Got a great opportunity/excuse to go and visit my friend Sara in Toyama which is by the sea.
Headed there on the dreaded night bus on the Friday after work and arrived bright and early on Saturday morning. Was met by Sara at the station and headed back to hers for a much needed nap. When we got up we quickly packed a bag and headed into Toyama to prepare for the fashion show her ALT co-workers were putting on. Arrived and got to work helping everyone set up for the show and pretty getting in the way.
Then it was fashion show, band playing and drink o'clock! Had an awesome time until the guy who ran the place decided to shut the party down due to 2 noise complaints. Who runs an event location where you cant have evening parties anyway? So we smartly packed everything up and headed out to a music studio owned by one of the ALTs. The party then proceeded on until the early hours.
Of course when that party started dying down we went out down to a local nightclub and did a bunch of dancing. Sara even got hit on by a bunch of Japanese girls - it is a regular occurrence. Then it was home via 8 people in a car and MacDonalds.
The next day was very relaxed starting with a long bike ride to the most amazing cheap yummy sushi restaurant in the world where we ate our fill for nearly nothing. On the way home we detoured to have a look at the massive park in middle of town. Then it was nap time - again. After an amazing nap we took a ride to visit her J-family. They are the family she teaches English to their children after school during the week. We headed there for dinner and it was frikkin amazing! We had bbq sirloin that melted in your mouth, salad, okonomiyaki, teriyaki chicken, naan bread, rice and we even made our own sushi! Amazing amazing!
After that amazing dinner we cycled back and it started raining. I proceeded to then crash my bike by putting my front tire in a rail track. Epic fail! And then 5 meters down the road we got pulled over by the cops to check the bike registrations. From then it was smooth sailing but it did get wetter. Good fun all around though.
The next day poor Sara had to go to work so I amused myself by riding a bike down to the coast. It was an awesome ride and super sunny. Then I arrived at the coast, took 2 pictures and it started raining! Found some cover, watched the rain for an hour, read my book and ate my picnic lunch. Then I cycled back when the sun started shining again. Brilliant day.
Once Sara got home we headed out to dinner. Found a great place that had 900yen drink as much as you can in 90 minutes and Italian food. We shared a bunch of different dishes and drank a bunch of wine. Beautiful times. Then it was time for the stupid night bus and an end to an amazing Toyama/Takaoka road trip.
View the pictures on:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=237692&id=565510866&l=8f9d535db6
