Sado - bike festival and smaller activities

We only did some smaller activities in the next few days, so I'll summarize them here. On Friday, Ayuna showed us how a traditional tea ceremony in Japan takes place. Unfortunately, we didn't have all the tools at hand, but it still went well and the matcha tasted great as always. In the afternoon, we made paper from old milk cartons and mixed it with colorful flowers. However, it takes at least overnight to dry, so we had the rest of the afternoon to relax. On Saturday, we cleaned up our rooms and common areas again. Before our departure in the afternoon, we had some time and we took out our handmade paper to fold origami. It actually worked better than expected. After lunch, we set off by car to a bike event. Every year, there is a bike race where all participants ride around the entire island. While talking to a woman who is also participating the next day, we learned that it takes about 12 hours to cycle around the island once. Today, we are here to set up bamboo bike stands with the Sado Bamboo Club. They are relatively easy to build and only require some bamboo stems and rope. The leader of the Bamboo Club is a Brazilian who has been living in Sado for 20 years, and we chat with him for a while after we're done. The next day, we have another day off and we take the opportunity to go to the onsen in Hamochi in the evening. Onsen is a public bathhouse with a hot spring and it's really one of the best things you should definitely do when you're in Japan. We also bought ingredients for Japanese curry. Traditionally, it always includes potatoes, carrots, and meat. But we went a bit overboard with the vegetables and now we have potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, kabocha, asparagus, mushrooms, and tomato. But it was super delicious and I will definitely cook it the same way at home.