BEE Japan

So friends, we`ve finished it. All the way. We`re done. Yesterday morning we rode up and down the last few hills and ended at Cape Sata, the southernmost point of Kyushu. It was a rather melancholic moment as we looked out over the sea, reflected on the things we`ve learned and experienced during the last two months, took countless pictures, acted ridiculous as we usually do, wrote sidewalk chalk messages on the pavement, and then slowly turned around and began the journey back home.

Fan left us this morning, and the remaining five of us will be splitting up early tomorrow and dispersing throughout Japan to collect our luggage and then traveling through or returning to Canada, Scotland, Korea, and the United States.

I buzzed my brain on coffee this morning and still haven`t fully recovered, so I can`t really find words to describe the profound feelings and deep emotions that we`re all experiencing. Suffice to say that spending just about twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, riding your bike through scorching sun and pouring rain, with the same small group of people is enough to either make you love each other or hate each other — and we all ended up in the former category. We`ve also found new, renewed, or reinforced appreciation for Japan and been deeply impressed by the kindness of people here — right down to the last day, when the Katos, a motorcycle-touring couple who we met two months ago on our departure day from Wakkanai, practically escorted us to the Cape, stopping to make sure we made all the right turns, bringing us snacks, cheering us on, waving to us every time they passed, helping us find a campsite, and looking up information about ferries on the return.

We`re leaving tomorrow morning with, among other things, a multitude of memories, some incredibly tight friendships, a repertoire of new songs including the hit single `Jazzy Cat — Rawhrr!!`, somewhere well in excess of 10 GB of photos, and….

–a short story first–

In August we participated in the Earth Celebration on Sado Island. When pronounced in Japanese, `Earth` becomes `Aasu`. Or, more casually spoken, `ass`. On our way there, Amiena was kindly trying to explain to some new friends that we were not heading to a celebration of behinds but rather of the planet, and, in order to be extremely clear, she demonstrated with some motions. Fan found that especially funny, and, as the joke developed, we decided that we could just as well be “Bicycle for Everyone`s Aasu” as “Bicycle for Everyone`s Earth”. As anyone who has spent much time riding a bike should know, cycling is, well, excellent for sculpting the rear regions.

–end of short story–

…hopefully, a more beautiful `Aasu`.