And so it begins. Met up at the Tokyo Ritz Carlton with Giocomo one of our guides and Judy and Tony, the Fremont, California couple on the tour. All-in there will be five of us riding: Giocomo, Judy, Tony, Ross (the other guide) and me.

Flew from Haneda Tokyo airport to Noto airport where Ross met us with our bikes . Once situated with the bikes, we set off for the day’s 34 mile trek to the coast of the Sea of Japan.

About half way on the ride we stopped for lunch at a shrine.

Ended the ride at our ryokan that has an onsen. “A ryokan (旅館) is a type of traditional Japanese inn that typically features tatami-matted rooms, communal baths, and other public areas where visitors may wear yukata (kimono).” “Onsen means hot spring in Japanese – a “bath” where the water has been heated by the earth.” The onsen at this ryokan had separate male and female “baths”. One goes naked in the onsen. Yes, I did and it was great on the muscles after a day of riding.

Kaiseki dinner followed the soak in the onsen.

Ross is from Vancouver, Canada. Ross is fluent in Japanese and lives in Kyoto with his wife and two boys. Judy and Tony (no kids) are root canal dentists with separate practices. She is originally from Taiwan – immigrated to the US when she was 14. Tony immigrated from Mexico when he was six months old, grew up in Fremont, and graduated from UC Berkeley. They met at Harvard where they did their residency. They are very nice, smart and I like them a lot. Giocomo lives in Venice, Italy.