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!

Last night I learned that my pet cat Brook who has lived with my family for 15 years had died. She was a great cat. Never mean to anyone, always enjoyed being petted and sitting in peoples laps. She was super fat, but quite healthy. She lived a good life, spending much of her last few years tucked into the corner of the couch sleeping the day away, or sitting on my dads lap getting her ears scratched. She was somewhere between 17 and 21 years old. We got her from the shelter and I can’t remember how old she was when we got her. RIP Brook!

Day 6 Photoset

It kindda bummed me out and we could use an extra day to plan our route ahead, so we decided to stay one more day in Miyazaki.

We went for a walk around the city, and we went to a small foot onsen, but other than that, it was a pretty quiet day. Our route for the next 3 days planned pretty good now. We are going to head north along the coast, with our 3 day target being the town of Nobeoka. We found some campgrounds and hotels along the route that we can use if needed, but I am hoping to save some money and just camp on the beach if possible.

We are ready to leave!

My Alien Registration is finished, I’m in the national healthcare system, and we finally got our cell phone. The only thing left to do is make a reservation at a hostel in Hiroshima.

Ideally, we would probably leave friday, but since Golden Week is starting this weekend, we are going to try to beat the hoards of people by leaving early.

Initially our thought was to spend an entire day in Himeji, then sleep at a hostel or even camp. But after researching the local accommodations and camping options, it seems like Himeji isn’t the best place to stay. They don’t really have cheap hostels or places to camp. So, the new plan is to leave Tokyo around 6am, get to Himeji around 9 or 10, spend the afternoon at the castle, then get back on the train and head to Hiroshima for the night. We are planning on spending at least 1 full day in Hiroshima before leaving for Kagoshima.

Our end goal, is to get to Yakushima island before Saturday. If we can get there on Thursday or Friday, we should be able to get started on the island hike before the Golden Week crowds. *Fingers Crossed*

As promised, here are some shots of our new family stamp (Hanko). I can’t show the mark itself, since the Japanese use these things like signatures and I don’t want someone running around signing me up for credit cards. But basically the stamp uses Katakana to spell out “SA-N-DAA-ZU”

Hanko Workshop

This is the storefront to the little workshop where our family stamp was made.

Hanko Work Area

Here is the little work area that the old man uses when he makes a new stamp.

Example Stamps

We picked the size that you can see in the top left corner.

The Hanko Maker

This is the old man who made our stamp (which is he holding). He was an interesting guy. Very political. He tried to convince me to vote for some politician in the next election. I don’t think he realized that I can’t vote in Japan… oh well. Nice guy. Good stamp maker.