North in Niimi

This past weekend I finally made the trip up Rt. 180 to Niimi. I left on Friday afternoon, although not early enough because the dark caught up to me right around Takahashi. Therefore, I decided it would be much smarter to ride the train the rest of the way. Upon buying my ticket and asking the person in the station if it was okay to ride the train with my bike (not bothing to take it apart since I figured the train would be empty and this is somewhat annoying). He assured me it was.

The train pulls in and the conductor will not let me on the train. In fact, as I attempt to get on anyways, two people come running out and hold me back. I was very angry, stating I had a cover and could disassemble the bike... but alas, too late. I was plumb out of luck, and my reasoning of "Do you want me to ride to Niimi without a light?" went unanswered.

I had to finish the rest of the 37km or so in the night, and that was not fun or safe.

In Niimi I stayed with Yarek (in Phil's old place, wow, what a tiny corner in the world). Good times were had, and the best moment of the weekend was the ride up 27km north to a really nice onsen where we washed up, then afterwards proceeded into the "relax room" and took a 2 and a half hour nap. It was without a doubt, completely relaxing. Luckily the return trip was clearly all downhill, taking half the amount of time!

John's replacement (the one who was arrested and finally fired) has also arrived. She is a Japanese/German (Japanese was her first language) from Seattle named Barbra. I believe she was hand-picked for this position for several reasons:
1. She speaks pretty much fluent Japanese, thus there are no communication problems with taxi drivers or anybody else for that matter.
2. She is a woman, and I believe the school wanted a women since generally speaking they do not drink as much as men and are generally speaking more mature.
3. She is half Japanese thus familiar with the culture and wouldn't get in any hairy sitations.

So yeah, a good fit. Although, to give you an idea of the ridiculousness of Japan, her school told her that "John had to go home all of a sudden..." not having decided on whether or not they would tell her what really happened. Did they really think that she would not find out? Wow, I found that lie outright pretty amazing.

Next up, beach tournament in Fukuoka. I am in charge of the team, so I have to do some booking for hotels, for overnight buses, and furikomi payment for the team. Wow, responsibility! Here's to not being a captain, talk about much easier to just go than actually organize!