Day 5: 88 Temples - Tatsue (18,19)

OK ... It's 8:30pm and I'm in bed and done for the day.  Let's see how many times I fall asleep trying to write this!

We had a lazy start to today.  Mike had some work for some clients to attend to and we were only walking 15km with two temples.  My original plans were to do 25km but yesterday it was obvious we needed some rest and taking one day and splitting it in two made a lot of sense.  It turned out not booking too far in advance was the right thing in these early stages.  If we would have had to go the whole 25km today it feels like it would have really hurt us down the road.  Stopping at Katsuura is kind of essential as it is before several climbs with no services. Breaking the approach feels smart tonight.

I started out solo and of course had to go back to my room after reaching the lobby to get my staff.  Mike was a few minutes behind but I needed coffee and there was a Starbucks 500m down the road.  On the way some Irish(?) guy and his Japanese girlfriend on bikes passed and he said "Buen Camino" because of the shell on my pack.  We exchanged some pleasantries waiting at the light and they were off.  They did stop at Starbucks later while we were still there.

I got a large coffee with milk and was enjoying it when Mike arrived.  I had been watching the guy in a uniform who seemed to be responsible for the approach to the Starbucks drive through.  He spent a lot of time making sure a yellow plastic chain was properly stowed and the bikes in the bike parking were straight.  He strutted with authority, but he has one of the many jobs in Japan that aren't very necessary but people are hired to do them.

Mike arrived and wanted something so I had another coffee and was buzzing before we left.

The first 7km were on a busy suburban road with stores you could only get to by car.  It was suburban sprawl at it's finest.  The traffic was heavy, loud and continuous.  We did have a paved sidewalk.  

For a break we detoured to a parallel road to stop at a Lawson conbini.  I had some chicken nuggets which are so good here.  Convenience store food in Asia is on a whole different level compared to the US or Canada.  It's fresh and tasty.  I'd love to understand some of the food science they use.

The parallel road was a little quieter but we soon rejoined the main route.  After that we did finally exit to quieter roads.   Almost immediately after leaving the main road a man and his wife jumped out of their parked car and offered us Osettai.  It was a banana (banana good!).   He started talking and it was obvious he wanted our thank you slips.  People who give osettai honestly want those slips.  This is a bit if a surprise to me.  I am upgrading the importance of this part of the pilgrimage.

Most of the 10km to Temple 18 was on an extremely busy 2 lanes in each direction road.  It was not great walking until we split from that.  After it was walking through houses and rice fields on a fabulous sunny day.

During the day we passed and were passed by a German couple.  We think they are German because the osettai banana guy said a German woman came by and they were ahead of us then.  We acknowledged each other several times but they didn't seem very chatty.  

Temple 18 was up a bit of a hill and on the way up there was an honor system tangerine stand.  We got a bag of 8 for ¥100 which was a great deal for those tasty little guys.

It was another 5km to 19 and we were hoping to catch our train to our hotel at about 3pm.  Breaking up the day into two meant stopping in a place with no place to stay.  I had booked a place in Anan a 4 stop, 20 minute train ride from Tatsue. The train station is 300m from the temple and we sat at the tiny station (think Spirited Away) for a few minutes.  If you have not seen Spirited Away go watch it.

Anan was only 4 stops.  I accidentally booked the Super Hotel that is farthest from the station.  Some how this tiny town has two Super Hotels.  I'm sure both are great but this one, I know is great.  Walk to Super Hotel - not near the train station - was less than 15 minute and we got a nice welcome.  The rooms are great, laundry and free drinks.  The concierge girls are friendly and they use some tech I haven't seen before: a pass code for room access.  I lost my paper slip with my code. We told the front desk and I got a new code.  This is how things should work.

We asked for a sushi place and the front desk girls recommended a place up the road.  It was a conveyer belt sushi place and when we walked in they told us it would be a 40 minute wait.  It seemed they were trying to get ride of us.  We said we'd wait and asked for a beer.  That immediately got us a table.  They seemed to be concerned that we did not understand they charged by the plates on your table. The service girls were afraid to deal with us but we both know how these places work and just started ordering stuff.  We ate and drank well and one of the sushi chefs gave us service - a free plate.  The free plate was probably the best we had.  Anyway it all worked out fine when we started telling them what we wanted rather than letting them ignore us in the hope we went away.

Tomorrow is a very short day and we will delay around the hotel as long as possible.  Sorry, no patience to proofread.  I just want to sleep till 6am!