Day 13 - From Odabuchi To Futagawa, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

 

Day 13 - From Odabuchi To Futagawa, Walking The Tokaido Road In Japan

This morning we ate breakfast in our hotel and then checked out. Carrying our backpacks on our backs, we walked to Nagoya station to catch the train back to Odabuchicho.

When we arrived at the gates of the train entrance, I realized that I didn’t have my IC card with me.
An IC card is like a cash card that you load up and use on trains and busses all over Japan, including at some convenience stores and vending machines.

My card was missing, and I had just loaded it up with money for the next few days.
I remembered that I took it out of my pocket last night before we left to do the laundry, and placed it on the table in front of the TV in our room.
I was sure that if our room hadn’t been cleaned yet, it would still be there.

I asked Wendy and Joseph to take the train and to start walking, and we would catch up to them later on in the day.
Jules and I walked back to the hotel to look for my card.
We arrived at the hotel and the lady at the front desk said that our room had already been cleaned, but she would let me know if she found anything,

I insisted that I wanted to look myself, and she allowed me to come up with her to search.
The card wasn’t there, but the cleaning man was across the hall from our room, and as she explained to him that I had lost my IC card, a fearful expression flashed through his face, as he lowered his eyes and nodded his head, saying that maybe it was in the trash.
He made an attempt to sort through the trash he had collected from the other rooms on our floor, but I already knew that he had taken the cash card.

He was a skinny, gaunt old man, and I immediately understood that I should let the matter go.
Compassion flooded through my heart, as I imagined that this man were my own father, aged, gaunt and penniless, needing to clean hotel rooms at an age when I get to celebrate life, dive, hike and travel the world…

Later Jules suggested that maybe we should let the hotel know that we suspected that he had taken the card, but I couldn’t agree to do that.
Maybe it did drop out of my bag or pocket after all…
But now I looked at the card not as lost, but as something that I gave to an old man who needed the money.
They earn so little doing menial jobs in Japan…

By the time we returned to the Nagoya station, we had already walked an extra four kilometres to the hotel and back.
We took the train back to Odabuchi station and started walking along the Tokaido.

We started walking about an hour and a half later than Joseph and Wendy, but we walked fast.
The measurements on the Tokaido are marked by an Ichi Ri, roughly every 4 kilometers.
Two ichi Ri markers later, we crossed the Toyokawa river and met Joseph and Wendy at a smokers cafe in Yoshida Juku.

The cafe was bustling with people and offered a good pasta set lunch at a reasonable rate.
I opened the window by my seat to make the air smell less smoky.
Only while walking pilgrimages would I ever even consider entering a smokers cafe.
Normally I would just walk by it, but there are not many choices while walking on the Tokaido, and we could not afford to waste extra time walking around town in hopes of finding something better.

After lunch, we walked by the Yoshida Castle, built by Makino Kohaku around 1496.
After a fierce battle between warlords, Matsudaira (Tokugawa) Ieyasu appointed Sakai Tadatsugu as the castle lord.
In 1590, when Ieyasu moved to Kanto, Ikeda Terumasa (Terumasa) became the lord of Yoshida Castle, expanding the castle area and developing the castle town.

At its peak, Yoshida Castle was one of the largest in the country, and since many of its successive feudal lords held important positions in the Shogunate, it was also known as the "Castle of Success."

Today all that remains are the stone walls, some of the earthworks, and the iron tower, which was reconstructed in 1954.

We continued walking, and I noticed that I wasn’t doing so well.
Maybe I felt annoyed and irritable and not in the right frame of mind.
We stopped at a convenience store to buy a rice ball, and as I was putting it into Jules’s backpack, a clerk rushed to me and asked us to move away from the area around the doorway, even though we were on the side and nobody was coming in or leaving the store.

It felt like it was such a lack of human curtesy to be so insensitive to tired walking pilgrims.
I started remembering all the times when kind people had offered us snacks, candy, drinks and even money, because they believed that pilgrims were holy people who were doing something important by walking towards enlightenment.
Now, we are berated by a silly man, who is disrespectful even to his own customers.
I felt like crying, but instead I took a deep breath and composed myself, and we continued walking.

Walking all day gives you great insights into the world and into people’s lives.
Sometimes, it leaves you with questions…
We passed by a very modest house, and I counted 6 surveillance cameras covering the tiny entrance.
Why were they so paranoid?
Were they afraid of being robbed?
Did they produce drugs inside, or do other illegal activities?
Did they hide lots of cash in the house, or expensive jewellery or a precious antique?
Is it the house of a woman who lived alone and was afraid of being raped?
Or maybe she had a jealous or violent ex husband or boyfriend?
Or a young child she was afraid of being abducted?
All sorts of scenarios crossed my mind in the nanosecond that we walked by that house.

Finally we got to the post town of Futagawa.
We will explore the old town tomorrow.
Tonight, we will go to our hot springs hotel, located on the shores of Lake Hamana.

We were happy to get a lake view room and to soak in the Onsen.
I allowed the funky feelings I carried all day to be dissolved by the hot waters.

With love,
Tali

Today’s Stats:
steps - 28,537
km walked - 19 km
Total walked: 265 km
Old Post Towns Visited:
Goyu-Juku Station #35
Yoshida-Juku Station #34
Futagawa Juku Station #33