Sam went on a field trip with me to Nagasaki City, which is about 20 minutes away by train. The purpose of my visit that time was to find a bike store so I can get a good mountain bike since I couldn't bring mine from home. Funny how things work out, though - because if I HAD been able to bring my US bike, I might very well have missed out on meeting Taniguchi san and his little (bike) touring group! I even had the good fortune to be in the bike shop at the same time as the team leader, Keizo san, and he was nice enough to give me a lift back to Isahaya. And that's just the beginning! There's more to the story - an invite for Christmas Mass and dinner, trips to amazing places, underwear shopping at the "100 yen" store, onsens, yakiniku and hanbagu - all this and I haven't even bought my bike yet! I'm tired now, though, so you'll have to check back for the story later (don't worry - it's not what you might think -it's all PG! this IS Japan, afterall!).