Day 103-105: Hyuga to Miyazaki

 Day 103: Hyuga to Ikurahama

Hours walked: 7:15-3:00

Distance walked: 25 km

Cumulative: 2,283 km

Today was a lot harder than usual. Five throats were very sore indeed this morning: some sort of head cold has barged through our family like a bowling ball. We hoarsely sniffled while Tamar and Levi, who just recovered from the same thing, bounced around like bushy-tailed deer. 

We don’t love walking when sick, but we didn’t have a ton of choice today - we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere, and Miyazaki (the nearest city) is booked absolutely solid for weeks on end. So we reluctantly got going under a clear blue sky in fairly cool weather. 

Spirits were not that high. Tova was pale and very low-energy, mostly slouching along 50 meters behind the rest of us. Levi wreaked havoc in her stroller, at one point sneakily nabbing a clementine from underneath and peeling it - the first we knew was a shower of orange debris falling out of the stroller. She also tossed a shoe early on; Aurora ran back and searched to no avail, so now our naughty baby only has one shoe. 

We got throat lozenges, ice cream, a sweet potato tart and Aquarius drinks to console ourselves. Jakob distracted Tova and Zadie using a very old-school adventure, The Forest Of Doom (1983). We saw many pristine beaches, a dead bat, manured fields. Tamar got stuck on the wrong side of a barrier with the stroller, and had to hustle unhappily across while cars sped by. We crossed a bridge and saw a wild boar charge through the undergrowth beneath us. 

At last we reached Ikurahama Beach, but right away the wizened caretaker came over and said, “Camp? Camp??”, pointed at the ground and made a huge X with his thin arms. We were crushed: so much for stealth camping! The girls sat quietly while we frantically googled guesthouses. Eventually, the caretaker returned and explained that camping on his well-tended plots was emphatically banned, but that we were welcome to set up in the overgrown patch full of anthills. 

Elated, we pitched our tents and made pasta. A surfer chatted with Tamar and gave us a bowl of pickled bamboo. The caretaker returned three more times and beamed approvingly at our setup. Tova lolled illy in the tent most of the evening, and by about 6pm (maybe a new record?) we were all tucking ourselves in for the night as darkness fell. 

A successful stealth camp 

Soon we will leave the ocean views for a few days - we’ll miss them!

The beach at night is otherworldly 

Day 104: Ikurahama to Hyuga-Sumiyoshi

Hours walked: 7:00-3:00

Distance walked: 29 km

Cumulative: 2,312 km

Quote of the day: “That was the most mangoey bath I’ve had in my whole life!” - Tova

After 12 hours of darkness, we arose. Some were much better (Tova frisked like a puppy), others not (Sophia was pale as a ghost and felt nauseous). But we have less than two weeks to go, and everyone was game to walk today. 

So off we went, eating chestnut pancakes and nutty bread. After a couple of hours we met “the cutest and cuddliest little puppy ever, Levi played with it and had an amazing time,” says Tova. 

The girls’ mini-D&D campaigns continue. Sophia got eaten by a wyvern, Tova fell to her death in a deep chasm, Zadie played it safe and is still going. Levi threw more things out of the bottom of her stroller, including half a package of wet wipes - the terrible twos are looming… 

Zadie found a brass button, a stone figurine of a tiger, and 101 yen. Tova found a medal that says “Elegance is not about being noticed, it’s about being remembered” and 100 yen. Levi napped for two hours, then we had a light, somber lunch. 

When we finally reached our destination, we discovered the next train into Miyazaki was in 50 minutes; so the sicker contingent took a bus while Tamar, Aurora and Levi waited with the stroller. We snuck into our Mango Hotel, where we scored mango juice, ice cream and bath salts, and passed a quiet evening eating pasta and feeling kinda sick. 

Land of the Rising Sun is right

An unfortunate bat we came across 

The weather behaved itself today!

Day 105: Hyuga-Sumiyoshi to Miyazaki

Hours walked: 9:30-12:00

Distance walked: 12 km

Cumulative: 2,324 km

Our family is still full of flailing white blood cells and snot. Aurora, Sophia and Jakob were rather the worse for wear but didn’t want to miss out on the relatively short walk today. 

We took the train back to Hyuga and rambled through the outskirts of Miyazaki at a slower pace than usual. It was a gray, drizzly day and our moods were muted to match. We talked a bit about pachinko, haters on the internet, foods we will make when the hike ends, gender in the workplace. Pit stops at a bakery and cafe helped tide us over, and by noon we had made it back to our hotel. 

 

Our afternoon was quiet and unambitious. Those of us with appetites got onigiri for lunch. The girls played cards, Levana played in a warm bath, Tamar took a nap. Then we bought new shoes for Levi, booked some lodgings for the coming week’s push to Sata, and had soba with vegetables for dinner before turning in at 8.

We took 0 photos today - here’s yesterday’s flowers :)

Levi was happy to roam

Day 100-102: Uchiyama to Hyuga

Day 100: Uchiyama to Ume

Hours walked: 7:00-1:30

Distance walked: 20 km

Cumulative: 2,200 km 

Last night was a restless one; Jakob was woken at 9:30 pm by shrill screeches in the woods surrounding us. Monkeys? Raccoon dogs? Deer? Regardless, 9:30 is not the time you want to get woken at, and Jakob lay awake listening to the beasts until 1:30 am when they finally calmed down. 

We always pack up early when we stealth camp, and today was no exception. We hit the road at 7, grateful to have encountered no-one besides a woman walking her tiny dog. After a super-steep climb to the road, we marched along enjoying the mountain views of rural Kyushu. 

We only had two stop points today: a grocery store midway and a rest stop at our endpoint. So when we walked up to a completely shut market at 11, our hearts sank. Lunch was suddenly our emergency stash of mixed nuts - and dinner was in jeopardy! Fortunately, we found a cute (if overpriced) vegetable stand at the rest stop, and blew $40 on veggies, eggs and baked goods. 

It had started to drizzle in our last hour of walking, and the rain picked up as we reached the rest stop. By extremely, beautifully good fortune, our “cabin” tonight is more like a cottage, complete with heater, bedding, shower and kitchenette. So we spent the whole afternoon mooching cozily around while the rain hammered down in the gloom outside. 

Our improvised dinner of daikon, sweet potato and spicy green onion in peanut sauce was surprisingly good; Levana has barfed three times, though, and was generally a basket case ever since her woefully short nap. She has no fever, but is clearly out of sorts. Now it’s 7:30 and we are all watching Levi be sick and dramatic together - might be a long night, but so much better than if this were happening in a dark, leaky tent. 

Walking past these beaches almost hurts 

Having a ball outside the 7-11

Tova cozied up in her new sweater and hat

Day 101: Ume to Nobeoka

Hours walked: 7:15-4:30

Distance walked: 31 km

Cumulative: 2,231 km

Levi woke up with a fever: snot bubbled from her nose, her eyes were shiny and glazed, her cheeks were red. At least her stomach had settled, though, so we decided to walk and see how it went. 

As it turned out, sick babies are pretty easy to hike with! Levana slept and zoned out most of the day in her stroller. Sophia did an IGCSE maths exam as we walked along, Tova found like four treasures (a kanji character, a panda, a Grand Canyon bottle opener, etc.) Aurora and Tamar talked plans. Zadie read Cam Jansen out loud with Jakob and did fractions. 

 

We walked through some awfully lovely country today. Our road followed the Kitagawa River, which is a shimmering green with wonderfully clear waters. Tree plantations rise up on gentle mountains in perfectly even rows of pines. Every small lake we passed had a family of ducks ready to explode into flight as we arrived. A truck driver stopped to give us no less than *nine* beverages: 5 Aquarius, 2 large coffees and 2 spring waters. 

We reached a supermarket after 16 smooth kilometers, where we met Jorge from Valladolid, a hiker who is going Soya-to-Sata just like us! He hikes quite a bit faster as a solo walker, and we had a great time comparing impressions of the different islands. We saw him again an hour later at a rest stop where tried the local soft serve specialty (a sharp citrus, quite good.)

Then it was back to walking a few more hours. Levi’s forehead was still warm but she seemed content to just veg out in the stroller. The APA Hotel made a medium-sized fuss about our family size, but we held firm (having called them two days ago to confirm everything). We munched on sushi, pizza and pb sandwiches, feeling good about a long, pretty day of walking.  

End-of-day wind-down

What a nice spot for a bathroom break!

Gorgeous forests of Kyushu

Day 102: Nobeoka to Hyuga

Hours walked: 7:15-3:30

Distance walked: 27 km

Cumulative: 2,258 km

Today Levi discovered she can reach under her stroller and cause all kind of trouble. She leaned waaaay out to one side, pulled out a bag of snacks, and threw it under the wheels. A bag of Marie biscuits burst like an artillery shell. Her blankie got rolled over again and again. She’s totally unapologetic and looks like a kid who’s starting to test our limits. 

We stopped for lunch at a large playground. It’s so much nicer to eat at a picnic table while Levi runs around in the sand, rather than sitting in the convenience store parking lot. Then we kept walking along reasonably quiet coastal roads, getting honked at by friendly truck drivers. 

The girls had an absolute blast once we reached Pumping Surf hostel. Tova grabbed a surfboard and hit the waves until it got too dark to see. Levi romped around on a car, train, hammock and slide. Jakob cooked up a rather nice tofu vegetable fry with somen. The deserted skateboarding bowl turned into a playland for four joyous girls - Zadie and Tova begged an extra 10 minutes of play past their usual bedtime. It was a fun day. 

Surf’s up!

Seaside tinkertoys

Babies win on both smoothness and proportions

Day 97-99: Kitanada to Uchiyama

Day 97: Kitanada to Yawatahama

Hours walked: 8:00-4:40

Distance walked: 31 km 

Cumulative: 2,145 km 

We had all sorts of tunnels today. One had a pathetic little sidewalk that was exactly the width of the stroller, meaning its outer wheel was constantly on the verge of sliding into the busy road. One was very long, over 2 km, but fortunately with an ample sidewalk so it felt like a holiday. Next, we got our very own personal tunnel where we made lots of noise. Even Levi joined in, she’s getting good at whooping and yelling into the echoes. 

Otherwise we strolled along the ocean all day, sometimes losing our beloved sidewalk and scurrying from side to side as the road twisted through hilly patches. We’ve read a lot of Friday Barnes out loud lately; Sophia has meanwhile just reread all three Lunar Chronicles books and now we’re making her read Silent Spring. 

We reached Yawatahama near dusk, relieved to have finished a long day. Our ryokan was so charming: the family that runs it cooed at our kids while we cooed at theirs. We had a whole floor to ourselves, with fresh tatami mats and soft futons. We nibbled on supermarket food, washed up in the communal bathhouse, and settled in for the night. 

A beautiful day to walk along the shore 

Part of our ryokan suite

Other countries should make nice rocks sacred too

Day 98: Yawatahama to Usuki

Hours walked: 11:00-2:00

Distance walked: 9 km

Cumulative: 2,154 km 

Kyushu, our last island! We started the last chapter of this adventure today, after a smooth ferry crossing from Yawatahama to Usuki in which Tamar conked out, Levi ran amok, and Zadie and Tova gawked at the gambler who played the one slot machine for three hours straight. 

Today was an almost-rest day: just a mellow stroll  through the antique streets of Usuki. We visited the Nioza district, which felt like walking in the 1700s, and tried mustard seed onigiri for the first time (good!)

We spent an hour exploring the Stone Buddhas, a Japanese National Treasure. These Heian-era statues are carved into volcanic ash, with amazing detail given some are from the 8th century! The girls were most excited about getting to borrow bamboo walking sticks. 

We also got ginger senbei cookies from the artisanal workshop (they’ve been making exactly the same cookies for 100 years), then commandeered our ryokan’s kitchen to make and eat dinner, and so to bed. 

Edo-period temple in Usuki 

The quiet streets of old town

The Stone Buddhas were some of our favourites from the whole trip

A moment of reflection 

Still smiling :)

Day 99: Usuki to Uchiyama

Hours walked: 7:15-4:00

Distance walked: 26 km

Cumulative: 2,180 km 

We got quite an early start this morning, in cool weather with a grayish sky. Several cars honked at us throughout the day, with enough friendly waves that we got the sense they were cheering us on, not telling us to watch out. Kyushu seems to be in our corner so far; at one point, a man in his 80s came across the street to give us a box of Pocky treats, and ask about our trip. He said “Gambatte!” about ten times and waved until we were out of sight. 

The walking was smooth all day, especially once Levi nodded off around midday. There was one long, steady uphill, but Tamar powered up with the stroller. We reached the town of Bungoono (sounds Australian!) with time to spare, and shopped for warm hats, a fleece blanket and groceries. 

Then we tiptoed the last kilometer to our stealth campsite, Uchiyama Park. The girls played tag, Tamar checked out the shrine full of Buddhas, and Jakob made 1-minute pasta amongst mosquitoes. A police car came by at 7pm, but just drove right through the parking lot as we huddled in our tents in the shadows. We read bedtime books and lights were out by 7:30. 

If Zadie were an only child, this is how it’d be

A beautiful little Buddha

Torii make every path lovelier 

The hills that await tomorrow 

A weathered, evocative statue .. with kind of a funny bib

Day 94-96: Kashima to Kitanada

Day 94: Kashima to Matsuyama

Hours walked: 7:40-5:00

Distance walked: 28 km 

Cumulative: 2,087 km 

Everyone slept well on our campsite island, and we speedily packed up to make the 7:30 am ferry. After swinging by a convenience store for breakfast, we gratefully joined a beautiful little coastal road for the first hour. A few locals were out walking and said hello. The water was crystal-clear, the sky was bright blue again, basically life was peaches and cream right then. 

Eventually we returned to the main road, and hiked steadily to our last two temples. We’ve loved being on the 88 Temples path, though for us it turned out to be the 18 Temples. We gonged the final gong, lit a found candle, bought a bandanna for a keepsake - and it was over! Every one of us had a good time, chances are good we will be back one day for the other 70.

Then we walked towards Matsuyama. Jakob tripped quite badly on a nasty curb and wrenched his back. Nothing drastic, but it turned our planned Indian feast into a low key supermarket dinner in. Good thing tomorrow is a rest day so he can recuperate…

Land of the setting sun 

Happy to be camping

Zadie too!

This trail has a remarkable number of babies on the statues 

Day 95: Matsuyama

Hours walked: -

Distance walked: 0 km 

Cumulative: 2,087 km 

“I never fold.” - Zadie, talking about her poker strategy vs. Sophia. She is an ice-cold player. 

We took a rest day to mark the end of the 88 Temples walk. Aurora got to sleep in until 7, and we all had a very slow morning. Tamar and Jakob did a crossword at a coffee shop, and then eventually we lazily set out for Matsuyama Castle. 

The walk up to the Castle was great - we climbed a steep hill, with massive granite walls from the 1600s looming above us at every turn. At the top, we could look out at the sprawling city in every direction. Jakob and Aurora took in the view (and sneakily ate soft serve) while the others went into the castle proper and dressed up as samurai. 

Tamar, Aurora and Sophia got fancy vegan set menus for lunch, while Hanamaru sufficed for the less discerning ones. Then five of us hit up a playground while Tamar and Aurora stayed in and got things done. The kids played cards (Poker has layers upon layers of negotiation and psych games. Zadie goes, “what if I said, ‘all in?’” in this perfect silky voice, then gauges Sophia’s reaction before deciding what she is *actually* betting. We did laundry, dried our tent flies, bought warm hats, had authentic Nepali food for dinner, failed abjectly at a claw machine, and tried to plan until pretty late. 

Samurai Tova!

Samurai Sophia!

Levi keeps getting bigger!

Having fun at the top of Matsuyama Castle

Tamar’s gourmet lunch 

Day 96: Matsuyama to Kitanada

Hours walked: 8:00-4:00

Distance walked: 27 km 

Cumulative: 2,114 km 

Back on the road! We woke up very early and packed up before the Comfort Inn breakfast. This was generally yummy, the highlight being fresh waffles and the lowlight being the mackerel eggplant glop, whose ground beef was only noticed by Jakob as he spooned up the last bite. Yuck. 

We are on the 378 for a couple of days, all the way to Yawatahama. One long stretch had no sidewalk, but otherwise we like the seaside way: the air smells salty and the waves glitter beside us as we walk along. 

As we reached a construction zone, a stocky figure came towards us. It was our first fellow cross-country hiker! Yoichi Yamada has been walking around Japan for *five years*, and is about 60% done. He was an exuberant, grinning guy, and despite language barriers we were all clearly thrilled to meet each other. He will soon finish walking for the year, and spend the winter working at a hot spring (or maybe picking clementines.) 

We ate lunch at a nice beach spot, resting by a white-sand beach under a blue sky as we ate sushi, unripe kiwis, and sweet almond loaf. 

Later we had another encounter: an effusive elderly couple pulled over to present us with a gorgeous box of chocolates! It was the size of a coffee table book and wrapped in red tissue paper. They took lots of photos with us while Levi had a complete tantrum. 

We had to train back a bit to a campsite. The Yosan Line is hard up against the coastline, a very popular train for sightseers. It rattled along above the water, cherry tree branches slapping the windows as we passed. 

Finally we climbed up to Futami Sea Wind campsite where we stayed in a cabin. The red box of chocolates was delish. We felt victorious to have dodged a cold, windy night, but then the temperature dropped like a stone and we froze all night. 

What a winner of a lunch spot

Our gift box: so neat, so much packaging…

The meeting of the hikers!

This couple was so nice! We hope we’re this generous and effusive in a few decades

…but Levi totally lost it the whole time :(

Day 91-93: Niihama to Kashima

 Day 91: Niihama to Nojima House

Hours walked: 7:30-3:00

Distance walked: 24 km 

Cumulative: 2,009 km 

We found a new friend for Levi today, to replace poor Darwin. We call him Gloomy; he’s a grumpy-faced creature found wedged in a fence by a rainy road. Tova also found five pearls on the road today, they’re joining her necklace trove (which also has a button, a bee, a bead and a flower)

All the girls (except Levi, who was asleep) bonged the giant bell at Ishizuchi Jinja temple to celebrate reaching 2,000 km. We saw three temples today, and realized that the mountain temples, though much harder to reach, may be the loveliest. 

Tonight we are staying at a guesthouse started by Taniguchi-san, a local who suddenly found himself with a Lithuanian and a Canadian on his hands when lockdown hit. Now he welcomes in Henro walkers for a voluntary donation. He met us at the grocery store, and even led Jakob all the way to his house for 15 minutes, patiently driving his car at a walking pace. 

We all enjoyed a convivial dinner in the guesthouse shed: Jakob made a yummy miso udon vegetable stew, and there was a variety of traditional side dishes. We talked about favorite temples, and people’s backstories: a Dutchman is revisiting this trail after seeing it 35 years ago, a French couple is here for their son’s wedding to a Japanese woman in Osaka. Taniguchi plays a mean trombone, and next time (if there ever is one) he and Jakob are gonna jam. 

Then we turned in for the night, unfortunately with more than a few mosquitoes to keep us company. 

At Nojima House with Taniguchi-san

Zadie’s photo of her favorite lily pad

Origami in Japan is next-level

Day 92: Nojima House to Imabari

Hours walked: 7:30-4:00

Distance walked: 24 km 

Cumulative: 2,033 km 

Quote of the day: ”This is the kind of weather where, in books, people are driving along a cliff and then they fall off and die!” - Sophia 

Well, we lost Gloomy today. He was only with us for a few short hours, then Levi mercilessly pitched him out of her stroller into the rain. RIP. 

We walked in a typhoon! At least, that’s what it felt like. Typhoon Kong-Rey smashed into Taiwan yesterday, bounced off like a billiard ball and, with perfect aim, floated directly over Ehime Prefecture (aka us) not long after we set off from Nojima House. 

It was the heaviest rain that has ever fallen on Earth. It slashed down at us mercilessly, a deafening roar on our pathetic umbrellas, a screaming eagle forcing our heads to burrow into raincoats like terrified earthworms. Passing trucks sent up walls of water that soaked Zadie from neck to toe. The puddles we walked through seemed almost dry. A sign appeared, Rest Stop 1 km! We hustled along as best we could, Levi pooping in her diaper on Tamar’s back with her golden hair plastered on her fat forehead. 

After what felt like forever we reached a bright, spacious rest stop - but we couldn’t bear to go inside, wet as we were. So we stood outside for awhile, watching the torrential rains and letting the water run off us. We ended up spending several hours waiting out the rain: we ate French fries, old ladies gave us clementines. We all felt cold, and Jakob’s right PCL seized up a bit. We miraculously found hot cocoas as we set out again, and Tova held the can in her bluish hands for an hour as we walked. We only had 10km left, and blessedly the rain held to a light drizzle. We passed sooo much flooding; Tova named Solar Pond, Solar Lake, Car Creek - we saw a stranded driver, rivers gushing over their banks…and blue skies in a bright band far ahead of us. 

It turned out to be a record-breaking rainfall, and we didn’t feel comfortable camping (plus it would have been mighty late after our delay) - so we splurged on a very expensive, very nice Route Inn. We threw our sopping wet clothes in the laundry, soaked up the onsen’s warmth, and went to bed early after a delicious supermarket dinner. 

She doesn’t seem to mind being drenched 

A snapshot of the earlier, lighter rain

One of the flooded sections we had to navigate the stroller through 

Day 93: Imabari to Kashima

Hours walked: 7:30-3:30

Distance walked: 26 km 

Cumulative: 2,059 km 

We woke up to a perfectly blue sky, like being inside a marble. How could the same sky ever have rained like it did? Everyone was pretty cheerful today, even if we did get slightly burned. 

We saw aftermath of yesterday’s deluge everywhere - drowned rice fields, an unhappy family pumping water out of their flooded house, swollen rivers flowing at twice normal speed. As Sophia was being quizzed on radians, she noticed a crumpled bill in a ditch: 1,000 yen! But it was eight feet down, with steep sides and shallow fast flowing water at the bottom. Tova climbed down anyway, splashed up the slimy ditch in her battered sandals, and made it safely back up. Soon after, she also found a silver amulet with three turquoise stones in it lying by the side of the road. Typhoon treasures…

We dance with death on a daily basis: today we faced a sheer, 150-centimeter drop. Not wanting to backtrack almost 5,000 centimeters, we manhandled the sleeping baby down the precipice; she miraculously survived and didn’t even wake up. An elderly woman watched the whole thing, her expressionless face somehow radiating disapproval. 

Tonight we would camp on an island, Kashima. We waited 20 minutes for the ferry, while Levi bustled down to the quay and tried to tug her way off the edge to meet the fish. The ferry lasted all of 2 minutes (Kashima is all of 150 metres offshore) and we’d reached our campsite. 

It was dotted with tents, maybe the most we’ve seen on this trip! Fortunately, there was a broad grassy area with plenty of room, and we had no trouble finding somewhere to set up. Levi went around with a 2kg rock smacking every stake she saw. 

The sunset was truly gorgeous, spanning every shade of the spectrum from bright pink to deep blue. We ate 90-second pasta with broccoli, tomato sauce and cheese as we watched the sun paint the sky. Zadie found a planet; Levi practiced running out of control and narrowly avoided faceplanting about ten times. The stars came out in a flood, we bundled into down jackets, and settled in for the night. 

Every shade of orange there is 

It was a long, gentle sunset 

It’s nice being back by the sunshiny coast again