Bike Trip to Asuka (Day 2)

Sunday morning at 7am we were up and packing. Breakfast was a traditional, savory Japanese meal with fish, rice, vinegar and egg. After breakfast we had established a pattern of Tetsuya neatly and quietly finishing his meal long before the rest of the group. Even with my haphazard approach to fine dining, we were done and out of the hotel at 8:30 am. To illustrate a regular morning in Asuka, here are pictures from our hotel:

For the next couple hours we toured around Asuka. We visited a stone tomb, a museum, and Japan's oldest Buddhist temple.

By the time we visited the temple I was wishing for more time to take in my surroundings. I toured around the temple briefly, then snuck outside where there were beautiful views and a little convenience store. This is how I came to eating vanilla ice cream outside Japan's oldest temple at 10:30 am.

Outside the tomb

Once we finished at the temple we left for Nara. The morning in Asuka was cloudy in a way we all appreciated. Heading for Nara, the sun came out, but temperatures stayed at a safe 75 with wind and occasional clouds. To all of our surprise we were moving much faster than the day before, a probably of result of the dramatic change in weather conditions.

For lunch we stopped into a grocery store. It was small with wood floors, natural lighting, and almost exclusively local, fresh produce. We had found the birkenstock, clove-smoking, hipster vegetarian's paradise. It was all affordable and we ended up buying a cake to share.

Lunch was the final installment of Tetsuya finishing before I'd even started. The sushi was delicious, as was the cake, which Koji managed to cut into pieces WITH CHOPSTICKS.

Koji aka Cake Tsar/Lord of the Roads

The rest of our trip back was smooth and comfortable. At the end of the day we stopped for some bubble tea and shaved ice. Bodies sore and slightly sunburned, we biked 55 miles in two days. The trips was one of, if not the, best moments while abroad in Japan. I'm so grateful to Koji, Tetsuya, Anne, Emily, and Veronica, for making it so special.