Day 6-7: From Seaside to rural Japan to the city

On the morning of our last day on the road, we saw a tree covered with caterpillars. Masa shuddered and walked away while the rest of us took five steps closer. These little guys had been finding their way to our tents and we often saw them crawling on our shirts. We packed our stuff, took a morning hike up the hill and then started our drive away from Shibukawa Seaside.

In the Bikan district in Kurashiki, we stopped to check out some 17th century wooden warehouses. The wood used to build the warehouses were often burned to create this dark sooty exterior. My hands turned black after I ran them along the walls.

There seems to be a job for everyone in Japan. This man was hired to tell people to beware of the electrical cords going across the footpath. In Vancouver, we'd probably just get an orange cone.

Sake!

Last year, Will the Botanist had done a Help Exchange in a small rural town in the Hyogo prefecture called Fukuura. He had stayed with an American couple, Mark and Carol, and Carol's mom, Ayako. The couple had decided to move to rural Japan and buy their house for only 20,000USD! In Japan, rural homes get auctioned at low prices because everyone's moving to bigger cities but the buyers aren't actually allowed to inspect the house. They only got a couple of photos. Their home was absolutely beautiful. We slept on a big comfy bed in a room with a sliding door. The stairs leading to the room upstairs were narrow and steep.

 The very next day we borrowed two bikes and took a ride around the neighbourhood.

Our stay with Carol and Mark was way too short. They dropped us off at the train station and we hurried off after a photo to buy our tickets to Osaka.

Once we arrived in Osaka, we went straight to a park in the city centre where one of Will the Botanist's friends had organized a picnic. The place was beside a rose garden that was in full bloom.

A couple of hours later, after we had our fill of convenience store snacks, we were on the go again. We took the train at Osaka station and got to Kyoto station at around 8pm. Masa picked us up and took us to Kaitenzushi, sushi served on a conveyor belt. We watched Masa's stack of plates rise higher and higher as we took our time selecting. When we went up to pay, he refused our money. We shoved our money at him again and he waved it off and said, "Welcome to Kyoto".

I've learned it's pretty hard to refuse a Japanese person's generosity.

Day 5: Cold udon and hot sake

Sleeping in the car was slightly warmer but just as uncomfortable. We got up, started the grill and got creative with breakfast. Masa of course had his usual 4 morning beers.

Shikoku is well-known for its Udon and there were wheat fields everywhere! When we stopped to get some petrol, Masa asked an employee where the best Udon was. She came back out with a udon map. Seriously.... a map pinpointing where all the udon places were in the neighborhood. She circled the most popular one and we were off! It was a bit out of the way but sooo worth it. The udon was served cold with a small amount of broth and a slice of lemon. We picked out own toppings, grated fresh ginger, and of course some shichimi spices. The noodles were chewy and tasted so fresh. Definitely the best udon I've ever had.

We drove some more along the coast and over some bridges. It's pretty impressive how long some of the bridges here are! 

Taken by Will the Botanist

Taken by Will the Botanist

We arrived at a scenic beach and started looking for a spot to camp. The campsites would cost $80 per night so we decided to set up camp on the sand right beside the actual campsites. Beside us a bunch of young Japanese people cooked up a feast.

There weren't many trees around so we had to do a bit of climbing to find firewood. I went up through the campsites and saw a rough dirt path that led into the forest. I followed it and found myself going higher and higher, just in time for a beautiful sunset. At this point the boys looked like little ants to me. I yelled Masa's name but he didn't look up.

The Japanese people at the campsite came over and dropped off a big box of food, most of it meat. After 4 days of not having much vegetables, my vegetarian body was getting pretty uncomfortable. I was sure that if we didn't get some veggies soon my body systems would start failing on me so we picked some up on the way. My skin had already started breaking out in ways only my adolescent years saw.

Thanks to Masa's little water boiler, we had hot sake on the beach by the fire. A pack of sakura mochi
 was also being passed around. What a perfect way to end a day.

Masa and Sake

Day 4 - Masa's got a gun!

It had gotten much colder in the night and Will and Botanist and I were freezing because we didn't bring a sleeping bag. We wore all our clothes and covered ourselves with a thin summer sleeping bag. The sunlight and the heat in our tent woke us up in the morning and I scrambled out to take a breath of fresh air.

Kites continued to soar above as we alternated between eating and napping in the sun. Masa made us ramen and we grabbed a coffee from the vending machines. Seriously sometimes there are more vending machines than people in this country.

 We found an empty 4L whiskey bottle in the back of Masa's car. Who the fuck needs 4L of whiskey?!

We stopped by one of many onion fields in the area and decided to take an onion. Tom pulled it out of the ground and Will the Botanist left some money. Little did we know that for the rest of the car ride, our senses would be overwhelmed by the smell of onion. It made me a little sick to be honest.

Next to the onion field, we found a curious set of stairs and decided to hike up, expecting to find a nice shrine or something. All we saw was a tori gate and a hedge that blocked off everything else. Disappointed, we hiked back down.

 Police officers are the cutest here. They're polite and look so harmless. We stopped at an intersection where an accident had occurred and watch 3 officers shuffle their feet and drag a motorbike off the road.

Lunch was delicious as always.

Masa asked if we wanted to camp by the water or in the mountains. Having spent the past night by the water, we decide to go up in altitude. After a few google searches he drove us to one of the most magnificent camp sites I've ever seen. This was our view from our camp site in Shikoku.

"Look like a monkey".

We were taking silly pictures and fooling around until Masa came out of the car and said "I have a gun". Everyone stopped talking and stared at him. Masa is the kind of guy that when he brings out a gun, there's a 60% chance that it's real. His entire torso is tattooed and tattoos are a sign that he is a Yakuza, a member of the Japanese gangs. (Just kidding he's a nice guy).

Thank goodness it was only a BB gun. So we took this photo and then shot some beer cans.

I knew that if I had to sit beside an onion for one more day I'd probably throw up so we sliced it up and threw it on the grill. Will the Botanist and I put all the seats down and slept in the car.