At the international center there are a variety of Japanese classes. I decided to start going to a class that is held on Friday mornings. This morning I was a bit in a rush so I stopped at a convenience store along the way to get some breakfast. What better way to get ready for Japanese class than with sushi and ice coffee. Now, these foods might not go together traditionally but hist the spot in the morning. Ice coffee is something that I wish was more popular in the US. Hot coffee in the summer time is not as appealing. In Japan ice coffee can be bought for the same price as soda or water.

Bicycles are a common form of trasportation in Japan. Just as when many people need to park their car a need for parking lots arises when a lot of people need to park their bicycle the need for a bicycle parking lot arises. Here is a shot that is very prevalent in Japan, a sea of functional bicycles used for transportation. Do not forget to lock your bike though. You don’t have to lock it to anything you just have to make sure the wheels do not turn. Most bikes have a locking mechanism that secures the rear wheel built into the bike.

The Japanese class is put on by a volunteer group. It is very similar to the “Hello Nihongo” class that I had in Himeji. It is only 100 yen for a single lesson. That is about enough to cover copier costs for lesson plans. I will make sure to get my generous teachers something at the end of the class.

On the way home I noticed a strange depression in a rice field close to my house. It looked as if a 500 pound gorilla leaped from the sidewalk into the field, laid down, and leaped back. Perhaps it was aliens. Most probably it was a rice harvesting machine parked for a few moments, but I still do not know how it got into the field without track marks.