Kyushu - Japan

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This tour is being run by myself for CTC Holidays and Tours in England in conjunction with Cycling Japan, who are great tour organisers and local leaders. The tour is for 12 days in total and will take us right down through Kyushu, over Mt Aso and including some western island hopping before ending on the World Heritage Wilderness Island of Yakushima. Kyushu here we come.

Day 1.Kyushu.
The tour started at 11.15am with a 1 hour flight from Manchester to Schipol, Amsterdam, plus a 30 minute runway tour to the docking station. Another hour and we were off on the next 10 hour flight to Fukuoka, Japan, which when allowing for the 8 hour time advance on the UK landed at just after 8am. Having an onboard sleep is a must to avoid death by jet lag. Kenichi met us at the airport to take our bags and get us on the bus to Yufuin. After a small disappointing lunch we got out bikes ready for the hilly riding ahead. As soon as we obtained our rooms we dashed out for a quick dose of lobstering in the outdoor Onsen at 41 degrees centigrade. We had to lie down for an hour to recover before a 5 meeting for introductions and a briefing of tomorrow and the week ahead with our local guide Kenichi. The dinner was up to the usual standard of 300 courses of tasty morsels of fish, chicken, vegetables and fungi. Pity the washer up.
Ken loaded up our Garmins with the routes for the week before a long overdue bed. Arigato gozaimasu, Ken (Thank you very much).

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Photos

David at dinner time.
Yufuin

our new head bands wit names in Japanese script
Gift from Ken