Day 30: 88 Temples (none) - Uchiko

Breakfast at 6 featured the standard Japanese breakfast.  There is rice, always rice, a piece of fish, some scrambled eggs, little sausages that brust when you bite them, various pickles and vegetables, miso soup, yogurt and fruit.  There is coffee and usually some fluorescent fruit(?) drink.


Our plan for the day was to take the bus out about 15km to the point the bus forks from the Henro trail and walk back without packs.  Tomorrow we will take the bus back to the same point and continue to the next hotel.  Today was a very light day but tomorrow will have some real climbs and be longer and I will have a pack.


We headed to the Family Mart for the day's provisions and then waited for the bus that came at 7:38.  Family Mart cafe latte seems to be the same as Lawson which is good.  Kids were going to school and a few high school girls joined our queue for the bus.  The bus came at 7:38.


The bus collected a few more highschool kids along the way but we were the first ones who got off so we did not see how we were supposed to pay.  The driver looked up the fare table - did he know when we got on? - and pointed to ¥500.


The walk back was very pleasant.  We followed a crystal clear river.  Sometimes we were on the main road and where possible walked through the houses on the old road.


We came to some digger tractors that were putting dirt into the river making a muddy mess.  Down stream for a long way the river was cloudy with dirt.  We weren't sure if the was entirely proper procedure.  It seemed a little dodgy.



For lunch we sat on a random bench that had been placed on the side of the road.  Onigiri taste really good when you are hungry.  I like the tuna and mayo followed by a pickled plum.


All the way back to the hotel we had been gradually descending with the river.  We were back at the hotel before 1pm.  It was a lazy afternoon.  A little time looking ahead and booking hotels, I watched some TV and Mike kitty transported his pack to the next hotel.  It will be at the next hotel tomorrow for ¥770.


We went to dinner at a nearby yakiniku restaurant.  It's meat you get raw and grill at the table.  Not as good as last night but we were able to sit upright and they had big beers.


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