TKO for Tokyo - Round 1

    We're at about the midpoint of our journey. Just like how Tokyo is about the center point of the country making it an ideal location for the capital. Another free Geography lesson for you guys. By the time I'm finished with my trip and teaching you all the things, you will have a Minor in Geography. (A Major in Geography is much more difficult, nay impossible for you to get.) You guys owe me a lot of money btw.

    To quote Dennis from Jurassic Park: "I am totally unappreciated in my time. You can run this whole park from this room with minimal staff for up to 3 days. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap? You know anybody who can network 8 connection machines and debug 2 million lines of code for what I bid for this job? Because if he can I'd like to see him try."

    Tokyo, for being the largest metropolitan city in the world, is the best bikeable city from what I've seen. 

1. Very good drivers (the taxis can be debatable, though)
2. Bike lanes
3. Not much relative traffic
4. Clean streets
5. You can park your bike practically anywhere (if you recall my rant at the city officials in a prior post)
6. The buildings aren't super tall so you still maintain GPS quality throughout

And I only heard one horn honk the whole time while I was there. It wasn't even at me, either.

Makes you think huh?

    Oh, and I don't think you know this but since my background is black and the text is white, hyperlinks show up as grey instead of the typical blue. I have placed them a lot in this post as well as in previous posts. They are gems, Easter eggs, and nuggets of wisdom. Start clicking on them, dang it. It's embarrassing that I should even have to tell you this. 

The City

We're cruising right along!

Great sunset!

The second time I wore a helmet during this trip so far. I was expecting Havoc riding through but was pleasantly surprised. 

See? Not much traffic.

City night life has been a favorite past time of mine. 

Lots of lights make life exciting.

Saw Tom Cruise here. Had a nice little chat. 

Din dins.

Sashimi.

New Kitkat flavors! Don't worry I didn't indulge in the sinful one of Sparkling Wine. 

Sins.

Last year I raced in the Spartan Ultra and 12 Hour Hurricane Heat in Havaii. I met Suzuki there. He's a personal trainer. A few days before coming to Tokyo I asked him if he could help us find a place to stay, he offered up one of his offices where we stayed for the weekend. Very nice. He later gave us each professional massages that very the best ever. I told you guys it pays to have friends. You Introverts just keep to yourselves. At least become an Ambivert or something.

Time for bed. Let's explore again tomorrow! This city is huge,. 

The only let down in Tokyo that I experienced were these manholes. As you know by now, Japan has really fun, diverse manholes. To quote Michael Scott, "Ladies, not your best effort."

HQC and I were wanting Mesican food. Not bad.

I missed the classic rice and beans that Globe Mesican food adds with their dishes. 

Fun little dessert. And ever girl knows desserts spelled backwards is stressed.

Speaking of desserts, who's ready for Cotton Candy? I am!

This is tht one famous intersection you've heard about. 

Look at them getting ready for the light to turn green.

The Asian Pear is excited. 

People AF.

Here are some more Nekid statues. Our favorite. 

Should I get a suit like that?

There's a fast food joint called Lotteria. They have this burger called the 4-Dan. It's four patties of meat and cheese. They flavor their burgers with pepper. I think only one of you knows that I love pepper, so for the rest of you, lemme tell you, I love pepper. This burger ain't cheap but it's worth it at least a couple dozen times. 

Fun little side street. 

We saw hundreds of people eating these and lining up. We had to. Just a giant slab of breaded chicken. Very good. 

We're getting our free 15 minutes in the massage chair. The nice attendant talked with us while we sat. She knew Spanish, too. You know, I've been able to speak more Spanish in Japan than I did in the 5 years living in Texas.

There's a famous story about this good doggie, Hachiko and his master. Click here to learn more.  

Fooled you guys, That's not the moon. Just a street light. "Got 'em!" (Jeremy clapping his hands).

The following props were used in the actual films of the Christopher Nolan Batman films. My favorite.

I'm Bane.

"Then you're gunna love me!"

I'm also Batman. When he's climbing out of the Pit. One of the top ten scenes in all of cinematic history. I'll wait.  

I don't know why I added this pic to show you guys. IF you even scrolled this far. Bunch of slackers. 

Love, love, love Japanese pancakes. 

They make them like how Trump likes his borders:

"Thicc."

No, this isn't something nasty. But it is rare. Delodorant. One of the many things I like about SE Asians - that has turned into a double edged sword for me - they don't stink. So hardly any of them use Deloderant. I would purchase mine from the Commissary on Base but I recently ran out. Having to find some out in the Wild was difficult to say the least. And I couldn't even find any Men's flavors. 

And that's a wrap for the day! Time to rest and prepare for the Sabbath - my Mom's favorite. 

Friends and Animals. Animals and Friends

What a great week! Lots of Tender Mercies and some unexpected detours/ mechanical failures. So we're hanging out in Sendai, having a great time. I go worship the Almighty at Church. Talk for a few hours afterwards with some of the members. And life is good. Later that day I get a message from one of them and he says he would like to take us out to eat and to drive around the City. We had a great time!

It's been over a month now of riding and I had yet to break a spoke. If you remember 12 years ago on my other cross-country trip, I broke numerous spokes. I was mitigating that by bringing extra with me. Thankfully I did because sure enough two were snapped today. Holly and I swapped bikes so she could ride mine since she's lighter. I like that we bought almost all identical items so we can swap and use each other's equipment, even bikes, without much fanfare or hassle. 

Why am I even talking right now? Let's go to the pics. And don't forget to check my last blog post and all the other ones you missed, too. I know how you guys are.

"Attention span of a moth."

Church in Sendai.

This is on top of a really tall building in the downtown area. Great views. 

Here's our buddy, Hiro. We are planning to meet up again when we get to Kysuhu.

Lunch on #thecurb. If my sister Lindsay ever looked at my blog she would like this. But since I only have 7 loyal fans. I hate everyone else. 

I didn't know bushes can go through Fall, too. Look how neat it is.

This was rich. Water litrilly came out of this rock. And yet my brother McKay says religion is a crock. 

 

Welcome to Fox Village! Look how they're just resting. 

"Shhhh shhh shhh. Just rest. It's OK."

I think a warmer day would have had more alert foxes, but they just wanted to sleep on this cloudy day. Kinda like teenage girls.

Little did you know foxes are a little spooky in real life. You don't know if this one is going to jump out and claw your face to Beep.

They made me wear a ask so we don't give Coronavirus to the foxes or some other nonsense.

When you step into the Fox Village its daunting. You open the door and they all stare at you. Some start to trot towards your direction and you don't know if they will run and bite you. There's no fence or anything to protect. But then again I'm a wuss. So maybe someone else with nerves of steel wouldn't feel the same way. 

I wanted to pet them because they are so soft, but you can't unless you want a Rabies Shot in your belly button. That's up there with passing a kidney stones or hemorrhoids. 

The foxes are nice though.

They're being good foxes. 

Here's a fun manhole.

New spokes!

Getting close to that Pacific again! Nevermind, that's another mountain range.

I love the Gates.

You guys probably missed my IG video I posted of the monkeys crossing the street. We were pushing our bikes up a steep hill and  we noticed poop on the ground. Poop. What is this? Then I see a bunch of critters crossing the road. I thought they were tanukis - the creature that Super Mario 3 is in. Alas, they were monkeys. About two dozen of them. It was all neat.

Me and the boys when we see a motorcycle passes by. I always have to call my mom after I see one.

I hadn't seen a single Pokemon manhole that I had heard all about. Then in just a few days I see three different ones.

Here's the closed roads from the radiation of the Nuclear powerplant meltdown from almost ten years ago. Ruined out plans.

At leas their English was intelligible. 

While resting at a gas station, A man walks up to use and asks if we had anywhere to stay for the night. We were just going to camp in the parking lot as we are wont to do. It was a cold night he said. Holly also didn't have her sleeping bag yet. So we took him up on his offer to stay at his cottage. And I'm soooo glad we did. It's all rich.

Here it is in the daylight.

The perfect size. I would just extend that deck farther out and wrap it around to the front door and it'd be the best.

See you can walk in right there.

I like the sunken table like traditional Japanese tables are.

I was able to scrub myself with soap, thankfully. It had been a few days.

I also used, The Can. Japanese bidets are the best. 

Full kitchen to use at our disposal.

Loft upstairs to sleep in.

Love this cottage.

Tunnels.

Lots of road work going on. They usually have a man standing there that directs traffic with a red flag telling you to stop and a green or white flag telling you to go.

I like when the bathrooms have a handy map telling you where to go. Some of the stalls are even lit up if they are currently occupied. Neat huh?

Sesame rice cream on the left and Yuzu on the right. I love anything Yuzu flavored and I have to try it when I see it. Yuzus are the Japanese lemons. I'm bringing back honey flavored Yuzu if you want to try it then.

See that tool in my hand? One of the cyclist that stayed with me in Iwakuni told me about it. Instead of bringing a heavy chain whip like I did for my last trip, you can use this little thing to remove the rear wheel cassette. It's great when you break spokes (which always are on the cassette side, dang the luck), you can do it yourself. This came a few days after I broke my two earlier this week.  

Friends.

I love this. The sign says to be careful for the sweet birdletts are above you resting in their nest. 

Now it's time for Tokyo. Next time.