I am getting old. My back does not like change and complains about new beds. I regularly have to roll out of hotel beds onto my hands and knees to go through my stretches and warm up my back. Sleeping on the floor was no worse or better than normal, but the process of rolling out was less dangerous! What made getting up this morning more entertaining (in retrospect) was the fact that my right leg had gone completely to sleep so when I tried to put weight on it, it collapsed. I was only trying to close the curtain as the sun had risen but Keith woke up at my crashing and flailing about.
Anyway, once we were up it seemed only fair that we go back to the Onsen. At midnight, they swap sides so the men’s becomes the ladies’ and vice-versa. The boys weren’t bothered, so Mila and I went over to the dark side and got naked again. It is so relaxing to go through the process of cleaning and soaking and cleaning that we nearly missed breakfast.
Another meal of 7 courses stretched in front of us and this time we got to try horse, duck, a butterflied sweet fish and a minced chicken tofu parcel thing. The kids were keen on this as they got to cook it all for themselves on hot charcoal. EU regulations would never allow it. Then there was a ham salad, fruit in yoghurt, miso soup, Japanese omelette and various terrifying pickles. It is an exhausting process when nothing is familiar and Danny is particular is getting a bit anxious about the pressure to try stuff at meal times. Still most of it was lovely and we left with full bellies.
Keith did some clever packing so that we could leave the kids’ rucksacks in a locker for the day as our 8km hike was on the agenda.
We got the ryokan’s shuttle back to the bus stop in Tsumago and then caught another public bus to Magome which was the start of our hike. I would like to state at this point that we had almost infinite faith in the timeliness of the Japanese travel network. But this bus was no less than 3 minutes late. Needless to say I was panicking that we were at the wrong bus stop, in the wrong town or otherwise incorrect but it all turned out fine. Phew.
Magome was a total tourist trap and we were easily suckered into buying souvenirs. Danny’s favourite shop was a village food shop. He found an apple Danish and was beyond giddy to have recognised something edible! We found bananas as well and I encouraged Mila to get a yoghurt drink. We took it all to the bench outside and prepared for second breakfast (with reference to hobbits) before we began. Mila gave me a full on pre-teen evil when she tried her yoghurt. Imagine a peach flavoured jelly that you have spent some time sucking backwards and forwards through your teeth. Squeeze this into a foil bag and refrigerate. Oops. Not yoghurt. Once we got over the frogspawn-like consistency it was really nice but it was not yoghurt.
We had been encouraged by a sign telling us that it was only 24 degrees Celsius today and that we would have a pleasantly cool walk. This turned out to either be a lie or the temperature at that point in the day.
The first section was in full sun: bloody steep and bloody hot. Much moaning ensued… and that was just from me! It took us through a section of Magome and past a woodworking shop that smelled deliciously of local cyprus wood. Danny was fascinated by the shrink wrap process the owner was using to prepare the goods for sale but Mila found a wee dragon that we just had to have. The quality of the woodwork and the closeness of the grain was very impressive and it is a good job we were just setting out and couldn’t manage to carry the larger pieces.
The views from the top more than made up for the struggle and when we got to the cool of the forest, a lovely, older Japanese gentleman reassured us that we were nearly at the top, 450m higher than out start point in Magome. Sign language and smiling is all you need!
The children got adept at ringing the bells but I was a bit disappointed not to have seen a dog sized bear!
I turned around just as we emerged from the forest to view the panorama behind us and saw either a Harris hawk or white tailed eagle performing aerial acrobatics and soaring on thermals. I always think of my Dad at such moments and wanted to exclaim its genus loudly to passing tourists. In reality I have no idea what it was. It was big, had white patches on its wings and looked like it was master of the skies it soared in. I have checked Google images and made a good guess. That’s enough for me.
Just over half way was a free tea room – a cool dark wooden building where a Japanese man in traditional dress kept ashes hot enough to boil water for making green tea and served boiled sweets and water to the children. He even allowed Keith to take his photo. We left a donation and returned to the trail.
From here onwards the trail snaked back and forth down the hillside though the forest. It emerged occasionally into the fierce sun to cross the road and then dived back into the gloom. We all prefer the gloom to the glare when it is this hot. We were expecting rain and wind today as the edge of a big typhoon brushed this area. It was almost disappointing not to have the variety but I am glad we did not have to abandon our plan.
Keith and the children managed to get some epic photos of bamboo and rice fields while we were walking and I got to keep pointing out butterflies, dragonflies and enormous bees. For the first time today we saw an animal other than a cafe cat or a handbag dog. This is supposed to the region for Shin shu beef: fed on apples and cider and subjected to regular massages, except we haven’t seen a single cow. Where have they put them?
We saw a lot of farmed fish in tanks fed by the water pouring off the mountains that floods the paddy fields. We saw a single solitary goat and a handful of ducks. There were a few people fishing in the river for the invisible fish (they have another name I can’t remember but they are so good at hiding under rocks they may as well be invisible and are very hard to catch).
No chickens. No pigs. And no sign of these much famed cows. No wonder they eat bee larvae. But I am jumping ahead to supper.
When civilization reappeared at the side of the trail, we knew we had reached Tsumago and needed to dig out the instructions to find our ryokan for tonight. It is fair to say we were all stinky-hot and Keith and I could have wrung out our t-shirts under our rucksacks.
We completed our successful navigation (Google Maps is our friend!), checked in and agreed times for dinner and breakfast. This ryokan feels less pretentious than the last one. The lady who showed us around didn’t walk backwards for a start! There are fish in the pools front and back and beautiful traditional gardens.
The children voted to stay in the air conditioning while we went back to this morning’s starting point to retrieve their rucksacks. I would like to point out at this point that I was entirely vindicated in advocating the use of the lockers. The children moaned less and our stuff was untouched by the Japanese crime wave my husband seems to believe may swamp us at any moment.
By this time it was 3pm and second breakfast felt a long time ago. The lovely host at the ryokan suggested a local delicacy from a cafe directly opposite as a light snack to get us through to 6pm and dinner: oyaki. These are light bread rolls stuffed with various fillings. The children were practically delirious at the idea of a bread product and Keith and I were very pleased with the price at about £1.30 each. We tried spicy vegetable, vegetable and mushroom, pumpkin and apple. They were all delicious but I burnt my fingers trying to tear them all into quarters. Fortunately we had invested in a melon soda so I could cool the throbbing on the side of the glass!
We were not as fragrant as we would have liked by this point so we made a move to the shared showers and bath to scrub off the heady mix of sweat, sun cream and bug spray. The bath was super hot so there was not much soaking or relaxing this afternoon but clean was a huge improvement.
Going outside again did not get many votes so we rested and repacked and tried not to fall asleep for an hour or so.
By 5pm the sun had gone in – replaced by thick cloud so we thought it would be safe to go for a wander up and down the streets of this town from the Edo period. Hearteningly, this town has been preserved because the locals felt it should be and not because of a government initiative. It is a beautiful place where power cables are hidden behind the buildings and the mountains loom in green relief in every direction. It is so peaceful here, I will be sad to leave (the apple oyaki) tomorrow.
By the time we returned to the hotel, it was time to slip into our yukata and go down to dinner. You will be relieved that tonight’s offering was not nearly as scary as yesterday’s. Keith ate all of it and Danny managed a proper meal for the first time in days. Hurrah!
The only challenging items were bee larvae (and as Mila said- but we are not supposed to eat baby bees Mummy!) and the sashimi which they were kind enough to cook for the children and allow Danny to gobble it up. I did try the larvae but wasn’t a fan. I still struggle with the texture of raw fish when the pieces are too thick but this fresh water salmon was excellent and I managed more than yesterday. By the end of the holiday…..
The owner of this ryokan came around to explain the menu was all locally sourced and strictly warn us which order everything should be consumed. There was also a menu on the table which was very helpful.
Generally the food was delicious and seemed to be trying far less hard than last night. Roll on breakfast!