showers and no showers
Hello from Shima-shi!
TJ Bike and I have ridden about 4 or 500 kilometers (by rough estimate) basically
west by southwest of Tokyo. We slept outside each night, and one of those nights I
slept in my tent. Two nights and one full day I spent under a bridge due to rain;
thankfully I had been warned about the impending shower by some people I talked to
the previous day!
The other nights were spent next to a rest stop, in a park, and next to a field,
respectively. No tent, but definitely sleeping bag; it's been cold!!
For that 6-day stretch, I had no shower, and my food intake was a bit sketchy.
After finishing the Power Bars donated by Carl, (and peanuts donated by Jesse,) I
ate granola cereal most of the time. I worked it out at about 100 kilocalories for
100 yen. I ate at McDonald's several times (cheap with free electricity for
journaling on my computer).
At one point, I was able to get free internet access at a small school to teach
people how to use PCs.
The past 2 nights I have been at Koji's house; he was one of my students in the
class called Fantastic Rabbits on the recent PB voyage. I'm really thankful for
his (and Masako's) hospitality!
I have basically recovered now, but my legs were certainly sore upon arrival. My
first thoughts when asked, "how was it?" were something like, I won't be
considering riding around the world anytime soon, but I just said, "longer than I
expected."
Greeted by Koji, his wife, and then surprisingly, by a native English speaker!! I
wondered if they had a previously unmentioned daughter, but it turns out she was
WWOOFing on their farm for a few days during her visit to Japan.
Anne is from Maine, and this summer will be living on a farm with no running water,
no electricity, and _no internet_. The nearest town is 2 hours away. I hope it's
a great experience!
For the past two days, it has been rainy; I'm thankful to have arrived before the
drizzly cold weather started. Soon I hope to be back on TJ Bike, headed toward
Kyoto (where Tomoko and Sumidasan said they would meet me for dinner!), though I
haven't worked out a schedule for that. I'd like to help out on Koji's farm as
well; hopefully the rain stops in time for everything to happen in dry weather!
I took a few pictures, but right now have no way to get them online. They've only
got dial-up access here.
Thank you for encouraging emails!
I hope everyone is well.
- Rob!