Okay, another three days in Japan. Oct 6 to 8. The trip is half over…

We made an itinerary for the trip before starting, it has helped us keep things a little organized:

Link to (UNEDITED) photos Oct 06 to Oct 08, Onomichi to Kanazawa.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FfMPoCENGvsXJHtt5

Jess notes:

10/06 – Speaking of collapse. . .I did ride across the islands.  Bridge to bridge to bridge to the final leg of a ferry.  It was a lovely trip, and I’m glad I stopped for an overnight, but it was difficult to get up and face my little city bike again.  The sore wore off after the first give klicks or so and I had a fine sunrise on the road.  The path is marked by a blue line.  Good.  Sometimes the path goes both ways around an island.  Bad.  Suddenly your path has you heading back the way you came and you’ve lost your bridge.  Very bad.  But I recovered.  Jim met me at the ferry and has watched me put away two meals so far.  I think I was running on a calorie deficient.  He tells me out hotel has excellent Thai food.  I’m looking forward to dinner.

10/08 – Our hotel in Onomichi after the bike ride across the bridges was wonderful.  It was also straight up the hill, on the order of 250-300 meters up.  I faced the stairs up the same way I had faced the last island, with gritty determination.  Of course, on that last Island I saw a brontosaurus and merely said to myself, “oh, a brontosaurus,” before, after pedaling a few more meters, it occurred to me that one did not actually see a brontosaurus every day.  So I stopped and took a picture.  I don’t think I managed any pictures on the way up those steps, but the one out our window was gorgeous.  Also, the way to avoid the steps is to go up on the rope way (funicular) which runs you over a local shrine and a spectacularly powerful camphor tree.

The restaurant at the hotel fed us serious Thai hot food:  The owner was a Thai boxer, and when he retired, he trained more boxers who got their wind running up and down the hill.  Breakfast, however, was a Japanese breakfast of rice and egg and pickles and salad and a few more oddments, including miso soup.  I was finally caught up on the calorie deficient.

From Onomichi we proceeded to take a train to Kanazawa, along with what feels like half the country:  Did I mention this weekend is a national holiday, National sports day?  Everyone is traveling.  We have a lovely room here at Guesthouse Namaste, with a widely traveled owner who likes to sit and chat in his living room.  We went to the gardens, which were lovely, at least what we could see of them between other tourists.  They were notable for the number of trees which needed prosthetics to hold up their spreading branches, which I found odd and irregular.  There were numerous youngsters out in full formal Japanese dress, including a couple who had opted for traditional shoes and were mincing along carefully.  We visited the samurai house, which included a congratulatory letter from an overlord for the recipient delivering a high-ranking enemy’s head.  It made me wonder which one of them felt it was more all in a day’s work. 

There was a castle, of course, and a historic apothecary dating from early in the shogunate.  There were two restaurants which required one to order using a cell phone to scan and order. . .those were wrestling matches, and I’m not sure who won, but we’ve had splendid sushi and tempura today, as well as some actually spicy dumplings.

Tomorrow we are off to Niigata, which we are informed has the best sake.  I shall have to investigate, and Jim will no doubt have to roll me home in a wheelbarrow.  After that we are off to Dewa Zansan, three holy (Shinto, mostly) mountains for more hiking and stair climbing adventures.   We shall  try to keep you updated.

Jim’s comments:

While Jess was RIDING bike 90 kilometers across 7 islands from Imabari to Onomichi,

I was RIDING a train from Matsuyama to Yokohama then back to Onomichi! Man was it a long RIDE!

Here is a rough map of Japan showing trip general locations: (starts and ends in Osaka)

Fin – all over again!