One reason I love touring is I get to ride my bike somewhere I haven’t ridden dozens of times before. By the time fall arrives, I’m bored with my local rides—even if I’ve been away touring in the spring.

Well done for soldiering on. We're all supporting you from a distance! 🙂

Beautiful！ I can imagine it will be even more beautiful in the Momiji season

What a day！

Your panniers look happy, ready to ride.

Wow, what a tough day. Too bad you can’t take a breather in Nikko. God luck with the roads and weather tomorrow.

Persimmons!

I enjoyed your description of the challenges of sidewalk riding. One of our most memorable days was riding the sidewalks of Highway 2 through Osaka, with the sidewalk crowded and folks coming in from all the side alleys and doorways. It felt like we were characters in an arcade game.

Nikko is great! Glad you finally find place to lodge in.

One way to find out, but it is really risky... Photos of fungi are quite intriguing but with the variability of fungi and so many look alikes that are deadly, I usually avoid trying to ID them.

You’re right. Very dashing. :)

What a wonderful jazz band. So much love!

We reached Murayama yesterday, which is very close to Yamagata Airport, where you could have caught a flight back to Tokyo (and beyond). I think the Aomori-Yamagata trip could have worked for us, but the schedule would have been tight. We've enjoyed Tohoku so far. You can be the judge of what you might have "missed". It will still be waiting for you whenever you're able to visit.

The Okinawa guy missed a chance to meet two of the most interesting cyclists!

“...but usually after a climb, we'd rather enjoy the descent than stop and get out our phones. These all sound like lame excuses, and perhaps they are.” Can't agree more!