Presents, Rivers and a Sinister Cat - 25th May 2015

After finally getting to sleep in spite of the incredible itchiness of the bug bites I had received yesterday, I was awoken around 2am by the sound of a man and woman's voice, coming closer and closer towards my tent, until they actually realised there was a tent there and then retreated to the bleachers where they continued their conversation. I tried to sleep but could hear them discussing all manner of things couples tend to discuss at 2am in the dark on a sport field. I don't know how serious he was, but at one point the guy suggested that they go and find out who was in the tent. "Oh god, please don't" I thought. Luckily the girl had some sense and said she was too scared. And she was right to be, I would have been scary if they had come inquiring as to whom I was at 2:30 in the morning. They left after an hour or so and I was free to get back to sleep, but was up at 5am, worried that some soccer team would wander in and I would be caught in the middle of their practice session.

This scenario did not eventuate, but there were people walking their dogs and jogging etc. Some people seem totally bewildered by my presence, slack jawed and unable to reply when I say good morning to them, but others seem completely unfazed and stop to have a chat. One lady walking her two dogs did just this, asking me where I was from and telling me about how she went to Australia thirty years ago on her honeymoon. She said goodbye to me, then twenty minutes later came back in her car to give me these presents:

Hand made rice snacks (still warm), some sort of maple candy, and two bags of green tea grown in the area

I was very thankful. The tea turned out to be a little heavy so I thought I better get using it straight away, and mixed it into my water bladder right then and there:

I know the colour is not the most appetising colour but it tastes good enough

The rest of the day turned out to be pretty darn good. Lots to see and the weather was perfect:

These may have been the tea fields where the tea came from

After half a day spent god knows where, I finally met up again with the trail just a few hundred metres up the road from where I camped

It took me down into a small river valley...

...and then spat me out at the base of Mt Nydogatake

It actually almost felt like I was in the "wilderness" for the first time in a while on this walk

It was turning out to be a really nice day

Tsubaki Grand Shrine. There was a procession of monks who went through but thought it would be rude to just start snapping photos of them no matter how much I wanted to

Another decimated mountain, at it's bottom was a concrete factory. Concrete is big business in Japan, it's absolutely everywhere

Down some mountain roads outside a village I can't quite recall the name of

I met this guy and his coworker as I was walking into the village whose name I forget. Two very nice men, who had a bunch of question about my trip, and offered me a lift into town, which I had to refuse.

The Shin-Meishin Expressway in the distance

That loomed closer...

...until I was right under it

It made me wonder how many people drive over this bridge but think nothing of the construction that went into it. I know I have driven over hundreds of similar bridges in my life and not thought about one of them. It is only when you see them from the underside does it hit you how much planning and construction goes into them. They were huge, probably fifty metres or so off the ground.

The irony was not lost on me that I was admiring the most unnatural of things on a nature walk, but they truly were stunning to see up close

The trail then took me up a mountain road that follows a river up and over Mt Mitsugo. It was hot and I'd been walking up hill when I saw this perfect looking pool of water and just couldn't walk past it without having a swim

So I left my bag next to the road and climbed down this embankment...

...and took the plunge.

I only spent about ten minutes in there because it was freezing cold, but I felt absolutely grand afterwards

And it was hot enough to just lay in the sun to dry off

After that interval I got back to some walking, mostly along roads for the rest of the day

And past some sheep, freshly sheared

The Japanese sound for sheep is "Mee Mee" instead of "Baa Baa."

Towards the end of the day the trail took me under Highway 1...

...past a forgotten shrine that was right under it

And down some dubious trails. The leaves made it quite slippery. Would not want to be on this section in the wet

By 5pm I had run out of food and was contemplating whether I should catch a bus into a larger town so I could get some food, then I chanced upon this place

It looked like the shop was past its heyday, with the shelves being almost bare, the lady who came out to serve me was very apologetic about the state of affairs

They had enough though to keep me going for another day

And she gave me these two home made An Pan (sweet bean bread) for free to make up for it

Around 6pm I came across this abandoned shrine half way up Mt Nasugahara that I seriously considered sleeping in.

But I didn't get a good feeling from the place, and this sinister cat was hanging around, just staring at me

So I moved just down the road to a completely unremarkable spot in the woods, one that took me 20 minutes to clear away everything that could potentially poke a hole through the floor of my tent. I then cooked my noodles and added a packet of curry and ate it up. It was surprisingly good after a full days walking. And now, with nothing else to do, I'm going to go to bed.

Distance: 34.4km

The Great Bug Incident - 24th May 2015

 I woke up, packed up and was on the road bright and early. Here are some views from the morning:

It was heating up early

I'm not sure if Japan's neighbours would approve of such statues. I found this in the town of Inabe

They had decimated the side of this mountain

I took this before 10am and it was already stiflingly hot.

It was the people who really made today interesting though:

First, this man stopped in his truck when he saw me to ask what I was doing out in the middle of nowhere and we chatted for a while in the middle of the road.

It turns out he was going hunting for deer and/or mountain goats. He had a rifle in a case on his front seat and two Akita dogs in the back of his truck he said used to chase the animals out so he could shoot them. I asked him if he was allowed to shoot monkeys and he said “no, but I’d like too. They're are annoying little shits.”

 Next was this old fellow:

He was cutting wood as I walked past and was a bit shocked, but not unhappy, to see a foreigner walking pass. Although he was eighty eight years old, I could tell he was still really healthy. I asked him how he did it and he replied “I just don’t worry about anything.” Good advice. We talked about all the animals I had seen on the trail and told me if I saw a snake again to catch it and bring it to him because he loves the taste but had not eaten it for twenty years!

As far as I could tell, from around 11am my GPS map diverted me from the Tokai Shizen Hodo that was meant to run along the base of some mountains and instead took me on roads that ran through towns. I had planned to resupply at a supermarket that appeared on my map, but to my shock and horror this is what I found:

I almost cried

It was Sunday and everything was closed. I checked my map but the surrounding area seemed barren of shops or restaurants. All I could do was walk and hope I would find something, anything, that would provide me with some form of sustenance. The irony was not lost on me as I walked past field after field of wheat; there was literally food all around me and here I was, extremely hungry:

Imagine the hundreds of ways those grains could be used to make various kinds of food, food I could have been eating if that bloody store had not been closed

My saviour came around the time I was beginning to contemplate what exactly I would say if I started knocking on people's doors in search of food. I was walking along and had stopped at a vending machine for a sugary drink when these kids spotted me and wanted to know why I was out here:

They couldn't believe I had walked from Tokyo and had a million questions for me, the most interesting being "where do I go to the toilet in the woods?" I showed them my trowel and explained to them I dig a hole, which they all found hilarious. They then wanted to see my hiking gear and try it out, to which I obliged:

I then said I had a question for them, "where is the nearest store I can get some food?"

"It's just down this road" one of them piped up, "we'll show you where it is." So my entourage and I set off down the back streets of rural Japan, and no sooner than twenty minutes later, at a convenience store I never would have found on my own, I was pigging out on all the food they had to offer.

I offered to buy them all something to thank them for showing me the store but they refused saying that it was fine. Such polite and respectful kids.

By the time I had finished pigging out it was around 3pm, and I stepped out of the air conditioned comfort of the store into a wave of heat. There was not shade to walk in, and I must have gone through two litres of water in two hours. So when I arrived in this small rice growing valley with no one but me in it, I decided to make use of the shade and nice green grass to have a rest. Sounds simple right? What could possibly go wrong?

The valley in question

The grass in question

I inflated my pillow, laid down, and closed my eyes, just happy to be out of the sun. I could hear the birds singing and a cool breeze was blowing, everything seemed perfect. So naturally I began to doze after about five minutes, but snapped awake when I felt a stinging sensation on my right calf. I sat up and saw a little half ant half fly like insect biting into my leg with nasty looking pincers that had enough strength to draw forth a bead of blood. I quickly swatted it flat and was inspecting the bite when I felt a second sting on my left thigh. I rolled up the leg of my shorts and found another little bastard biting into me, blood forthcoming just like the first. I smushed the second into a splatter of bug and blood, and as I was inspecting the second bite I saw another one on my arm and went to squash it too. That's when I felt another sting on my lower back, and then another one on my ankle. It quickly dawned upon me that these bugs were probably all over me and if I didn't do something quick they would really start taking chunks out of me left right and centre. I pulled up my shirt and saw two milling around on my stomach alone, and as I was squashing them I felt another biting into the tender spot where my underwear met my thigh. This attack close to the family jewels sent me into a full blown panic and I started ripping off my clothes and swatting myself all over. Luckily no one was in the valley to see because it would have frightfully embarrassing if they had been, I must have looked crazy and possessed, one moment taking a nice relaxing rest, then the next I was naked, jumping up and down, hitting myself all over. I ripped open my pack and got my towel and dipped it in the small stream (too small to get in myself or I would have) that was running beside me and started washing myself all over trying to get them all off. The worst thing was the irritation the bites caused, they almost immediately went red and were (are) incredibly itchy:

I'm not going to mention all the places I got bitten, but lets just say it wasn't pretty. I washed all the clothes I had been wearing in the stream before I dared put them back on, the whole ordeal taking over forty minutes, with me being extremely careful I did not get attacked again. As I walked out of that valley wearing damp clothes, exhausted, disheveled and extremely itchy, I remember asking myself if that could have gone any worse? Maybe a large mammal attack would have topped it, but that was about all I could think of. 

For the rest of the day I have been trying not to scratch my bites, something that has been incredibly hard to resist as scratching them feels so good, one hundred percent instant relief, but then when I stop the itching comes back two fold for the next few minutes driving me nearly insane. 

A bit worse for wear and not in the best of moods I continued on, going wherever the GPS told me to go, and around 6:30pm I found this sports field that was perfect for camping:

Don't worry, I thoroughly checked the grass for nasty bugs

I quickly got set up, wanting to forget the second half of the day

I managed to get a wash in too, and inspect the bites, not pretty

And at least my dinner was decent. I had packed in these two meals, rice and chicken, I bought at the convenience store earlier in the day

I'm now sitting in my tent now trying not to scratch the bites wondering if I will get any sleep tonight...

Distance: 32.3km