Distance walked: 14 1/2 km
I'd slept better than I had expected. The futon was on a foam pad so it was comfortable and the quilt kept me toasty warm. However, a yakuta is a daft garment for sleeping in.
Breakfast was a small dish of pickles and whitebait, a bowl of rice, 1 fried egge, some shredded cabbage and 2 thin slivers of ham plus some sheets of seaweed. Apparently you are supposed to roll lumps of rice in the seaweed. With the exception of the whitebait it was all quite tasty. Coffee was those cup-based filters but decently strong.
After breakfast we caught 2 (3? - I forget) trains to some medium-sized town. There we visited a supermarket to buy lunch for tomorrow as there won't be anywhere to do so on the way. I bought a small bagueete, some sliced cheese and some rice crackers. This should keep - except the bread is getting horribly squashed. We then went to a cafe where we had second breakfast - coffee and a green tea croissant.
After second breakfast we caught three more trains to Mitake. Here we had lunch - okonomiyaki. We ate it in some tourist centre where we were asked to decorate paper scales than were to be stuck on giant fish kites. They are being put up everywhere as it is Boy's Day next weekend. Paula was, predictably, enchanted by it all.
After this we finally started hiking. At last. The other people on the tour are all perfectly pleasant but I'm just not very interested in them and Tom is a deadly dull guide. Tom knows a lot, he just can't work out how to present it in an interesting manner. Diane isn't much better as she is still learning about the Nakasendo Way. However, the hiking was more what I wanted to do and left me in a much more cheerful frame of mind.
We are at our ryokan in Hosokute now. It only has the one bath again - but I got to go first this time. I was last yesterday. It has two toilets. That's going to be fun as there are lots of middle of the night visits given the age of the group. My room is bigger than last night but closer to the others so we'll have to see how it turns out.
Today's hiking was mostly on back roads but also some paths through forest. There were two climbs but nothing too long or too high. The only drawback is the amount of standing water - and hence mosquitos - everywhere.
Just finished a beautifully presented and mostly tasty dinner. First course was tiny, individual mouthfuls of various things - including a cube of silken soft tofu with sesame dressing. Next was an entire trout each, about the size of my palm, which as crispy but rather fiddly to eat with chopsticks. Next was a savory custard which was follow by a carp steak in teriyaki sauce. The sauce was delicious but carp has a lot of bones. Then came a bowl of slightly gluggy rice before dessert. Dessert was a piece of grapefruit, which had had the flesh taken out and made into a tangy jelly and then reshaped. Last came chocolates (milk mostly sadly) and genmai chai tea. Mostly very good food and I enjoyed the company after having had some time to myself.
Tomorrow we spend the whole day walking. We are supposed to cover 22km and Tom wants us to do it in 7 hours - including all stops. Should be quite do-able provided it isn't too hilly.
No comments:
Post a Comment