A funny thing happened last night. In our excitement to find bathrooms and a gazebo with a grassy area, we jumped off our trikes to explore. I ran into the bathroom and forgot to set my parking brake. I came out to find Barry down below on the playing field, looking at my trike..upside down with the panniers still attached (yeah Arkel panniers!) and a look of disbelief on his face. Oops. Won’t do that again….and the trike is fine…no problems (yeah Azub for building a tough ride!).
This Sports Park, located in Ebetsu Hokkaido, is an amazing, massive place. Hundred of acres with an athletic stadium, a baseball stadium, field hockey, grass tennis courts, badminton and a huge gymnasium which accommodates regular sports, wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, judo, karate etc. I could go on but you get the picture. Plus, it offers the option of camping!
Just before we packed up…the crowds will be here soon. We had intended to camp by the gazebo/bathroom area but the mosquitoes and unidentified nasty biters drove us to the shorter grass of the playing field. It offered a better breeze as well.
Barry first got up at 6:30 and he saw buses full of athletes, cars with families and people from the area coming in to the park. The bathroom were locked after we went to bed and they had just been opened, so we will pack up fast.
The first athletes to arrive were these rugby players and their staff who got busy setting up for the day. Made coffee and watched the action. As our bathroom was the only one, we got to meet many of the guys.
We could hear the cheers and the ping of the bats from the baseball stadium, so we wandered over to watch some of the game. We sat behind the moms of the Tomakomai team. We will be going to Tomakomai when we take the ferry to Nagoya. Teams have come from all over Hokkaido. We enjoy seeing the name of places we have visited.
Japan loves baseball, pro or amateur. Kind of like Canada and hockey. We were really impressed by the calibre of their play and the excellent pitching.
Rugby, what a tough sport. Big muscular guys, no protective equipment and full on contact sport. Not a big fan, but in person it is quite exciting and non stop action .
We are camping near Sapporo as we need to deal with Mary Ellen’s bike if it works out. Issues with her Rohloff have improved, but it seems like a good idea to visit the bike shop, Sam’s Bikes that was recommended. We have heard much about this shop and are excited, as always, to visit a good bike shop.
Sam’s Bikes is quirky, interesting and full of character. It feels like it is a hub for the community it has nurtured. But above all, it is all about the bikes.
Sam fixed a problem with Mary Ellen’s brakes, topped up our tires, tweaked a few things, but couldn’t help with the Rohloff as the expert in Osaka doesn’t work until Monday. That’s ok…it is working and we will take our trikes home soon to our mechanic in Victoria.
