Ogori to Okayama

All my photos are on my flickr account kazuki12 which is located here.

Ogori to Shunan - This journey was about 4hrs long, majority was boring except from when I met this very kind old man he offered me directions, food and water but then he started drag me along to various places and said various things none of which I understood..Then a young driver stopped by and began talking to the old man in Japanese then after a short while the old man waved goodbye and the driver gave me directions to the main road from which the old man had dragged me away from.

Shunan to Iwakuni - This was tiring journey as the road I was travelling on kept going up and up for at least 20km but at least when it started going down  didnt have to pedal at all for about 10km and there were some beautiful views along the way. Which made me glad that I choose the longer main road rather than the shorter more direct road.

When arrived at Iwakuni I was a bit disspointed about the bridge as I had expected it to be longer and that it would be free to cross which it is not unfortunatly.

Iwakuni to Hiroshima - For the first time the route was completely flat with no mountins or hills at all. This allowed me time to visit Miyajima Island which is well known for its temple and torii gate (pictures are on my flickr account). At Miyajima Island I met some fellow gajin who were Americans and kept on complaining about how dissappointed they were about Japan and they would rather be at the hotel than visit Island whcih caused  me to aviod them after I said Hi.

When I arrived at Hiroshima I staright to the memorial park to see the dome and were atomic bomb were there hundreds of tourists surrounding the memorials so it was hard to get a good view. Afterwards I went tot eh castle ruins which loooked so fake even though the ruins are meant to be the castle orginal foundations

Hiroshima to Onimichi - Was annoyed at onimichi only to find 1 hotel here which was expensive but did not give you anything more than a normal hotel would except from  40 inch tv screen. Then the next day I also realized that I had left my combination lock at Onimichi which means  can longer stop anyone stealing my wheels from my bike.


Onimichi to Okayama - Along the way I stopped at the city of Kurashiki which contained several canals and in one of them their was a pair of swans which attracted a large crowd of about 50 people for some reason. Anyone know why Japanese are obsessed with swans? I also met a lorry driver who was very kind and told me about hokkaido and what I visit along the way.Seems as I go north  the Japanese are appearing to more friendly.

Edit: Forgot to mention in Okayama while I asleeep someone locked my bike agasint the fence with their own cable so in the morning I couldnt remove my bike from the fence which meant I had to get help from the local police. Went inside and told them my situatiion with the hand gestures and the little Japanese I know then I went to show them were my bicyle was located was so they could cut the lock and about 10 police
men/woman come with me just to cut a cable! I was so nervous and scared shitless that I was going to be arrested for some reason but in the end it was all fine.