Japan Exodus - Day 34: South! And The Tottori Sand Dunes

At the end of the day, I wondered to myself, "that was it?"

Perhaps now that I have a good month under my belt my legs have officially warmed up, perhaps living on Shikoku where the mountains are steepest in Japan made for sufficient training courses, or maybe the mountain range I crossed over today in the middle of Honsu was simply not rigorous enough to really make much of a dent. I had planned for a two day crossing south across the main island's middle mountain range, I completed the course by 1 pm on the first day.

Oh, don't worry, I will eat my words later. There may be a shortage of good cheese, fruits, and sarcasm in Japan. But there is no shortage of mountains to challenge.

The day began awesomely enough. This is one of the best camping sights I have ever had. From my last posting, Life haded me a choice between camping in Hawai or the Dunes. More than for any other reason, I was drawn to the dunes because of the association to the earth. Us earth element children will always decide to go for the mountain view, or play in the mud, or in this case, camp by the dunes.

By the time that I made it to the campsite in the PM, night was upon us. Having not been to this place before, I was a little hesitant doing the hill limbing last night before my arrival. Not because the hill ascension was difficult. Rather just didn't want to climb a hill to find out that I was in the wrong place. At times like this, you just have to trust your map. 

The photo here is not of the sunset but of the sunrise. One of those days where the sun shined through the morning trees with such uninterrupted verbosity that golden skewers of light seemed to cut through the entire campsite.

A good half hour later the sun had risen enough to light the site. I knew that there were other people camping here, I had seen their camp fires and heard their laughter upon setting up my tent in the dark. I was too tired and had no gift to offer to come up in the middle of the dark night to make any new friends with my neighbors, and I had risen and packed my belongings before we had any chance to make an impression on each other besides the slow walks to the communal toilets. Still, so good to have camped out with some other folks even if we never met. 

All camped up and ready to go, the Tottori sand dunes was just a bike mount, a gear change, and a quick bike pedal away. The sand is indeed to damning to ride your bike over, I tried and gave up. Good idea actually, to park my bike somewhere and take off my shoes. No need for either in such a place as this. 

The morning sun still happened to be doing its morning thing about the time I arrived, filling the beautiful Japanese dunes with a special golden light that I yet to see. The hills and mountains in this country are some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Usually, the very top of their ridges unique to each, and the distance between them creates for the stand alone viewer a color pallet ranging from blues to greens. This morning the ridges are still as majestic, but today's pallet range included some golden oranges and yellows that I have never seen before, and might well likely never see again. It is really something to see.

Of course, had to give my obligatory "I was here!" shot.  

Once I had spend my time at the morning dunes, I set off to handle the task of the day. And no small task it is. Today I will attempt to cross the island of Honshu from north to south and reach Himeji.

The way islands work in general is to reserve the mountains for the center regions. So, I knew that I had a climb ahead of me before reaching one of the most beautiful castles in all of Japan, Himeji. (When my big sister and I attempted to visit way back in May of 2014, the castle was under reconstruction. You can relive that story here.)

Oh, by the way, this not Himeji. This is just a castle that I saw along the way. Strange in that it sat all alone with no real tourism surrounding its poise. Even from afar, I could tell how well this fortress is built, that is what prodded my curiosity so. That no one was coming to see this castle might just be an insight into Japanese politics. This prefecture is locally known for resisting modernization. And it shows. As soon as I arrived, the frequency of convenience stores, restaurants, and rest areas dropped noticeably.     

Sometimes I am really disappointed with photography. Not with the individual pictures that I take or see. No, I mean in generally. Taking a photo which captures the magnitude of a view is something that is really hard to do, even with professional equipment. Maybe even impossible. 

When I look back at this bridge connecting two mountains, standing maybe ten stories above anything else, the image fails to compare to how cycling under this gigantic structure felt, and how small I felt compared to the cement structure that was so large yet could not touch. 

False summits, lets talk about them. Frustrating? yes. Part of the experience? Of course. Fun? I would not go that far. They are sometimes beautiful though, to look at. Then I remember that once I go down them, I will have to make up the distance again along the other side of the mountain. Right?....

Lucky for me! Down in the middle of this valley they sell some really tasty fruit =) Super cheap too, as in the cheapest I have ever seen fruit in all of Japan. As you can see, I stocked up on more than I could eat for lunch and tied the surplus to the rear rack of my bike.

Crossing prefectures and taking names! Bye-bye, as they say, to the obscurity of Tottori and on to the southern ends of Honshu island where larger cities await my short attention span. Himeji, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto...they are all just a few hundred kilometers of each other.

Ideal cycling conditions on the way down from nice climb and fruit lunch. A little tail wind, superb sunlight, a kind of smell that smelt like green, a few birds, and no one around for kilometers and kilometers.  

Goofing off again, trying to capture the nature from a different angle and all I got was this stupid face. 

So around this time, I found myself at the bottom of a giant hill. The strange thing was that I had already made my way through the larger section of the island. In fact, I was almost done. How did that happen? 

Better stop and look at my map. Yeah, good idea. Stop and eat these delicious fried goods as I look at my map.

Still not sure if I know where I am at the moment. Better order something else and really try to see where I am in this mountain so I don't make any big mistakes...

Fried potato sandwiches and friend curry balls are all good and dandy, for mid day snack and all. By the end of the day I made my way down to the end of the Honshu coast, from North to South. What happened, indeed. I am now a little ahead of schedule than I wanted to arrive. 

There is a very special holiday in Japan. And if you don't know it, I believe the name to sum the experience up nicely: Golden Week. 

Golden Week is a time when most people including schools and government agencies are closed of the first week in May to really just let off a little steam, and generate the economy. BBQ's are had, trips are taken, hotels are booked solid, and families are visited. The festivities start in two days and I have two friends who I am really looking forward to seeing during Golden Week. For now, I'll just have to wait patiently and eat my dinner. Salad, cheese, orange juice, four pieces of fried tempura, and two hamburgers. 

I am always telling myself that I have no schedule to keep. There is my tourist visa that expires on the 20th of June, that is not much of a time frame however. I know I will arrive before then. Strange then, that I am "early" today in my plans. Well, all the better. Believe it or not, I actually have some work set aside to do. 

Fried food love,

-A