Shiroi City Pool & A Flat Tire

This past Saturday my wife had to work at the restaurant so Anna and I spent the morning at the Shiroi City Pool located about 20 minutes west of our place in Inzai. This was a great place to go, especially with the temperatures going up into the Hell ranges.

When we arrived the regular parking lot was already full at 930am (They open at 9am). We walked a little way to find a long line to just buy a ticket to get in. Once we finally got in we got changed and walked into the pool area. They had 4 things to do there; First was the kiddie pool with a nice slide. Second was the "River pool" that gently took you around the pool area like a gently flowing river (that's where we spent most of our time). A lap pool and two water slides. All this for an adults ticket of 750yen (Anna's Ticket was free).

We spent our day there until the break time at 11am. It was during that time Anna discovered the high pressure multi positioin nozzle entry shower for the pool. She was too freaked out to go through it when we arrived but she soon realized how fun it was. She would run towards the shower and then run back to me. She did this about 4 times until she fell and skinned her knee. After that she was in no mood to swim any more so I thought I would take her to lunch.

About 30 seconds into the ride to the restaurant Anna soon fell asleep. I then thought I would take a drive out to Inba City on the other side of Inzai. This is not so much a town as it is a wetlands for a wide river and many rice fields. I decided I would try to find this BBQ Eel (Unagi) place that some friends had told us about in this town. Right now, at the beginning of August is Eel day. This is when everyone eats BBQ eel to help stay strong during the very hot and humid Japanese Summer (No wonder the tourists don't come during this time of year!). I love the stuff. The eel not the heat.

The name of the restaurant is Ishibashi. The car navigation said I was getting close but all I could see was river and rice fields. There was virtually no traffic on the road until I was right on top of the restaurant. In the immediate area there was about 4 or 5 other eel restaurants and all of them had just a few cars. It was then that I hit the traffic jam in front of Ishibashi. The place was about as big as a double wide trailer and most of the customers were waiting outside in the stifling heat on plastic chairs.

Since Anna was still asleep I did not stop and started back towards our house. I thought that I could head to Kurumaya Ramen for some noodles and fried rice for lunch. I eventually arrived there and Anna woke up on cue and we had a good lunch.

Coming into the parking lot I had heard a large thump but thought nothing of it. After eating Anna and I walked up to the car and noticed that the Toyota Vitz had a flat passenger side tire. This was going to be fun. 90 degrees, no shade and I have to change a tire. When I knelled down to place the jack under the car my knee was fried by the hot parking lot. I was not having too much success getting the tire off the car when a guy with a hydraulic jack came and helped me finish the job. There are some really great and helpful people here too. Thank you Japanese guy with the hydraulic jack in the stifling heat of Kuramaya Ramen parking lot whomever you are! You saved the day. If I knew who you were you would be getting a box full of eels for Eel Day as a present for your kindness. Now in the USA that would be a cruel and heartless prank. Here a gift of a box of suirming eels is just like getting a chocolate "Heavy Cake" for your birthday. (Heavy Cake: When you take two or three cans of frosting and put it on a cake instead of just one. Mmmmmm.)

Afterwards we spent the rest of the afternoon at the nearby Toyota dealership waiting to get a new tire. My wife also had to wait for us to pick her up from work while we got the car repaired. On top of it all, Anna and I missed meeting our neighbors at a block party nearby the house because of the flat tire. Too bad, maybe next time.