8:00pm.  We were a little uncertain about how to plan our day.  As Yangon's temperatures were uncomfortably over 100 F, we didn't want to be too sweaty and sticky on the bus.  We tried to be a bit aware of that when planning our day, but in the end, it wouldn't matter as standing outside for 10 seconds is enough to make you sweat. On this morning we didn't go to the gym.  Erik went for a walk along the train tracks and I stayed in packing my things.  It was our last day of breakfast at the hotel and the menu did shuffle a bit again, but it was more or less the same sort of food.  Our hotel offered a shuttle service to the Bogyoke Aung San Market (The market we intended to visit on the first day), so we utilized this service and began our day once again at 11:00am.  The shuttle was quick and before we knew it, we were at the market. I wasn't looking