Ollie Diary day13

May the 27th

The day began with rain, so I stayed at shared-house いとくる for a morning devoted to sewing little bags from the offcuts of the kimono.

But after lunch, Toto very kindly offered to lend me his bike, so I jumped at the chance to go anywhere. It's immediately so much easier! On Google maps, I looked around at random and came across the BunBun Factory, apparently a sweet shop. So I decide to cycle for almost an hour to go and buy some sweets...

But the journey was well worth it, as today was really the first time I'd been able to appreciate the beauty of the landscapes in this region. With the morning rain, the black roofs become shiny and brilliant, the mountains fade gently into a clear mist, and the rice fields reflect the vegetation in their waters even more clearly than usual.

The air is humid and heavy, but the landscapes take on a very special colour, full of light tones. So it was a great and beautiful ride, especially as on the way back I took my time to stop at various places, near rivers, to look at the mountains.

The BunBun Factory is in fact a honey factory (bunbun is the sound the bees make) that sells exclusively honey products. I then tasted an ice cream covered in honey vinegar, a surprisingly acidic flavour that, in the end, is not unpleasant. The staff were all very cute and waved to me as I left.

I then stopped off at Setogawa Onsen Town, which is where we'd been a few days earlier with Toto, Ryota and Kei-san. I discovered by chance that it wasn't far from here, so I went back.

In the women's baths, I made the pleasant acquaintance of Eiko-san, a woman from Tsuyama who spends her time juggling between the burning sauna and the ice water basin. We had a long chat about my trip and her studies in America, and ended up exchanging phone numbers. In the end, she even let me try out the massage chairs in the lobby, and I left the place with a relaxed back and mind. I think I made a new friend !

In the evening, Hosomi-san, the new resident, arrived, so it was a good time for a new barbecue meal together. All in all, a solitary day that was refreshing and ended up with a great time with everybody.