Mark backdates this entry from the 14th
after waking up from the spooky inn, we packed our stuff and made way to the kombini (convenience store). angelo wasn’t doing too well with the japanese food, but i like to pack it down before riding. especially since it’s still flat, and thus unlikely that i’ll redline my engine too soon and throw up. it would be a long day in the saddle. i don’t remember too much about that ride…it wasn’t terribly scenic…in fact it could have been anywhere florida, germany (the boring parts), what have you.
we get to gifu, go to the train station info center, and we manage to find a hotel called Monthly Sho. it’s a kind of business hotel, ie tiny rooms. one thing that sticks out is the tiny bathroom. it looks like it could have been popped out of a single fibre-glass mold…like the toilet seems molded into the wall. and they have a high-efficiency flush that sounds like an airplane toilet. evrything seems to be built light and cheap.
we went to get dinner and find an internet cafe, which had a keyboard that utterly confounded me. the restaurant and internet cafe were located in a large shopping corridor that you don’t really see in states. it’s hard to explain without pictures (for now at least), but imagine a shopping mall that was covered but open at the ends. bikes and even cars can drive through, but otherwise it feels a lot like a mall through, but without any large department stores.
one section has a ceiling of arrayed coloured light strips that sequentially illuminate to create waves of traveling colour. this was the section that contains all the hostess bars and other seedy establishments. i told angelo in no uncertain terms that now would be an inappropriate time to use the japanese word for “mafia”. it’s ” yakuza”, shhhhhhhhh
we made it back to the hotel wothout being fleeced of our yen by hookers or gangsters. but the next day the rains arrived…..