Today is likely to be one that I won't forget. And those who know me well will tell you that today must've been really bloody memorable.
It began well. A pre-6am start, and the road out of Kyoto was south, straight as an arrow. Not much traffic about that early so I made good time. Once out of Kyoto, the route Strava had assigned me was superb, must remember to thank them. Another cycling road, along a beautiful river, for miles! I was grinning from ear to ear (or 'ere to 'ere if you could see me). The weather was cold but sunny, and I'm glad I took the warm lobster gloves and the shoe covers.
Unfortunately, the cycling route could last forever and I joined the traffic again. Today's route was 85 km in total, and would take me to Yoshino, THE place in Japan for blossom viewing. It's pretty much 30,000 (ish, I guess) blossom trees on the side of a mountain. Note: mountain. So I started taking on some hills, gradual ones initially, but then they just started going ooooooon, and oooooon, and ooooooon.... You know me, I'll take on a challenge, but my legs had already been pedalling for close to 4 hours, so it wasn't easy going! But, I persevered, and conquered them all! Except one... Well, two if you count a getting-your-breath-back stop as a failure. I don't... I can still feel that hill in my legs. For the hill where I did have to get off and walk, a local on a bike was going down the hill, and said something to me as he went past. I heard "loser", but it could've been something else, possibly in Japanese. Maybe the Japanese word for "loser".
Suddenly the route took a turn that led me onto a bridge and up a mountain road, just big enough for one car. It was absolutely stunning!
Eventually I made it to Yoshino at about 1.30pm, which turned out to be a town with lots of shops and restaurants. I wasn't allowed to cycle, nor could I have due to the number of people, so I just had to get on and push. And push I did, it was all uphill to the end of the town. Unfortunately, the blossoms weren't in full bloom so Yoshino certainly didn't take my breath away. It was probably a couple of days away from full bloom, at a guess. Check me out, making out I'm some kind of expert!
The streets in Yoshino were crammed, but as always, there was no trouble with getting around. I decided to find myself a spot so I could drink (was sooooooo thirsty), and asked a lady who was waiting for her husband (he'd gone up to a lookout point that she couldn't be arsed to climb), to take my picture. We started chatting, through charades and the odd English word, and it turns out we were both in Arashiyama yesterday! Small world. She was impressed with my cycling expedition and even bowed and gave me a round of applause. Not the first round of applause I'd had, either. A guy was so impressed with my efforts at pushing my bike up the steepest street in Yoshino, that he offered a round of applause too. Greatly appreciated.
Once I had done with Yoshino, about 4.30pm, it was on to the camp site, which was about 15km away. It was a pleasant ride, though I got a bit lost, and I couldn't find the campsite to begin with. Eventually, at about 5.45pm, I did find the campsite, I think, because there were toilets there, and sinks and what not. Except it was completely empty. Not a soul to be found anywhere. I figured I could set up camp anyway, at least I had the amenities. Except they were locked. Shit. Sunset was around 6.30pm, I knew that much, and I knew I had until about 7pm before it got dark, so I set about trying to find somewhere suitable to set up camp, preferably near a toilet and some people. There was nowhere to be found. I asked an old man to help, but he just started spouting Japanese at me. Don't know what I was expecting...
At this point it was starting to get dark, and very cold, and I'd spent 20 mins or so getting to some sort of civilisation, so I headed for the only lights I could see where there were humans, the Higashiyoshino Village Office. I parked the bike up outside and headed in, asking if anyone spoke English. Nobody did, so it was out with my Japanese phrase book app (which is shit btw, it doesn't have anything about camping in it) and we established I needed somewhere to sleep. As appears to usually be the case, the youngest person in the place was summoned, as the one most likely to speak English. They showed me a map with my campsite on, and I gave the Japanese sign for no/closed/off/not allowed, which is a cross with your forearms. This sparked the 'ooooooooooohhh' that I am so used to by now and they got their thinking caps on. I asked if there was a 'hoteru' (that's the actual word for hotel), and they said that there was, and a couple of phone calls later I was booked in.
In true Japanese style though, they didn't just point me in the right direction, the older of the bunch said he and the young guy would take me. I figured they meant I would follow them...
Nope, it was on to the wagon for Serena, me and the boss in the front, and the young guy holding the bike at the back. Did I offer to do it? Of course I did, but it would never have been accepted. Once we'd got to the hotel and I'd been shown around, it was time to say goodbye. I asked the young guy what his name was. Hirocan, he told me. Hiro... Of course that was his name. "See you next time", he joked as he left.
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