We are pretty excited to share that we have reconsidered our original plan and have extended our trip to 3 months. As well, we will be flying back to Canada from Okinawa (via Tokyo to Vancouver) rather than having to return to Osaka by way of 2 overnight ferries. This gives us more time to explore Okinawa and the islands, plus changing the flight is much cheaper than taking two overnight ferries. 
Last trip we focussed on Honshu, Hokkaido and Kyushu, plus we spent a lot of time in Osaka which was mainly due to trike issues. The upside of the extra time spent in Osaka was that was that we really got to know the city and appreciate its under rated charms.   We look forward to, once again, starting our trip in Osaka with a five day stay.

We cut our time short on Kyushu on the last trip as the motor on Barry’s trike had stopped working. We loved Kyushu, but riding hilly terrain with a fully loaded trike and no motor was not fun. We returned to Osaka, our mechanic Yoshi fixed the problem and we headed north to circumnavigate Lake Biwa followed by a month on Hokkaido.  
We neglected to explain why Barry’s trike motor stopped working (sorry Steve).  It was either the cable from the motor to the computer display which needed replacing, or the upgrading of our Shimano system to a new larger battery which required the installation of a new mount. Basically, Yoshi worked on all things electrical and the result was the trike now works fine. It will remain a mystery ….. we are very grateful to Yoshi and his diligence in taking care of the problem.