Dr. Yasu took me on a tour of all the motorcycle shops in Nagoya in his brand new BMW! He was such a nice guy. We started the day with breakfast at a place called "Bronco Billy's." It was good food! Then we headed to the bike shops. We went to at least 16 shops that day! One bike that I found interesting was this Rothmans NSR50 that had a 4 stroke 72cc engine from a Honda C70 Passport for sale. It had that 4 stroke "big bike" sound. It sounded very nice with the Yoshimura carbon fiber muffler that it had on it. We also saw a whole bunch of 1969 Honda Monkey hardtail bikes too! Like in the USA, they are also quite a collector's item in Japan. I sat on these brand new Honda Monkeys and I have to say they were very comfortable. I would not mind commuting on one those bikes! We then ended the day with a great Japanese dinner (not sushi) at Dr. Yasu house with him and his family.
Next trip was with Yuka. Yuka took me to downtown Nagoya via underground subway. I must say that the subway was very clean. Cellular phones are very popular in Japan among the teenagers, and everybody was either doing email, or playing games! Downtown Nagoya is very big and is full of shopping malls. There was one mall that had fake bird chirps playing through the speakers to simulate the sounds of a forest. It was interesting! At first I thought they were real. I then looked around, but could not find any birds! I asked Yuka and she told me the sounds you hear were recorded! Another thing I found interesting was that the Japanese have these countdown timers on the sidewalk. They countdown the time (usally 45 seconds) until the traffic light will turn greeen! We need those in the USA!
In the evening, Jamie's wife Sanae (and family) took me to a fireworks show! It was the beginning of a yearly summer festival in the city of Nagoya. We had a dinner picnic before sunset, and then we waited for the fireworks to start. Funning thing was that when the fireworks started, the wind was blowing in our direction and we had empty firework shells falling on us!! Sanae's brother was very lucky because earlier that evening, for some reason he bought a set of horse racing googles. That came in handy (for him anyways!)! Luckily nobody got hurt and we had a good time!
Couple days later, Tomoko brought me to the Toyota Mueseum and also to Nagoya Castle. The Toyota Mueseum was huge and there were all sorts of vintage automobiles. One would think that a Toyota Mueseum would only feature Toyota cars, but not true! There were also other cars manufactured by Datsun, Honda, and Isuzu! I thought it was kind of weird! Next stop was to Nagoya Castle. The Castle was huge and was a bit scarey to see those older all metal Japanese battle wear (especially in the dark!). After that, we went to go eat noodles for lunch. I was observing how Japanese people eat noodles. While it is considered rude to slurp noodles in American culture, it was perfectly fine to do so in Japan. Tomoko says that you can taste it better. To me it tasted the same, but I was really happy to be able to slurp without being yelled at! I took some video of some Japanese people slurping so I could show my family back home!
My trip would not of been as fun as it was if it was not for the many old and new friends that I have met! I would like to say Domo Arigatou (Thank you in Japanese) to Jamie, Sanae (plus family), Michiko, Yuka, Chihiro, Yasu, Kenshi, Tak, Tomoko, and many more people that I had left out and cannot remember now! Thanks again!!!