ZONK! o_0

I was cycling about 25 kph on a big wide boring road this morning when suddenly I saw a flying insect thing rapidly coming towards me. These flying insects usually manage to hit me exactly in the face so I was prepared for the worst. I closed my eyes and waited for the splat, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes again and couldn't find the bug anywhere. Then I looked down between my legs, where an ASIAN GIANT HORNET (or something very very similar-looking) managed to land exactly on my frame.  Bloody hell. I happened to blog about this a couple of days back when I came across the wiki page about insects with the most painful stings, but I didn't expect an up-close encounter like today.. I continued cycling with 25kph, contemplating whether to swipe at it with my gloved hand to get rid of it or to wait for it to fly away by itself. I waited for about 30 seconds and then it flew away. I live to cycle another day.

I ended up not going to the festival yesterday, because for the first time on the trip I'm not feeling 100% healthy. I drank way too much water and other drinks yesterday, and I think that's the reason that my stomach was upset last night. I ended up hanging around the youth hostel instead. I'm feeling better today though.

In other news, the weather's great, it's finally spring. I'm cycling high-speed on a boring road towards Onomichi, where I will take side road along the coast to get to Hiroshima (tomorrow). Onomichi also happened to be the start of my second cycling trip in Japan, where we started our journey into Shikoku. It'll be nice to see Onomichi again.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , ,