Day 70-72: Hamamatsu to Okazaki

 Day 70: Hamamatsu to Hamanako Park

Hours walked: 9:00-3:00

Distance walked: 20 km

Cumulative: 1,530 km

With relatively few kilometers to walk today, we took our time this morning. Levi fell asleep soon after we left, and slept almost the whole walk! It’s such a godsend when she cozies up in the stroller and nods off for a couple of hours. 

We saw another hiker on the Tokaido today, bringing us to a grand total of two hikers met in 70 days. He was heading eastward, with only a light day pack. Our next hour was filled with speculation about how it would be to hike solo, and stay in hotels every night. We passed many busy temples today: in preparation for the weekend’s harvest festival, people were hanging up paper lightning bolts and putting up tree branches.

It got very hot as we stopped for lunch at a convenience store. A burly trucker gave us icy strawberry sachets (“COOLish”) and ended up watching our YouTube videos in the cab of his semi as he ate an ice cream cone. Wonder what they’re like to watch when you don’t understand a word of English. 

Groceries ended up costing 5.5km more than planned after a forgotten wallet, but the udon tofu tasted all the better for it. Our campsite was expensive but cute, with a beach right next to it and soft grass for our orange tents. 

Beach time 

Even more peaceful after a day of road walking!

Sunset cookout 

Day 71: Hamanako Park to Toyohashi

Hours walked: 7:30-3:30

Distance walked: 25 km

Cumulative: 1,555 km

Quote of the day: “Bakeries are to France what convenience stores are to Japan” - Tamar

Levi peed copiously in the night; her pajamas were soaked right up to the neck, the sleeping pad, sleeping bag and tent floor were sodden. Our stroller was festooned with drying clothes as we set off. 

We saw even more celebrants at temples as we were walked. There were fireworks, floats and tall tree effigies all over the place. 

Levi had another one of the longest naps of her whole life, snoozing basically all morning. We decided to spend one hour in perfect silence, observing the holiday of Yom Kippur through quiet reflection rather than fasting. Then we shared some our thoughts from the peaceful hour (though Tova’s very first question was how to spell the Norwegian word ‘kjeks’, which means biscuit. She thought it was ‘sjex’ which is cool too.)

We were in no rush to reach Toyohashi, where we planned to stealth camp tonight. So we stopped in at a Japanese bakery and got four weird but quite good confectioneries (very gloopy, sweet, and heavy on the yams and chestnuts). We browsed at Montbell for an hour, scoring shoes for Zadie (at last!), pants for Zadie and Tova, and a bright blue cap for Jakob. 

In town, Tamar and Aurora did laundry in a weird deserted laundromat featuring a grand piano covered in baskets and sheets. Meanwhile, the others explored the nearby parklands in search of camp spots, and played in the playground. We ate a cold grocery store dinner by a dry fountain in the park centre, a splash of light in the 6pm darkness. We saw several dance groups practicing and warming up, and heard lots of fireworks, but we didn’t join in any festivities as we felt self-conscious about camping 

A bicyclist was snoozing at our preferred spot, so we retreated to Plan B. In a glade just outside the city park, we set up in the dark, trying to keep out of sight from the various footpaths and bridges. Kids soon fell asleep, as parents listened to the sounds of life in the park not far away. 

Our roads were lined with these traditional shops 

Late night dinner (actually only about 6pm)

Levi’s latest style 

Day 72: Toyohashi to Okazaki

Hours walked: 5:45-3:45

Distance walked: 32 km

Cumulative: 1,587 km

Quote of the day: “You know, yesterday I had onigiri for breakfast, lunch and dinner…and today I’ve had onigiri for breakfast and lunch!” - Aurora

Stealth camping sure is an emotional roller coaster. Tamar only slept three hours, and Jakob lay awake from 11:00-1:30, worrying that the powers-that-be would kick us out of our tents in the middle of the night. The sun came up at 5:15, and immediately old folks arrived for their morning constitutionals. So we set a new speed record and were fully packed by 5:45. 

Levi fussed in her stroller for two hours before eventually dropping off to sleep as we sang endless Norwegian lullabies. Then she had a nice long nap, and when she awoke it was noon and we had managed 20km - maybe the furthest we’ve come by midday. We even met two more hikers on the Tokaido today!

We’ve decided to hike the Tokaido to its western end in Kyoto, rather than cross the Ise mountains. That means we’ve got a much more urban fortnight ahead of us, with all the tradeoffs that entails. For example, we spent a couple of hours struggling to find lodgings for seven on a busy Sunday night (the Saturday had been plain impossible). We ended up sketchily booking two rooms that had an official maximum capacity of two each - but the Super Hotel staff were unusually accommodating and our bunk rooms worked out well. 

We treated ourselves to Indian food for dinner, $60 of naan, curry, salad and lassis that we all greatly enjoyed (except maybe Levi who managed to smash her head on the table twice). We strolled back to the hotel across the Oto River, admiring the rainbow-lit bridges and a guitarist playing on the beach beneath us, then fell asleep almost instantly after a long, smooth day. 

Departing at dawn 

This temple was quite cool 

Packing up in the early morn