Chapter 13: CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Reads: 885
Comments: 1

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

John had me scheduled for classes that Saturday so I couldn’t try out the minshuku that weekend. But checking my road maps I discovered a national highway leading out through the mountains to the north that connected to a prefectural highway going west that connected to two other national highways coming southeast back into Kyoto City, making a circle-like course I calculated the cub and I could do in three or four hours.

What the hell. I’ll give it a try this Sunday.

As we passed through the second lumbering village jammed into the narrow mountain valley that Route 162 was twisting us through, “Hey little buddy, I think we’ve been on this road before! With John, remember?”

Be-beep!

And when I drove us through the long tunnel and then finally on to the overlook that gave the beautiful view of two river valleys converging far below us, “This is it, all right! See the town of Shuzan down there?”

Be-beep!

After giving the cub and my ass a good rest where John had stopped to let the cub’s engine cool, “Hah, this seems like old times now. Right little buddy?”

Be-beep!

And we zipped down into that valley again, up and over the several mountain passes, along the prefectural road with the suspension bridges here and there, farm houses surrounded by lush green rice paddies on the other side of the river, and turned onto the more heavily traveled national highway Route 27 and then the even more heavily crowded Route 9 leading back to Kyoto City.

When we finally putted into the bicycle-parking space in front of my apartment building three and a half hours later, “Well little buddy, it looks like we can still get in some good biking on Sundays even when I have to teach on Saturday!”

Be-beep!

When I told John about it at our school, he smiled. “Nice going. It took me six months to find that circle route. But then I was driving up from Takatsuki. It took me and that good old cub of mine more than seven hours to do the whole thing, a third of which was on noisy crowded city highways.”

“Yeah, that Route 9 from Kameoka was jam-packed. I didn’t remember that stretch being so bad when you took us on it.”

“That’s because I turned us onto Old Route 9 instead of staying on New Route 9 like you did just after the pass from Kameoka into Kyoto. It’s a lot quieter with farm houses and fields along most of it. But it took me about five tries before I finally discovered it. It’s not marked and it’s not very long either but if you bring me your road map, I’ll point it out to you.”

“Hey, thanks. But can you tell me if you’ve got me scheduled for any classes this Saturday? I’d like to give that minshuku on Lake Biwa a try.”

John checked the schedule board and grinned. “You’re good to go, Dave! And if that minshuku is as good as you think it is let me know, would you? Good minshukus this close to the Kansai metropolitan area are really hard to find."

“I can’t believe the size of this lake, little buddy!”

Be-beep!

I parked us on one of the lakeside park-like cutoffs that seemed to line the meandering shoreline roads jutting off Route 161 here and there. The Okusan of the minshuku advised me to take these roads north of her minshuku after I’d checked in and put my saddlebags into my small but clean room with a great view.

But the 180 degree view from here was spectacular.

“My God little buddy, there are places where I can hardly see the opposite shoreline. Almost like driving along Lake Michigan back in Chicago. Let’s go see what the scenery’s like even farther north.”

Be-beep!

The lake grew even wider until we reached the small city of Takahama. Glancing at I my watch I was startled to learn it was four thirty already. “Hey, we’d better head back to the minshuku, little buddy, or I’m going to miss dinner!”

Beeep!

I decided to take Route 161 all the way back. I wouldn’t get the great views of Lake Biwa but thought it would be a lot faster.

It was.

But it was still five thirty by the time I got back and I had just enough time before dinner to soak in the ofuro bath that was only big enough for one person. As I soaked in the nice warm water I found my body was so kinked up from all that driving on my cub that not even the small ofuro could completely unkink it.

The motherly Okusan introduced me to the Kimuras from Osaka at dinner. They were a fairly young couple with no children it seemed. The dinner the Okusan brought us from the kitchen was rather sparse but what there was of it was really great home cooked Japanese-style food.

"John, that minshuku turned out to be a real winner."

"Great! I'll give it a try myself some time."

"But hah, you should have seen the surprised look on Kimura's face when he cracked open his egg at breakfast like I did and found it was raw! He didn't give me a chance to warn him I had specially ordered mine boiled when I checked in.”

John had scheduled me for classes the next Saturday, so I could only take the circle drive again that Sunday but the last stretch from Kameoka was lot nicer once John had showed where to turn onto Old Route 9 instead going straight on New Route 9.

The next Saturday I had no classes. So it was back to the minshuku again for another great stay and putting along Lake Biwa.

The next two weeks in a row I was scheduled for Saturday classes again and got zapped with another of those damn mountain storms on my second circle drive.

So by the third week I decided to splurge on Kokuminshukusha Yogo-ko --resevation in advance this time. Again it was worth the extra expense.

But after two more weeks of only the circle drive on Sundays my putting was getting a bit monotonous.

“John, when can I take that week off you promised me I could without pay? I want to try that trip around southern Shikoku. Only being able to putt around near Kyoto is giving me claustrophobia. And it's September already.”

John nodded and checked the schedule board. “Hmm. How does the third week of September sound?”

“Great!”

“You'd better get a schedule for the car ferry from Kobe to Tokushima first though.”

“Ha, I'm way way ahead of you! I got that one three weeks ago. And the one for the ferry back from Matsuyama. And a roadmap of Shikoku. And a specialized guidebook for Shikoku only. I've even bought a pocket camera. This time I'm going to take photos of where I've been."

Submitted: December 27, 2019

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

Like
Shelfit

Chapters

T
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

Add Your Comments:

Sign in to write a comment

Comments

B Douglas Slack

I never traveled Shikoku at all. Spent most of my time on Honshu with several trips to Hokkaido (especially during the Winter Olympics). I've heard that Shikoku is quite a garden delight. Is this true?

Bill

Sat, January 4th, 2020 8:07pm