Date

2022-10-28, Friday

Distance

75.85 km (1011.37 km in total)

Japan is full of surprises. At about 1 am, my friend woke me up, saying that a certain ‘small animal’ stole our breakfast kept in the vestibule. When I went out to examine the situation, a relatively fat fox stayed there, gazing at me, pretending innocence, acting cute, and rolling around like he owned the plaec. Absolutely shamless and unafraid of humans, this creature even tried to attack the remaining food while I was collecting garbages left on the ground. He only ran away when my friend also came out of the tent. The fox ate up most of our breakfast and even drank the entire cup (500 ml) of milk! The only survivor of the fox attack is the relatively heavyweight youkan (羊羹) that he was unable or had no time to carry.

We lost all of the locally made Japanese confectioneries, including an ooshima manju (大島饅頭) about which neither of us knew anything. The moral of this story is that, next time you see something which you are so madly curious to try, don’t wait, eat it right away. Or else a clever fox will come to get it.

At the sunrise I went for a photo shoot and ran into a man walking with his dog named Leo. He is quite talkative a fellow and told me a lot of things related to this place, although I could only grasp a fraction of what he said. He lives in another town and comes here every day with Leo on his way to work in the fishery industry, which roused my curiosity but sadly I was unable to keep the conversation going. Then Leo’s friend Allen, a husky, appeared with his human who also takes a walk around here everyday even when it snows. I got the permission to photograph both of them.

During today’s ride, I finally got the chance to photograph some fishing related equipments left on the shore. I wonder how these objects are being used.

We constantly saw rainbow flags that marked with ‘Marine Bank’ on the side of the road. It seems to be the symbol of a local financial institution, not something I am accustomed to in the West.

We also ran into a wandering cat begging for food, as we approached our destination today. He seemed so hungry that he ate up whatever we gave him. I wonder how such a creature that was born in this remote part of the country would survive the winter.

By the time we reached the next roadside station, it was already closed. Since there was nothing further down the road, we stayed here, close to the washroom, and found a spot next to Lake Furen to set up our tent. Personally, I really like the liberty, afforded by travelling slowly with a tent, to go everywhere and stop anytime I feel like. However, my friend is unhappy because she likes to take showers.

The full take — 33 more photographs from this day