Golden Week!

May 3rd through the 6th was a four-day weekend because it was Golden Week, which is when several holidays are around the same time. On Friday, my boyfriend and I went to a store called Pick Up with a bunch of used stuff and I got a bicycle! I keep it at my boyfriend's apartment so that we can ride bikes around there and I can ride it to the station.

That evening we drove towards the mountains just because we wanted to. We didn't drive up the mountains because it was getting dark, but we will do that someday. After that we went to Ichino Mall in Hamamatsu.

The next day we rode our bikes to the kite festival in Hamamatsu. Before setting out we ate some food from 7-11. Yum!

We made it to the kite festival a little before 3 and it was ending at 3:30. That was ok though because there isn't a whole lot to do there except eat.

Jonathan got some sort of rice cracker with some sort of sauce and some sort of crispy stuff with a fried egg and mayo. They were about to close so they put on extra crispy stuff and mayo and another rice cracker on top. It was actually pretty good!

As we were leaving we saw some drum and dance performances.

As we were leaving the festival we bought some cotton candy to eat on the way home. I don't know if I had ever had non-dyed cotton candy before. I like colored cotton candy but when it's white it does look more like cotton or fluffy clouds!

That evening we went to downtown Hamamatsu. We watched the floats with kids playing music pulled through the city.

There were people on the top of each float and I finally saw why. The floats are too tall to pass under the phone lines so they have to lift them over the floats!

Before leaving the festival we stopped at a stand to get taiyaki, which is a waffle-like thing with anko (red bean paste) inside. I love them! I had been wanting one ever since coming to Japan and I finally got one.

It had been a tiring, but super fun day! We had biked about 15 miles.

The next day I didn't do too much. I mostly just relaxed around my apartment and worked on this puzzle.

On Monday, Jonathan and I rented bikes and rode around Hamanako, a lake to the west of Hamamatsu. We biked around 15 miles again. This bike ride was much more tiring because the wind was very strong in spots and made biking difficult, especially on the way back!

There was a colorful hotel near the bike rental place.

We biked to Kanzanji and turned around. We rested for a little bit and ate a snack. This was chocolate with apple tea flavored cream inside. It tasted slightly appleish, but I didn't taste the tea. It was good though! And I had many ideas while eating it! Haha, I don't know why it says "for IDEA."

 

I wish every weekend was a three or four day weekend. We don't have any days off for a while now. I have nine regular work weeks but then I have over a month off. Summer break! Yay! I can't wait!