Thinking Allowed: Day 8-10: Haboro to Tarumappu

Day 8: Haboro to Onishika

Hours walked: 8:30 - 3:30

Distance walked: 26 km

Cumulative: 186 km

Today was much smoother than yesterday. We woke up between 6 (Tamar) and 7 (Tova), and packed up our things among the heaps of dried kelp, the octopus nets and the gaffing hooks. Our saviour, together with his wife and parents, came to see us off at 8. He’d already been up for hours dealing with damage to his ship. The girls gave them our homemade decals as a small token of gratitude, and now Tova’s hiking logo has place of pride in his fishing office.

Five hours of sleep isn’t much for young bodies, but our mood was fairly upbeat as we walked through town. The storm had wreaked some havoc; large teams of workers were sweeping fallen branches and debris off the roads, gardens were inundated, greenhouses were torn. Many roads were closed all down the coast and inland.

Walking out of town, we were stopped by a woman who pulled over and rolled down her window. She enthusiastically pointed at a photo of us with the fishing family (maybe on Instagram?) then handed us a bag with four bottles of Aquarius and the weird Asahi grape water. More trail magic!

This compensated for our minor losses of the night before. Tova’s cherished silky shorts had blown away on the gale. We lost several tent stakes in the sand as we fled, but were extremely relieved to score the last two sets of stakes in the one hardware store - we would have been slightly screwed otherwise as tonight is more camping.

Then: walking! And it was a nice smooth day. We had a sidewalk for a good chunk. The wind stayed at our backs, which is much quieter and makes talking easier. Our coastal road had nice views of the waves all day.

We reached Onishika at 3:30, and yet again were the only campers at the campground. Even though tenting on the beach was free, we splurged $20 for an “auto site” which literally just meant grass and a little bit of lee from a nearby building.

It was a pretty spot, with wide views of rolling hills and the sea crashing a stone’s throw from our tent. We cooked (you guessed it!) miso, tofu, udon and broccoli with eggs - harder than usual in the high winds - ate corn/pumpkin ice cream and mochi for dessert, and all fell asleep very quickly after last night’s escapades.

Snoozing in the fisherman’s room

Morning after the storm

That poor greenhouse … our tents sympathize!

Tova and Zadie survey the wreckage

Aurora handles a mediocre shoulder (Levi gets carried for these)

All alone in our great big campsite

Hokkaido sunsets are great

Day 9: Onishika to Obira

Hours walked: 9:00 - 1:00

Distance walked: 17 km

Cumulative: 203 km

A quiet night in our tents! Hallelujah! With fewer km to cover today, we took our time packing up; boiled eggs, yoghurt, apples and sandwiches for breakfast. More people are smiling and saying hi in convenience stores - probably as they’ve now had a week to drive past us on the main coastal road.

It was another sunny, breezy morning of walking with the beach just to our right all day. The road had heavy traffic, which sucked when our sidewalk gave way to a narrow shoulder halfway through. But we ate onigiri overlooking the water, vanquished an evil spirit in a haunted house on Halloween (D&D), took one detour to a closed shortcut, then climbed a steep hill to Boyodai campground.

Now we are taking turns visiting the onsen down the hill. Tova is carrying a napping Levi in the ergo and reading. Our cabin is cozy and has sap coming out of the walls. This campsite is right atop a steep hill, with gorgeous views of the cloudy sunset. Dinner will be the umpteenth miso with tofu, noodles and veggies. Tamar will keep plotting our route for the second half of Hokkaido - and hopefully our day will end as mellowly as it began.

The littlest camper

Dinky shoulders and gorgeous views continue

Tova chills out during snack break

The view from up near our campsite - nobody enjoyed pushing the stroller up here!

Our cedar cabin

Day 10: Obira to Tarumappu

Hours walked: 7:30 - 6:00

Distance walked: 30 km

Cumulative: 233 km

We left our campsite of the giant hornets and had to walk two km to get breakfast - so we walked them quickly, because we were hungry! With our bellies full, we left town and headed towards Rumoi.

We spent at least an hour buying groceries and fuel, awkwardly standing outside the MaxValu eating our mayonnaisey egg salad sandwiches and trying to get rid of our bags of trash. Tamar doled out pistachio chocolate ice cream cubes. Our moods were medium.

Just as we were preparing to leave, a woman hurried up to us, bowed, and presented us with a big box of cherry tomatoes! Zadie solemnly carried them all the way out of town, and then we revelled in their succulent sweetness. As we popped the last ones into our mouths, a man stopped his car, rolled down his window, and gave a box of icy poles to Tova! We tried to whip out a sticker in return, but he left within seconds. Japanese people seem to be quite generous in helping hapless hikers!

After Rumoi, we left our friend the ocean for a foray into the interior - mostly because the coastal road was about to turn into a lot of tunnels. We traded windmills and dairy farms for rice paddies and cornfields. Tova’s allergies came back with a vengeance, and none of Jakob’s multiplication problems seemed to help.

We eventually reached our destination (a small roadside rest stop) and faced a dilemma: should we camp in the grassy patch right next to the highway, or take the bus into a nearby town and stay in a campsite? We took a vote, and everyone agreed we should bus; both because we hate the idea of being hassled/shamed for not following the rules (it’s not exactly common to put up your orange tent outside the public restroom) and in the hopes of playing in the campsite’s giant playground.

We had an hour to kill before the bus came, so we snuck in an extra 3km, shortening tomorrow and enjoying the evening coolness. The bus went smoothly, the campsite was darling (built around a centerpiece Japanese garden, with many families camping there). Playground closed, children crushed. Our dinner (miso udon tofu, with daikon and some sort of spicy lettuce for variety) was probably calorie-negative on balance, since we lost so much blood to the merciless mosquitoes. But the grass is soft, the night’s forecast mild, and so to bed.