Up at 7am (we were parked outside a park). Breakfast at McDonalds.

My friend Hiroaki rang me from Hokkaido to check the pronunciation of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (he is a swimming teacher in Sapporo).  

We found a school near Omiya and wondered why there were so few students around the place. The mothers watching soccer practice explained that the school scheduled no classes so parents could take advantage of the long weekend. It was apparently the same for all the schools in the area. There was no point visiting schools so I stretched out in a nearby park with my copy of John Dower's treatise on the Pacific War "War Without Mercy" and Richard had a kip in the van.

 On the way out of Saitama we were stopped at some lights when we noticed a guy get out of a car 2 vehicles ahead of us. The guy, resplendent in tracksuit and sunglasses, approached another car. When the driver of the second car got out he was promptly headbutted by Mr Tracksuit, who threw in a few punches for good measure. The pair got back in their cars, drove 100 metres to a carpark where the punching evolved into slapping. We presumed this was a private matter  and tried not to be conspicuous in our staring.

 

Come evening we had reached Utsunomiya-shi and checked out Mr Donuts. 2 hours later we judged its refill speed and powerpoint access to be most acceptable.

 

We hadn't yet bathed so we drove into "Yu" - a chain onsen. Imagine a McDonalds version of a public bath. It was huge. There was the usual hot pool, but in addition there was a red cordial coloured pool which made me look as if I had just slit my wrists, an electric pool where an electric current was run through one's body and a rotenburo (an outside onsen) We made the most of this, our first Saturday night at a public bath.

 

Dinner at Kiden - a massive ramen restaurant. As we parked we disturbed the couple in the car next to us, prompting them to hastily rearrange their clothing. This merely served to remind us that it was Saturday night and the two of us were dateless. I ate a gargantuan bowl of ramen and felt enormously full.

We decided to take advantage of our datelesness and just keep driving, forging northwards until 3am. We made it as far as Fukushima City, where we found a convenient carpark and settled down for the night.