(Picture #1 - Bikes at the Ferry Terminal)
We all met at a subway stop very South of Seoul to avoid the Chuseok traffic...although traffic was still ridiculous. Cheoseok is the Korean Thanksgiving...very major holiday here. Anyway...we boarded a bus at midnight and drove down to Busan. It was a very long night without much sleep and we arrived in Busan early in the morning. It was a rainy morning and we were all pretty groggy. Two little trucks arrived with our bicycles. Over 30 bicycles for all of us on the trip!! We all grabbed a bike and then trucked our bikes through the Ferry terminal...by trucked I mean up escalators, down stairs, through doors, etc. We finally got on the boat and headed to Tsushima. It is the closest island of Japan to Korea. After we arrived we went through immigration which was quite the process...very thorough. When we finally got out of the building it had stopped raining and we headed out into the town to find lunch.
(Picture #2- In front of a palace gate)
It was a bigger town on the island but still pretty small. We grabbed some udon noodles for lunch and then hit the road.
(Picture #3- In a small little village)
We biked along and saw a few little temples but mostly just climbed a mountain for about two hours on the bikes. It was exhausting. We finally got to the top of the mountain and were able to fly down the hill. Unfortunately one of the guys slid out of control and we had to take him to the hospital. Two very nice gentlemen stopped and drove him to the hospital and we all followed on our bikes. The support car came and got him while the rest of us went grocery shopping and continued onto the campsite. By this time it was getting dark so we spent about an hour riding in the pitch dark. There were 2 lights for about 15 of us in the group...it was an interesting little ride...especially since we were riding with the traffic. Once we got to the campsite we were able to relax and head to bed. 
(Picture #4-View from going up the mountain)
The next day we got up early and had some breakfast. I went on a hike with a friend along the shoreline next to the campsite. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we then got a pretty early start. We didn't realize how sore we were from the past day and being that Tsushima is nothing but small rolling hills along the coast we took it pretty slow and walked up most of the hills...our poor legs just didn't have it in them! It was a beautiful bike ride and we did the majority of the island that day...needed to get from one side to the other! Along the way we rode by cute coastal fishing villages and also a few small villages in the hills that relied mostly on agriculture. We also rode through this incredible forest of huge cedar trees and bamboo groves...it was beautiful!!
(Picture #5-Biking along the coast)
Once we got to the town where our hotel was we got pretty lost. I was with three other people while we were trying to find the hotel and being that none of us could speak Japanese we drove all the way out of town and started our way to the next village. We stopped an man in his car and he told us that is was back the other way. We still couldn't find it but biked by the hot springs bath house and stopped there knowing that other people from the group would be coming by at some point. The bath house was the absolutely perfect end to the day...lounging 
in warm water with beautiful vies of the full moon over the ocean...it was amazing!!
in warm water with beautiful vies of the full moon over the ocean...it was amazing!!(Picture #6-Sunrise)
We did end up meeting some people from our group and we followed them back to the hotel. The hotel was beautiful. We all had ocean view rooms with traditional Japanese style sleeping mats on the floor. After riding into town for some very yummy Japanese food we headed to bed so we could be up for the sunrise.
(Picture #7 - Shinto Temple)The sunrise was incredible...we had a perfect view of it from the balconies of our rooms. After the sunrise we went down for a great Japanese breakfast..complete with a whole fish, miso soup, rice, and a couple of side dishes, eggs, and some other yummy things. After the breakfast my friend and I wanted to do some more exploring so we took off on our bikes and biked along the rode that went around the tip of the island. It was a great bike ride. We saw lots of cute towns, took a dip in the ocean, and came into town right as the town was having it's track game day for the elementary students. It was very cute.
(Taking a break at the ocean)
We had a great lunch and kind of just hung around the town until our ferry left to take us back to Busan. Once back to Busan we gave back our bikes and got standing tickets for the bullet train back. After three hours of standing between cars on the train we were all ready for a nice hot shower and to sleep in our own beds.
All in all it was an amazing trip and I can not wait to visit Japan again!!!
