Biking to Beppu

A group of us biked to Beppu last Monday and it was amazing every second of the way there. It felt so nice to be in the warm sun again after hibernating all winter long. It's exciting to feel the cool ocean breeze blow through your hair while you're biking! I've never been able to bike around so freely in my life. Back in America I never bothered getting a bike because I don't live in a very bike friendly area at all. But in Japan, especially in Oita, some of the best places can only be reached on foot or by bike. It's extremely convenient to be able to stop anywhere you'd like and just take photos or enjoy the view, and best thing is you don't have to worry about finding parking!
We stopped a couple times just to take in the scenary and to play in the pirate ship. Yes! there is a random pirate ship at one of the beaches we stopped at. We hung out there a bit and then continued on to Beppu where we planned to meet up with Tuan and have a group picnic on the beach. It started to rain though so we couldn't do the picnic on the beach. Instead we went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of half priced meats and made dinner at Tuan's dorm. It was really fun, good food, good people, perfect day despite the rain.

I definitely plan to go back and have that picnic on the beach though.