Ishigaki Again

I made it. It's the world's longest and boring travel...I left Brisbane on Wednesday morning and finally made it to the southern-most island of Japan (Ishigaki) on Thursday afternoon.
This year, my lay-over in Tokyo was the highlight of the trip. After Jasmine and I checked into our hotel room, we got a taxi into Tokyo and found the USC offices to meet up with Andy and Patricia for dinner. They took us to a fantastic Japanese restaurant, sort of hibachi-style, and we laughed, talked, and ate for a few hours before grabbing another taxi back to the airport hotel.
The travel was uneventful (which is a good thing). All our bags made it unscathed, flights were on time, the hotel had a room for us (I'm rooming with Bec Wassner while Margie and Jasmine are in the room next-door).
Today is Friday. We woke up around 7am for some breakfast before heading out on our bikes for a quick tour of the course. I led Bec and Jas around the bike course twice before leaving them at the pool. I rode my bike for a few more minutes into the center of the island (where I've never been) and saw some beautiful views of the area. After a short run, we are all going to meet back up for some sightseeing adventures. There is a new Ferry Boat terminal very close to our hotel. Even if the ferry boat just 'ferries' people to another island and it's not really a 'sight-seeing' boat, we are still thinking of just taking it over and back because the waters and the islands that are close by are all very beautiful.
We do have to be careful with our time because this afternoon at 5pm is the all important 'pre race meeting'! If you are absent from the meeting, you are DQ'ed from the race. It's really silly because once you've been to one World Cup, nothing different is ever said at the meetings, but they want the athletes in town by Friday so they make the meeting mandatory. So we will sit through all the official proceedings and then everyone gets on buses for a Welcome Dinner. Who can say no to free food!??!
I hope to have some photos to post next time...and now I'm off for my running workout. Later:)