Roving Japan

Day 10 Photoset

Today was another slow day. We left our beautiful camp in the cove near Hyuga and started north to Nobeoka.

It was fairly uneventful, with the highlights being the Totoro train station (exciting because we love the movie), and the restaurant we ate lunch in.

We are now staying in a business hotel in Nobeoka. We are planning on staying here for the night, then hopefully finding someplace cheaper to stay tomorrow. We need to spend at least a day going over our options for getting to Oita. We can either walk straight through the mountains, walk the coastline, or do a bus/walk combo around the coastline.

Stay Tuned!

Day 9 Photoset

Last night we camped at the Tsuno shrine. We planned a short 10km day today, so we decided to sleep in this morning. We woke up around 7, ate breakfast and lazed about inside the tent until about 8:30. When we finally started emerging from the tent, I was approached by a man who was riding his bike through the shrine.

Miwa-san is a volunteer worker at the shrine. He makes sure the place is clean, and he just wanted to come by and see what we were up too. He thought that our choice of camping in the shrine was a good one since there is water and a bathroom. We talked with him for a while, then went back to packing up our stuff.

As we were leaving, Risa wanted to eat the last two tomatoes from the other day, so we walked over to the picnic area where we found Miwa waiting. He called us over, so we ate our tomatoes while he told us stories about the shrine and how its his job to clean the garbage.

After a little while, another man came over, and Miwa told him to sit down and hang out with us. So the 4 of us were hanging out, talking at the picnic table when we learned that the second man, Ikki-san, was actually the shrines Kannushi, or owner/caretaker. He was super nice. When he found out that our target for the day was mimitsu, he said, “ Oh, I’m planning to go visit my grandson in Hyuga. The Onsen you want to go to is on the way. I can take you there if you don’t mind waiting here for a little while.” Of course, when a shrines Kannushi offers to give you a ride, you don’t refuse! Ikki-san said he needed to go change real quick, but he would be right back.

About 10 minutes later, Ikki-san pulls up in his car wearing a full ceremonial kimono! His son is the Kannushi of a shrine in Hyuga, and the reason he is visiting is to take part in a big ceremony. With that, we said good bye to Miwa and headed north to Hyuga Sun Park Onsen.

Did I mention that Ikki-san is super nice? When we got to the onsen he gave us an orange, some tea, and then 1000yen ($10) to pay for the onsen! What a great guy. I hope we meet him again some day.

The onsen was really awesome. Very clean, and with an ocean view. The rest area outside the bath portion was also perfect since we could sit next to big windows overlooking the ocean, eat ice cream, and use an outlet to charge the iphone and laptop.

We probably spent 2 hours just lounging around the onsen before we decided to use our new found energy to walk to Hyuga. Our plan was to get to Hyuga and find another shrine. No campgrounds were listed on the map, and we aren’t planning on a hotel until Nobeoka.

In Hyuga, we worked our way over to the Oomi Shrine. We almost didn’t make it, since we found a cool little flat area that might have worked as a campground. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn’t stay once we discovered a wired shrine with a dragon statue and offerings of sake. We thought that maybe we should try to stay on the side of good and camp at a shrine rather than this weird evil dragon shrine. (but it was pretty cool looking)

Once at the Oomi shrine, we talked to the Kannushi and asked if it was ok to camp there. He said that we couldn’t camp in the shrine, but there is a beach around the corner that we can use. So he walked us down the road and showed us the way to the beach. However, this being Miyazaki (which we love), and this being the day that Kannushi’s help us, he also gave us some free cookies! The cookies are special since they represent a special rock formation inside the shrine called “Sazareishi”.

So here we are, camping in a small little cove. The beach here is very pretty.

The plan tomorrow is to make it to Nobeoka!

Day 8 Photoset

Our goal for today was to make it all the way to the town of Mimitsu, unfortunately that turned out to be about 10km too far for us. So we ended up in the town of Tsuno instead. It was a long, tiring day today. Pretty boring compared to yesterday. We saw some cranes standing around in rice fields, and we ate some breakfast on the beach, but that was about it.

The highlight of the day came at the very end. We arrived in Tsuno tired and hungry and we were having a bit of trouble finding a place to eat. I saw a man out watering plants in his yard, so I asked him if we were close to any restaurants. He told me that there was a place just about 50m further down the road and to the right. Risa and I said thank you and walked over there, only to find that it was closed.

The man, whose name I never found out, came walking up and started talking about an Udon restaurant near the main shrine in town. He said that we could also camp at the shrine, since its pretty common for surfers to camp there during the summer. Then he offered to give us a ride! Since we were fairly tired, we took him up on his offer. We are lucky we did, because when we got to the Udon place, it was closed as well! The man was surprised, so he got out and knocked at the door. Turns out, the restaurant closes at 4pm, and we had arrived at 4:30. However, the man was friends with the woman who owns the restaurant and he got her to agree to open her doors for us! Miyazaki people are soooo nice!

So we ate some good Udon, and we bought some Onigiri and chocolate from her as well. Now we are camping in the shrine, planning to continue our walk to Mimitsu tomorrow. The forecast is for rain tomorrow, so we might just stop at Mimitsu and spend time in an Onsen and then stay at the local Hostel.

Day 7 Photoset

After a long period of R&R in the city of Miyazaki, we finally were back on the road today.

We left the hotel around 10:30, which is pretty late, but still gave us enough time to get to our target for the day. We went north through Miyazaki following a road that was about 5 blocks parallel to hwy10. Taking the path less traveled really paid off for us today, as we got to meet several great people.

The first encounter was with a taxi driver who had pulled over and was waiting for us near a bridge. He walked with us for a few minutes, asking where we were going etc… When we said we were walking all the way to Tokyo, he told us he spent some time walking with another traveler who was going all over Japan. Then he got back in his taxi and drove off. It was a little strange, but as we soon learned, people in Miyazaki Prefecture are super nice and just like to talk and help out.

Further down the road we past by a small horse coral. The man who runs the place, Mr. Fukuda, called us over and asked if we wanted to look at the horses. Of course we said yes! He showed us a little pony named Po-chan and another horse whose name escapes me. After hearing about our plans and getting over his original disbelief, he asked us if we would like to ride one of the horses that was out in the coral. Of COURSE we want to ride a horse! So Risa and I each got to ride on ‘Sky’ while Fukuda led him around. We got a quick lesson in how to hold the reigns and how to gently kick the horses sides to get him to go, etc… It was really fun!

The horse experience made our day, but it was only the beginning! As we continued north, we entered Sadowara Town. A woman on a bicycle rode up behind us and told us that she owned a cafe near the bridge over the river. She said that if we stopped by she would treat us to some coffee!

It took a while, but we eventually made it to her cafe and she wasn’t lying about treating us! Mrs. Nei not only gave us coffee, but also kept bringing us watermelon slices! She even spent some time going over the maps with us, and telling us about some good places to camp. I guess the owner of the cafe and her like to lend a helping had to any travelers passing through. A while ago there were a couple of people who were walking from Fukuoka to Miyazaki, and today was the two of us.

We spent about an hour at her cafe, but it was starting to get a little late and we still had a couple hours ahead of us if we wanted to get to our target campground before dark. So we packed up and said our goodbyes and we were once again on our way.

The campground we planned to stay at is currently closed (read: Free), but that also might mean no water. So as we approached, we decided to stop by at a little store and ask if we could fill our waterbottles. The nice shop lady filled our bottles and Risa told her we were going to the campground for the night.

We thought that was the end of it, but after setting up our tent at the campground, that same shop lady came driving up. She wanted to make sure we made it safely and that we were able to set up the tent. She also brought us 5 fresh tomatoes! Then she said goodbye and drove off. So nice! WE LOVE MIYAZAKI! We are camping at a real campground for the first time. Tondahara Campground. Its nice, it has a huge sports field, swimming pool (closed), running water, and tiny little tent area. There is a guy practicing French Horn next to the field.