A much appreciated rest day spent eating and leisurely wandering around central Niigata between drizzly showers.

Large hotel breakfast buffet to start – fairly bland in a photo, but thankfully better than the colours suggest.

The station was, of course, huge with all manner of shops and restaurants around. Tasty ramen for lunch and I spent far too long being dazzled and overwhelmed by the multiple floors of electronics and appliances of the Bic Camera store.

Still time to spot new covers.

We met Thomas, Rachel’s brother, and his bike off the shinkansen from Tokyo late in the afternoon; unsurprisingly found an Irish bar for a pint. Couldn’t stay for long there as it was booked to capacity for a championship game – the crowds coming out in colours to support their teams.

A small upstairs restaurant provided a feast of Nepalese curry and the chance for the siblings to catch up, and for us all to discuss the weekend’s riding plan – which would help work off the excessive amount of food. The starters and sides were probably enough, considering we’d not been on our bikes that day:

Thomas also sporting an excellent streamlined hairstyle. (Rachel’s photo.)

Spot the Berry.

Was more that full after all that!