Long Weekend

Monday is a national holiday - keiro no hi, which can be roughly translated as Respect for the Aged Day. There's nothing special going on that we know about - no festivities or anything. But we are certainly enjoying the extended weekend!

Our weekend began on Friday night, and we celebrated with dinner and a couple of beers at Ryoba, a chain izakaya in Numazu.




Yesterday we took advantage of the perfect late-summer weather with a long (grueling!) bike ride in the mountains, finishing the ride at the Gotemba Kogen Beer Hall. The Kogen brews its own beer, and has a large area where people can enjoy their beer outdoors. Yesterday was an extra special treat as the Kogen is having festivites and selling special beer for Oktoberfest.

We enjoyed the beer, and so did this giant wasp who insisted on having a peice of the action: