Day 33: Tsuwano to Hagi: An encounter with Matsumoto, touring cyclist

November 9, 2007

This day's ride brought us to Hagi, a castle and port town on the Japan Sea. Hagi too has considerable attractions and a significant neighborhood of preserved samurai homes, once again bordered by a fish-filled canal. One of these fine homes was open to the public and was very interesting to see from the inside. Especially interesting was the relationship between the canal and the household interior, which has a cut-out section where the water enters under the house directly into the kitchen area.

The most memorable event in Hagi was our encounter with Matsumoto, the owner of the small café where we stopped for lunch. This was a remarkable and moving encounter, initiated by Matsumoto when he suspected from our late-autumn tans that we were bicyclists. In halting English, he related to us his similar journey 40 years earlier when he was 18 - a cycle ride from Tokyo to Hagi, along some of the same itinerary. He was very excited to meet us, and gave us a tour of the restaurant as well as a pair of ceramic teacups (Hagi is famous in Japan for its pottery). Later in the day we encountered him again, when he pulled his van over out of the traffic to hop out, run across the street to greet us, and introduce us to his wife at her own small café.

Hagi was also memorable for its buffet breakfast at the Grand Hotel. We were guests there along with about 150 tourists that arrived late in the day on tour busses. The following morning, having a long 60 mile ride ahead of us, we headed down early to breakfast, arriving at 7:02 - just two minutes past the opening hour. We arrived with a steady stream of other guests walking rapidly toward the restaurant, and were shocked to find the place jammed with voracious eaters, jostling and elbowing each other for their places in line. It gave us a completely different picture of the Japanese people and society than we'd seen before.

The kitchen in a samurai home, with a portal to water from the canal outside.

Scott and Rachael in front of Matsumoto's restaurant.

I had forgotten where we got this (but from Japan, obviously) util we looked at it as part of our Decluttering project. Rachael reminded me that Matsumoto gave it to us.

The Japan Sea. South Korea is just over the horizon.

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,340 miles (2,157 km)

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