The Shimanami Kaido is a cycling route between Onomichi (Hiroshima) and Imabari (Ehime) that crosses many islands and bridges. For a long time, I had wanted to cycle down it. I once went across the islands by car, but I had heard that cycling is the best way to experience it. I had plans to cycle it last year, but I had to cancel them. This year, I finally got the chance to cycle across the islands during the golden week break.

The night before, we stayed in Onomichi so we could get up early the next day. We took a boat to the first island called Mukaishima where the rental cycles were. To make the uphill climbs easier we got electric bikes. We set off just after 8am, the first goal was to cross the first bridge and get to Innoshima. All we had to do was follow a blue line on the side of the streets and roads that leads all the way from Onomichi to Imabari. The roads off the route are not as easy to cycle on, so it is recommended that you follow it. On the first two islands we mostly just enjoyed the scenery around us, and thankfully the weather was perfect on that day. Clear blue skies, slightly warm but with a nice breeze. It was ideal.

The next island was the biggest and most eventful of the journey. It is called Ikuchijima. Some people take a boat and set this island as their stating point. Ikuchijima has a lot of shops and places to eat. Soon after reaching the island, we first went to a local gelato shop called Doruche. I had some Setouchi lemon gelato there as it is still on the Hiroshima side, so there are lots of lemon-flavored things to enjoy.  As we continued across the island we reached the main central area. One of the big tourist attractions there is the temple Kousanji. One of the reasons it is popular is because the temple grounds are used like an art museum. There are a lot of unique designs, architecture, statues and things to see there. One area that is popular is a garden made of marble. Many people like to take pictures there. There is also a cave under the temple with thousands of statues. After Kousanji we decided to get lunch. We went to a restaurant next to the port that specializes in lemon dishes. I had a lemon-chicken rice bowl, it was great. Before continuing our cycling, we also got some lemonade nearby.

At this point it was already 2pm and we still had over 35km to cycle. We had to pick up the pace. But this was also when some of the riding pain started. I knew before that the bike seat would start to hurt, but I had no choice but to endure. From this point we focused mainly on riding. We still made several small rest stops on the Ehime side, as there were some nice shops and places to grab something to eat or drink. The last island, Oshima is known for having a big hill climb. Some people say it is better to start from Imabari so you can get the big hill done early. Thankfully we had electric bikes, and it made the climb not as difficult as I expected. After the large hill, there was still the final bridge to cross which took over 30 minutes! All we had left to do was to ride to Imabari station while the sun was setting. We arrived around 6pm, 10 hours after we began our journey.

Later that night, we got on train and went to Matsuyama. I had never been there before, so I wanted to go. We were exhausted from the bike ride but thankfully, we were able to go to Dogo Hot Spring and relax. It was a great way to end a fantastic day. I talked to a lot of NEO students last week about the Shimanami Kaido. A lot said they had been there, but none said they had cycled it. I think if you have the chance, it is an amazing experience that you should not miss!

For most people in Japan, Golden Week (GW) was from Wednesday, April 29th to Wednesday, May 6th. For us, it was from May 3rd to May 11th, so we just got back to work today.

I originally had plans to go hiking in Fukui Prefecture, but my friend got hit by a car a few weeks ago when he was on his bicycle and sprained his foot pretty badly, so the plan got derailed. Everything in Japan is booked up months ahead of GW, so just about our only option was camping.

Even almost all campgrounds are booked full, so the only option available to us was also the closest, Kokochi Camping Ground

(虎口池キャンプ場) about 25 minutes south of my house. Why was it not booked up, Dave? Well, the 3 main reasons are no electricity, no water, and some people say it is haunted. However, it is also free, unstaffed and sparsely booked, so it was perfect for us.

My friend Chris (also a hiking trip refugee) came over from Hiroshima and we camped out for 2 nights.

Day 1 was rainy, but luckily the rain held off long enough that we could set everything up before it started. The day started out well, with a dead battery in my car, but worse things happened to car last week (pay attention, this is called foreshadowing). My friends John and Eri-sensei stopped by with their dogs to hang out a little bit before the rain. It was too wet for a campfire, so we contented ourselves to playing some board games in our dome screen tent. As we went to bed, the rain seemed to be dying down, which was good because last year our big tarp collapsed in the middle of the night due to water pooling in it. We called it "the tarpocolypse".

This year we got "the domeocolypse". All day, there was rain but absolutely zero wind. Around 1:30 or so, I heard some cars pulling out of the camping area and I noticed it was very windy. I had a gut feeling something was strange, so I got out of the tent with my headlight and saw that our screened in dome tent was gone! Then I found it about 50 feet away slung over my car. The straps along the bottom had caught on my roof rack, or that sucker may have blown out over the Seto Inland Sea. I quickly pulled it back to our site and hammered the stakes down. I knew the metal poles had messed up my car, but I didn't see how badly until the morning. There are not giant scratch marks all over my hood.

Yesterday, I tried to polish them out with a fairly aggressive polishing compound and it make no change at all, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

The rest of the camping was good weather and sunny. Ayumi came out for a few hours on the second day, but she didn't want to stay overnight due to the pit toilet situation.

I mostly relaxed the rest of the vacation. On Thursday, I went to BJJ practice and replaced the battery in my car. The boys had school on Thursday and Friday. Tatsuki had his first high school kendo tournament on Saturday. His team won their first round match, but went down in the second round. Tatsuki won one and had a draw, so that was a pretty good result for his first two matches at that level. I hosted some friends for a game of Dungeons & Dragons on Saturday. It was my first time to be the full time Dungeon Master, and I think it went pretty smoothly and people had fun. As with 99% of D&D games, it all took longer than anticipated at the outset.

Sunday the boys and I went to Kajukenbo practice. And of course, it was Mother's Day, and the boys made some sweet cards for their mommy. Ayumi was suitably moved.

Recently, one of our students at NEO told me a story about Momotaro.

It wasn’t the usual tale with the ogre and the heroic pets – we all know that one already. This story is a tragedy: our hero has been kidnapped!

Apparently, there’s a statue of the legendary peach boy in each of Okayama’s sister cities around the world, as far-ranging as Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Luoyang (China), and San José (USA). The one in San José has recently gone missing.

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence in the US. These statues are made of valuable copper, making them a target for some criminals. So someone cut Momotaro off at the ankles – along with his dog, monkey, and pheasant – and carried them all off.

The statues are meant to be a symbol of friendship between Okayama and its international partners, and as such, the missing one will be replaced. There’s currently a fundraising campaign, inspired by a group of Okayama junior high school students who visited San José, to help turn this tragedy around.

You’ll find more information about the theft and the campaign here: https://camp-fire.jp

Also, if you’re curious about our other sister cities around the world, there will be a display in the new City Hall opening later this year.

Several years ago a new music festival started in Okayama called Eight Ball. It is held at Convex Okayama every year at the end of March. It is mainly a rock festival, and several famous Japanese bands and artists have attended the event. I had been interested in it for several years, but this year I finally went for the first time.

I was little unsure about the venue. I had been to Convex Okayama for a different event, and it was not so big. I could not imagine how they were going to hold a music festival there, not to mention it had three stages. Surprisingly, it was well put together. The main stage was inside the biggest hall, and they had one other inside stage using a different hall of the venue. The last stage was outside and was right next to the food stalls. It was easy to get something to eat while enjoying some music outside.

The main reason I went to the festival was to see the bands Man with a Mission and Frederic. But I also wanted to see 10-Feet and Kitani Tatsuya. They mostly played their well-known songs, but they were still really entertaining to watch. Some of the fans, especially the ones in the front were a little crazy. There was a lot of crowd surfing.

Music festivals are also a great chance to discover new musicians that you may have never heard of or not listened to much. There was a younger band I recently heard about called Retroriron who I also got to enjoy at the event. And there is a comedy band from Shikoku called Su-xing-cyu who often like to attend music festivals and pull in large crowds. They like to wear strange costumes, do quizzes during songs and many other crazy things. They were very funny.

I was surprised by how good Eight Ball festival was. I hope I will have the chance to go again in the future.

Last Sunday, NEO had its annual cherry blossom viewing party along the Asahi River.

Dave-sensei went there at 6:30am to put down the groundsheet and save a space for the party.

It rained all day Saturday, so the ground was a little wet, but Sunday was a hot and sunny day, so it wasn’t a problem.

It was very crowded along the river on Sunday because the weather was good and many people changed their plans from Saturday to Sunday.

The party was from 11:30am until around 7:00pm.

Many people came and went at different times all day long.

We were able to see some former NEO students as well.

One student is now living in Australia but was back in Okayama to visit her family.

Other than NEO students and staff, there were a lot of the staff’s friends at the party.

There were also a lot of friends of friends there, so it was an excellent chance to meet new and interesting people.

Of course, a lot of Japanese people were enjoying the flowers and the weather, but there were also people from all around the world.

We talked to people from Chile, Columbia, Spain, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.