Thinking Allowed: Day 14-16: Bibai to Yuni

Day 14: Sapporo

Hours walked: -

Distance walked: 0 km

Cumulative: 307 km

Today was our second rest day, and very different from the first. We had leisurely scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, letting Tova sleep in until 7. Tamar was getting antsy by 8, so we went out for a parent-baby coffee; the cafe was quiet and orderly as a monastery, and Levi smeared ice cream everywhere and climbed into the coat box. Meanwhile, the girls made fake snow (one of the prizes they occasionally get for walking so much.)

At 10 the shops opened, and our errands began. We had a productive day! Sophia got Hokas, Tova rejected pair after pair of shoes (“my feet have no air!”) and finally got hiking sandals. Jakob replaced his water-crippled phone, and got his first pair of socks with toes, as part of the Great Blister Campaign. We bought t-shirts, bras, a notebook, a packing cell, waterproof phone cases, fuel - basically, a thorough resupply. Aurora opted out of the whole thing and bummed around the apartment showering, reading and crocheting.

Resupply took most of the day, leaving time for a playground visit, vegetable soup with tofu for dinner, and a bit of Olympics-watching before bed.

Zadie snuggles into the crevice behind the bed

The Kindles are in high demand 24/7

Day 15: Bibai to Iwamizawa

Hours walked: 8:30 - 1:30

Distance walked: 18 km

Cumulative: 325 km

The eggs and toast were sizzling by six, and we got an early start for a day of slackpacking. The express train whisked us back to Bibai, and we set off under cloudy skies. Soon after, a kind man came out of his shop to ask where we were off to; he liked us so he gave us plum jellies!

At midday we reached the Mikasa rest stop and took a break. After enjoying onigiri and a molten 7-11 burrito near an automatic door that opened at least a hundred times, we checked out the cool shop, and shared a truly awful soy gelato smoothie. We bid farewell to the stuffed fox, and Mikasa anime heroine (kind of a weird rest stop)

The afternoon flew by as Zadie, Tova and Sophia unraveled the puzzles of Dr. Knuckles’ lab (in this installment, they each had deep dark secrets) and we caught the train with minutes to spare.

Our last hours in Sapporo were spent finishing our first YouTube video of the trip, failing to cut Sophia’s hair for the second time, making a very nice rice and tofu, and buying passage on the night ferry to Hachinohe. The next three days of walking will be a bit tricky to get there, but we are well-rested and up for the challenge!

Ready to walk!

Our faithful companions the rice paddies

Levi in one of her frequent good moods

Day 16: Iwamizawa to Laugh Tale, Yuni

Hours walked: 9:30-4:45

Distance walked: 26 km

Cumulative: 351 km

It took a pretty long time to pack up after three nights in an apartment - even after taking the train, “it felt like we stopped every five seconds,” said Tamar. And yet, when we found a cute bakery our hopes were dashed by their 10 am opening time.

We spent the day on a busy road, with overgrown sidewalks most of the time. A woman came out of a roadside stall and bestowed 51 cherry tomatoes on us! Zadie was radiant, how lucky is she that her favorite food basically falls into her lap! We passed a theme park with a huge roller coaster, and a pretty rose garden. We walked among vast onion fields, where an ancient woman on hands and knees was hand-digging the earth with a trowel. We estimated 3 million onions in those fields, that’s a lot of manual labor…

Levi slept for a couple of hours so we had to skip our bathroom break. We ate lunch in a bus shelter, much nicer than our usual highway shoulder. Aurora and Sophia did some calculus with Jakob and contemplated the meaning of e, Euler’s number. We ran low on water, then got a grape aloe drink with revolting blobs in it. Grossed out and refreshed, we hiked the last few kilometers in the drizzling rain.

On a tiny dirt road, we fretted the campsite didn’t actually exist; but fortunately it was there, and kind of cute! Someone had decorated a field with tractor parts, scrap metal and gnomes, to great effect. There was no water or toilet paper, but “the women’s washroom was great! It was spacious, has decorations, you take off your shoes in the entranceway, there’s a marionette whose string you pull, and there’s an automatic light!” Meanwhile, Jakob got a stained urinal in a small closet with bugs on the walls.

We learned a valuable lesson about the consequences of not drying out wet tents for 3 days, but they aired out well enough and the evening sky is still and clear.