JAPANEXILE

Craig and I had a few days off until our next event which we took the time to sleep and explore the area. It was a gorgeous day so we set off on our incredibly cool bikes, complete with bell and basket for our groceries, all of which was generously provided by the Board of Education, and headed off around the lake. Our motivation for going around the lake was not solely to explore, earlier that day Taki-san (man who had come to explain how the kitchen appliances work) had proclaimed that he had been around the lake 3 times that day, and it only took and hour each time. Why I believed him I do not know, perhaps I thought the Japanese were incapable of playing such a trick on us but 2 hours into the ride and not even halfway I realised he had been pulling out leg…

I really wished I had eaten before coming out, again, just looking at lake I should have realised there was no way to get around it in an hour. Also wished I had brought a drink, and some money. Lesson learned for next time tho. The ride took us 4hours in the end. Probably could have been done considerably quicker, but it was a leisurely ride, with lots of stops at Shrines and beaches along the way. The lake is so beautiful as well as the surrounding countryside, which provides ideal Photo opportunitys (Please see my Photography page for all these) I had a lot of fun trying to get some good shots. The camera wasn’t coping too well tho with the ride, clearly vibration is not its friend.

We were exhausted when we got back, but before I went for my soon to become daily nap I checked the map to see how far we had gone, and to find out names of all the places we had seen. 40km. Again the obviousness of Taki’s joke hit me. A 60yr old man doing 40km/h on his bike? Revenge will be mine! Click here for a link to the photo album for the day.