We have spent the last few days in Tokyo getting ready for the trip.

We did this by buying food. Doing some map shopping with Cliff’s Dad, we managed to get an Atlas of Japan in english and a bilingual map.

This and google maps allowed us to do some route planning. We plotted a rough route up the north west coast of Japan, hopefully to the northern most tip.

The few days we spent in Tokyo were good, and I am looking forward to exploring more when we get back there. Cycling started today in the rain which got heavier and then stop and ended with a bright afternoon, which allowed everything to dry out.

There are so many traffic lights in Japan it leads to a lot of stop start cycling, we made it out of the city and with the aid of google maps, Cliffs navigation and good road signs navigation on day one went well.

I am amazed at how built up Japan is and how every inch of space is put to some use be it a footpath, very small field or housing.

I was surprised when we found a small wood with some flat ground that we have chosen to camp in tonight. It is fairly close to a restaurant, houses and road, but it will make a good first nights stop. Now its time to eat some rice before putting the tents up and getting an early night.

So far as expected Japan is very different to Australia.

I think this post has been fairly boring, I will try and write a better one tomorrow.