Last full week in Japan..

Well this is our last full week in Japan. We have already started preparing to leave and about 2/3 of our belongings have already been sent home. It is a regular occurrence to discover things we probably should have kept for the final shipment, but anyway it is too late now. Fortunately I think we all have our underwear.. Along with preparing our belongings we have already started to say goodbye to many of friends. Kate and the children met the children's English tutor Clarence and his wife for dinner one night and to say goodbye.

On a Tuesday I met with a supplier to say farewell. Even though it was a Tuesday night many people still managed to make it out to the party. We had a great time and it was nice to see many old and new friends before leaving.

I also had a farewell party on Wednesday night, but have not yet received the pictures from the outing. It was with my new group members from work. We had a great dinner and conversation. I am still getting to know some of the members and so it was a nice opportunity to spend time together.

Kate met some friends for lunch and a last trip to Mashiko. (I will get her to write up more later)

Colleen's choir group had a nice farewell party for her.

I met a number of the cycling members at the Japan cup course for one last trip around it. Everyone wore their new jersey to look professional for the photo. I think the picture came out looking pretty good.

The only problem was that Ito san and I both had to ride mini-velos. My Cannondale already shipped for America and Ito now lives in Tokyo so he borrowed Maeshima san's girlfriends bike. See for yourself in the picture below, but I think it dropped us down on the pro-looking scale a couple of notches...

We also met the Shionome sans for a nice dinner. Taka san prepared many of the dishes and all were delicious. He made extra maguro for Liam, Colleen, and Kate as they like it. I said it was like half of a Tuna, but they still managed to eat it all.. It was a great evening of hanging out and laughing.

Tonight we went to the Kato's home for dinner. The children really enjoyed playing with Tora kun and Chibi. Again the food was delicious. It has really been nice seeing everyone in the last few weeks, but also a bit draining emotionally. I believe that we will have the chance to see some of our friends again in the future as they are thinking about visiting the US. We should start thinking about what interesting places there may be around our city to take them..

That is all for this week. As we will be leaving our home on Wednesday I will most likely not finish the final post until we are in the US and receive our computer. It means it will be about 2 months and that will include our final few days and a small right up about the trip home.

Thank you for following our adventure.. See some of you soon on the other side..

Kate had her speech and after the ladies surprised her with a gift and flowers.

Kate met Colleen at school for a mother daugher activity.












Before we returned h0me we wanted to purhcase some stonework for our garden. We found a family owned and run place close to our home and decided to purchase from them. Kate stopped by to check on the progress and get some pictures of the father and son as they worked on them.

They even let Kate try her hand at carving some of the stones. She actually got to work on one of the ones that we were being made for us.

This week was my farewell party with my original department from work. A number of the associates I worked with made it out to the party, even though it was on a Wednesday.

At the end of the first party and before the 2nd and 2rd, everyone grouped in front of the restaurant and gathered around. I was not exaclty sure of what was going on, but I was grabbed and then thrown into the air 3 times. It is a good thing that I lost weight over the 2 year stay.

Next was my bicycling group party. All of my friends that I rode bicycles with during our stay were able to go. We had good food and a lot of great conversation. At the end they presented me with my very own custom cycling jersey. Ito sans friend is a graphic designer and designed the jersey. Originally they were going to present it to me at Motegi, but the jersey came in late. It was a great night.

Colleen had her last singing concert. This was the first chance for me to see her in action. She and the other girls did a great job. This time it was for exibition and not competition.

The event was at a Takanezawa community festival, so we also had the opportunity to eat her last choco bananna.

Liam picked up his last udon as well.

Kate had a farewell night out with the ladies.

We had our last Takanezawa community BBQ. The community gathered together. The community is divided into groups. Each group sets up a grill and starts cooking. Everyone chips in during the cooking. We liked cooking this style and decided to buy one of the pans before leaving for America so we can do the same style at home.

The cookout gave us the chance to see a number of neighbors again before we left.

The Yagishta sans (our next door neighbors) also attended the event.

The Nakamichi sans also came over one last time to visit. It was great to see them again and hang out. They are such a nice family..
The children played games while waiting for dinner. We were able to pick up a sushi dinner from the grocery store and hung out for the rest of the evening.




That is all for this post, have a great week...

Motegi 7 hour team enduro.

Today was my final bicycle event in Japan. It was the Motegi 7 hour team enduro. I did essentially the same event this spring as well. In the spring there were 160 teams we competed against, this event had just shy of 300. All week I was watching the weather forecast and it was horrible. A typhoon was coming through and todays weather was dictated by whether the typhoon would pass, or still be here during the race. Well we got lucky and the typhoon hit yesterday, and so today was a little overcast, but with the exception of a few sprinkles it was dry. The course was the same as the spring course incorporating both the oval and road course.

In the spring we competed with 3 members, this time only 2. The team size is limited to 5 members. After the spring event I planned to put together a 5 member team to try to win, but unfortunately everyone had other commitments, so Maeshima san and I decided to just form a 2 member team. There were 2 other teams of friends from work. We named the teams 3S1 Cycling A, B, and C teams. The other 2 teams originally had 3 members, but unfortunately 1 member could not make it, so they competed with 2 members as well. Maeshima san and I both rode wearing my old Ohio State jerseys. We figured it made us look like a real team (his is covered up in this photo).

For this event a number of pro riders came to ride the course. They were not competing against us, but many times they would push the pace. There were members from the Blitzen, Bridgestone Anchor, etc. Yukiya Arashiro, Japans #1 pro rider for Bbox came out as well. He competed in last years Tour de France and finished 3rd in one stage. The pro riders would rotate in and out of the race taking turns riding with the lead pack.

The family came out later this year, so I did not get any pictures from the beginning of the race. Maeshima san made me start again, and I was able to join the top group. As a result I was able to ride with many of the pro riders including Yukiya san (actually I drafted off of him for a bit..) My original plan was to try to stay out for up to 3 hours on the first round, but the pace was too high and I could only last about 1 hour 50 min.

Before the rider change I sped up and went around the main pack to give Maeshima san a chance. At the pit we quickly changed the leg band with chip and the Garmin and Maeshima san was off.

He actually caught the top group, but the pace was too high and so after 2 laps he was kicked out the back. Regardless he was able to keep a high pace during his turn and I was able to get a much needed rest.

Doing this event with 2 members is pretty tough. Both Maeshima san and I were both wiped out after each turn. My general training was about 1 hour to work in the morning and 1 back home. Really for this type of event it is not enough.

All three teams were able to finish safely. Because this event was about 2 times the size of the spring event there were a lot of people on the course at the same time, and as a result a number of accidents. Kate saw one in front of the pits that knocked the rider out. He was carried away in an ambulance. Hopefully he will be OK.

Here is all three of our teams 3S1 A, B, and C after the event.

and 3S1 Cycling A team only. I was trying out my 1 handed technique with the bike, but I do not yet have good confidence in it, so I had to keep my eye on the bike and hand ready.

Our final result........ 10th (out of about 300). We were the top 2 member team that competed in the event. The fastest team had 5 members, 4 teams above us had 4 members and the rest 3 members. I am actually really happy with the end result. Our overall average speed was 24.28 mph/39.07 kph. That is 1 mph faster than our 3 member spring team did. From our group the 3 member C team came in 169th avg speed of 19.6 mph and our other 2 member B team was 190th avg speed of 18.96 mph.

Since it was Halloween there were a handful of teams that participated in costume. This one is an eggplant team. Of course competing in costume makes it really tough to do well. Not sure were this team ended up, but most likely towards the bottom.

Kate and the children, along with the Shionome's, were able to make it out around lunch time. Everyone is a little sick now and so they got a slow start on the day.

The family was able to walk around a little, watch the event, as well as participate in a number of the activities that Motegi has to offer. Liam's favorite was the go-karts. He has said a number of times that when we return he wants to get one. I just keep saying, we will have to see..

Well I am really tired and it is late, so I am going to bring this post to a close.

Hope everyone has a good week..