Saiki. Staying at a local favourite, Hotel AZ

Last night’s hotel was good. It did the job. Typically, the price of this hotel is significantly less, but as yesterday was a National Holiday, we understood the challenge and chose the most reasonable place we could find . The price of our room was at least triple its value. On a good note, the woman who checked us in quickly offered to have us store our trikes in the lobby and we appreciated the welcome we received. Normally, hotel prices in Japan are consistently reasonable.

We love it when a hotel understands the importance of our trikes and makes the first move and offers us a solution for our trikes.

Our room was spacious and comfortable despite showing its age. Note the home in the property behind. We could see their Onsen in the back room of their home.

They take pride in their small hotel and have created a lovely traditional garden with a pond….

We do find this sight of a portable toilet mounted on a small truck to be humorous. Perhaps it is the size difference or how conspicuous you would be in getting to the toilet.

The castle in Usuka is now just ruins. It has been a fixture on this space since for the 6th century.

This photo shows the upper area where the main building of the castle would have been.

Remnants of the stone bridge leading to the Shrine.

This man, Otomo Soren is the creator of the castle. He was known to be a Christian. The castle included a chapel and the town below had a Christian Training Centre.

A very popular playground in Usuki. From what we can see, kids have a great life here.

We have had such consistent sunshine and warm temps. It is an adjustment to have cloudy, overcast skies.

The harbour of these small coastal towns is truly the mainstay and centre of their lives.

We are having a great ride today. At times we are right on the coast and then in no time we are in the hills looking down. It makes for a fun ride.

Mary Ellen riding along the coast with the forests and steep hills coming right to the road.

These wurlygigs have been hand painted and really catch the wind.

Another day of multiple tunnels…this one is almost a km long.

Love this plant with the delicate, lime green, ball shaped blooms. Not sure what it is.

It is such an eye catching plant as it spreads out and forms a border along the road.

As you can see, the hills come right to the town.

Homes are built right on the shore with a good foundation to weather the tides.

In following the coast, straight roads are not common. I like following the curves of the landscape..

These fellows who are on their community baseball team were practicing at their school when they saw us riding. As a group they ran to chat with us. Lots of fun.

What a nice bunch of boys…full of enthusiasm, questions and intent on making us feel welcome.

We love the illustrations that are often at the entrances of tunnels

These rocks connected by rope signify a happy marriage. They are called Couple Rocks and the sacred rope is the longest used on in Japan. The rope weighs 2 tons and is 65 m in length. This one is called Bungo Futamigaura.

Today we have ridden through tunnels where you leave one tunnel and then right into the next one

The fellow at the Hotel was excited to provide us with a luggage cart for our luggage. We didn’t have the heart to ask for a bigger one, so we somehow stacked it all together on this wee cart.

This is refreshing to see a shop in a hotel with really low prices. 100¥ is about $1 Cdn. Added to that, Hotel AZ has inexpensive rooms and breakfast is included.

Our trikes have got a nice spot for the night inside the sliding doors

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 707 km (439 miles)

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