Miyazaki and Sunshine

The weather forecast had a good chance for thunderstorms from 8am-10am, so we were up and out of the hotel at about 6:30. The first thing we saw was a definite lack of clouds. By 8, it was bright sunshine, and we had our first real summer day of the year. This spring back home never really warmed up, and our first week here was cloudy and 60's, so sunny and 80 was quite a pleasant surprise. And a toasty one. We reapplied sunscreen every 90 minutes and still got a little burned.

The day started with a quick 100m climb to a plateau that we were on for most of the morning. It was a lot of farmland, a lot of open, clear skies, and with one exception some pretty decent biking

Stopping for some snacks. And more sunscreen.

This little park had some animal benches lined up

As we approached Miyazaki, the major city in this area, we started seeing those odd things in the side of the road that you only see in Japan.

A Shinto Shrine...to Anpanman? Actually a park.

"Ruins" of an old amusement park. They sprung up all over the place in the 90's, then many shut down after the boom was over. One of these was the opening setting for Miyazaki's masterpiece "Spirited Away"

I can hear the planning meeting for this one:
"We'll have a map of the routes in the area, but instead of just a map, we'll have...wait for it...ugly babies climbing on top!"
...the rest of the room sits in stunned silence...
"Any objections? Any one else have a better idea? Anyone else awake? No? OK, let's run with it."

We made the 50 miles into Miyazaki in just under 8 hours, which isn't bad considering the stops, the traffic, the mountains, our tiny wheels, etc. We were expecting our hotel, K's Street Hotel Miyazaki, to be a little hostel in the city. We expected wrong.

12 story western hotel. For $50.

Miyazaki feels more like a western city than a Japanese city, in some ways. The streets are broad, with large sidewalks, the buildings do not look like traditional Japanese buildings, as much of Kyuushuu does. It's hard to put your finger on it, but it just feels a little different. It is a very nice city, with some very wealthy suburbs that we biked through on our way in.

Miyazaki City Hall. Would not look out of place in Florida.

After cleaning up, we headed to the main train station to get our JR Passes that we'll be using to get back to Tokyo and for travel for the last few days. From there, we took a local train one stop down to verify that the Coco Curry House cuisine in Miyazaki was up to par with the other locations across the country. I am pleased to report that this was, indeed, the case.

Tomorrow will be another long day of biking into Hyuga, a city about 50 miles north of Miyazaki. There's more thunderstorms in the forecast for Friday, so we'll see how things go after tomorrow. I'll leave you with a few more "only in Japan" pics.

This parking sign...

The 7-11 electric delivery car! Enough room for one medium sized person and some groceries in back.