Roving Japan

Day 79 Photoset

This morning we said goodbye to the Itoh family, then Mr. Itoh took us to Kamado station, one station away from Mizunami, where we began the next leg of the Nakasendo.

We spent the day walking towards Ena, while rain cloud after rain cloud passed overhead. I guess it was good that the clouds moved faster than we did. It allowed us to get a few breaks between storms.

Other than the rain, there isn’t much to talk about. I think the highlight of the day was the rainbow we saw near our target end point.

It’s been a while since we walked, so we planned out a short day for today. I think we only went about 15km. Originally we were going to go to an area north of Ena, but Risa didn’t want to take a 2km detour, so instead we stayed on the 19 and walked to a big sports park. Since it is raining, there is basically no one here. We are tucked away in the back corner, so we should be able to have a good nights rest without anyone bothering us.

It’s probably going to rain tonight and tomorrow, but I hope the rain lets up on Wednesday when we head into the mountains.

Day 60 Photoset

As we went north from our hotel in southern Hikone, we passed through the wonderfully restored old style shopping district. It was great to see such a good replica of an old shopping street with modern technology mixed in without being obtrusive.

From the shopping street, we went to Hikone castle. I read that the castle here was nice, but I’m going to go ahead and say that this is my second favorite castle we’ve seen. Just under Himeji castle because, well, its Himeji castle, and nothing is going to beat that.

Hikone castle is an original, so all the old wood is intact. You can really sense the history there, so I quite enjoyed it.

The view from the top was nice, we finally got a good look at lake Biwa, but unfortunately the castle windows were covered with chicken wire to keep out the birds. This pretty much killed any photo opportunities.

The castle also has a nice garden, and it’s the only place in Japan with an original castle horse stable.

While we were there, a few little rain storms blew over, but as we left it was clear and sunny. However a few km north, it started raining. A lot.

We were lucky because it really started to come down hard right as we approached an overpass. The area under the overpass had a little intersection. During one of the red lights, some high school drop out douchebag ricer started revving his engine. We were a little worried that this worthless waste of youth would try to splash us or something. Then this wonderful upstanding young gentlemen with an appreciation of fine automobiles pulled over and offered us a ride. We would have taken him up on his offer, but he was heading the other direction. It sure was a nice surprise though!

Since we spent so much time at the castle and then taking shelter to avoid the heavy rain, we fell a couple kilometers short of our target in Semegai. We are camping in some trees behind a big shrine we found off of highway 21. The Kannushi was kind enough to give us permission to camp for the night.

We are really happy we found this shrine, otherwise we might be out by the river somewhere. It’s also really nice to camp in a spot where we know we have permission and we won’t be bothered by anyone… Except the mosquitoes, which have us surrounded.

Day 59 Photoset

It rained pretty hard last night. So hard that it actually woke us up several times. We were both pretty tired this morning, so we were lucky that the rest area we were camping in had a vending machine with coffee for 80yen.

We walked pretty far today, making it all the way to Hikone. It was a nice walk, and we were very fortunate with the weather. The report called for rain all day, but we somehow managed to walk between storms and were lucky enough to miss almost all the rain. I even got a little more sun burned to add to my already potent farmers tan.

We did our best to walk off the highway as much as possible, as the constant traffic gives us both headaches. It was nice to take a mental break and walk through the rice patties, watching the crows hunting for bugs and the frogs hopping around everywhere.

There was a sad/interesting shrine along the way. At some point in history, it was a shrine in the middle of the countryside. Now it has a Shinkansen track going right through the middle of the main path.

A couple of the towns we walked through still have the Nakasendo marked. It was a nice assurance to see signs marking the old path. It reminded me of the signs in Oregon for the Oregon trail, and how Oregonians barely notice them. I am sure that the locals don’t even notice the Nakasendo markers, but they were sure a welcome sight for us!

After three days of walking in high humidity, we grabbed a hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are going to check out Hikone castle before starting through the mountains towards Gifu. I set two targets, either camp by the river in Semegai or at a shrine in Kashiwabara.

Day 13 Photoset

I don’t know when it happened exactly, but that bastard Murphy decided to follow us around today.

It started out harmless enough. I forgot to charge the iPhone last night. We plugged it in for a little while this morning, but we only got about a 60% charge.

Then when we were walking down the 217 on our way to Usuki we decided to stop at a drug store to buy some dust masks. The 217 has a very long tunnel, and we wanted something to cover our faces while we walked through it. The masks were sold out due to the recent swine flu panic. No big deal… but that was just the beginning.

The lady at the hotel told us that the tunnel through the mountain was walkable since there was a sidewalk. What she didn’t mention, was that the road TO the tunnel did NOT have a sidewalk. Or that there is a lot of traffic and a narrow bridge before you even get there.

We walked for about an hour before we hit the bridge and realized that there was no way we could walk over it with all the big trucks that were on the road. So we made the decision to walk back to Tsukumi and get on the train to Usuki.

Did I mention that it was really really windy? Risas hat, which is hard enough to keep on her head during normal days, was constantly trying to fly off her head. Also there was a ton of dust being kicked up and it all seemed to fly directly into her eyes. So for the next hour while we walked back to the train station, Risa was holding her hat to her head and trying to walk with her eyes closed.

Then one of the hiking poles decided to fall apart for no reason. The bottom segment just fell out. Just like that. It was really weird.

Then Risa got a rock in her shoe.

All this, and we hadn’t even got back to the station.

At the station, we had an hour long wait for the next train. No biggie, that gave me time to charge the phone. The train ride to Usuki was also fine. Things seemed to be looking up!

Once in Usuki we walked south to the National Treasure Usuki Stone Buddhas. These old Buddhas were carved into the sides of the mountain and were recently restored and declared a national treasure.

The folks at the shrine ticket office also gave us permission to camp in the parking lot for the night.

Perfect! We are rid of Murphy!

Nope.

While setting up the tent, the wind picked up and it started to rain. Risa had mentioned that there was a “Strong Wind Warning” today, but we didn’t really pay attention since we didn’t foresee us camping in a large exposed parking lot. The parking lot was made of gravel and I couldn’t get my stakes into the ground. So Risa went back to the people at the shrine and they told us we could try sleeping in the shed where they keep the cricket balls and brooms.

So right now we are in the shed. Outside it’s pouring rain… and I just started to hear thunder. The shed is made of metal. That’s bad right?

If this post ever makes it online, then I guess you know we survived the night. Otherwise, I hope the netbooks HD doesn’t get fried too badly by the lightning bolt that kills us.