Kagoshima

    Not to overshadow my previous post of Finals Week, but lemme get this one in here really quick. The tip of Japan doesn't have a magical train to pick us up and take us back to where we needed to be like I was picturing. (Kinda like how Michael Scott was hoping there would be a nice Bed and Brefess at the halfway point for him and Holly to meet at during their LDR.) Now we have to high-tail it through the land of volcanos back to Kagoshima. I started reading* the book called The Push today so I'm reminded of the stories as I post these pics. 

*Note. I've listened to audiobooks throughout the entire journey and the effect has been the same. Memories of the books come up as I post and write about my days. But that's another lesson on Geographic Memory And It's Usefulness for another time. 

Today is a great day. 

Little red flower. 

Flowers line the highways. Makes it nice. 

This is called "Little Mt Fuji." Wanted to climb it, but alas, I am on a bicycle.

I like how they decorate the tunnels with fun scenes like this one of Mt. Sakurajima. 

Here are some more flower planters they use down here in Kyushu.

You guys don't even care.

Found these old Canyons that were used for some war. 

Can't get enough of the Shrines. 

These statues are nasty, don't look at them.

There's Sakurajima.

HollyQuayChiu is doing great!

Here's a farther view to give you some scope. I was reading the signs along the way and there have been several eruptions in different spots on the mountain in recent times. It's fun to date the different lava flows. The Geologist in me is going wild. Remember I'm both a Geographer and a Geologist. Maps and rocks. Don't confuse the two. 

See the wisps of smoke at the top. I will need to add this to the list to climb when I come back. 

I'm riding. 

What am I thinking about here?

Finals Week

     Still hasn't hit me that the trip is almost over. Don't you guys hate that? I do. However, I'm naturally full of Hatred. And I love it. But I'm supposed to be biking all over the world after this and I can't. You guys will have to wait for that blog update. For now, be content that I've indulged you in this journey. Let's check out the most recent week that the Status Quo and I achieved. 

Our host, Joe, is taking our pics right before we leave his farm.

And we're off to conquer Kyushu!

Very foggy this morning. I love it. 

I love tunnels even more. But you already knew that. However, you don't know why.

Look how dark this one is, There's nothing you can do about it except plunge into the Depths of Beep. Fun little fact: Some of us here will actually be going to Beep. 

These massive pipes are carrying something. What, I don't know.

Nice manhole of a castle. 

Look at this bugger.

Kyushu has quite the terrain!

Right before this shot I was taking a pic of the empty railroad track. I thought, "That'd be all neat if I could get one of the train coming through." Seconds later, and also fulfilling prophecy from the Book of Mormon; I got according to my desires.

Look at those fun Kanji letters in red on the left side of the road. If you've been studying you're Duolingo, you'd know what some of those are saying. 

I tried to get pics of the children walking home from school. Remember this, I'll get back to tit in a few pics. 

Terrific sunrise that can't be beaten.

I like riding in the mornings because the children are all riding their bicycles to school. They're fun to watch. It's like a modern day Giver. The children are very well behaved and don't complain about riding bikes even when it's so ice cold or sweltering hot outside. You helicopter parents that drive your kids to school have a lot to learn.

Look at this fun little van that takes the kids to school.

See the teenagers across the street? They are dressed smartly in their suits and skirts. Very dignified. 

The young elementary aged kids will walk home in their brightly colored hats/helmets. They're fun. Sometimes you can even see young kids walking alone. 😱 This is how you teach your kids self-reliance and self-confidence. That's how you really give your children a childhood. 

Finally, found my 4th Pokemon manhole. These are a real hunt to find them all. 

Seeing these palms trees reminded me that I was almost back in Arizona. Did you know palm trees were invented in AZ? Yep.

We rode next to these train tracks that had solar panels on top of them. I love solar panels and don't understand why there aren't more of them covering the roofs of our homes. What are people afraid of, exactly? Oh yeah, your political party.

Feeling ravenous we checked into a 100 Yen sushi restaurant. nearly 30 plates later we walked out with our bellies full and our heads held high.

Here's an ensample. 

I don't know what kind of winter flowers these are. I didn't even know winter flowers existed but these are pleasant for the eye to behold.

Made it to Phoenix everyone!

The Phoenix Michinoeki was terrific. Here I am waking up from a peaceful slumber.

Who doesn't love a cloudy day at the beach?

See the igneous rock that has formed into waves on this beach?

You don't get this in crappy California. 

I told her to smile for the camera and she behaved!

Riding through a nice little town.

Hate when they say bikes can't go on certain roads. Can't even take my rickshaw either, dang it!

So we had this coolo off-roading experience to go around the tunnel.

Fun fact: Japan has aver 6,000 islands. Almost as many as the Philippines.

Just look at it.

The Quay spotted something she wanted. Look at that little face.

More buggers. This time they are fighting. 

Love the terrain. 

These are daikons drying. You ever had a diakon before? They're kinda like carrots. And they're huge. 

Fun bridge to ride under. Reminded me of Halo. 

This waterfall was a let down. If we wanted to look at it from the bottom it was a 6 mile loop around that we didn't want to go to.

So this nice man showed up on his bicycle with his  binder and explained to us in Japanese about the waterfall and showed us all pics. Then he left. 

You can purchase green and gold dragons up in these cliffs. Pretty coolo huh? 

When you're by the coast can you really get enough sun pics?

Riding along this road to get to the southern tip of Japan - Cape Sata - took waaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than expected. Finally we're seeing some light at the proverbial end of the tunnel. We decided to change the name from Cape Sata to Cape Eternal.

This appeals to the Geographer inside of me. Do you remember my post about the the 45th Parrallel? No, you just ignored it like the rest of my blog that you've been doing for the past 3 months? Ok. So we've biked 14 lines of latitude. Another Geography Lesson for you: One line of latitude is about 69 miles. So based on that math how many miles have we biked? Let's see your answers in the comments. 

This was made with shells and other sea creatures. Neat huh?

There they are.

And there we are. Content and complete in all our Glory. North to South of Japan. A little too late in the day for a decent pic, though.

So the next morning we took better pics. Sleeping at that cape was so neat. I could see the stars so well as there was zero light pollution. And it was fun to watch the little lighthouse work his magic guiding in the ships.

Sunrise from Cape Eternal.

To quote Frodo Baggins, "It's done."