Doyo no Ushi no Hi (a.k.a. Eel Day)

Today, July 30th, is National Eel Eating Day. In Japanese, the real word is "Doyo no Ushi no Hi" - for which there is a very long translation, but which I will shorten to say simply, "the hottest day of the year".

Eel is considered healthy and delicious, and it is regularly eaten any time of the year. However, since eel gives you stamina, in these hot days of summer when relief from the relentless heat and humidity is nowhere to be found and everyone is suffering from natsubate (summer lethargy) it makes sense that there would be a day designated especially to eating some eel.

On doyo no ushi no hi, supermarkets place advertisement flags around the shop and prominently display their various eels and eel dishes. Tonight after work when I went by the supermarket I noticed the display, and even a salesman with some freshly grilled eel for sale. The stamina promised by the adverts, added to the fact that I really didn't feel like cooking, led me to pick up an unagi-don bento to take home for our dinner tonight (unagi=eel; don=on rice; bento =packaged "lunch" box).

I'm feeling much better and have more stamina now

Here are some pics of our bento:

Weekends are too short...

Our week back to work was hectic, to say the least. However, we still had our weekend to enjoy. We went for a short-ish bike ride yesterday (we're still not exactly in top riding shape!), exploring one of our favourite trails (which we call "the golf course trail", since it terminates at a golf course). It's not a hard ride, and in fact, we occasionally do this trail in the morning before work - however, yesterday was our first day of hard(ish) riding in a while, so it was tough. We also varied our route on the way down, and found ourselves hike-a-biking through a road-come-river, over some logs, under some trees.... all in all, a good morning ride for our first Saturday in the Saddle.

Today, we did one of our longer rides - up to the "Fireroad", along the rolling hills of the fireroad for a few kilometres, and then descending via the "Snake River" route. Once we got back down to Susono, we decided to turn right instead of left, and climbed uphill a little bit more until we got to Gotemba City and our much cherished Gotemba Kogen Beer Hall.

Unfortunately, though throughout our ride the sun was hot and strong even through the haze of this late July weekend, no sooner had we reached the beer hall, with their lovely outdoor seating and a beer stall that opens at 10:00 a.m., than it started to rain.

We found a bit of shelter within an unfortunately unattractive structure that I presume the beer hall intends to be a lovely attraction, but it was shelter nonetheless, and the beer was cold and refreshing; and, need I say, it was also deserved!

What a Week!!

Let me tell ya, coming back to work from a vacation ain't no party!

We've had a busy (yet productive) week, catching up at work and starting a few new things. We also managed to get out for two short morning bike rides this week. I have to say, it's bizarre how long it takes to get in shape, and yet how quickly to get out of shape! I had to struggle on my Rig (a Single Speed, don't forget!) to get up what I usually consider a "warm-up" hill! However, the weather is acceptable (hot, hazy and humid - but not as much so as in previous Julys) and it does feel so good to be back on the bike again.

We are happy that we're back and getting into the swing of things - maybe we'll even blog more frequently again!

Two Turkey pics

We did spend a little time working on our photos. But just a little...

Though we still have a long way to go to put together a web album, here are two photos that we quite liked:

Back from Turkey

Whew! We made it back from Turkey with no troubles or travails. We got into Tokyo yesterday at about noon, and were home by about 4:30 p.m.

We had a really fantastic time in Turkey - two full days (three nights) in Istanbul, followed by eight days sailing along the Mediterranean coast.

Though we had just a short time in Istanbul, we packed our few days with plenty of activity. We were staying at the Side Hotel in the Sultanhamet area which meant we could walk to many of the sights. We spent a lot of time at the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia, which were also within sight of our hotel. Topkapi Palace was also just around the corner, so we spent about two hours there (really, you need more time there to fully appreciate its gandeur) before catching a day tour to take a trip along the Bosphorous river. We also made sure to visit the Grand Bazaar - a fascinating mini-city of shops and vendors hawking their wares. We spent a lot of time walking around in the Bazaar, but I still think we just barely scratched the surface!

Our time in the city was followed by a week of blissful cruising, where we explored a few port cities (Marmaris, Fethiye, Gocek...), swam and snorkeled in the sea, and spent some time catching up with family. I made a rough sketch of our sea journey here, in this Google Map.

We haven't had any time yet to really sort out our photos, but for now, here are just two shots from Istanbul:

Taken outside one of the little restaurants near our hotel - everything just has such a European flavour!



The Hagia Sophia - one of the most famous churches-come-mosques. Taken pre-dawn from the roof of the Side Hotel:

We're Going to Turkey

It’s Monday again, but a week has never seemed so short. That’s probably because we’re going on vacation for 12 days starting tomorrow.

We’re flying out of Narita tomorrow at about noon for a 12-hour flight to Istanbul, where we’ll spend a couple of days before heading down to Marmaris on the Aegean coast. The impetus for the trip comes from the prospect of a visit with Brian’s dad and Eileen, who are now in Turkey. We’re both really looking forward to a little exotic travel, tasty dishes and getting caught up with everyone’s news.

I've used Open Office Draw to put together a little flowchart of our travel itinerary. If anyone is interested in seeing our "path", just check out our schedule (in pdf format) here: http://www.japanrider.com/Turkey_Travel_Schedule.pdf

We’ll post from Turkey if we can, but otherwise, look for us on July 22^nd!

Riding Through Tea Fields

Living in Japan affords many delights, not the least of which is green tea. We are fortunate enough, in fact, to live in Shizuoka Prefecture, which is a major producer of the country's green tea, and though little Susono isn't a prime contributor, we still enjoy the pleasure of occasionally riding through the tea fields before the harvest.

We went for a good ride this morning, bathed in sunshine and silence, and rediscovered an old route that we hadn't taken in ages. We were presently surprised to burst out of the woods and into the clearing:

Rainy Season

It's Saturday again and we woke up this morning to the calming, gentle sounds of steadily falling rain. This bodes well for a day of enforced relaxation - but we sort of regret not going for a morning ride yesterday before work.

The rainy season, though, has been kind so far. Not much rain, and comfortable temperatures. Perhaps today can be a day to catch up on our numerous delayed projects...

Who's that kid?

My nephew found me on Facebook and added me as a friend. Naturally, I accepted, and was happy to see a few photos of him that he'd posted or tagged. Only - I wasn't sure it was him!

I visited my family, including my only niece and my only nephew, a few months ago in December.

Here's what nephew looked like on December 25th:


and here's what he looks like today, a few months later:



The difference between being 13 years old and 14, I guess:-)

(edit: Just corrected: He's actually 14; unbelievable!).

Another Update...

We want to blog about the exciting things we've been doing - except they've been mundane.

We want to blog about the novel experiences we've had - but they've been mundane.

Hence - we choose to blog about the mundane.

We had two good rides this weekend, and though going uphill was a slough on the singlespeed neither of us regrets throwing away our gears.

All is well that ends well.