Today was a lot of fun. We went to Okasayama which is a city far out from any other big cities. There is really not much for tourists here besides a bike trail through the rural countryside of Japan. Before we did that we went to a garden area.
The garden was beautiful. At the time there was a traditional Japanese wedding going on. The bride and groom were dressed in traditional attire and I got a few pictures of them. Being at the park reminded me and made me think of it as the Japanese version of a nice American country club. The difference was that this had been a garden kept up for hundreds of years by many generations, one of the most historic gardens in Japan.
After that we took a train to go rent bikes and ride through the countryside. This was a lot of fun and the weather was AMAZING! It was Dr. Velikova, Aaron, Ryan and me. It was good to have a small group of us doing this. The guy at the bike place was super weird…a lot of people we encountered at this town were strange. They weren’t used to tourists it seemed.
We started and couldn’t find the trail for about the first half hour. After that we got on the trail and got lost about 500 times. It was so poorly marked! But it was great, we were having fun! At one point we were lost just trying to figure out where to go on the side of the road. This girl got stopped her car, parked, got out and asked us if we needed help. She spoke a little bit of English and she was really excited to use it and talk to us. She was a college student at the closest university. She helped us find the right way and was so nice and happy to run into us.
Four and a half hours later we finally finished the trail. It was a long ride but I loved it. We got to experience a part of japan that not many tourists get to see. At the end of the trail we returned our bikes, but the guy here was weird as crap too! He was this old dude with about a 7 inch hair sticking out of this mole in his neck. This guy would ramble on in Japanese at us for a minute and he just wanted those bikes bad. It was bizarre. There was younger girls there laughing at him.
We then got on the train and headed to the main station. There was a little shopping center around there and we went into the smallest hole in the wall place. There was this nice lady and when we walked in she turned on the lights and AC. She barely spoke any English but we were able to order without a problem. We were all so exhausted and hungry. Our food was out in about 20 minutes and it was one of the best meals I had so far! Delicious chicken, egg drop soup, rice and salad…for a good price too!
After we ate we headed back to the shinkansen and to Otsu. I slept the whole way on a 3 seat to myself. The shinkansen is so nice to sleep on! No bumps and so smooth, you barely know you are moving. I am exhausted and sunburnt now so I am going to sleep!
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