Japan Day 5 - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

This morning I woke up on the beach. Any day you wake to sun and sand is going to be a good day.

In the morning, we returned to a local wifi hotspot to call family, check emails, message friends. Actually, I was in the middle of writing a positive review for Yasuke when something caught my ears. 

Is that...yeah it is. You see we've been a little hard pressed to find Internet cafes in Japan (¥400 for a small black coffee? We'll keep looking, thank you). So when we found a supermarket store last night, we were ecstatic to further discover that off to the side there is a nice place to eat, drink, be marry, and enjoy your purchases. It's here, now the next morning, that that something caught my ear.

Yes, Japan will creat many a memories durring the next month, this one is special because it made my sister and I look at each other with a question marked face before we tore into internal laughter. We were listening to a synthesized, instrumental, elevator-esq music cover to Gaga's Bad Romance. Life is good.

Now, onto the day. We rode a good portion of the day, yet had many tangents. Two steps forward, one step back. The stops off out bike did not detour us however, as we were determined to go the vole.

First stop, the Bay Bridge look alike. Not bad huh? A beautiful sight making connection to one of the smaller islands.

And wouldn't you know it, we met another tourer. Sweet kid, didn't speak a word of English. It's ok, we don't speak Japanese, yet...

Bikes resting triumphantly.

One for the books. Keep on trecking.

The bird at the top is a crow. Haven't seen these birds in a long while. Despite their evil connotations, I've always admired them and they in return have always brought be excellent luck.

You're going to love this. Guess what type of reading material is available for digestion at most local luncheries? 

That's right. About nine or so different wordless magazines focused on one thing and one thing only: finding cats in adorable poses.

Kobe beef noodle soup for lunch. Life is grand.

Somewhere in between we stopped of for a toilet break and I end up making friends with a man named Ryu who's out for his daily beach coasting jog. We get to talking for a while and he tells me that we are in luck (thank you Mr. Crow) because we've arrived at exactly the right time. Apprently, it's Ikanago season.

Here is the small fish, cooked in soy sauce and spices, served on rice. Because of the small window, some happy customers are been known to buy as much as fifteen pounds of this stuff!

Like I said, we rode a good distance today. Tor wards the end however, we noticed a broken spoke in my sisters rear wheel. On top of that, it's a spoke that's hard to place back in because of the way they are laced. Luckily, we have the tools, we have the technology, and we have the know how. To turn this relatively annoying problem into a twenty-four minute layover.

Sister labors away, freeing me to take pictures of the awesomely blue sky.

"Hold these for me, will ya?" asked my sis. I think I found a good place to hold her glasses, don't you?

Today I also found out that economics is all bullshit. How come buzz cuts are different prices in different cities and in different counties, but I can still get a chocolate dipped ice cream at mcdonalds for about a buck anywhere in the world?

Also, I won my first two games of Pente today against my sister. I elevated my heart beat not by cycling over a huge hill, but because I thought I lost my wallet bad. Thats scary. I've recently re-found it =) And we are staying in a hotel tonight instead of a stealthy camp site because both Ryu and google predict rain. Which I wouldn't mind if we were somewhere warm where it would only take a quick twenty minutes to dry up. Not the case any longer. Wet, cold, and miserable is no way to go touring. Talk with you's later. Much love.

Best,

-A