2:25 pm: a michi-no-eki on Route 9, the Sanin Highway.
My sacrifice is great in telling this tale! Okay, not so great, but I'll have to find an outlet soon to juice-up my iPhone.
A little background. Woke a little out of sorts. Ate the yoghurt purchased y'day in Hamasaka with cereal. Packed, bid farewell to the lady of the house and worked my way through the narrow streets of the fishing village to Route 11. Missed the Italian couple from Milan. Might have had an interesting chat.
So, I leave a bit off and immediately encounter the first tunnel-ascent-left curve away from the coast combination. Not 5 km from town I pass into another small fishing port to learn once again that bicycles are still forbidden on Route 178 to Tottori forcing me up an even steeper, longer incline. I take my lumps. Shoganai. At the top is the not unexpected sign announcing that I'm entering Tottori-ken.
I stop to eat the remaining sandwich and into view ascending the slope come three young men wearing Waseda University Cycling Club riding shirts. I wave and tell them they're nearly at the top. Also shout that I'm from Itabashi-ku in Tokyo. (Waseda U. is about 8 km from my home.) A few minutes later another four came chugging up at a good speed of about 10 kph. Ganbatte! The sight of those guys cheered me up considerably. I made it into Tottori and stopped at a supermarket to pick up some things to drink. Had a hard time getting back on the bike. Considered taking the road south to Himeji, a castle town on Osaka Bay, but dismissed the idea. Daisen or bust!Rode on a few km and stopped for a lemon ice. At this rate I'd only make Kurayoshi. Then it happened! Thank all gods great and small as the Chinese might say: my front tire was flat as I was about to leave this michi-no-eki! Granted, I was not thrilled by the flat, but I took it in stride removing the wheel - thankful it was not the rear wheel - and, just for a kick in the absence of a bucket, thought I'd take advantage of the beach across the road to locate the leak. Must have looked a bit odd wading into the surf with a rather skinny inner tube, but I didn't care.
Couldn't find the leak so I started to leave the beach but on a slightly different course than on the one I entered. That took me to a large wood-floored canvass-covered pavilion sheltering a few people from the bright sunlight. It was obviously a beach business. I spotted a little tub of water used by customers to remove sand from their feet. That's when the fun and upturn in my spirits came.A woman came over so I explained that I had been trying to find the leak in the tube but had been unsuccessful. I then asked politely if I might use the tub for a moment to check. She said it was for customers' feet so I added, perhaps purposely misinterpreting her intention, i.e. "You're not a customer so don't use it." that I didn't mind if people had dipped their feet into it. "Please?" She seemed to acquiesce, so I began and quickly found the leak which discovery I shared with her. As I was drying my feet after taking advantage of the tub, a man whom I supposed was her husband came over with a scowl on his face, lifted the tub, threw the contents on the beach and walked back tub in hand and investment protected. On the way back to the michi-no-eki I could barely keep myself from laughing. I've mentioned before how an act of kindness from a stranger lifted my spirits. This act of meanness had the same effect.
Returned to the bicycle, patched the tube, put another one on and loaded up. How far will I get today? Don't really care now. Maybe I should go back to the pavilion and order a coke. Ha!
11:00 pm: Kurayoshi (one week after my brother's birthday which I missed. Sorry, Chris!)
End of a good evening!
Arrived here at about 5:30 and checked into the hotel across from the station. Left most gear on the bike, rinsed out my sweat-soaked riding clothes, showered and set off for dinner. Settled on a yaki-niku place with a nomi-hodai. Told the waitress she was cute and took her photo with another girl.
(Just following in the footsteps of my late father. He enjoyed complimenting the wait staff, too.)
Picked up some KFC afterward and chatted with the server then spoke with a hostess club shill for a few minutes. Fun.
Ended up at the station across from my hotel. Listened to three kids singing. More power to them. What a day: a bit down in the dumps, but happy to be alive.
May 24, 2011.
I wrote that I was thinking of leaving Tottori and heading south to Himeji. However, if I had done so, I would have had to travel slightly back in an easterly direction. Himeji, home of one of the most famous castles in Japan, is actually on the Harima-Nada Sea, the eastern end of the Seto Inland Sea, and not on Osaka Bay.
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