hello all (mum and dad?), so Tom and I have reached Nagoya, which is a little less than half way to Yokohama. We had planned to get there by tomorrow so that we could take Mike`s mum up on her offer of dinner but then realised that 2 places separated by just a letter or 2 are actually 400km apart and we would be nowhere near where she was after all. So, our pace has become a little more leisurely, especially when we hit a long climb this morning.
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The cycling here is great, we weren`t sure how much countryside there would be here but there really is some and cycling through it is spectacular, like being back in Norway. On the first morning out of Osaka we cycled along the river path with the sun on our backs (November is still topless weather here [but sadly only for us {please refrain from calculating that as we were heading east, the sun would have been in front of us (actually if we were in racing poses then it could still be on our backs - ha)}]), and for about 15 miles passed side-by-side games of baseball, rugby, football, golf and tennis. It was such a happy scene that we relented to just one quick game of Japanese-style pitch and putt ourselves.
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Also, the people here have been incredibly friendly and generous to us, when we ordered a drink we were given cakes with them, when we were looking for somewhere to buy a map (is that irony?) a guy escorted us there in his blacked-out Merc, when we asked to pitch on someone`s land they brought breakfast out to us, at the top of our climb today 2 hikers gave us their rations. Everybody, come to japan.
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So, our next big challenge is to find a freighter ship to take us across the Pacific. So far we have found one, leaving in a month, that will cost us 700 pounds each. We hope to find something nearer to free. Anyone reading this with knowledge, especially inside knowledge, of that kind of thing - we welcome your advice.
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By the way, I have added some photos from Japan as well as a few more from China and some more signs we`ve spotted. The new albums (ie. Japan) are now near the start of the list so if you can`t find it then, well you should be able to.