During this segment we cycled for only two short days. We also enjoyed a long 5 hour ferry crossing from the island of Shikoku back to the main island of Honshũ. We finally cycled into Osaka as planned – well ahead of our scheduled flight to Italy to attend our daughter’s wedding. Many of our activities focused on grooming, last minute purchases, storage of the tandem and our luggage during our absence from Japan.

2024.05.19 – [JP] Kanonji ==> Takamatsu (47 kms | Total: 1534 kms)

We woke up to a covered sky. We had breakfast in our room before loading the tandem and leaving town. In the first half of our journey, we had a few climbs – some gradual and some not so gradual. We encountered some light rain along the way. Although our route brought us on quiet secondary roads, we often rejoined the main roads with surprisingly heavy traffic for a Sunday. We took very few rests as we were trying to get to our destination before the early afternoon rain forecast. Hence, we arrived to our hotel shortly before 12:30pm. Since we had to wait for 2+ hours for our check-in, we left our luggage at the hotel reception and went to Udon noodle restaurant for lunch. Upon returning to our hotel, we managed to get a friendly hotel receptionist to help us to reserve seats for next Tuesday ferry sailing to Kobe. We had tried to do this several times in the past few weeks but each time we attempted the online transaction, the credit card payment would be declined. After reading the fine print on the ferry’s website, we learned that only credit card issued by a local Japanese bank could be accepted. In the evening, we had dinner at a fast food restaurant chain that we had enjoyed previously in Matsuyama. Later, we stopped at a grocery store for a few snacks before returning to our room.

2024.05.20 – [JP] Takamatsu ==> Takamatsu (0 kms | Total: 1534 kms)

We showed up at 8:30am for our hotel’s complementary breakfast. The place was quite busy but we took our time to enjoy the extensive offering. By 10am, we left our hotel for some sightseeing. We walked over to “The Ritsurin Garden” where we spent a few hours strolling throughout the beautiful garden. Later, we took a local train for a few stations in order to visit the site of the former Takamatsu’s castle. After our visit, we walked back to our hotel. We rested a few hours in our room before returning for dinner at the same restaurant as yesterday. We walked some 12kms during our sightseeing day.

2024.05.21 – [JP] Takamatsu ==> Kobe (8 kms | Total: 1542 kms)

After our hotel’s breakfast, we checked out of our room at 10am and left our luggage at the reception area. We purchased some snacks for our ferry crossing from the nearby grocery store. Later, we cycled 5 kms to the ferry port. With our reservation number, we managed to purchase our passenger and bicycle tickets for the 5 hour ferry crossing to Kobe. We waited until 1:30pm to board the large ferry boat. We truly enjoyed the relaxing time on the ferry. We arrived at the port just before sunset. After rolling off the ferry, we quickly and cautiously rode to a hair studio we had identified using Google Maps. Upon Jenny’s quick visit of the place, she managed to secure appointments for both of us for tomorrow at 4pm. We rode the tandem with our front and tail lights ON as we rode the last few kms to our hotel in the dark. We had no problem this time with early check-in as it was almost 8pm. After storing our panniers in our room, we quickly went out again for some Udon noodles. We felt somewhat re-assured to be back on Japan’s main island – namely closer to Osaka – our departure point to Italy.

2024.05.22 – [JP] Kobe ==> Kobe (0 kms | Total: 1542 kms)

During our complementary breakfast, we discussed the value of registering for the Toyoko Inn Club Card. Since we would likely be staying many more times at this hotel chain when we return from Italy and continue our cycling journey. The card’s registration cost ($14 cdn) would be easily offset by the 5% discount on each room reservation as well as the opportunity to check-in 1 hour earlier than usual. We left the hotel at 10am for a day of sightseeing and the late afternoon some hair studio appointments. At the nearby train station, we finally bought our IC re-loadable transit cards which can be used throughout Japan. We took the train to HarborLand – a neighborhood along the harbor front with large shopping malls and various entertainment activities for families. Later we walked to the China town neighborhood. The street food vendors were very busy servicing the lunch time patrons – mostly the school kids. As our stomachs were still full from our breakfast, we skipped sampling any food. We continued our walk to the Ikuta-jinja Shrine – Kobe’s signature shrine. After we resumed our walk again to another popular neighborhood called Kitano-chõ. The areas consisted of well-preserved homes from mostly Western trading families and diplomats who settled in Kobe during the Meiji period. We stopped at a Starbucks in the neighborhood for some refreshments. The coffee shop was housed in a beautifully preserved house from 1907. After leaving the neighborhood, we stopped at a bakery for some pastries before showing up to our 4pm hair salon appointments which Jenny had made last evening along the way to our hotel. We left the hair salon at 7pm delighted with our respective hair cuts. Jenny’s hair dye and highlights took over 3 hours to complete. The two hair stylists, who spoke English fluently, were very patient with us. I had my mind set in sampling some Kobe beef in town but a single steak meal would have cost us the price of hotel room, so we opted to skip the Kobe beef. Nonetheless, we had nice savory hamburgers at a restaurant nearby the hair salon. Later, we walked back to our hotel and covered more than 14kms throughout the day.

2024.05.23 – [JP] Kobe ==> Osaka (31 kms | Total: 1573 kms)

After our hotel’s breakfast, we loaded the tandem and left town encouraged by the fact that we only had 31 kms to reach Osaka. We rode on wide sidewalks most of the time. The riding was slow as we encountered many traffic lights and had to constantly keep an eye out for eager cyclists and wandering pedestrians. Towards the end of our day’s journey, we struggled a bit on crossing a few bridges which proved to be difficult to access. Upon arriving to our hotel, we had to wait 2 hours for our 3pm check-in. After checking into our room, we visited a nearby bicycle parking lot and managed to store our tandem securely for the next 10 days while we will be heading to Italy for our daughter’s wedding. We purchased a few snacks from the local convenience store. We also did another clothes wash using the hotel’s laundromat machines. And finally, we opted to visit a grocery store for our dinner staples.

2024.05.24 – [JP] Osaka ==> Osaka (0 kms | Total: 1573 kms)

Our hotel complementary breakfast was slightly better than our first hotel in Busan which marketed their breakfast as minimalist. Various types of bread/buns were the main breakfast staple with the addition of some yogurt and good coffee. We decided to defer any big site sightseeing until our return to Osaka – post wedding. We visited two nail studios near our hotel but none of them had availability over the next few days. We also visited the nearby Toyoko Inn hotel where we booked our return stay in Osaka. To our delight, the reception staff agreed to keep in storage, at no-cost, one of our duffel bag until our check-in on June 5th. As Jenny was eager to purchase an extra pair of sandals for the wedding, we took the subway/train to the hugely popular Shinsaibashi shopping district. Jenny was lucky as she managed to find a nice, comfortable and affordable pair of sandals. After our lunch on the road, we visited a nail salon where Jenny was able to secure an appointment for the next day. We returned to our hotel for a late afternoon rest. In the evening, we were eager to experience the offering at the Kuromon Ichiba food market. Sadly, once we arrived on-site, we realized that much of the market was no longer operating food stalls as expected. As most of the restaurants were filled up with patrons on this Friday evening, it was quite difficult to find a place to have dinner. We finally resigned ourselves to be seated at a touristy restaurant for dinner. We covered 12 kms for the day.

2024.05.25 – [JP] Osaka ==> Osaka (0 kms | Total: 1573 kms)

After another high carb breakfast, we tackled our luggage rearrangement in preparation for our flight tomorrow. The plan was to leave half of our luggage in storage at the hotel where we planned to return on June 5th while the other half would be coming with us to Italy. At 10am, we left our hotel and took the subway/train to a nail studio for Jenny’s 11am appointment. While I waited for Jenny at a Starbucks, I completed our Etihad Airlines online check-in. Later we had some noodle set meal lunch before embarking on a city walk recommended by our Lonely Planet guide book. Sadly, the pedestrian streets were simply overwhelming with folks which made the walk less enjoyable. We returned to our hotel by 3pm for a well deserved rest. In the evening, we had dinner at our first Chinese restaurant in Japan. We walked another 9 kms today.

2024.05.26 – [JP] Osaka ==> Etihad Flight (0 kms | Total: 1573 kms)

We had one last high carb breakfast before checking out of our hotel at 10am. We borrowed a luggage dolly from our current hotel to help us bring our duffel bag for storage at another nearby hotel where we planned to return on June 5th. After returning the dolly, we walked over to the subway station where we took an 1 hour ride to the Kansei International Airport. Sadly we arrived 3 hours before our airline check-in counter opened. We had some McDonald’s while waiting. We also managed to purchase a new SIM (voice + data) for my Android phone. Most short-term (<90 days) SIMs available in Japan provide data access only. Having a local phone number can prove to be useful in a number of context. When we showed up 30 mins ahead of the airline check-in, there was already a long queue of travelers. We gathered that a large group of para athletes from different countries were returning home on our flight. We were glad we had done our online check-in as we saved a considerable amount of queuing time. Nonetheless after completing our check-in, going through the security check and clearing immigration, we realized we did not have enough time left to enjoy one of the airport’s lounge. As we waited at our gate in the North terminal, it was hard to believe that everyone would have time to check-in before our scheduled departure time. We hope to make it to Rome after a short stop over in Abu Dhabi and some 19 hours later.