Uki opened a new Chample restaurant! This one is in famous Kamakura, the next town to his first one. Yukino and I went for the opening night and found it was packed, inside and out. I hadn't seen all the staff for a while so when I walked in I felt at home with everyone yelling "Roooorryyy!"
It was great to see everyone and all the hardwork they put in to make the new place. Most of the material was sourced from the side of the road or junk piles. The outcome is a very cute and cozy place. It's much smaller than the Ofuna one but it has a great location on one of the roads to some famous, touristy temples that should bring them good business. If that doesn't, the food will. The following is not from there however. Just a normal izakaya. Chample was too busy for food that night :p
The farther was very proud and eager to show off his little plot of land he uses for farming. I saw how happy he was when I said I wanted to see it so off we went. Only a short walk from the house, he was growing a variety of vegetables and what not. I told him I like manual labor (I do miss it now) and off he went and returned with a tool to get to work with!
Back at the house, we headed inside to join the older folk for some oldfolk fashioned drinking and eating-
Not my favorite but they are okay-
With little to do we headed off to karaoke-
This was my first time hearing Yukino sing karaoke and she is amazing! Her voice sounds like a jpop singer! The uncle came along well which was a hoot. He was super nice and insisted on paying for everything and sing a few songs himself.
Back at the house, Yukino found a fun Mt. Fuji hat-
Sleep, wake up, hit the road. We stopped at the famous Gotemba Outlets. I wasn't in the mood for shopping but I thought it was a good opportunity to go. The place was PACKED! Just another instance I was happy to be able to skip an hour of car traffic with my bike. The Outlets has a ton of great shops with pretty decent prices. This weekend was special for some reason and many of the shops had great deals. After searching for a while, I ended up with a great Reebok wind breaker that is all the rage here. Yukino didn't get anything-
It was then time to head home. I picked a great mountain pass to take that would have provided us great views of Mt. Fuji, but today was not one of those lucky days to see it. None the less, it was a great ride back up and over some mountains and through farmlands. Overall, it was a great three day trip and won't be a our last if I can help it.
After seeing the "don't leave your cat or dog" sign, we saw a large animal trap with food in it. Strange. We walked on and around the corner we came upon this sight-
First was tons and tons of garbage. Next was an old bus filled to the brim with crap. After that was, well, a dog kennel. A crudely built, dog kennel. In the middle of nowhere. You can just make out the eyes of the dogs-
There must have been 30 separate dog cages. Maybe half were occupied. We could tell someone was maintaining it but it seemed like it had been a while since they were there last.
Just past this, where this picture was taken, were about 10 junked cars piled up. Weird. We walked a tad farther but the sun was setting fast and it was time for dinner. Up the embankment next to the road, I spotted 3 or 4 dogs in the woods. Hmmm. We asked the inn owner about this road and the weird dog kennel. They had no idea where the road went. I thought it was strange that the never ventured down the road they live on. About the dog kennel, they had little info as well. They said that a man started it but the town wanted to keep it under wraps. They weren't sure if the man still comes around. Poor dogs.....
Anyway, it was time for dinner! There were two kinds of fish, sashimi, fresh wasabi, some heated soup thingy, pickles, miso soup, some gobo (burdock) salad and of course rice. Overall, wonderful-
The fish in the foreground was great-
They had a cute hotspring that we could both go into together. Onsens with someone you like is very romantic in my mind.
Bed and then breakfast! Salad, pickles, half cooked egg, more gobo and more rice-
We had a little time before we had to get out so I decided to find the end of the road by myself on my bike. I was quite surprised at how far it went and wanted to give up a few times when the road was flooded or incredibly steep but my sense of curiosity with Japanese roads is insatiable and had to press on. At the end was a hiking trail. And a small work truck. With strange small tank treads on the path. AHGGH! I was so curious that I had to jog to see where it went . On and on and on. Eventually, I HAD to turn back due to time. It was such a horrible feeling not getting to the end of the mystery.
We still had a very busy day ahead of us so we set off as soon as I got back. Riding from the North we had one of the best views of Mt. Fuji I have ever seen-
A clear view of Mt. Fuji is very rare and I wanted to get around Lake Yamanaka for a good photo. Even with racing there at breakneck speeds (for a tiny engine!), a cloud managed to form. Oh well, still a nice photo-
Here is a good idea of what grown men look like riding those small bikes pictured earlier. I love these guys!
Over and down some more mountains, we arrived-
Nice view from the BBQ area-
Gotemba is an interesting city. Its very spread out with no trains or subways. I hear there is really only one bar. Most people drive to a watering hole and call a driver service to take them and their car home. With it being so spread out, there is plenty of room for farming-
Two friends provided some pre BBQ entertainment. They were recreating a famous old music video which they played on the PC on the table. Its a shame he didn't actually sing it-
After preparing what seemed like waaayyy too much food, the BBQ started. It was interesting mix of people. Because it was at our friend's parents place, the parents were of course there as well as the cute grandma that lives there. The uncle and his wife came and were really nice also. Then there was the mix of random friends and one baby. Every BBQ has one baby.
The dad was really cool and liked wearing my shoes-
