"That's @#%#@$ Teamwork!"

A day and a half ago Chris had a few hours free time before rehearsal so we decided to go on a little adventure. We want to be able to travel around Aichi (the prefecture - like a State in America- that Handa City, Nagoya, and many other towns and cities reside in) without relying on Coz and the rest of Aichiyo to drive us around. So we needed to find the train station...this was a team effort.

Chris got online and googled for a map of Handa City. It was all in Japanese, but he was able to deduce the station, as well as a few landmarks.

Our next tool was in the form of my knowledge of a portion of the city (this comes from all of the running around I do here most days). He showed me the map and I knew exactly where I several of those landmarks were. Unfortunately, they were a pretty long ways away. FORTUNATELY, Michi said we could borrow bikes whenever we needed to.

One more "unfortunately." In our experience, it only rains in Aichi twice a month. Of course, we've only been here one month, so there is some room for error in this result. :) In any case, we happened to be in the middle of one of those days.

In fact, here I am navigating my through Handa City in the rain via bicycle.





At one point, the rain was getting a little heavy so your heroes opted to duck for cover under this bicycle parking area.

It turns out that the aforementioned bicycle parking area was outside of this small grocery store. We decided to check it out where we were greeted by an abundance of free samples and an ample supply of baked goods.

Here is one of your heroes now, stuffing his face with this cake/banana/whipped cream creation.

The women at the bakery started inquiring "Oishi? Oishi? Oishi? Oishi???" Thankfully that was one of the few words I know (Delicious? Delicious? Delicious? Delicious???) and I was able to respond (once I finished chewing) with a swiftly executed, "Hay! Honto oishi cata! Arigato gazeimastus!" (Yes! It is very delcious! Thanks you so much!). They nodded approvingly.

When the rain slowed, we were back on our merry way. After a stop at a sports store (I'm on the prowl for a Japanese National Team or Nagoya J-League Team soccer jersey as well as a Nagoya Dragons 2006 Division Champions baseball hat) we found our destination...the Handa City train station!

Here's part of the inner shop and ticket counter area. Chris is taking a picture of a map (mostly in Japanese, of course) we can figure out what lines we need to take to get to wherever we're looking to journey.

We spent a few minutes looking from store to store when we came to this beauty. I hadn't eaten in awhile, so naturally I made a few purchases here. Four, to be exact. At the bottom front of the picture, you will see one of my favorite danishes. It is the one with a "sunny side up" egg on top...the bread itself is sort of like a piece of french toast. Honto oishi cata.

After leaving the train station, we ventured around for a little longer. I was trying to find a bookstore in Handa City that sells novels in English, but haven't been able to yet. I've been to two in Nagoya...but that's not very convenient to get to. I've read two books and have almost finished a play since I've been here...so my supply of literature in english is dwindling.

We found a few bars which we didn't go to...but definitely took note of. Found a curry house...and then went into one more sports store. They did have the jersey I was looking for...but it was so much money. Junt says that when he goes back to Thailand he can get me a good Jersey from any country with my name on the back (in whatever language I want) for 10 bucks. He said he can get me a crappy one with the same feature for 2 bucks! The Thais often tell us about all of the unauthentic stuff you can get in their home country. "Fake rolex...5 US dollars!"

Welp...that about wraps it up for now. I'll leave you with this nighttime shot of a street in Handa City during our ride back.