Tabemono, Nomimono and a weekend of adventure

So once again sleep evaded me, thank-you jet lag. I’m sure it’ll sort itself out soon. It was Saturday and I was up at 6 in the morning what was that all about. Though I’d not slept much through the night either. Still it did mean I could get my first skype call to the rents, was great to finally chat with them . I decided to do a bit of yoga to chill out and set me up for the day, and then proceeded to watch some anime live, something I’d been trying to do since I got here. It was rubbish but novel.

So after that it was on to the cafeteria for breakfast with the usual “Kore wa nan desu ka? Sumimasen kairoi to nyusein areguri desu, kore wa daijobu desu?” I eventually managed o sort myself with something to eat, miso, rice, salmon and some veg.

After a bit of discussion over some green tea, myself Cheung and Liam decided it would be a cool idea to rent some bikes and go for an adventure around the site and into Harima. We went to the front desks and picked up the keys to our trusty steeds. They were free to rent which was awesome.  We had a few initial hiccups getting the tires pumped up but after that we were good to go. We started off with a quick peddle round the synchrotron itself. It’s a really impressive structure in itself although as the beam is down right now for maintenance. We also had a better look at the XFEL. This thing is massive, there is a really slender pipeline that runs the length of it which is the 1km long beamline, involved in a lot of testing of optical sensors.

So with the facility satisfactorily traversed we continued on into Harima Garden city. It was all down hill on the way so we whizzed into town quickly. The place is admittedly a little bare. There are a couple of science facilities, 2 schools (a high school and an elementary school) and part of Hyogo University. There was also a little shopping precinct called Hyogo plaza. There were a few things there like a bank, supermarket, post-office and a restaurant with loads of plastic food outside. I’d heard about this but it really is a site to see in reality, apparently making plastic food for menus is big business in Japan.

  We popped into the co-op there to buy exciting things. I go some dango, sweets made from glutinous rice flour and sugar on a stick and the bento I’d been dreaming of, yum yum. Cheung also made us try so red bean paste ice-lollies. Odd but still very tasty. I also grabbed some snacky stuff to bring back, including some cereal if I got fed up of the traditional Japanese brekkie.

So fed and watered we thought it would be a good idea to check out the rest of Harima. Like I said earlier there wasn’t much else to see but we had fun tackling some of the brutal, and I mean it when I say brutal, hills around the area. We finished at Hyogo University science facility. It was very, erm, brown there was a cool rock in the centre that I took a piccie of. We turned back and slogged our way back upto the main gate of Spring8, the worst part of all the down hill on the way here, the up hill on the way back. Back into the guest room. I mooched about on the internet for a bit and fell asleep, and didn’t wake up till eight the next day whoops.

Sunday morning I was a bit groggy probably the result of missing dinner (again). I strolled down to the cafeteria for another unusual breakfast. Irashaimasei, I’m not going to lie here that phrase is starting to great. Literally said every time you enter a shop, restaurant whatever, and means welcome your money.

Everyone was still knackered so we all went back to our rooms. I picked up a can of grape fanta. One of my goals out here has been to drink as many odd drinks as possible. This is for two reasons. One there are just sooo many on offer, including hot beverage vending machines. Two when I was at the height of my disorder I’d always found it terrifying to  drink ‘calories’ for a lot of reasons I won’t go into. Anyway I’m putting up a collection of the ones I’ve had so far. The one with the weird blue thing proclaims itself to be delicious (Oishii) and it didn’t lie. The chocolate soda with Alice in wonderland stuff on was my fave so far though.

After a bit of reading, Internet browsing and cleaning my climbing boots it was time for lunch, a dish called ka-san to kodomo (mother and child), which is chicken and eggs over noodles. I didn’t get a picture sadly forgot my camera it was tasty though.

Cheung was still tried and went back to bed but Liam and me felt like a bt more exploring and so jumped a bus to Aioi the nearest town. It was a 30-minute bus ride and I couldn’t help notice how rural the area was, so many rice paddies. We really are a ways out here. It was cool to see some traditional Japanese housing as well instead of the apartment blocks which are everywhere in the big cities.

We wandered around for quite a while, though there wasn’t much going on really it being a Sunday. There were quite a few people on bikes, or cars with megaphones shouting something about various candidates for a local election I think. That was the impression I got anyway.

Anyway Aioi was pretty cool though rather small. It seemed to be mostly residential. We walked along the ‘river’ which I think may have just been drainage and I noticed some cool slap. I had a quick look to see if it was bouldering suitable, I may have to come back to this later. We continued down the road, passed what looked like a garden centre (I snapped a pick for you dad). We has a pit stop in a 7 eleven where I got some One piece tack (yay) and then down the main high street.

Most places where disappointingly closed but I did get a look into a rather cool looking pottery shop. At the end of the road we came across a massive convenience store. Had to look inside really didn’t we? I’m no good in massive shops I get totally bewildered and it was even worse now everything was in Japanese. I did manage to find some studio gibli inspired dishcloths and a wall of capsule dispensers (little plastic things with collectables inside A.K.A more one piece tack).

Inside was also a rather extensive bookshop. Couldn’t help myself really had to have a look around. So much stuff in there and none of it I could understand. They had a manga section and I was determined to buy something. Unfortunately I didn't know what everything was and as manga can be about anything I didn’t want to risk picking up something dodgy. After a while deliberating I picked something that looked violent and boyish. The guy at the counter asked me if I was an English teacher, Gyako sama eigago sensei desu ka? (I guess they get a lot of em over). Book bought we headed back for dinner and an early night, medical time and a tour of the facility tomorrow I think.

Oh also we found this cool bug next to the vending machines in reception. I think it’s some kind of centipede. The Japanese word for bug is mushi.

Matte ne.