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During this segment we got introduced to our first 4 cycling days on the island of Hokkaido. We succeeded in overcoming our initial stress associated with our inability to secure accommodations in many of the small towns where we scheduled to rest in. With perseverance in surveying Google Maps, we managed to find and reserve all of our outstanding accommodations using a combination of online tools namely: a popular Japanese hotel booking site, individual accommodation websites and obviously Booking.com and Hotels.com. While dealing with the various online forms, I learned to convert my name to Katakana (\u30aell\u30a8s L\u30a2l\u30aa\u30f3\u30c7), Hiragana (\u304ell\u3048s L\u3042l\u304a\u3093\u3067), Furigana(\u30b8\u30eb\u30fb\u30e9\u30ed\u30f3\u30c9). We also revised once again our itinerary to reduce our cycling days after leaving the island of Hokkaido. Hence, we opted to book a ferry service that would bring us to Tokyo within 2 cycling days – rather than our initial ferry choice which would have entailed another 10 cycling days. Finally, we also purchased our airfare from Tokyo to Shanghai (July 23rd) where we will spend 12 days before flying back home on August 5th with Air Canada. Our strategy for dealing with the tandem entailed stopping our cycling journey on July 14th nearby the Narita Airport – Tokyo’s main airport (~70-80kms away from the city downtown). There, we planned to tear-down, box-up and leave the tandem at the hotel we have reserved. We would then take the train into the heart of Tokyo for a 5-day sightseeing visit before returning to our Narita-based hotel for our flight to Shanghai. We’ll be greeted and picked-up at the Shanghai Pudong airport by family members.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sunflowerit.ca\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-06-27_17-47-57.avif\" "\\"2024-06-27_17-47-57-1\\"")
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