Daruma Sunday

Slept in again this morning till 10:30am but woke up at 9:30am before because I had an Amazon delivery arrive! It was my phone holder for my bicycle so that was super good – it’s so useful! Cooked myself some yakisoba for an early lunch, and then set off to meet another ALT friend at 12:30pm.

Although it was extremely convenient having my phone out on the holder on my bicycle (making it super easy to navigate) I still got lost…the roads in Gunma are just too confusing with some not being accessible by bicycle! There was also one ridiculous intersection where the light would not turn for literally 10 minutes…I have no idea how they manage their traffic lights here but they should really change the system cause it’s weird!

I finally was able to meet up with my friend though, and we had a lovely cycle along the high banks next to the river to the Daruma shrine – 少林山達磨寺! It was really hot so we walked up all the stairs and enjoyed some shaved ice at the top! The grandma running the shop there was super lovely and the shaved ice was a good size for a good price too. We walked around the shrine a bit, and walked up all the stairs to the very top where you get a lovely view of Takasaki! The mountains surrounding the region do make for very picturesque scenes – the layers are gorgeous!

We headed back home at around 16:30, both of us excited and little nervous for work tomorrow, since it would be the first official full day of work here ever! At home I cooked yakisoba again for dinner, watched ITTEQ on TV (so glad I can watch all the Japanese variety shows now!) and edited some photos from yesterday and today.