The Himedomachi Cycling Club

I came out of a convenience store yesterday evening where I’d bought my supper and there was a tall Japanese guy in workman’s overalls smoking a cigarette and admiring Ribena.

I said hello to him and started stuffing food into my various pouches.

“What’s that?” he said.

I slipped my Abus folding lock out of its holder under the down tube and demonstrated how I used it to lock Ribena up. He asked, so I told him my plan of cycling to Sata.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“Sometimes.”

“I mean, people are pretty weird, right?”

I laughed at this.

“The weirdest people in Japan are foreigners, aren’t they?”

I got a smile back in return.

“I’m just scared of bears,” I told him. “Are there any around here?”

Bears grow increasingly rare the further south you go. I figured that in Hyogo Prefecture I was almost out of the area.

“Bears? Oh yeah. Loads.”

Never ask a question when you don’t want to hear the answer.

I cycled up the backroad to my accommodation ringing my bear bell so loudly a farmer’s wife hid from me. There was a bear sign in the road and that evening a small truck drove out into a field further up the hill and let off a series of bangers.

I’m staying in the container in the above image. The fridge is full of beer and shochu and the freezer is full of food.

I realised last night I’d made a major mistake. I was reading a tourist guide to Ohara. I knew I wanted to visit the Musashi monuments, but I wanted to visit the temples too, particularly those with literary connections. Except I couldn’t find them on the map. It took me an hour to work out that they were in Ohara, Kyoto, probably about 200kms away. The local onsen is closed too.

It’s rained all day today, that thick vertical rain that Japan specializes in. It looks beautiful against a backdrop of pines but you don’t want to cycle in it. I’m pleased that today is a rest day. I’ve spoken to my colleague Rachel at the bookshop, written postcards, read and stuck my head out the door from time to time to watch the rain come down. Tried and failed to fix my Garmin.

I’ve worked out that I’ve cycled about 1,300 kilometres in the last three weeks. I’ve taken the train for 400 kilometres as planned, been driven or taken the bus for about 300 kilometres for reasons of the weather, tiredness, being with Jared, bear fear. I’ve got 1,200 left and all the days seem doable. I’ve got 5 more days on Honshu, then I’ll be walking under the straits at Shimonoseki and onto my beloved Kyushu.

I have to say that this video reminded me of a time when my daughter Emily was sick. Someone asked me if I wanted grandchildren and I replied that I just wanted my daughter to live. This day is the only day we have.