Running in Toi

In a few days I will be climbing Fujisan. Well... hopefully. The weather forecast has been predicting thunderstorms. Oooh! But I just checked the weather now. Now it just shows only a 20% chance of "trace amounts" of rain. So it looks like it might be OK now! I hope it stays that way!

Anyways... I figured I should do some exercising so that I'm not totally out of shape when I climb Mt. Fuji. So I've been running in the evenings. I run from my apartment to the Traveler's Cape which is about 1.5 miles away. Sometimes I go even a little further. So I usually run nonstop for about 2 miles and then alternate between walking and running for the rest of the way home. I know it's not really that far, but I've never been able to run so much in my life. It used to be hard for me to run a mile nonstop, now I can run 2 or even a little more. I think it's the pretty views that motivate me to keep running further.

Now that the Fujisan climb is just a few nights away I've decided just to walk to save some energy. So tonight I took a walk to the Traveler's Cape and took my camera with me. Here are some pictures along the route that I run!

Here's the start of my run.

These greenhouses have flowers in them. I guess they must grow them for florists or something because when they start to bloom they cut them all and put them in trucks and haul them away. There are a lot of beer cans on stakes in there too. I guess to scare animals away. Probably birds... I don't see any other animals here.

There's an old collapsed barn and some rice.

Then I cross the yellow pedestrian bridge.


Here's the view from the yellow bridge.

Then I'm along the main road.


What's up with that tree?

There's the bus stop I usually use.

There are a lot of places without railing and you could easily fall into the creek.

There are a lot of gardens in Toi. Houses don't have much yard space, but when they do have room, it is usually filled with a garden. This area doesn't belong to the surrounding houses (well that's what I'm guessing because when people work in these gardens they usually have their car or bike parked along the street). I think they are lots that people can rent or something.

I like this house for some reason. I think it's the arches and the windows that stick out. It's not a typical Japanese house.

I skipped quite a bit here because the sun was setting and I wanted to make it to the Traveler's Cape before dark.

Here is a side street that I pass by.


I love Japanese mail boxes.

This is actually down a side street and not exactly where I run, but I can kind of see it from the main street.

There is a Mexican restaurant in Toi. Random, isn't it? I want to go sometime but you have to make reservations.

I think I found it! If you have read my past posts, I wrote one about trying to find the entrance to this trail (in Odoi which is near the traveler's cape) but I never found it and some senile old lady was convinced I was lost (you can read about it here). There is an entrance to the trail from Toi as well and I think I know where it is now. Yay!

I love Japanese vending machines. I can get pineapple juice! I also love them because I have never had one give me the wrong drink or not take my money or not give me change.

I use vending machines waaaaaay more in Japan than I did in the US. I do a lot more walking in Japan (well except for walking to class in college) and there are vending almost everywhere I go. It's hot outside and even if I take a drink with me, it's usually gone before I reach my destination and I get thirsty again.

I don't really know, but maybe those big nets on the ground are fishing nets... I don't know...

Then the road begins to just follow the coast. The sidewalk is really nice!


There are many onsen (click "onsen" to find out what they are) and hotels in Toi. A lot of the guests at the hotels walk around outside in the hotel yukatas.


I can't figure out how that guy got down there. People here fish in some crazy places!

Yay! Finally at the Traveler's Cape! This view is looking back towards Toi.

Here is the statue at the Traveler's Cape.

When I got back home I ate some tacos. I bought the tortillas at the import store at the mall, but all the rest of the stuff came from Aoki, the local grocery. It's lettuce, avacado (I tried to make it into guacamole but I didn't have anything to mash it), tomato, salsa, and cheese. They're yummy! :)

The soda bottle is actually filled with water in this picture, but I bought the soda at the 100 yen store yesterday. It's melon cream soda... mmmm! :)

Randomness

Here are a bunch of random pictures. They're not in any particular order. Hamtaro van!!!


This was my meal at Mos Burger (a Japanese fast food chain). It's a nan taco (Indian nan bread with taco stuff on top), french fries, and melon soda. It was pretty good. They also had nan dogs, which were hot dogs with nan bread instead of a bun. I saw nan dogs at another restaurant too.


There is a little shrine between the train station and Sun to Moon (the mall). I need to find out the significance of the cucumbers and spilled rice.

I bought a yukata!

I bought this at Sun to Moon. It was called Panda! Panda! It was filled with custard. It was okay. But it was soooooo cute!!!!

The park near Sun to Moon had a cool view of Fuji-san! There's only a tiny bit of snow left.

The manhole cover outside of Mishima Hirokouji Station is really pretty! :)

Last weekend I got on the wrong bus. At Shuzenji station there are numbered parking spots for the buses. There are signs in front of each spot, but the spots are also have the numbers painted on them. There are two spots that are both #1. In the past only one of the #1 spots had the number painted on it. Apparently they recently painted both of them. As I was walking towards the bus I quickly counted towards the #3 bus (the one I was supposed to get on). I heard it start up which meant it was about to leave, so I hurried onto the bus... the #4 bus.

This bus took the same route as the Toi bus for about the first 15 or 20 minutes. I had just bought a Nintendo DS and I was absorbed in playing with it. I didn't look outside the window for a while. When I finally did we were in a really pretty forest. People were getting off at some hotel where they were being greeted by women in kimonos and there was a pretty bridge. It was really beautiful! But it was also NOT where I was supposed to be.

I asked the driver if he was going to Toi (I knew he wasn't, but I asked anyway to let him know I was on the wrong bus). He then told me that this bus returned to Shuzenji Station. So he drove for a while more through more pretty areas. It went on a lot of one lane roads. At one point we met another car, and the car had to go backwards for about a minute to get to a place where we could pass each other. I would not want to drive in this area!

Finally we reached a spot where he turned around to go the other way. That's where I took the picture above. The driver got off the bus for a bathroom break. He also bought a tea for himself and one for me. He also didn't make me pay since I was on the wrong bus.

So finally we arrived at the stop where this route begins overlapping the Toi route and I switched buses there. But when I was at the bus stop I realized I had left one of my shopping bags on the bus! :( It was the bag with my Tide laundry detergent (I can't buy it in Toi), a spoon, and some stickers. It wasn't anything irreplaceable, but still annoying.

But overall, taking the wrong bus wasn't too bad. I saved a couple dollars on the bus because I didn't pay for the first bus and was on the Toi bus for only a portion of the normal trip. I also got a free bottle of tea and saw a really beautiful area of the Izu Peninsula... wherever I was. I think I was somewhere in the central part of the peninsula south of Shuzenji.

At the local supermarket they had bags of dried fruit and bags of dried vegetables near the checkout. I saw them while in line. The dried fruit was probably more yummy but the vegetables looked more interesting. It was dried carrots, green beans, okra, and sweet potato (both the regular kind and the purple kind). It was actually all pretty good except for the green beans. I still ate the green beans too though.


This pack had a Cola Kit Kat and a Lemon Squash Kit Kat inside. The lemon one was pretty good, but the cola one was gross. I don't like cola stuff though. I know many other ALTs who have tried this one and most of them really like the cola one.

I thought the bottle was so adorable! It tasted good too! I don't like watermelon itself, but I usually like watermelon flavored stuff.


The river in Shuzenji has gotten really green and pretty! :)


This is the door to a shopping center in Numazu. I thought it was soooooooooo cute! :)

Fancy digital price tags!

Blueberry Daifuku (blueberry filled mochi). SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I bought this near the station in Numazu. I haven't been able to find fruit mochi anywhere really close to where I live, so I was super excited. It's probably good that it's further away otherwise I would be buying this all the time. It was perfect on a hot day because it was nice and cold. :) They had many other flavors including strawberry, banana, kiwi and some others I can't remember right now.

The chocolate raspberry Kit Kat was my favorite! The Aloe Yogurt (weird, huh?) one wasn't bad, but not one of my favorites.

This picture was taken at 4:19 AM. TOOOO early for a sunrise!!! Japan really needs daylight savings time.

This crane hung around here for a couple days.

Here's a bento I bought at the grocery store. It had a couple onigiri (the rice things), a hard boiled egg, a couple pieces of fried chicken, and a hot dog. Delicious!

I got a really cute Mickey pudding keitai (cell phone) strap at Disney Sea.

I love keitai charms. :)

I finished the puzzle!

Mmmmmm... pizza. :) I don't have an oven or a toaster oven, but I am able to make this on my stove. The corn cost 99 yen. It was really good. So a couple days I was craving it again. I went to the grocery just to buy some corn, and it was 199 yen a piece! So expensive! I really wanted it though... heh.


I love cute stickers! :)


Vessel in the Fog... such a random name. It's tasty though!

I bought and made another puzzle. Tokyo Tower!

I love these chocolates with different fillings. There are many different boxes with different assortments of flavors. This particular one has strawberry cheesecake, chocolate, orange sherbet, and vanilla.

I used the cute stickers to decorate my phone. :)

This mechanical pencil is so super cute. :) The melon soda can on top has liquid in it. The notebook behind is Mamegoma. It has nice gridded paper for me to practice writing kanji.

Scooby Doo Mac and Cheese!

There was a dragonfly swarm behind my apartment. They really like the rice fields. Here's a video:




Mmmmm! Lemon Ice!

Here is my Nintendo DS. :) The case is Mamegoma... super cute! The game is a Taiko drumming game. It's super cute and super fun!


I've made a few new plushies and keychains and things lately.

I have eaten a lot of Kit Kats! :) Here's a list of the flavors I have tried:
banana
blueberry
green tea/sakura (outside green tea, inside sakura)
sakura
framboise
cola
lemon
wasabi
milk coffee
strawberry (bite sized kind)
maple
aloe yogurt
mixed fruit juice (banana, strawberry, and peach)

My favorites have been framboise (chocolate raspberry!) and blueberry, and maple.
The only one I have actually disliked is cola. I didn't really care for the milk coffee one either, but it wasn't bad. I was really thinking I would like it since I love coffee flavored stuff.

Here area couple random videos.

Bus Ride: Toi -> Shuzenji (you can see some of the pretty views from the bus!)



Hamutaro Weather Report - even the weather report in Japan is cute sometimes! :)