Day 8 -- Suddenly, I feel lighter

Total Distance: 27.4 km (mostly flat, but still, kinda proud of this)

It was cold today.

The fog cleared up today, though!

I know I should be aiming for something more like 30 km on mostly flat roads, but I’m actually pretty proud of the fact that I walked 27 and a half today. I didn’t take many pictures since pretty much the entire time I was walking on a highway.

BUT! Last night I totally unpacked my bag and separated out my stuff, putting it into piles of ‘keep’ and ‘send home’, and today I sent a box of stuff back to the states! I cut about 2.8kg (these metric measurements doing anything for you, by the way?) from my bag, which, I mean… the difference is night and day.

Among the things I sent home:

• A pair of pants that, honestly, I don’t think I’m going to wear without sewing the hole in the knee shut because it has become big enough to drive a semi through
• A pair of shorts that I will probably wish I had later, but no one in Japan really ever wears shorts, and kinda the idea of this whole trip is to try to integrate into the culture a little more, so meh
• My shaver and its related cord—I still have my beard trimmer; I have no idea why I thought I needed both
• The cables to hook my laptop up to a television. I thought I would enjoy having them but honestly it’s more trouble than it’s worth and the cables weigh more than I would have expected

So that’s good.

A bit of farmland

Tomorrow morning I’m going to be crossing the prefectural line into Kochi! My map lists a whole bunch of surfing-related places in that area so I bet I’m going to be able to see some excellent coastline tomorrow. I’m kinda excited about it.

I also wanted to mention a little something about the difference between two different types of accommodation in Japan for those who might not know: minshuku and ryokan. They are very similar and kinda blur together, but the basic difference is that a ryokan is generally a larger Japanese-style inn, whereas minshuku are run by families and are generally smaller. You generally get the same sort of food and whatnot in both kinds of places.

But man, minshuku (the smaller family-run ones) are so much more interesting! I was kinda scared to stay in them at first because I hate the idea of imposing on a family, but as a foreigner who speaks Japanese to a reasonable extent I find myself completely and utterly pampered at these places. The families absolutely love talking to foreigners and watching them eat their homecooked meals (which are delicious, by the way—I can’t believe that after 3 years in Japan I’m finally having some of these dishes for the first time). And all this awesomeness for a price that’s less than a less-personal inn!

I mean, it’s a small courtesy but they wrote my name on a piece of paper and taped it to my door before I arrived, based on the reservation I made yesterday. I’m the only one staying here tonight, it’s not like I needed to make a reservation, but they really took it seriously.

Anyway, that’s about it for today. Tomorrow I think I’m gonna see a whole lot of excellent coastline. Stay tuned.