Adam's cycling training journal

It rained all day today so I didn't even go near my bike.

Instead, I went on a road trip with Michi and some friends of hers. We went to Esan to see the Azalea festival which was several days early - most of the flowers had not started blooming but it was lovely to walk around in the rain.

After having a drink at the Esan Onsen we were invited by the master to go to their onsen, which we did. It was not so hot which suited me, and the bathroom was really beautiful. It was small, old and with a blue/green floor and yellow walls which had been stained irreparably and perfectly by the rust coloured water. This, with the deep green trees and deep pink flowers just outside the open windows made for an extremely tranquil place.

So after that we went back to Hakodate then went to my favourite okonomiyaki restaurant. (It's like Japanese pizza) Five of us spoke four languages - Japanese, English, French and German but not one person spoke all! It was really fun.

Right now I feel very content and very full, I've been eating almost non-stop since yesterday afternoon. Ahhhh. :-)

Hello!
Nothing about bikes this afternoon - I was sent a great youtube clip the other day and thought obliged to share it with you.
Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4&eurl=http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml
Enjoy!

Strangely, this has nothing to do with cycling...

A couple of photos which you might find interesting. The first is a typical Japanese campground - in a beautiful location, right next to a lake, no mozzies, hot spring only a 10 minute walk away. The funny thing for us was that 80% of the tents were identical! It could make for an interesting scene if you got lost returning from the toilet during the night....

The other two are of Goryokaku Park yesterday. It's cherry blossom time! Three days a year the cherry trees look like they are covered in popcorn, it's amazing. Everyone goes to the park to check them out and have barbeques and stuff. It's impossible to walk more than 20 metres without running to friends and acquaintances!

which tent? This is at the Onuma Lake campground. Looks like there was a sale of Coleman tents recently	Cherry Blossoms This is in Goryokaku Park. It was full of people chilling out, enjoying the cherry blossoms and the sun. A great atmosphere
goryokaku tower this is only 1km from the centre of town!

Well hello again!
It has been a while since I last updated, sorry. We finally got the internet connected yesterday.....
Things have been pretty busy since the end of February. After a few days in the new apartment my brother came from Melbourne, we spent two weekends in a row up at Niseko, enjoying snow whose quality increased monotonously while we were there. The last couple of days were epic!
Then my body said 'right time for a break' as my neck went right out of adjustment and I couldn't even raise my arms to change shirts. Pretty scary. A couple of trips to a chiropractor and another week of rest saw that in good form again. It made me realise how important health is!
Last week was the last week for me at the YWCA. I helped the new teacher get the hang of the classes and introduced him to the students. It was sad to say goodbye but things must move on. I've had a couple of meetings at my news jobs, a girls' high school and Future University. Things start there this week but only lightly. Next week is a normal schedule.
I will try to spend the next few days updating my cycling trips, and upload some Niseko photos for you both.
Until then....

Some of you are interested in Hakodate - where it is and what's around it. I had a look on the net and found a basic map with place names and a clear satellite image without place names. And a Japanese map.

basic map

satellite image

Japanese map

You can zoom in and out.

Our new apartment is just next to the star shaped fort/park which is easy to see in the satellite photo. It has hundreds of cherry trees and in spring they bloom at exactly the same time, it's amazing.

Some places you may have read of in the cycling journals are;
Onuma, the lake to the North, not named. 28 km from Hakodate,
Toi, the small village to the East, 25km from Hakodate, and
Moheji (the tiny village to the West), 25km from Hakodate.

Hope that helps make things a little clearer.

I moved apartments this weekend, and though I felt a little bad at missing a couple of bike training days, on reflection it was a lot more exercise than I expected.

My old apartment is on the third floor (in Australia, that is the second floor) and the new one is on the fourth floor (3rd in Oz). So, carrying my worldly possessions down two flights of stairs, into the car, then up three flights of stairs is pretty hard work! That's everything, including 4 summer car tyres, 36 litres of kerosine and 183kg of muesli (never go shopping when you are hungry and about to move house!)

On Sunday, because I was warm from exercising, I didn't wear anything more than a thin jumper and a tshirt, even though it was about 0degrees all day. Bad move. Hot and cold then hot and cold is not good. So I was tired and yesterday I had a nice sore throat. Today it's better but I'm still tired (obviously recovering).

Nothing to do but rest and eat lots of good food....

This is awesome.
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This was my first full week back at work after about a month.
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And today a former student who is half way through a two year ballet course in Melbourne came and visited me at work. We had a cup of tea and talked for an hour about her life there. She's changed a lot, become more grownup in a way that would not have been possible if she had stayed here.

Today was the first decent cold day, with a maximum of 1.7 degrees. The snow that fell last night stayed on the trees and some roofs but melted from the road. Tomorrow will be a blistering 4 degrees. I must get winter tyres put on my car. And rememeber to wear gloves when I ride to work.

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I went for a drink after work today (the cake cooking class was good but the first cake was sweet and too soft in the middle. The second one was much better. But I digress) with a friend who works for a hotel somewhere in Hokkaido.
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This was emailed to me ages ago and it came up in conversation last night.... Apparently real responses to a quiz show.

FAMILY FORTUNES

1) Something a blind man might use? - A Sword

2) A song with the word Moon in the title? - Blue Suede Moon

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