@calchan Nice long story! It's a pity that traveling with a bike on trains is not as popular as in Europe so people in Japan might not know how to deal with a bike on a train.
The BBQ photo is actually from last June when I visited a coffee roaster in Sendai where I usually buy coffee from. With friends from Mastodon, I also enjoyed visiting Aoba castle. Sendai is also famous for "zunda", sweet "an" paste from green soybeans from which I took my handle name, while I'm originally from Tokyo :)
If you're interested in, the coffee roaster has an account on Mastodon (@ nelsoncoffeeroaster@pawoo.net). The online shop doesn't actually accept US credit cards but they ship outside Japan: https://ncr.official.ec/.