Thinking Allowed: Day 41-43: Shiogama to Watari

Day 41: Sendai

Hours walked: -

Distance walked: 0 km

Cumulative: 845 km

A zero day! We took it pretty easy all day.

We watched a movie, thanks to a friend’s Netflix generosity. Zadie gave it two thumbs up: “It was called Chicken Run Nugget. It’s colorful and all made out of clay; it’s a bit dramatic and it’s funny.” We went to the market and bought nashi pears and peaches. We ate them at a park until the raindrops started to fall.

While the laundry was in, we bought a new sleeping pad for Sophia, who’s been on a deflating one the whole trip - and then hit up a bakery just because its name was Tisser. It turned out to be fancy and delicious. We got an amazing lemon meringue - where the meringue was in the shape of a glossy yellow lemon - and a quite good chocolate peanut Tisser.

We went out for udon, mountains of fresh noodles with radish, ginger and soy sauce. We were all terribly full and drowsy after, but Tamar noticed Ricky’s Pet Shop as we bought dental floss, and we splurged $20 on a half hour of kids cuddling animals. It was a hit. Here’s Tova’s description:

“So it was lots of animals that you could just pet and pick up. You could pet owls and pick up mice and hold hedgehogs and play with puppies and pet meerkats and look at snakes and watch an animal go around and around a hamster wheel except it wasn’t a hamster wheel because the animal wasn’t a hamster. You could hold chicks and let them, and you could hold lizards and there was one gecko you could hold that kept crawling up your arm. There was one dog that was super high energy and one that would just fall asleep. Maybe that one dog had rabies.”

Our hotel was lavish and nice, though the kids were outraged that the onsen cost $20 and breakfast was also extra. Ah well, we can always indulge at the next Route Inn.

Zadie’s eyes are big and round

Levi was probably the happiest of all

The most opportune decoration ever! We both thought the other one had done it

Awfully cute creatures

Day 42: Shiogama to Natori

Hours walked: 8:30 to 3:30

Distance walked: 22 km

Cumulative: 867 km

The train was very full as we left Sendai, but we were on very pretty levees all day. We saw marshes with egrets and herons (or some such birds) with strong winds coming at us most of the day. Aurora got to talk to her cousin as we walked along. Levi slept right through past 1pm so we only had 5.5km left when we stopped for a short break. We all admired the pretty views of rice fields and the riparian zones to our left. Then at 2:30 we hit Natori and got ice creams at a Lawson before setting up camp in a very nice lean-to cabin.

Pretty nature views

The spaghetti is wrapped like soba

Zadie took this one

Beautiful evening sky

Day 43: Natori to Watari

Hours walked: 7:00 to 3:30

Distance walked: 29 km

Cumulative: 896 km

We walked along some very pretty landscape today, with large white birds flying on green backgrounds. The sky was overcast and we enjoyed the lovely clouds that drifted by. We also got asparagus cookies from a vending machine, along with peach water. Crossing into Watari on a long bridge, we admired the broad shallows of the Abukuma River - they were really nice.

At the Lawson the cashier asked us a lot of questions then gave us seven garigarikun soda popsicles! Aurora said they tasted like Inka Cola. We had already had onigiri and ice cream for lunch, but popsicles on a 30C day are always welcome.

We went at a fast pace and reached Casano-va, a small bakery/campsite where we’d spend the night. The owner was such a gracious, generous woman that it wasn’t even funny. We were plied with 7 baked goods: red bean and butter rolls, a strawberry jam pasty, and salty croissants. As we set up our tents, she came back with 15 beautiful slices of watermelon! And while we sweated in our tents to escape the mosquitoes before dinner, she returned with 11 boiled potatoes! We only had a little hiking sticker to give in return, but now it has place of pride in their shop.