A few days ago I found out that the application had opened for the Tour de Okinawa on Aug 1st, unfortunately I will not be back on Okinawa for a few more days. Why not just apply through the website? Well there seems to be some sort of problem with that; I don't know if it's because there are a few more url's that I need to get approved or if the site is set-up for a different format of credit card (I've heard that Japanese Visa cards are numbered differently than American ones). No matter what the problem is, it looks like I'll have to go to the Tour de Okinawa office in Nago and register in person with cash. That doesn't sound like it's a problem, and really it's not, the problem is that I will probably have to ride my bike there to do it. Granted, that's not really a problem, I just find it ironic that I may have to spend the day on my bicycle in order to register for something that involves spending all day on my bicycle.
Anyway, to let you all in on what event I'm interested in entering, it is the "Touring Around Okinawa Island Course" which is 313km (194.5 mi) over two days. The entry fee is 21,000 yen, which is about US$215. There is a limit to 380 riders and all I can do is hope that there will still be room for me by the time I am able to make it up to the office to register.From what I can calculate using Google Maps, it would be about a 50km (31 mi) ride just for me to get to the office. Not a bad distance really, now the difficult thing is going to be figuring out when to go because of work and because of my wife's friend visiting. I'll have to take the notes with me from the tour's web site so I can get to the right place. They'll probably get a kick out of me showing up in cycling gear too.
