Did not managed to meet Angel yesterday night. It was also raining in Iwakuni (Yamaguchi Prefecture which he is staying) and he decided to postpone our meet-up to some other days...
This morning, I went to meet Hashimoto-san outside his apartment at 8.30am and he brought me to watch him play ground golf in an elementary school (広瀬小学校).
View taken outside Hashimoto-san's house
Wow! Snow at the mountain top!!!
I was surprised with 2 things when I'm in the school. Firstly, 90% of the 100 plus people were senior citizens and secondly, he has registered for me to play in his team!!! Haha!!! There are 3 members in each team and the rules are similar to golf, ie to get the lowest number of hits possible to put the ball in the hole. This was the first time I'm playing this type of sports and I must really say, the senior citizens are very very good and accurate!!! This sport is easy to pick up and just have to get the initial feeling of hitting the ball right. I enjoyed myself and Hashimoto-san and I were always teasing each other whenever we went over-par. Hehe... But in the end, as expected, I was the last in my team (and Hashimoto-san got 2 hole-in-ones!) but we got 13th place out of 20 teams! That's quite good for me. Haha... All of us got some consolation prizes and at 12.15pm, Hashimoto-san and I left for home.
Hashimoto-san at his serious time...
Us competing with the other team...
Everyone was a winner!!!
I rested for a few minutes, ate my lunch and went out at 1.10pm. For the whole of today, Claire was not with me cause in the morning, she went to Internet Cafe to blog and chat with her boyfriend. Then later in the late afternoon, she went to one of our colleague's house to bake cookies. So I'm all alone today. Hence I decided to start another recce trip and this time, I will cycle to 宮島口 (Miyajima-guchi). 宮島 is a popular japanese tourist attraction and one of the top 10 sites to visit for the whole of Japan and it's in Hiroshima! So how can I not go and have a look? (But for this time round, I will only stop at the main island and not take the ferry to Miyajima Island) Hashimoto-san warned me in the morning that it takes around 3 hours by bicycle to reach there but still, I wanna carry on with my plan as the weather in the afternoon is sunny and good. Hence I started cycling at 1.15pm and I followed the tram's tracks at first. But along the way, the tracks and the road got diverted and I just cycled based on my gut's feeling... Along the way, I saw a few train stations (something like MRT and not tram station) and other shops that I have never seen before (I will explore these places in the future. :)) But the most unforgettable one was that while cycling for 1.5 hours, I actually saw another Gakkai shop whose name is コタケ too! Hence I went in and talked to the lady for a while and took a picture of the outside before I continued my exploration...
コタケ店 at 五日市...
The route seems like eternity and I just kept on cycling and cycling. It took me another one hour before I finally reached!!! Hooray!!! The time then was 3.45pm and I went around the train station taking pictures. Then I stopped at the ferry terminal to have my break for 20 minutes. As I rested, I ate some biscuits and looked at the beautiful view of the opposite island which is Miyajima. I will definitely be there within this two months to try their famous BBQ oyster, which is in season soon. =)
Miyajima Island. Can you see the red shrine at the left? It's a famous landmark for this Island. :)
Just nice that a patch of dark clouds came by and I took this shot...
Ferry Services to Miyajima. It can accomodate cars as well...
At 4.15pm, I made my way back. As I just started, I saw the road sign and it states 32km to Hiroshima! No wonder it took me so long to reach!!! So I should be cycling around 64km in total and it sounds like a bicycle marathon. Haha! On my way back, my legs start to feel the tiredness and began to feel like jelly. I had to make a few stops along the way to take a 5 minutes break before carrying on again. This time, I noticed that the sun sets at 5.45pm and it starts to get darker and colder. This was really a long long stretch of road and I wondered maybe I should take the 電車(train) next time instead of cycling. (unless Claire wants to try out! Haha... For the train, there are only 6 stations and it costs 320yen for a one-way trip.) And for the return trip, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes and I'm very happy to be back in my area. It was then 6.25pm and as I parked my bicycle and walked to my apartment, I was walking like my legs would collapse anytime! I cycled 4 hours and 40 minutes in total but don think I broke my record yet. (My record is still my favourite night cycling which I did during recess weeks. :)) But anyway, I rested in my apartment, ate my dinner and read up a bit before having an early night...
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