Cycling Trail

(PICTURE FLASHBACK: Jessica and Chi-Na in Beijing.)

A few weeks ago I had my first visitor. My friend Jessica -- who I had met in China while she was traveling with her friend/ahoy hanoi reader Chi-Na -- was doing a tour of Japan and swung by Koryama.

I had met Jessica at the Great Wall of China. For her visit, I took her on the slightly less famous great bike ride of Koryama. Along the local river here is a bike path called the Michinoku Cycling Trail. I had only ridden a little bit of the trail before Jessica's visit and decided she would be a great person to explore the rest with.

I borrowed Katie's bicycle for the weekend and Jessica and I headed out along the trail. After about fifteen minutes the trail leaves Koryama and begins to wind through the countryside. The reason I asked to be in a small city was so I could be around Japanese nature. Well, this trail had everything I could want: rice fields, orchards, a river, huge open areas, tree lined forests and even a little waterfall and shrine at the end.
(PICTURE: Jessica on the bike trail.)

(PICTURE: Me, Iain and Mikka.)

The trail was so good that I took Mikka and Iain on it the day after the fire festival.