On the return trip from Kyoto to Tokyo

Saya and I are on the ferry from Toba to Cape Irago, and I thought I'd post a few pics and videos from the past few days of cycling and exploring. Saya's favorite part about our visit to Kyoto was seeing her beloved babysitter, Miho-san!

Miho-san lived in NYC for 8 years and babysat Saya starting at age 2. She moved back to her home in Kobe, Japan last year and Saya has missed her a lot. Miho-san and her husband spent a day with us in Kyoto, including a visit to the local aquarium, where Saya got to feed some seriously large turtles. Saya is on the far left.

Here's a photo of us with Miho-san and her husband Masamitsu Yoshida:

And here are some photos of Saya and I cycling out of Kyoto:

While in Kyoto, we had the distinct honor of seeing the Gion Matsuri festival, which dates back over 1,000 years and is one of the most famous festivals in Japan. Here are some pics:

We ate lunch at the same restaurant in the town of Seki where we ate last week. Our friends there presented us with so many gifts we had to turn some of them down because we couldn't fit them on our bikes.

In between cycling, we've been checking out the sumo tournament under way right now:

Today is quite hot but our bodies have become accustomed to the heat. Here are pics from a break by the seaside:

And here is Saya supervising the workers securing our bikes on the ferry to Cape Irago: 

We need to arrive in Tokyo by Friday night in order to attend a memorial service for my father-in-law, who died a year ago. It doesn't look like we'll be able to reach Tokyo by bicycle in time. That's okay - we'll ride as far as we can until Friday, then lock up the bikes somewhere safe and take a train the rest of the way to Tokyo. We don't have bike bags, which are required to take bicycles on the train. I'll return after the memorial service to retrieve the bikes.