Cycling in Japan.

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Well I’d just started the last epistle when I was interrupted, thought I was saving the file & off it went to everyone. Will try not to bore you too much with the daily details of cycling but there are a few incidents you may like to hear about. The driver who had been flown out from Lithuania found his driver’slicence was not valid here so Bill from Waiheke ( a fellow cyclist) the only person carrying an international licence agreed to take on the job for over 3 weeks. The first day the vehicle was not ready when we left Fukioka so we left laden with 4 panniers each & tent tied to the back of the bike. The cycle was meant to be about 110km but the campsite had not been confirmed so we had arranged to meet at the railway station inShimoniseki. There is a 3km tunnel to reach this town so we thought we would skip it & catch a ferry to save 30km. We were rather surprised when the ferry docked after 5 minutes & shortly after we discovered we had just arrived in the town we thought we’d left. It was 5.30pm & close to darkness so we visited the railway station but bikes are forbidden on trains unless they are boxed. The station master gave us a map & off we set again. Traffic was heavy & the 3 of us were feeling somewhat anxious. Finally arrived at the tunnel where a toll attendant leapt out of his box & proceeded to harangue us. Werealised we could not enter the tunnel as only cars & trucks were pouring in. Meanwhile another more genial attendant in uniform beckoned us to follow him & led us for 15 minutes through the streets. My first thought was he was taking us to buy masks but no! we eventually arrived at the pedestrian tunnel where many locals were out walking & jogging under the sea.

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