Riding Cyclette: Day 1000-1009: To Tottori, Japan

Arriving at Izumo in the wee hours

Old Izumo Taisha station opened in 1912 till 1990. It is one of it kind as its completely traditional built without any influence of weatern architecture style

Passing through the first Torii gate... towards Izumo Taisha Shrine, believed to be the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan and that gods gather here once a year to discuss the fortune of people for the upcoming new year.

The sign says... to Pray, 2 bows, 4 claps then 1 bow.

May all you wishes come true...

Always rinse hand and mouth before entering the Shine to pray

Statue of Okuninushi and the rabbit of Inaba

Looks like going into heaven?

Izumo soba... instead of dipping soba into the sauce, you pour it over the first bowl, after finishing the first bowl, you pour the left over sauce to the second bowl, adding the bonito flakes, spring onion, seaweed, wasabi, slurp up the second bowl and then pour the sauce into the third bowl, add hot water when necessary

++++

Drying raddish / daikon... hmm but its raining

You can buy rice from these machines dotted around the country

Lake Shinji

Old shop in the castle town

Restaurants always put up signs outside to tell you whether they are 'In preperation', 'Closed' or 'Open for business'

Matsue castle, a feudal castle

A real pretending to be fake... I know you pose like this asking for a photograph right

I didn't pay to go in but was allowed to snap a shot outside.

Inari shrine within the castle ground that houses thousands of fox statues

Shiomi Nawate Street lined with traditional houses and samurai residence

The huge drum they have to carry during festival

Raindrop little monk? The rain been following me...could you... please please keep them away?

A japanese garden with the castle in the background

Treated myself to matcha and sweet pastry made by top chef in Japan

So good that it melts in your mouth

Simply love their toilet

Don't really like wearing these public slippers though and the hassle to place them properly before you leave

Need love? Pray here

The lucky heart

Wonder ~~how much sake can I drink~~ how many different types/brand of sake actually exist

Outside the art museum... figurines depicting the movement of rabbits

A place to watch sunset over Lake Shinji

++++

Found some tasty beef korokke (croquette) in Matsue.. so good!

Mitarashi Dango - mochi skewered onto sticks covered with sweet soy sauce glaze

Treat to Winter solstice

++++

A mini gathering with strangers who doesn't want to be in the picture..so Christmas eve was an evening of feast

And Christmas was oden.... a kind of hotpot usually eaten in the winter which I love...theres different kind of fishcakes, stewed raddish, mushroom, eggs, toufu etc

You'll find them in convenient stores too but a little expensive

One piece manga characters printed on biscuits... treat from host's friend who works in the factory

Japanese toy - Kendama... aim the hole in that ball into the stick

Home over christmas... more than 140yrs old traditional house

Careful Thorn.. don't break anything

++++

See the white sign? If I translate the characters to Mandarin, it kinda means romantic road... but.. I don't remember this road being romantic and they translate it to Roman road... its probably an important ancient road

A night on the table by the beach.... was in a shelter at a park earlier on when I got chased away by the caretaker even though I tried to explain its raining and I'll leave early in the morning...
But no.. rules are rules, I have to leave... booooooo

++++

Its Detective Conan, another famous Japanese manga

Barely pedal far before my tyre burst... great start to the day... trying to hitch hike in the rain during rush hour wasn't easy when everyone tried to avoid making eye contact with me until someone finally stopped about 1hr later...we went to his work place and his boss drove me around the village to look for replacement... we found nothing in 6 bicycle shops... in the end he drove 50km to Tottori and contacted a mobile bicycle service man to fix my tyre...

Treated to coffee and burger on our drive to the city

My saviours... thank you so much for taking time off work and driving around with me in the midst of heavy downpour

And I received a new tyre from Wataru-san (fellow Japanese bike tourer) the next day too...

Also got my bike serviced by www.cs-fukuhama.com [〒680-0821 鳥取県鳥取市瓦町623]... thanks for the free bottle cage and reflector...they choose a round one as it resembles Japan flag.