Day 47: Hirono to Iwaki
Hours walked: 7:45-3:30
Distance walked: 26 km
Cumulative: 1,002 km
We had a tasty breakfast and watched inscrutable Japanese TV while the poor dryer failed to dry our laundry for the third time. The walking today was once again very pretty, Tova saw a giant caterpillar with striped pink horns. It was a cloudy day which made the walking easier and softened the rice fields’ colors all around us
We made it to 1,000 km today, a nice milestone. We also came to a large rest stop, which turned out to be more of a local food market. We ate nashi pears and a fried cheese pyramid. Levi met a little boy in a cowboy hat and they orbited each other bashfully for a half hour.
We walked through an evening cloudburst to a Nepali restaurant. They seated us behind the kitchen at a low Japanese -style table, where the fumes burned our eyes terribly. Good food though, and Jakob’s excellent fish tikka stained his lefthand fingers red for 24 hours.
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| Japanese hotels lend you umbrellas, which we love |
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| Another freaky caterpillar for Tova’s photo collection |
Day 48: Iwaki
Hours walked: -
Distance walked: 0 km (well, 4km to the spa but we’re not counting them)
Cumulative: 1,002 km
Today was a long-awaited test day: Spa World Hawaiians! This is the oldest theme park in Japan. We took a train then walked 4K to get there, enjoying a loaf of white bread with hidden jam pockets inside. The walk was very nice, it was hilly and very sunny, we saw many cedar forests along the way.
As for the resort itself, the kids say: “It was soooo-with-a-hundred-O’s fun! There were pools and water slides and onsens and an outdoor pool that was sunny. There was a lazy river with a shake and a stingray and other fish swimming in the middle. We were there for almost five hours. It was suuuper with 300 U’s fun!”
Afterwards we had udon for dinner and turned in early.
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| The water slides were a smash hit |
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| Our sunny walk to the water park |
Day 49: Iwaki to Nakoso Beach
Hours walked: 8:00-4:00
Distance walked: 27 km
Cumulative: 1,029 km
Our walk continued today with lovely sea and river views. Tamar found a slightly longer way which gave us got a lovely road all to ourselves alongside a small river; definitely worth it. We saw a lot of butterflies and many white egrets, and enjoyed the traditional architecture of the houses we passed.
An enthusiastic shopkeeper gave us a box of popsicles - Aurora noticed that we’ve received lots of frozen treats from different people, but never gotten same kind twice!
Our stealth campsite is on a calm beach, with only three or four other visitors in the two hours we spent before dark. Zadie and Tova dug on the beach, and Levi hustled around on her increasingly sturdy little legs. The mosquitoes came out as dusk fell. After broccoli, tofu and udon we turned in early.
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| Sisters |
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| Tova was struck by this truck (figuratively) |
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| Loitering with intent to camp |
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