Sunday 1st April Day 49 - 500 metres to the Spar Sunny Sunday cricket The night was interrupted by what seemed to be every two-bit scooter owner and his mate driving around. Paul and Tom slept through it but I just tossed and turned, though it did give me an opportunity to pop out for a moonlit pee. Tom bounced out of bed at 6.30am and was determined that Paul and I joined him. Tom has been brilliant, though I still like abiding by the student code of not getting up unless hungry. The day was spent sunbathing, swimming, resting and playing "Jedi cricket" with a rock and a stick-come-light sabre we found. On the whole we did nothing which was just what we needed. A
personal note from Ben: "I've been walking for just over a
week, at times it feels like it's all I've ever done, and sometimes
I still feel like the new boy. Apart from the physical struggle
which hurt a lot this week, every day brings a mind battle. 2 or
3 times I've been close to tears thinking of those I have left at
home. At any other time in my life, if I missed someone I could
pick up a phone and call, but it's so isolated here. I know this
walk is worth it though, even if we never see the minefields we
clear, we will know that we`ve done it."
After
a cramped night we all felt a little unenthused by morning. The
highlights of the day were meeting a Japanese pilgrim who was walking
1000km to see Shikoku's 88 sacred temples, Ben knocking a roof tile
off a house with his head and being given 3000 Yen by on old man
for the charity. We camped in an old shack and crashed out on its
knackered floor.
The
morning trek took us along a river with some more great boulders
for climbing. Ben and Paul spent lunch trying to conquer a tricky
overhang. The rest of the day was spent walking by an enormous dam.
A recent landslide meant that we had to take a ridiculously bendy
detour. We pitched camp by the river running into the dam. Another
hot day and none of our legs were working. We found a great lunch
and swimming spot and Paul demonstrated his dive-in-get-out-before-you-can-say-how-cold-it-is
routine. After lunch we saw monkies running across the roads and
into trees, and a reclusive beastie called the Japanese Serow. By
evening we had found a campsite on a pebble beach next to four bridges
and stayed up late playing cards.
The day started with a massive breakfast which included an experimental gruel. We are always trying to find what food will be suitable for the Alps. It consisted of breadcrumbs, hot water, condensed milk and pineapple. It smells a lot worse than it tastes. Actually we spent most of the morning eating. Upon leaving camp we came across a basket with different packets of food for 100 Yen. So we put our money in the available box and took some food - the trust in honesty here is astounding! At about 9.30 we were stopped on the road by a tough-looking truck driver who pulled from his cab a basket full of goodies and told us to take as much as we wanted. The
rest of the day was all walking, aiming for a campsite we never
actually found, after turning down two offers of lifts to it. However,
we had a very comfortable night's sleep on a baseball field.
The
most British looking mountain so far as its summit was covered in
grass. Bamboo grass though, which because of the season was in places
waist high and covering the track. Tsurugi-san is a big rolling
lump but it was a beautiful day and a most enjoyable climb. Our
route took us over an ancient vine bridge which excited Ben as he
had been talking about them since he arrived. We camped earlier
that evening feeling we deserved it after 46km yesterday and three
peaks today. We all bivied under the stars once the fire had died,
next to a locked hut. Ben
says we must be getting old, as we all enjoyed the beauty of Japan's
famous blossom which was out in force on the pass we climbed. We
also enjoyed the oranges and tea given to us by some friendly picnic-ers.
Many people were out to see the blossom ( this watching the blossom
is called 'Hanami' ). Today was the third day that we had to suffer
food from the village store and the second day that we had HAD to
eat gruel for breakfast- its edilble, almost enjoyable! The
biggest excitement today was getting to a supermarket with a good
past-the-sell-by-date bread bin and free tasters. Another long day
of walking and we camped in Tokushima`s central park on the top
of a hill, next to a temple. With the city all around us and an
impractically-long-cooking, but rather delicious, vegetable stew
on the stove, we talked about the differences between walking in
the city and on the major roads between. The city is more dangerous
as you share the pavements with a multitude of cyclists going in
both directions! One
of the aims of this walk was to link the Hyakumeizan in a continuous
trek, using as little public transport as possible. Crossing the
Eastern bridge to Shikoku is illegal by foot and we couldn't play
the misunderstanding-gaijin-card as all the signs had pictures.
We backtracked to a local police box and pleaded our case but, despite
his conversation with the Road Agency, he wasn't going to break
the law for us. Turning a blind eye doesn't exist here. We pleaded
another couple of times and finally gave in. Then the policeman
said he would give us a lift to the appropriate bus stop. We walked
'til late that evening to make up for lost time faffing. For
the third week running Ben suffered a vicious ailment on a Saturday.
First hip trouble, then a sore shin, now a dodgy knee. We still
got a good amount of ground covered though - down the coast, through
towns. We camped on a run-down summer swimming spot called Sun Beach,
and fell asleep under the palms with the sounds of the waves lapping
in our ears. Spear
fishing, sun bathing, letter writing, a game of BOLF (a mix of golf
and baseball invented by Tom) interspersed with plenty of food.
We met a young and in-love couple on the beach in the afternoon
and they joined us for coffee. Ben was greatly touched when the
girl offered to take a polaroid of him to send to his sweet Danielle.
The day closed with a beautiful sunset. Just what a rest day should
be! A
quick march in the morning saw our arrival at the bus terminal on
Awaji, overlooking the water between us and Japan's 2nd biggest
connurbation - Kobe/Osaka. We could also see our second defiant
bridge - despite being big enough for 6 lanes of motorway there
was no room for backpackers. How strange it is to be back in streets
full of people and cars. By the end of the day we had made good
progress towards Osaka, and finally managed to find a lovely little
playground to sleep in. The city never sleeps, but we curled up
on the park benches and snoozed our way through to Visa day. To
be or not top be? Talk about the dawn chorus, the Japanese seem to work all night long. We awoke to the strangest sight: Park Maintenance, not council workers in big yellow jackets, but 6 or 7 middle-aged women busying themselves with brush and pan - at 5 in the morning! Then as a final measure, to ensure that we didn't forget the park in a hurry, a fellow parkbench dweller sang hymns as we ate breakfast - good old man. As we made our way through the main streets of Osaka in search of the Immigration Office we baked in the heat and became slightly apprehensive about the imminent renewal of our stay here. Yet within the hour and a half of arriving at the offices, we were the proud owners of three new born visas. All we need to do now is to register as legal aliens! In
high spirits we head off in search of a Tabehodai (eat all you can)
restaurant, and a campsite.. On the way we were accosted by a bloke
who basically wanted to make friends with us so that he could get
our address for his daughter to visit us... very strange, not to
mention time-consuming. What is more annoying is that we didn't
notice the Tabehodai just 200m from our tents - noodles again. Q
- How many Japanese does it take to say you can't register as an
alien here? After packing up our riverside campsite, we strolled into the city ofice of Tondabayashi (30km south of Osaka) to register orselves as aliens. Afer our success the day before, we expected this to be a piece of cake. We
walked out of the office two hours later, having been told by a
gang of 6 ladies that we needed to register in the town in which
we are living. Needless to say this puts us in an interesting position,
as our tents don't quite count as a fixed address. The rest of the
day was spent brainstorming to try and find a solution to this problem.
Birthdays come but once a year. Baths are only slightly more frequent.
The joy of stashing heavy bags and walking unburdened along a forested ridge under the blazing sun is beyond the description of words. Although we had powered into the hills after our bath, we still had about 20km to reach the trailhead. Stopping for a short break at the final village before the hills proper, we were accosted by a man in the information centre next door, who demanded walk and contact details. As of yet (written sun 22nd) we have not been phoned, and are hoping a helicopter hasn't been scrambled to find us.
We
camped that night high on the ridge by a small patch of snow that
we used for water, having been advised by two competent-looking
Japanese climbers that the spring we were aiming for was dry.
Hakken-ga-take is one peak on a ridge some 40 km long. So we spent Saturday morning picking our way along a really enjoyable section, which involved chains and ladders, various other peaks, and the spring which we'd been told didn't exist. it rained all day, but wasn't particularly cold. Judging
by the bra's strewn about the trees, there are some women who are
unhappy at the fact that in today's day and age, Sanjo-ga-take is
still officially off-limits to Women. Past There is apparently a cliff over which people are dangled, but we only saw the summit's temple, a massive pair of steel sandals, two smelly loos and, sadly, a whole heap of rubbish. The temple is only alive in the summer so, after commenting on how big it was, and looking around, we headed back to our bags and the valley below. From what we saw, Women aren't really missing much at all. As
it continued to rain, we bivied that night under a roof which was
probably a buzzing BBQ spot at some point in the year. It was a
lovely find down a wrong turn. None of us wanted to walk on a rest day, but it saved a big next day. From where we were, it would have been a 52km Mt day on Monday - not a pleasant thought at any time - plus the Lonely Planet description of Mt No 11 made it sound pretty rugged. Consequently we packed our bags and moved on. A rest day...
Today was also the day that we discovered that our pay-as-you-go cards only lasted for 30 days, and not the 3 monthes that we had been told. Unfortunately this meant that we suffered 2 weeks radio silence, and missed a couple of newspaper callbacks. Working order has since been restored. Week
Summary: Again, a week of two definite halfs. The tiring and ultimately
frustrating first half until Thursday, dealing with immigration
and red tape. And then the second half improving rapidly with Onsens
and Gangsters, Mountains and villages.
We spent much of the morning muttering about the inaccuracy of the Lonely Planet map. The weird thing was that it wasn't totally wrong though. We were walking on the right side of the dam, we did follow a crystal clear river, there was a mountain hut on the river (if in the wrong place), and the path branched off along the river in basically the right place. We had left camp at 6:30am mentally prepared for a hard 15hr mountain day up gorges, past waterfalls and over slippery rock. We were back into camp sunburned at 3:30pm having spent a good hour after lunch working on our tans! It was only as we charged up an easy forested track that seemed to climb at about 1 degree, that we realised that perhaps we were not on the path described in the Lonely Planet guide. It is scary how similar the dams look on the map. We just presumed it must be the dam we were heading for, as our dam was much closer to the mountain. Mountain 11 was taken easily and gave us a good taste of what climbing season in Japan will feel like. Crowded. Our path meandered upwards through the forest to break out onto a mountain road at about 1400m. The road brought us to a veritable village of mountain huts, visitor centres, bus stops and toilets. There was much activity going on as the Mountain officially opened in two days time. From the village it was a 2km stroll along gravelled paths to the summit. On the whole it was a bit of a let down, with the view alone being impressive. As
we had walked on Sunday, we just crashed in camp on return and roasted
marshmallows that night over a camp fire. Much of the morning was spent walking back along the far side of the dam. On the map, which we had looked at on the side of the road, it looked as if it would be the shorter route. For some reason however, none of the switch backs had been marked on properly! After finally coming to the end of the dam we rang our man in Tokyo (Thom James) just to let him know we were still alive (following our little problem with the phone). Sadly he can no longer be our man on the ground, as his internet cafe has closed down. We will all miss him!! The
rest of the day drifted by along rivers, through small villages
and a spot of drizzle towards the end of the day. That evening we
camped on a picnic spot, ate dinner at a table, ate some of our
breakfast as a starter, and talked late into the night. A very dismal, gray and rainy morning was brightened by Ben's happy face. Nothing could dampen his spirits after having finally got through to his beautiful Danielle. It did however rain all morning, so we had a second breakfast under a shelter to keep our spirits up. Lighting the stove in public gets some wonderful expressions out of passing public. People eating in public in non-picnic spots is not a common sight - we figure we are doing our bit to internationalise Japan. The day did brighten up by mid-day and a small number of MacD's hamburgers helped us through to our spicy pickled cabbage sandwiches at lunch. Lunch is the weak link as far as food is concerned. We are all getting bored of the 100Yen section (packets of confectionary for 100Yen). Most make Ben feel physically sick. It
looks as if we will be able to use Lynne Donaldson's address for
Alien Registration. After a good look at our website, she realised
we are not as disreputable as we must have sounded when ringing
her out of the blue to ask for her help. It was very cold under our bridge when we woke this morning, so we stayed in bed for a bit longer! Finally, sun-warmed, we crawled out of our bags and started a morning of towns and cities. At about mid-morning Ben popped the question; 'how many hamburgers do you think you could eat in one sitting?' The challenge set, we skipped morning break and sunk our lunch money and some pocket money into trying to answer the question. The lady behind the counter actually thanked Tom when he put in our initial order of 21 hamburgers - must have been a slow morning! Tom stumbled at 7 but had wisely opted for bottomless coffee with a packet of biscuits in addition to just burgers. Paul and Ben hit double figures (10 and 12 respectively) before they realised just how unsatisfying a hamburger actually is and decided not to waste any more money. Ben reckons he could break into 20's before pain set in. In
one sense the whole activity wasn't a waste - we won't be rushing
back to MacD's even though the hamburgers are on sale for 65 Yen
at the moment. We'd camped the night before in what will no doubt be a housing estate at some point in the future. Roads, flat land, water and thankfully the village Tannoy system. Consequently we were able to hear the morning news (a fairytale the previous evening) and the morning exercise instructions! We walked well that sunny morning, making town by 8:30, then had to sunbathe for an hour and a half whilst waiting for the supermarket to open. The alternative was a very late lunch. Sometimes one just has to sunbathe. We then got a good hour and a half of walking in, making 3hrs for the morning, so stopped for lunch and promptly fell asleep! An hour later we woke to some very strange looks from a couple who had come to see the waterfall we had stopped beside. Ben got his first experience of a toilet that will clean and dry your bottom for you. That
evening we got a call from Lynne. Apparently Monday (the day we
had planned to get registered) is a public holiday. She very kindly
said that we were welcome to stay at hers until the Tuesday. There
was much rejoicing; two days off and the opportunity to get internet
access! The morning trudged away under a blazing sun and km after km of Strip walking. There was much misery. Spirits hit a slight high as we sat slumped outside a convenience store during our break and a 'rude boy', puffing on a massive cigar, strolled out of the shop and handed us a 2L bottle of mineral water! He never said a word. The
afternoon was much more pleasant as we left the Strip and headed
towards Japan's biggest lake - Lake Biwa. Our route took us through
some of the most flat, most agricultural landscapes we have yet
experienced - a veritable plain. That evening we decided to stop
early at a 'swimming beach', as we were going to have to walk on
Sunday anyway. The day ended with a beautiful sunset, more roasted
marshmallows and us crashed out on the lake shore. Ben has long since decided that Tabehodai (Eat-as-much-as-you-want) restaurants do not actually exist. His expectation was raised to extreme hights though when we actually found one which served lunches from 11:30am onwards. However, after an hours forced wait by the lake side (roasting the few leftover marshmallows), his unbelief was redoubled as we all walked away disappointed by a non-Sunday opening. Lynne found us an hour earlier than we had arranged, sitting huddled outside the local mall, eating lunch out of the rain which had suddenly started. The afternoon was then spent clogging up her washing machine and shower with dirt! That evening we watched some crazy Japanese dating games on TV whilst eating a lot of food, then dozed in front of Star Wars Episode One. Civilisation! Week Summary: It has been a strange week internally for all of us. A kind of lethargy set in and breaks gradually extended throughout the week. We must all be getting stronger though as decent distances were covered in shorter times than previously. There was a time when we would have to utilise all the day to pull a 35/36km day. If we set our minds to it an average of 40km a day is now well within our grasp. The week started with a mountain day that was much easier than anticipated, and has ended with us in position to make a second attempt at getting Alien Registered. If this fails we will have to take a quick trip to Tokyo. Let's hope it won't come to that. A
Note on Injuries: Many people have been kindly asking about how
our bodies are holding together. Thankfully we can all report being
fairly sound in body and mind! Blisters still sometimes rear their
ugly heads and probably will for the entire length of the walk,
but no one has been in real painful discomfort through blisters
for a while. We have all suffered from cracked feet - one downfall
of sandals. Tom's big toe probably carries the worst crack, but
his pace has never slowed. Paul's legs often feel a little stiff
in the mornings but he's bearing such annoyances manfully! His knee
and ankle, which caused problems earlier on, have not caused any
suffering for the past month. Ben suffers aches in various parts
of his legs every now and then, but they come and go. In general
all is well.
Castles, Internet and a whole heap of food. Paul - "After a breakfast at Lynne's which included, for the first time in many weeks, toast and cereal, we spent the morning wandering around Hikone Castle, one of Japan's 4 remaining original castles. As Lynne knew of an Italian restaurant that offered an eat-as-much-as-you-like salad bar and antipasta, we ate a light lunch, and then logged on to the internet bigtime. The afternoon galloped by in a frenzy of reading and replying to emails. Thank you to every one who has written to us. Cat and Tim (2 other JETs in the Hikone area) joined us for dinner and the evening was happily spent laughing a lot, and returning many times to the salad and anti-pasta bar. Ben finally believes in Tabehodai.
|
we
sent off this morning under police escort, as the guy who owned
the land we had camped on had complained about our riotous behaviour
(french cricket). Serious mileage today, passing gorgeous beaches
and crossing huge bridges. The longest was 4km. We had made it to
Shikoku. It had been our longest day by far, so in celebration we
bought a mass of pork, beef and chicken. We camped on a patch of
rough grass and squeezed into the two man tent in an effort to be
discrete. This was pointless however, as the smoke from our barbeque
soon attracted the neighbours. 
A
great night's sleep for all was interrupted by an earthquake in
the early hours. On our way up Paul and Ben found some great rocks
to climb which they drooled over. We ate lunch in the lower, forested
part of the trail. Most people start the climb at 1300m where the
ski runs are. We tied rope round our shoes to get a better grip
on snow and ice and began climbing the 3 sets of chains up the 30-70m
rock faces. But these were covered in ice and impossible to climb
without crampons and ice axes. We took the easier route to the summit,
and despite the icy conditions, camped, as it was late and the views
were spectacular. 
Ben
slept under the stars - the nutter - and though it dropped to nearly
-5 degress we all slept well. Off the mountain, we stopped for lunch
and sunbathed by a crystal clear river. On the way into the village
I (Tom) stepped on a snake which disappeared before we could tell
if it was poisonous or not. In the village we met Mat, an Aussie
English teacher, who offered us a shower, our first real scrub in
10 days. His boss then offered his restaurant to sleep in that night.
A
rest day. More playing on rocks, sunbathing, fishing and swimming,
though Paul was forced to go shopping as we had run out of his beloved
condensed milk.
Thursday
12th April 
Paul
and Ben decided to perforate my eardrums at 5.30 am with a rendition
of Happy Birthday. Candles were blown out, cake was eaten, and we
set off for the next town, to buy four day's worth of food which
we would need to tackle the next 2 mountains that we would be climbing
in the Kii peninsular. After shopping, we found a McDonald's which
was selling burgers for 65 Yen. After eating 18 burgers between
us we left Oyodo town and stumbled across an Onsen (hot spring bath).
We jumped at the chance to get clean again for the first time in
two weeks, despite the hefty 800 Yen charge and the disgusted look
given us by one of the ladies behind the counter. Afer a long soak
and a lesson in foot massage from a drunk Yakusaka (gangster), we
set off up the pass towards the mountains. 
After
a steep ascent to the ridge, we dumped our packs and sauntered the
final 6km to the summit of Mt No 10. Hakken-ga-take, going much
of the way topless to work on our tans. The going was easy along
an undulating forested ridge until the final 1000m, where we were
confronted with steeper slopes and rotten snow. Walking became somewhat
annoying, as we all regularly fell through the knee-deep snow. The
summit was snow-free however, so serious sunbathing could be happily
undertaken. 
Unable
to pass up the opportunity (being in the area), we took 
It
was a pleasant walk, winding first along a dam, then up a crystal-clear
river, under a bright blue sky. By early afternoon, the wind had
picked up, making it difficult to pitch the tents on the gravel
beach that we had chosen. Much of the afternoon was spent in the
tents, simply to escape the wind, which was a pity as the sun still
shone. Many clothes were given much needed washes however, which
was cause for much rejoicing. 
Does
saying that we got the wrong dam sound very unprofessional?