BEE Japan

Hi guys. The past three days have been pretty awesome We rolled in to Kyoto on the 11th for a presentation at Kyoto International School (K-9) which I found really rewarding. We presented first to the 6-9th graders and thanks to the great homeroom teachers (both from the U.S. I believe) and their educators’ instinct of getting to the heart of a concept…I remembered and realized for the fist time a few details about the importance/significance of what we are doing and involved in as we ride across Japan “for something we believe in.” As the teachers broke down what we are doing as a team, to something simple or easier to relate to as young adults what stood out was the message that doing something you believe in, requires sacrifice. Simple, yet profound eh?
After that we had three days and there nights in Kyoto, MOST of which I got to spend with my sister Kelsey, who just returned from Turkey and Kazakhstan. She attended most of our BEE dinners at the Falafel Garden, and at the home of our other hosts’ which included home made sushi…Yum!
It was really nice to see where Kels lives (my first time since she moved there), ride along the river near bym listen to some news podcasts and just catch up.

After a couple of presentations on Sunday, including one at an Osaka YWCA, and an appearance in the Kyoto newspaper, three of us were off to Naha on Monday morning and the other one to Osaka.

Naha was awesome for me, as one of my favorite memories from living in Japan at the age of four, is photo of my dad and I at Naha park where all the deer famously roam free around the park. Salem, Rocio and I got some lunch, took it the park ate there and napped on the park benches in the beautiful surroundings for an hour or so before finishing our day at a road side shop where we camped and made curry for dinner.
It was our first time camping at the road side stops which are quite common in Japan, so we were a bit apprehensive at first, but two or three other cyclists rolled up later in the evening and rolled out their sleeping bags as well… so we figured it must be an alright thing to do. I will say, I thin that was my fist time sleeping on cardboard boxes for padding! Haha.
It’s better than cement