Date

2022-11-14, Monday

Distance

84.01 km (2005.51 km in total)

This morning we dropped by an interesting town called Towada on our way to the next destination. Formerly a ‘horse’s town’ (駒の里), this place displays a lot of things related to horses in the public, including dutch cover, sculpture, etc. The main attraction in Towada for both of us is without a doubt the museum of modern arts, which we were unable to visit (we were there too early) but which offers a fair amount of outdoor installations such as Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生)’s artworks filled with her iconic polka dots to view.

We also took the opportunity to purchase at a very affordable price from a local orchardist some apples for which Aomori is famous — there is a saying that everything in Japan is small, except apples. I am not exaggerating in pointing out that Aomori people are really proud and fond of their physically magnificent apples. Apple shape is used everywhere the general public goes. Signs, fences, roadside attraction, advertisements, to name but a few.

A lady who spoke little English stopped us by the side of the road while we were heading to Numakunai to meet our very first Warmshowers host via National Road 4. We were expecting a brief conversation about our journey, yet this encounter would later became long and bizarre. She asked us the purpose of our biking across Japan — a question I actually like to think about — then told us to read a Buddhist classic if we should feel anxious on the road. At that point, I thought she was akin to those good-faith Christians who had helped me biking across Canada, I gave her my social media account without any thought of caution — this, in the following days, proved to be a rather problematic course of action …

After the dark, while biking in a desolate area that offered nothing but trees, my friend had a puncture on her rear wheel. 2 policemen came to make sure that we could handle the situation and one gentleman stopped briefly to offer help even though he had no suitable tools. Changing tube was not a difficult task, however, when my friend was adjusting the gear back (by pedalling), the derailleur accidentally got entangled into the spoke and bent out of shape. As this problem was not solvable by ourselves and there was no bike shop nearby, we had no choice but to call our host William for help.

Originally, I was thinking that William could call someone who offers pick up service with a truck, but he went above and beyond my expectation to get us out of this misery. First he drove (a sedan) some 20-30 minutes to bring us to the nearest station to take the train to his town (the local railway is called いわて銀河鉄道 (lit. 'Iwate Galaxy Express') with a clear literary reference to Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢賢治)’s children classic Night on the Galactic Railroad). Second, he went back to the meet-up location to bring our two bikes home. Third, he came to Numakunai train station to give us a lift to his small but cozy home. After a long day at work, he was more than willing to spend so much time on two strangers whom he had never met — this really surprised us, especially my friend who had never experienced Warmshowers hospitality.

Needless to say, we were warmly welcomed by William and Pauline at their dwelling, which was built in the traditional Japanese style. The living room, which doubles as a guest room, is tiled with tatami on the floor and equipped with a kotatsu, Japanese-styled table with a heater and a blanket. At the bed time, the kotatsu would be moved to the side, and the space being used for putting the futon mattress on which we would sleep. The toilet and the bathroom are separate; the latter is a waterproofed room with a shower area outside of the bathtub and on the same level as the floor. This type of bathroom gets totally wet after a shower so a dry space, separated by a door, is needed to keep cloth and towel dry. In William and Pauline’s case, this dry room also serves as the laundromat. We are pleasantly amazed by Japanese people’s effective usage of the physical space, however small it is.

William is a British citizen of Hong Kong descent who came to Japan to teach English about 10 years ago before starting to learn Japanese. He got into the habit of bicycle touring while working. Although he had no time to conduct month-long bike tour, he has made, mainly in the summer, short trips to Taiwan and many parts of Japan. Pauline, on the other hand, has had no touring experience so far but would love to try it one day. The dinner time was filled with laughters and chatters about our touring stories and the amazing hospitality we had experienced.

Today is a day full of all sorts of surprises. Tomorrow we will walk to the nearest bike shop to get my friend’s bike fixed. We are grateful that the world has not turned against us even though chance has.