Day 26: Wakimachi (Mima)

[post of Wednesday 5^th of September 2012]

Today no doubt. Day off… and we wake up as the sun rises. However, today we don’t have to get up to use as many daytime hours to cycle, so we shut the eyes back and go on sleeping until the belly says it’s time for coffee and toasted bread.

Mika and Hiro are great hosts, and we feel happy for the chance to spend the entire day off with them (and their dogs). Mika has planned a Japanese day. For breakfast, we eat some good “ramen” in a tiny restaurant from where it’s impossible to leave still hungry. Then we go back home to get changed; we get off our Western clothes and wear “yukatas”, something like summer kimonos but more simple than the traditional kimonos. Thanks god they’re simplest! Ainhoa and Mika have taken something like half an hour to get ready. No to speak of Gabriel’s “yukata,” that has no mystery but the trousers the other way round. Gabriel just put them on and he’s ready to go.

Dressed up in this way, mika brings us to walk around in the oldest street of Wakimachi, where the houses are in full traditional Japanese style. We love it! ...although we’d love more to know what locals think when they see some foreigners dressed in kimonos.

Then we go with Mika to eat the most delicious ice-cream ever. Not sure if that’s because of the warm or the gorgeous views, or because it is a truly delicious ice-cream.

We go back home to get changed and have a little Japanese nap that, to be honest, goes a bit too far and leaves us ready for dinner. Hiro, Mika’s husband, is getting the fire ready for a barbecue, while we go out to get the last things for dinner, among which there are – of course – some beers and a Rioja wine. Gabriel shows off again with his tortilla of potatoes, and Hiro does the same with his barbecue. This is something completely different from the Spanish barbecue, which almost translate into meat only. Here they barbecue everything that is eatable; fish, cabbage, peppers, meat, sausages, garlic… and even balls of rice! We eat and drink happily. Late at night, a couple from US, Mika’s friends, join us for the last beer. An unforgettable day!