Distance walked: 21km (book claimed it should only have been 18km)
The bed last night was the hardest I've slept in on this trip and it was a mattress on a base, not a futon on the floor! Still, it was pleasant to have a room with solid walls and a bathroom & toilet to myself.
Today's walk was all along country roads which made it rather hard under foot. I kept waiting to get past the outskirts of Ena but in a way we never did. It was all houses or small pockets of farms, then more houses. Suburban houses too, not just farm buildings. The valley is the only flat land hereabouts and is completely built up.
We stopped for lunch at another post town called Nakatsugawa. This is the size of a small city/town so we had options and split up. John & Nola went to the food court at the shopping centre and had savory rolls from the bakery. Others went to a noddle place, Diane went to a pasta joint while Tom, Cathy, Doug & I went to a place that specialised in eel. My set menu had eel on rice, a dish of tofu, some pickles and more eel inside slices of omelette. All very tasty.
After lunch we did some pottering around what shops were open (it is Sunday today). I bought some fancy ear plus from the Daiso here. The foam ones we were given on the plane are useless.
We then set off for the next post town on the route - a little place called Ochiai. Here we visited the honjin (inn for the important people) which has been turned into a museum. We also browsed in a shop set up by local craftsmen. I really wanted to buy some jewellery here as it would have been the ideal souvenir. Sadly I didn't like any of it, much to the artist's disappointment.
Finally we set off for the last push to our inn which is just before the next post town of Magome. Cathy was getting a bit cranky with all the delays. She was done and just wanted to arrive. However, Paula was always far behind as she seem to stop every 100m or so to take photos.
The last section (1 to 2km) is along some of the original road which is 200 years old. As I have walked along original Roman roads that are 2000 years also I failed to be suitably impressed.
The inn here is the nicest we've stayed in so far. I'm upstairs near Vicky & Dave, Diane and Tom. Sadly both Diane and Dave snore. Diane is particularly loud.
There are two couple sized bathrooms and three toilets with two cubicles each. Better than before but still not as pleasant as having your own ensuite. I'd also like to have a bigger bath so we don't have to take turns. You can't really have a relaxing soak when you have to keep one eye on the time.
Dinner once again was a beautifully presented feast. A small whole fish, spinach with sesame, tempura, salmon sashimi, some wild boar the master of the inn had hunted (tough & tasteless unfortunately), various pickles, some other small things and red cooked crickets. I ate one. It was crunchy and the sauce was good. I couldn't face eating any more. Bruce finished off most people's crickets. He also ate most of Paula's dinner. She suddenly felt nauseous after her bath and didn't join us.
Dinner was very enjoyable. We've all gotten to know each other well enough now we can joke and tease each other rather than just make polite conversation. We are beginning to gel as a group.
We all called it quits early (9pm) and headed off to bed. We had to make up our own beds. I think I've laid my out facing the wrong direction - north. At least I think that way is north. I really miss not having a map.
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