Bit of a fever dream haze of a hot day as whatever bug I’d picked up laid me pretty low; thinking too much of travelling to Tokyo with my cold and passing it on to Rachel’s brother’s family. Lazy morning in hostel before venturing out a bit in the heat. I liked the old electrical components dotted around the hostel building, thankfully no longer in use.

Managed to get out for second breakfast (therefore wasn’t too sick, still had an appetite), an interesting western-Japanese mix.

There was a great bike shop next door, so we organised to leave our bikes there to have some work done while we were in Tokyo . Finally found some 29″ tyres to replace my very bald ones, the first time we’d found any in Japan – 29″ mountain-bikes not very popular, understandably.

Having checked out of the hostel, we had time to wander the streets before our train departed for Kofu. Nice to see the castle in daylight, as well as a few other places.

In one old building I marvelled both at the craftsmanship of the building itself and the more recent woodworking and furniture-making – including some demonstrations.

Back out into the heat for a bit before walking to the station.

I did appreciate a number of fonts around town, lovely cool, clear water.

At the station Rachel did a stellar job of dealing with lines and the intricacies of getting the right tickets while I was exhausted from the heat and illness, sitting down somewhere cool and quiet. Unfortunately my desire to ride on the shinkansen was not possible for this trip (probably would have been wasted in my current state), but two trains took us to an overnight stay in Kofu – just past halfway to Tokyo. Our first experience of a Japanese hotel in which we saw no staff at all, bit strange but all worked fine.

I don’t remember much of our brief stay in Kofu, we were soon on our way to meet Rachel’s brother in Kawasaki.

Finally a chance to get some snaps of a local ambulance out and about – bit smaller than our one in Ranfurly, but I suspect more comfortable in the back.