You know what you want and what to expect.
To bright, at a time, like a pearl in the
sea.
Excellent Jinglish from a
disposable toothbrush wrapper.
Thursday 2010-03-18 (dates are expressed Japanese style: year, month, day)
We set off
on a sunny Spring morning with the chill of winter a reminder in the breeze.
We locked
our 2nd floor apartment next to a negi field. Negi are Japanese
leeks, there was always a strong smell like onions in Autumn around our
neighborhood. Our bikes are heavily
laden and so are we. We have to carry giant backpacks of all the possessions we
haven't already posted overseas to the Kobayashi's, a few blocks away. We
wobble for the last time down the familiar streets. Past restaurants and
convenience stores and the car park where a chestnut grove stood until
recently. We say goodbye to dear friends and hosts Sachiko and Daisuke and are
off, down the back streets, past the shrine and along the water course.
 |
| Daffodils by the cycle path |
Before too
long we have gone as far as we can down Sagatakawa (Sagata River) and then we
leave the overgrown riverside pathway to head into Omiya. We rest at the 7/11
which marks our furthest ride south and then head gleefully onwards down Route
4 to Tokyo. We make pretty excellent time and the roadside markers which count
down kilometers to Tokyo seem to whip by.
After a huge
and delicious Ramen lunch (the first of many I'm not sad to say) we reach
Ibaraki Prefecture. Hurrah! We celebrate leaving our home Prefecture of 3 years
by turning off from route 4 and having a rest by the lovely Tonegawa (Tone River). We have
been cycling for quite a few hours now and are getting tired. There are so many
huge trucks thundering down the 4 it's a bit much so we play Purple Car, a
childhood game of mine where you count purple vehicles, and I was winning 3
purple trucks to Tam’s 2. To my delight, I kept seeing another one every time
she caught up to me. But even the cheap thrills of Purple Car weren't enough to
keep our spirits up as we negotiate a viscous head wind. We ride alongside a
Shinkansen track and decide to stop for the day once we get to “the fork”,
where the northbound and eastbound shinkansen lines intersect and head into
Tokyo, only to find a complete lack of hotels, inns, boarding houses or
campsites.
In fact,
the only accommodation around are a series of run-down looking love hotels. In
exhausted desperation we ride up to reception at one and speak to a
motherly-looking woman.
Jez - Do
you have a room?
Motherly
type – Yes, just for you?
Jez – No,
my friend too.
I gesture
to Tam who had been hanging back a bit. The woman is visibly taken aback and I
feel my chances of stopping for the day slipping away.
Motherly
Type – Uhm, Do you know what kind of hotel this is?
Jez- Yes,
yes, but because we rode from Utsunomiya today we're so tired that anywhere
will do.
Motherly
Type – Well, we charge by the hour until 8pm so it'll be a waste of money if
you stay here now.
She was
right, it was only about 5pm so we asked her about somewhere to stay nearby,
she wasn't sure so we got directions to the nearest big train station reasoning
there's usually a crummy hotel near stations. The love hotel receptionist
actually gave us great directions to Hasuda Station and while she is
doing this a couple drive out of the hotel. The woman passenger bends down in
the front seat as they pass reception so we can't see her face. We were of,
course, staring at the car!
Tiredly we head into denser and denser streets as
evening rush hour grinds and churns and our bums truly start to hurt. After a
fruitless search for somewhere to stay involving several full or closed hotels
and asking for directions at a few kobans at about 7pm we finally check in to a
large business hotel at Omiya station. Omiya city was much further than we had
intended to come and our bodies were not happy cycling over 70km on our first
day! We eat a tired celebratory meal of fish and chips and Guinness at the
British Pub on the ground floor of the hotel and email our friends to let them
know where we are. In our hotel room Tam crashes as soon as she hits the bed. I
drink some green tea and write down the days events.
