I sat on the concrete sea wall and boiled water for my coffee. The sun was already high and my right leg was tingling a little in the heat. Then Italy scored. I threw down my flip flop in frustration. No one was looking. Then England scored. I fist pumped the air and sipped my coffee like I’d masterminded the goal myself. Then Italy scored again, and we didn’t. So we lost. So I got on my bike and left.
The sun was shining but a cool sea breeze helped me along and kept me going along to Joetsu where my host, Barry was waiting.
Barry led me up to his small tidy apartment and sat me down with a cold glass of mint milk tea. After a shower we were back in the bikes for a short zip across town to find some Sushi. Virtually any coastal sea if Japan will pride itself on its sashimi but Niigata is also famous for quality rice meaning sushi was the only way to go. It was nice to be chatting in English without having to consider the words I was using and whether I was being comprehensible.
The sushi was excellent and despite the choice of movie for afterwards being a tad on the long side (The Godfather), it was a delightful first date.
Thanks Barry!