summer break #1

so at my school we get quite a few breaks throughout the year, for a total of about 6 weeks over the year. one of our breaks was in july from the 13th to the 21st. I decided to take a bike trip to Shizuoka prefecture and I stayed in a town called Omaezaki.

here is the map of where Omaezaki is. the route I took on the way back went through Hamamatsu, Shinjiro, Toyota, Miyoshi, and Nisshin. (going there I went through Okazaki, Toyokawa, Toyohashi, and Hamamatsu)

I spent July 16th riding, and I stayed in a hotel that night. 

the next day I headed over to the youth hostel.

 On the 17th I did a bit of exploring around Omaezaki, went swimming at the beach...

The beach has a giant slide near it, so I went on that. super funn!!

Omaezaki is right on the pacific ocean, with no islands obstructing the view. I've rarely seen views like this--living in places like Wakayama, Vancouver, and Nagoya the ocean always has a coast on the other side or some islands obstructing the view. That night I stayed in the hostel in Omaezaki. It was really peaceful and the owners were really kind.

So on my second day, I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I went surfing! I just found a little shop called Morey Surf where I could rent a surfboard and wetsuit... and the owner taught me a surfing lesson too! it was really fun! I didn't get to stand up on the board but am hoping to go back soon and try it out again :) I have found a couple places along the Chita peninsula (south of nagoya)

after my surf lesson I was all salty and sandy so I really wanted to go to an Onsen. but the only onsen was about 19 km away. although that was nothing to what I had ridden two days before, so why not go to it? the Onsen was called Ko-umare and it was one of the nicest I've been to. they even have a scented oil bath which changes every month. I was really surprised to find the price was cheap--only 500 yen for 3 hours.

these pictures were taken on the way to the onsen!

the very next day, I left the hostel before 7 am and had breakfast of a rice ball, block of tofu, and oolong tea in front of a convenience store. then I headed about 40 km to Hamamatsu city. There is nothing to see there but I wanted to send my heavy backpack back home by express delivery. Which only cost about 1000 yen.

Inland sea in Hamamatsu

then I headed up into the mountains which I would cross over into Aichi prefecture and back home. the mountain going up was really high, and I finished off my bottle of tea just going up! thankfully at the top there were a couple of vending machines waiting for me. After the top I thought I would have a really long downhill ride. but it was more like a plateau, going straight across and through most of Toyota city (yes, the car company started from there). then, I had a really fantastic ride down into Toyota's city centre. after that it was a hour or two on the highway back home to Nagoya city.

This was the longest trip I've done so far; I probably rode over 350 km in 4 days.

the plateau part of Toyota

now here are all the prefectures I've been to... not counting the ones I've only passed through: 

Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Tochigi, Hyogo, Osaka, Nara, Wakayama, Gifu, Nagano, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Niigata, Aichi, Mie, Fukui, Shizuoka, and Shiga 

(just went to Shiga on August 13th, but that's a story for another post) 

That makes 19 in total! there are 47 in all, so I only have 28 left to visit.