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OH WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!!!! Lisa and I had no idea what we were going to do. I talked to my other friend Jane for the first time in a LONG time and she said she was going on this bike ride that this guy Rob was planning. Lisa and I kind of invited ourselves and found ourselves on a great adventure that none of would ever forget. We ended up riding our bikes from Onomichi in Hiroshima Ken on Honshu across the many islands in the Inland sea to Imabari, Ehime Ken, Shikoku. The ride itself was 75 km, but since we got lost it actually turned out to be about 90 km...THATS THE FURTHEST I HAVE EVER RIDDEN A BICYCLE!!! And, we did about 40 km of it in the pouring rain!!!! But as I said, it was absolutely fabulous.....<br />

Tour de Inland Sea

Casey Lary
2006-02-20 15:36:40

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turning back now!our bikes up the hill and FINALLY returned them to the rental place. We told the bike shop that we wanted to burn the bicycles. We were maybe going to ride our bikes back the next day. After this none of us wanted to sit on a bike for a while, or would be able to as our butts were sooooooo sore!! The guy who so kindly led us to the rental shop gave us a ride back to the station. At last, we could relax.

We took an hour train ride to Matsuyama, which is the largest city in Shikoku. Once we checked into our hostel we headed to the Dogo Onsen. As I explained in earlier blogs, an onsen is a natural spring. The Dogo Onsen is one of the oldest and most famous ones in all of Japan. It is very very traditional. The one I went to on Etajima was modern and had all these different baths and massage pools. This one had one big pool of HOT HOT water. Again, we were quite the sight as 6 gaijin girls get into this big pool. Lisa overheard one of their conversations and they were

Yes, I know there is a big water glob on Lisa's face. I find this photo rather perfect to capture the weather. It was really really wet!talking about how our boobs did not look like theirs! hahaha! We made them all a little mad but we didn't really care. An onsen could have never felt soooo good, although I couldn't sit on the seat because my butt hurt too much! Afterwards we went to get Okinomiyaki (Kansai style), had a few beers, and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next day was glorious. It would have been a GREAT day for the bike ride! Hah! We did some sightseeing around the castle and the famous garden. The castle is one of the oldest castles and was not rebuilt like most of them. Unfortunately the castle was now under reconstruction so we did not get to see the beauty of it all. They did post pictures so we knew what it was supposed to look like! It was a really beautiful castle. The best part was getting there. We had to ride on a chair lift to get to the top. Instead of going back through Onomichi, Lisa, Kim, and I took a ferry directly from Matsuyama to Hiroshima. Oooh it was absolutely beautiful. Looking out into the Inland Sea you

This was the bridge leading onto Shikoku. Iknow be jealous because I look so stunning. Hope you like the plastic poncho. It really was beautiful...and a tone of funcouldn't tell if we were in Thailand, Malaysia, or Japan. It was a beautiful way to end an incredible weekend. We saw the sun set over the edge of the mountains and rolled into Hiroshima around 7 pm. We jumped on a bus and were home.

So yeah, it rained a lot and yeah, it probably would have been a little better if it did not rain, but I still loved it. Rob has now done it 4 times and said that the one we did was definitely his most memorable. So another successful weekend. We got a great workout, saw many of the islands on the inland sea, I fell once and scraped up my knee, got sore butts, experienced a permanent camel toe, rode a bike 90 km, made some new friends, and had an incredible time. Definitely something I will never forget!!

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