Mountain Biking

We slept late again since it was the weekend, everyone except me got up at 9:00 am and I was up at 8:15 am, the kids ate a breakfast of cereal, while Yasuko and I had rice, natto, kimchee and Miso soup. The kids went out to play with the rest of the kids since they had been ringing the doorbell since 8:30 am. Masani-san came over and gave me a couple of tomato plants and tied them up for me, we put them in the little green house and watered them real good, he told me to leave the plastic up during the day but at night put it back down.

When I came back in the house there was a message from Norman, so I quickly called him back and told him to come on over and bring your bike. It was a beautiful warm day, perfect for a mountain bike trip. I updated the blog, while I was waiting for Norman to come over. After he arrived I gave him the present that we got for him which was a electric air popper and lots of raw popcorn. Apparently it is not something that you can get here in Japan that easily, and if you want popcorn you have to settle for the already popped in bags that is 99% of the time stale.

We headed towards the dam on our bikes but stopped by the old house that we thought that we might of had to live in once. The place is huge, but very large, in fact I think it is larger than our house in Texas, but very old. After the short stop to the old house we continued to the dam, the biting flies were in force. The flies are called buyo's and are like a cross between a horse fly and mosquito, they suck blood and leave a nasty bump that itches like crazy. Norman got bit a couple of times but I made it without a bite after putting on some bug spray before I left.

After a short stop at the dam and some picture taking, we headed back along the levy and the banks of the Chubetsu river. The only wildlife we saw this time was a fox that quickly took off before we could get a picture. We continues our trip along the levy until we reached the bridge that crosses over the Chubetsu river into Shibinai, and then decided to ride further to a nearby park. It was a nice easy ride, but Norman's backside was hurting and my legs were tired, we walked the bikes a bit around the park and then rode through a nearby neighborhood that has the most adorable Swedish Alpine style houses that I have ever seen. Hmmm maybe someday!!

After the ride through the neighborhood we headed back along some back roads and partially on a bike trail. When we got back we set on the steps and rested a bit. Yasuko informed me that we were invited to a Yakisoba party at Ueo-sans house tonight, so Yasuko is preparing some cabbage. Tomorrow I am going to help Ueo-san get rid of a lot of rubbish that he had behind his house, I am going to get rid of a microwave oven also along with the items, it is expensive to get rid of large items here, but it helps with the recycling process.

The yakisoba party was fun, but had to be moved inside because the weather started getting bad and cool, we all had fun talking and looking at each others photographs. Yasuko and the kids came home at 9:30 pm and I stayed until 10:30 pm

Temp: High - 70
Low - 46