Sunshine and small hills.

A little bit more about Friday. 

The country side around Biei is just beautiful, i had the most pleasant day. After riding back to the town centre and returning the bikes we went off to try and find a restaurant in which to find a nice cold beer.  We walked up and down the main street and it wasn't looking like we were going to find any where as most of the cafes were closed. After a while we found a small yellow painted building that looked somewhat like a cottage house, that was selling beer. Two chilled glasses of Sapporo Star were a perfect end to our time in Biei. 

The train from Biei to Asakikawa was a the Norokko, a scenic  train that was a little slower then the local train, had windows that you could open and seats that faced the window so that sightseers don't strain there backs turning to look out the window ( ok that is not the reason but the seats did face the windows). Traveling by train is so mu ch fun, it is nic e to b able to look out of the window and look at the towns we pass, and the tiny little JR ( Japanese Rail) huts that they have at each station. Some of theses buildings  are just little boxes with seats in them with a big green sign that says JR on them, but they are all slightly different looking and I enjoyed spotting them as we went through each station. 

Back in Asahikawa we went to the supermarket to but groceries for dinner. So far we have decided to cook our own food when posable to save the hassle of finding vegetarian food and ensuring that we are eating protein. Back at the hostel we cooked up a stir fry which was very tasty if I do say so myself, we have been very fortunate that all our self cooking has worked out well so far.  Although I found out last night that one of the sauces we out on the stir fry is meant for putting on BBQ meat and when I tried to use the same sauce on Saturday night, the two Japanese university students that were in the hostel keep giving telling me that it was not for stir fry and were politely persistent that I not use it in my stir fry. Over dinner Isao offered us saki and we sat around drinking saki, eating the rock mellon I had bought and  talking with him a the other guests until 11pm. It is so nice to try out my limited Japanese with our hosts and the Japanies guests, it is so great to have David here as I he has a better knowledge of Japanese then I do and so I can ask when I don't know or forget a word, or am worried about the pronunciation.