Call it my irresistible charm, but today in the morning, on my way to the shower, Mama San intersected me and directed me to a small cabin that is clearly her art room, where she had laid a delicious breakfast for me. On top of that, she handed me a bento box she had prepared for my lunch. She is such a neat lady. Afterward, when I was ready to go we exchanged hugs, took selfies, and with much hand waving I was on my way.
There is a type of mask the Japanese carve, which shows an older person with puffy cheeks and a crease for a mouth that keeps you in doubt whether it is a serious face or a subdued smile. After looking at the selfies I can assure you that it is the latter.
The goal today is to cross from Shikoku to Honshu (the main island) through the archipelago of small islands that straddle the Sea of Hiuchi, from Imabari in Shikoku to Onomichi in Honshu. The islands form the Setonaikai National Park, and they are really pretty. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they are connected by a series of beautiful bridges that form part of the interstate system of highways, which means they are high speed viaducts, so once again I was forced to forego my admiration of the landscape for concentrating on the road and the 18-wheelers as I sped close to 80 km/hr.
I hold that the beauty of motorcycle travel is that you can cover real ground, but you do it at a speed that allows you to take in the details. Alas, that is only true up to speeds of 50 km/hr, where the autonomic system can take care of balance and reaction to changes in the road ahead. All goes to pots at higher speeds, and I become very aware that at 80 km/hr there is null comma nichts (zero point zero) possibility for reacting to a mishap. To top it all, as I started my crossing of Honshu from Onomichi in the south to Matsue in the north, it started to rain. My old nemesis! This time I was half prepared, and stopped at a rest station to eat my bento box lunch and don my raincoat. But as it started to rain the wind started to buffet, which can be pretty scary on a motorcycle riding the high viaducts of the interstate highways.
Let me unpack the last sentence. In the southern portion of Honshu, the rivers flow east to west, along very deep canyons. Japanese engineers reacted to this inconvenience of the topography by building bridges that are 100+ m high across the canyons, and connecting them through tunnels, so now I had three of my nemesis working in concert: Wind gusts cutting across the very tall viaducts, rain, and tunnels that range in length from 250 m to 6,000 m! My preference would have been to take country roads, but the fabric of the topography made that an impossible option.
Finally I was able to get off the interstate, and for the last 20 km to my destination I rode through the prettiest canyon, with postage size rice fields and beautiful country residences. Unfortunately I had been under a lot of stress, and was very tired, so the last 20 km were also dicey because I was falling asleep.
Finally I made it to Matsue, which happens to be a resort onsen town, with beautiful resort hotels lining the sides of a narrow hot water stream. Looks like I will spend the next two days in the lap of luxury. Jein. Yes, the hotel is very nice, but rooms are frightfully expensive. Yet, I got a good rate through Booking.com. Ah, but you get what you pay for. My room at Mama San's was 12 tatamis in floor area, simple but commodious. Here my room has maybe two tatamis in floor area (did I already tell you that a tatami is 1 m by 2 m?), and I can barely walk past the bed to the tiny bedside table. And they expect me to pay for the complimentary coffee! They do have a nice onsen, however, so I will take as much advantage of the facilities as I can, and will take over a table in the common living area as my office (that is where I am writing this blog entry from).
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