Callum and I woke up in Nagoya on Day 5, with two days to reach our target Osaka, 200km away.  We didn’t have a set destination for this day, and decided to ride until we felt like relaxing somewhere in the less populated zone before Kansai propper.  I woke up and tried to view our planned route on the GPS, which appeared to be out of batteries.  After switch in in new batteries, we discovered our trusted handlebar mounted robot was on the fritz.  It would power up and then turn off, and turn off when we tried to view a route.  Racking our brains for solutions, we ended up relying on our iPhone GPS functionality to plot the day’s course, praying that the GPS would come back to life.  We recovered our energies with a breakfast at Dennys.  After Wheeling for a bit, we came across a strange looking row of structures, which we assumed were spacecraft from a distance. Upon further inspection, the spacecraft turned out to be a hydroelectric Dam. Callum found some information on it which is pictured below.  So we rode across it and studied its mechanics for a while, after watching an elderly man weave through cones that he had set up, on his rollerblades.   We continued to ride at a steady pace, passing the 400km-from-tokyo marker in the afternoon.  Look closely and you can see I have four fingers outstretched.   

 We continued to ride…into the evening…  

 Into the sunset… Finally, before a sizable hill climb, we found a small town called Kameyama in which we could find lodging and sustenance.   Also, in the parking lot of a convenience store, was parked a single engine propeller plane.  We took this as a good omen. After checking into our hotel room and exploring the doo-dads, devices, and ecoutrements that vary across Japanese hotel rooms, we headed down to the “Relaxation Room and Public Bath.”  The hotel’s public bath was essentially a gigantic Sento, or hot bathing tub.  Also were sit-down shower stalls and soap.  We cleaned ourselves up, and shaved in front of a gigantic mirror with razors provided by the hotel.  I choose a clean shaven look, while my partner in crime Callum shaped his beard, which was growing more attractive and robust as the days wore on. After we had sufficiently dried ourselves, we headed to the relaxation room after a quick visit to the vending machine.  The relaxation room had a massage chair, two foot massaging machines, and a strange vibration platform with elaborate usage instructions.  Each device had a coin slot, where feeding in ¥100 bought you 10 minutes of bliss. Here are some photos. 

 The foot massage machine was warning me I had overly large feet, but the added pressure was a bonus (I’m 31.5 cm while the specified maximum is 30) Amazingly, the magazine rack contained a publication with an article rating pork buns at various convenience stores.  Here I am in Kameyama, sipping a beer, getting a robotic Chinese foot massage, and reading pork bun reviews.   After we had sufficiently drained our pockets of ¥100 coins, we headed to the hotel reception-cum-concierge  and asked for a good Yakiniku restaurant where we could grill our own meat and enjoy a fine meal.  She called a taxi and directed us about 10 minutes away. I let callum peruse the menu and make the ordering decisions, as his experience far outstripped mine. He ordered high quality beef and normal quality beef, one of each, as well as some appetizers and beverages. When the food came, it just kept coming, so we kept grilling.  We thought that it was so cheap to order so much high quality beef out here in the country side.   Callum and I ate until we were very full. And then the food coma began. Note that we hadn’t finished but a third of the total beef.  How could this be? Then the bill came.  Not only had we eaten a third of our beef, but the bill was about four times more expensive than expected.  We quickly consulted with the waitress.  She noted that we had ordered five of each beef plate. Callum corrected her in Japanese that we had ordered ONE of each beef plate.  She corrected him again that no, we had indeed ordered FIVE of each beef plate.And then it hit us.  We had actually ordered five of each, as the Japanese for “Five of each” and “One of each” are very similar.  Callum called a friend to confirm the mistake.  So we felt a little aggrevated that we had so much uneaten food, and that we couldn’t take it home and have it for breakfast because it was thinly sliced RAW beef.  Well, the meal had been spectacular, and we couldn’t be bogged down by such things. So we went home to rest and digest.