The Island-Hopping Japan Cycling Tour Is A Wrap!

After 31 days of riding, 2500km (1553 miles), two long ferry transfers, two additional travel days, nine rest days and 36 km (118,000 ft) of climbing, TDA Global Cycling’s inaugural Island-Hopping Japan Cycling Tour has arrived in our final destination, the city of Naha in Okinawa as planned. I write- as planned – because for several days things didn’t look that great.

Probably the main characteristic that hits you when you walk around Naha is the presence of mythical animals called Shisas. A cross between a lion and a dog, they are guardians of the city and are supposed to bring good fortune and ward of evil spirits. There are two types of Shisas – one with an open mouth to ward off bad spirits and another with a closed mouth to keep good spirits in. Traditionally, locals place Shisas at entrances or on rooftops. If you walk the main shopping streets, Shisas are for sale in a wide variety of forms. I bought a pair of small Shisas sitting on a miniature banana. You might ask, why am I giving you all these details?

Well, as mentioned in the first paragraph, for several days things didn’t look good. It was just two months ago that I wrote a blog – Climate Change and Cycle Touring – describing how climate change is affecting our cycling tours. We were scheduled to reach Okinawa after the typhoon season and yet every night my roommate Kazu, our local support, would be sitting in front of the TV watching the weather, particularly the typhoon that devastated the Philippines and was predicted to eventually hit Okinawa.

We first got the true indication of this on the day-long ferry from Kagoshima. The ferry normally makes three stops before arriving in Okinawa but due to the winds and some rough seas, the captain decided to bypass one of the scheduled stops. Debarking at our destination an hour earlier in late afternoon, the weather was still not bad but in the morning when we went to pick up our bikes at the ferry terminal, the rain was in full swing and conditions for the next three days were looking – let me say – worrisome. As it was a rest day, we decided to take some precautions and rented a small bus in case it would be needed.

I will not bore you with more details of the next three days, except to say that we must have had help from the Shisas, as we arrived in Naha under a full sun with winds not even worth mentioning. In fact, sitting in the hotel writing this, I feel that the Shisas have been warding off bad spirits and keeping the good ones in on this tour from the day we started in  Osaka as we have been blessed with wonderful weather.

As one of the riders wrote to me, “We had a wonderful experience on our inaugural TDA trip. The staff, the routes, the hotels, the food – everything was well done and organized. Like most (participants) on this trip, we will be back.” And so the first ‘TDA lite tour’, here I would refer you to my first blog on this tour, is a wrap!

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