On the Kibi bike trail

On Saturday, in a trip organised by daytripper queen Vicky, a bunch of us did the Kibi bike trail, something I've been meaning to do for over a year. It's a fifteen kilometre trail from Soja to Ichinomiya, just a couple of stops away from Okayama, weaving its way past temples, shrines, and burial mounds.
There were about twenty ALTs on this trip, and in our fleet of rented granny bikes, meandering among the fields, we made quite a sight. The scenery was beautiful; mostly farmland with distant hills, but with some houses, roads, and other signs of humanity always in sight (to my inaka-mind, it's not truly rural unless there's not a building to be seen). Together with the perfect autumn weather, it certainly made for an ideal way to spend a Saturday.

Dawn and Gary: have bike, will travel.

Chris, kicking some bike-riding arse way out ahead of the pack.

Chris, Kevin and Dave, enthralled by Kibitsu-jinja's koi.

A fortune-dispenser-thing depicting the life and times of Momotaro. Here's his birth, springing out of a peach, already about 10 months old, apparently.