Aaron Chase/Cannondale Press Tour

Day #6 11/11/03

Don
The rain once again canceled our scheduled plans of dirt jumping, so we slept in and then traveled to the city of Osaka. The rain stopped in the afternoon when we arrived, so we tried to get a quick urban session in. Nothing major went down because everything was still wet and slippery. It was nice to get out of the car and spin around the city streets for a couple of hours. This city seems like it can be a lot of fun. I hope we can come back and spend more time exploring it.

The Cannondale Japan headquarters are located in Osaka and they hosted a small reception and DVD screening party. Like all of the other parties, it was an awesome time that was full of good food, beer and a lot of cameras & autographs. I would like to thank everyone at Cannondale Japan for their hard work, that made the first leg of our tour such a huge success. Props to Jeff McGuane, Yoshihiko Matsuzaka, Yoshiki Watase, Kyoko Ikeda, Keigoh Arizono and the rest of the crew. You guys are the best and we look forward to seeing you again very soon. Our next stop is Sydney, Australia. We are traveling all day tomorrow and we will send an update as soon as we can.

Aaron
Last day in Japan came and went, raining pretty much the whole time. Osaka, which is the city that we are at for the last night is enormous. We are again staying at the nicest hotel in town. Besides riding new and different spots, this trip has really been a great experience for me. The Japanese way of life is a simple one; based very much on the theory of what goes around comes around, Luck and karma. They put a lot of trust in each other, for example Don asked Watase to watch his camera bag around all of the people that were at the demo. Watase stood staring at the bag for a moment and then asked, “What am I looking for?” Hampton said, “No, just make sure that nobody walks off with it.” So Watase said, “You are not in the US you are in Japan, NO PROBLEM.” It’s just nice to have trust and know that you don’t have to think about your bags growing legs and walking off on you. Japan is a really cool place, with many different things to offer, but there is definitely know place like home.