Tag: Kuji

Let me start with the most important point: Mr. and Mrs. Sawase at Kita Samuraihama Campground are the nicest, most wonderful people and here are the reasons why:

1. Mr. Sawase lent me a rope recommending that maybe I should tie up the loose corner of my rainfly cover thing for the tent. “If you don’t, water will come in if it rains.” Did it rain? Yes. It rained hard for several hours that night, and as I sat huddled in tent I was extremely grateful that corner wasn’t loose.

2. Mrs. Sawase fed me and the other campers the following: large hot rice ball at night with instant miso soup, grapes and tea, plus egg with rice ball in the morning. I would’ve gotten by with more instant ramen from their shop, but it was so much better to have hot rice and eggs.

3. What else? Let’s not forget the part where they lent me the office flashlight because I’d grabbed my bicycle light as a poorly thought out last-minute lightweight alternative to a flashlight and its battery chose the worst possible night to die. Without the office flashlight, I would have been blundering off to the bathroom in darkness while the eager swarms of mosquitoes bit me in countless places, and unable to see where puddles were forming in tent during downpour.

4. Etc. Believe me, there’s more.

I left around 9:30 and my hike lasted until near 6 pm with breaks. The course was maybe half along forest paths that popped out into various fishing harbors. The Michinoku Coastal Trail guidebook text by Kuji City (the Sawases gave me their extra copy when I expressed interest. The best people.) explained that each fishing harbor had sustained heavy damage from the tsunami. Kuji City has also put up signs showing how far up the tsunami went. It’s shocking each time to come up to one and think, “really? Wow, all the way up here…”

I took one of my longer rests at Itsukushima-jinja Shrine. The map is right, it really does have splendid carvings! Another break was at Moguranpia Aquarium. It’s situated between a cliff and the ocean, so it was very heavily damaged by the tsunami. Miraculously a handful of the animals survived, including Kamekichi, a green sea turtle. I visited him hanging out with his friend (?) who seemed to be cleaning him. The staff at the aquarium were kind enough to take my heavy, likely smelly backpack off my hands so I (also likely smelly) could wander around looking at the fish. They also sold instant noodles so I could have a snack before getting back on the road!

Today’s wildlife included: a large frog hopping around in the post-rain forest, and a little south of Moguranpia, the dumbest shorebird looking large peep I have ever met. It didn’t want to move away from the patch of grass along the sidewalk it was grazing along, but it also found my presence deeply disturbing, so it decided the best way to solve this problem was to speedwalk away from me in the same direction I was heading, pausing ever other second to look over its shoulder at me in great distress. It could have just walked behind me or having wings, it could have, say, flown behind me, but no. I finally had to walk into the road before it occurred to the silly little guy that it could just head north away from me.

Tonight’s stay is in Kuji Grand Hotel (a bed! Electric lights!) Had my bath, off to food and drinks on the Sawase’s recommendation: Kensoh, a highball bar and casual dining joint recently opened by a transplant from Kyoto who recently ended his service as a community revitalization employee for the city. Looking forward to a ginger highball and some tacos.

This is my last day for this trip. Heading home tomorrow via bus/train to reunite with husband and cat. Kuji, I’ll be back for you soon.

Today I had one mission: to successfully find the detour of the detour that is going down south past Rikuchu-Nakano Station without crossing Kokegawa River. I had promised to take pictures of the crossing, but reconsidered and decided that I had better take a GPS file of the newest detour instead, because many people were getting lost and going way too far and getting on dangerous roads. That’s exactly what I did! Without attempting the crossing, and including distance from Rikuchu-Nakano Station, it took almost 11 kilometers and 4 hours including breaks. I’ll link to the Yamap page with the GPX file here when I get it up (or please contact me for it and I’ll get it to you).

On the way in one of the villages, I spotted a small squirrel-sized creature that looked mink or ferret-ish. It took one look at me and disappeared into a ditch grate. I also got nice soft “gambatte” from a local man taking a walk and a wave from one of the many truck drivers in the “and furthermore: all the construction” portion of detour.

I got to my campground at about 1 pm. It is gorgeous: overlooking the ocean, with wooden platforms and a restroom that smells lovely because it’s made out of some kind of fragrant wood. I have put up my tent between the campsite office to my right, the restrooms to the left, and the other guy camping there a little further left of that. I am really enjoying being a little closer to other people during my camp. After I paid my 200 yen to the nice gentleman in the camp office, I took a nice long nap in my tent. Now I am at Samurai no Yu, after my bath. It’s wonderfully close to the campground but my plans to eat dinner here tonight have been thwarted because the restaurant closed and dinner is available for guests only. Dinner will therefore be something like a large bag of chips from hotel store, plus cup of noodles from campsite before the guy in charge goes home for the night.

This part made me remember my time coming here for work to help with a Kitakami Times article. http://www.iwate-ilc.jp/eng/ktimes/breathtaking-views-at-the-michinoku-coastal-trail/

Maybe we could get the whole crew together for another go at it now that I know the way.

Since I was to stay in the same campground (Taneichi Seaside) for two nights in a row, my plan was to use lockers at the campground and walk my 22 or so kilometers free of the pack with camping gear. However there were no staff at the campground to let me use those lockers, or pay my camping fee for that matter. I decided to do the next best thing and hide the pack sans valuables in the campground toilet, which is shuttered when not in use. Sure enough, pack was safe and sound and toilet still shuttered when I got back.

Today’s trail was more on small country roads with rice paddies, now a rich yellow-green and maybe? ready to harvest. I love looking at the various lovely flowers and veggies in the neighborhood gardens, and the floats and other marine knickknacks. Coming while the rice is ripe means I can once again enjoy the traditional Japanese creepy scarecrows made of mannequins (that came from…?) wearing someone’s old outdoor clothes/bonnet. I don’t know how well they fool the crows but I keep looking at people standing in the paddies thinking for an instant “what in god’s name could be wrong with that person” before realizing the person’s sleeves are empty, etc, and that it’s a mannequin.

Met a railway enthusiast from Yokohama, setting up for a shot. I was thinking maybe I could get a photo myself but unfortunately the train wouldn’t be there until 30 minutes later. The gentleman was kind enough to get out his train schedule books to explain what trains I could see going south. This wasn’t his first time in Tohoku, since he went all over the country and also said he made a point of coming up here after the disaster because he figured spending money there would help the cause.

Thanks to him, I caught a picture of his train (barely) from the top of the tsunami wall as it went by.

I’m really happy to be walking this section again. I’m using the same map from before and myself of the past had marked various birds seen, plus circled a turn with a question mark. At the time I never found the turn, but this time I succeeded.

It started to rain and my pace caught up with me so I had a long rest at Uge Station. I was pushing the pace mainly because I wanted to get the earlier train back to put up my tent in daylight and get to the heaven on earth that is Marinside Spa Taneichi. The map said Uge Station was new, built after the old station was washed away by the tsunami. It also said there was a station notebook with messages, so I spent as long as I wanted reading everyone’s messages and writing my own.

Bath and dinner (uni/mekabu rice bowl and a beer) at the onsen after shopping for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch at a little grocery store north of Taneichi Station.

It’s hit home that I’m really here and really walking this trail. I miss my husband, cat, friends and coworkers but I’ll see them soon, and I’m so happy to be here.

Wildlife: two foxes, one squirrel, Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker (? Is that English right? Akagera.) plus some very noisy Eurasian Jays.

I got a late start today on purpose to pay my 500 yen for using the campground. The next train to Hashikami was 10:40 so I spent the time getting myself a saba (mackerel) sandwich and hot coffee for breakfast at the cafe next to Tanesashi Information Center, followed by looking up birds and recharging my phone at Tanesashi Info Center.

I only had to cover about 10 kilometers today, from Hashikami Station to Taneichi Seaside Park, so I took my time looking at various landmarks.

At the front of Hashikami Station, for example, is a hut with mechanical stop/go signals operated by heavy looking lever. It was used until 2005, and Hashikami had been the last station to keep using them.

There was also Tomarikawa-jinja Shrine, which is associated with octopi and is therefore supposed to help your eyesight. One of the origin stories of the shrine is that this giant octopus living in a lake (bog?) nearby kept dragging residents and passerby under and drowning them, so the shrine was built to pacify the creature.

Hirono was sunny and gorgeous with lots of windmills and solar panels. I’m camping but went to Marine Spa Taneichi for a bath. They’re open to bathers until 10 at night and not only have baths but massage chairs, cold milk, and a tatami room to lounge around in. They’re also making an effort to be thoughtful to foreign guests with multilingual signage. Definitely coming back tomorrow.

Before I sign off I should make a birding report for the handful of people interested (hi mom and dad): flushed seven Japanese Green Pheasants yesterday (!), a male and a bunch of females/teenagers, and four Common Kingfishers (!) today near Tomarikawa-jinja Shrine. This is right where I saw kingfishers in 2015. They must have a nest or something. Blue Rockthrush, Osprey, Common Sandpiper (probably), all the seagulls.

First day. I successfully got up at 6:30 to catch the earlier train to Same (shark!) Station. All of the seagulls and their brown peepy offspring had moved on from their nesting grounds in Kabushima and were bickering on nearby rocks about who got to eat whatever it was they were eating. Kabushima Shrine, which was tragically burnt down, is planned to be rebuilt by 2020 and is taking donations for copper sheet roofing to make that goal.

Along the squeaky sand beach (I’ll put in the name later) a baby sparrow came up to me and begged for food in the classic “give me” posture, with a hunched back and flattering wings. My official stance is that I don’t give food to wild creatures, but my unofficial stance is that I can spare a crumb or two for a baby sparrow. I’m not sure if the little guy remembered that trick by accidentally begging at a human and being rewarded, or if it was being raised by a human somewhere.

I had a pretty terrible episode in the afternoon because I found a kitten crying for its mother and the official line from the local health office was to leave the kitten be and hope the mother would come back. Ultimately that’s what I did. It was very vocal and small and looked healthy, so I hope that its mother was just too feral to come close while I was nearby. It’s easy to help a creature when it just wants a couple crumbs. It’s harder when the creature’s mother may or may be around and the creature itself may or may not be capable of eating solid food. I’ll imagine the mother was there or off looking for food and try not to torture myself too much about it. It was a sweet little thing.

I took a taxi back to Tanesashi Beach in time for a last minute squid sashimi dinner with beer and set up the tent just before dark as multiple mosquitos nibbled on me. The tent hasn’t collapsed yet (knock on wood). I didn’t make it in time to pay my camping fee so will wait until the information center opens at 9 tomorrow to pay before taking a later train to Hashikami.

One of the ladies at the restaurant gave me a free pack of cut up pears “to eat at the campground,” so will munch on that and listen to the crickets, the ocean, and conversational murmurings from nearby tents.