Saturday April 3rd:
Matt and I got down to our bikes at the crack of noon Saturday with hopes of trying to find the fabled mall and movie theater we keep hearing about. As with all good adventures, the plans at the beginning of the day did not match what actually happened.
In preparation for what may be a long day of riding, Matt decided to put a little more air in his recently patched tire. Moments before Matt was to mount his two wheeled pony, his rear tire exploded with a ferocious thunder clap that reverberated throughout the entire underground parking garage. If the damage done to the tire was at all proportional to the sound it made, a little hole patch kit wasn't going to fix it.
Lucky for us, there is a Specialized bike shop about a block away from our apartments. Unluckily however, they don't fix "normal bikes" and pointed us in the direction of a normal bike shop. I took out my flip camera and filmed Matt's reaction. What follows is that very video (I may have doctored it a little).
Well, we found the bike shop, dropped off his bike, and decided to walk around and explore the unknown. It was this venture into the unknown where we found something we know all too well. Right in the middle of Tsukuba is a Wild West store!? We could not believe it! Of course we had to pull out our cameras a take a couple photos.
Of all the states in all of the world...
Yes, I did take this in Japan.
Matt and I got down to our bikes at the crack of noon Saturday with hopes of trying to find the fabled mall and movie theater we keep hearing about. As with all good adventures, the plans at the beginning of the day did not match what actually happened.
In preparation for what may be a long day of riding, Matt decided to put a little more air in his recently patched tire. Moments before Matt was to mount his two wheeled pony, his rear tire exploded with a ferocious thunder clap that reverberated throughout the entire underground parking garage. If the damage done to the tire was at all proportional to the sound it made, a little hole patch kit wasn't going to fix it.
Lucky for us, there is a Specialized bike shop about a block away from our apartments. Unluckily however, they don't fix "normal bikes" and pointed us in the direction of a normal bike shop. I took out my flip camera and filmed Matt's reaction. What follows is that very video (I may have doctored it a little).
Well, we found the bike shop, dropped off his bike, and decided to walk around and explore the unknown. It was this venture into the unknown where we found something we know all too well. Right in the middle of Tsukuba is a Wild West store!? We could not believe it! Of course we had to pull out our cameras a take a couple photos.
Of all the states in all of the world...
Yes, I did take this in Japan.
Matt looking at some (highly inflated) turquoise prices.
We went inside and talked to the worker who told us that the owner of the store has a house in Gallup. He wasn't there that day, but we are planning on going back to talk to him someday soon.
The rest of the hour long walk was pretty cool. We passed by some nice houses, parks, and interesting neighborhoods on our way back to the bike shop. Once we got there, Matt was slapped with a 2500 Yen (~$30) bill to replace his rear tire. Matt reluctantly paid the guy and we left. Any high hopes of trying to find to movie theater had been dashed away.
We ended up riding to Tsukuba station and buying a couple things from the shops around there. Bed time was relatively early because we were determined to go to Mt. Tsukuba the next morning.
-Seth
The rest of the hour long walk was pretty cool. We passed by some nice houses, parks, and interesting neighborhoods on our way back to the bike shop. Once we got there, Matt was slapped with a 2500 Yen (~$30) bill to replace his rear tire. Matt reluctantly paid the guy and we left. Any high hopes of trying to find to movie theater had been dashed away.
We ended up riding to Tsukuba station and buying a couple things from the shops around there. Bed time was relatively early because we were determined to go to Mt. Tsukuba the next morning.
-Seth
April 5, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Seth,
I am enjoying your blog. The apartment is great and I am glad to see that there is plenty of room for Kate's shoes! Loved to see that you have a bit of New Mexico in Tsukuba. Love you, Nancy
April 6, 2010 at 6:55 PM
Drama, drama, drama. Love the video. And how weird that people in Japan know about NM but people in other states think we're foreigners?