Mother Nature threw everything she had at us today
When we arrived last night at the Yuasa Castle Onsen Hotel we looked like two drowned rats. We arrived in the dark, with everything, including us, looking worse for the wear…very wet and dishevelled. Nonetheless, the young woman at reception was unfazed by the mess of it all and treated us like special guests. After checking in and parking our trikes undercover …arigato domo!, we promptly headed to the Onsen. As usual, the magic of spending time in the hot spring pools at an Onsen made us feel a lot better. Somehow the challenges and fears of the day, riding through a formidable thunderstorm and lightning storm with vicious winds and heavy traffic disappeared like magic.
Yuasa Castle Onsen Hotel has been around a long time. Its decor is dated and is looking a bit worse for the wear. Nonetheless, we really enjoyed our stay here and found it to be charming and full of character.
A full Japanese breakfast was included with our room. It was delicious except for a couple of challenging food items that our North American palates anre unaccustomed to.
These cute little fish are called Japanese Whitebait. They are the larvae of Japanese anchovies. Mary Ellen finds them an acquired taste and would prefer to avoid them. She finds the wee eyes of the fish looking up at her a bit off putting, but Barry enjoys them.
Now natto (fermented soybeans) is a real challenge for most foreigners. Its sticky, stringy texture and pungent taste are hard to get used to but it does have many health benefits.
His face tells the story. Nonetheless, Japanese people love Natto. There is nothing like watching a Japanese person vigorously stir up the Natto and then eat it with gusto. We’ll leave it to them.
We have just learned that Natto is not recommended for people on blood thinners (that’s Barry) and it messes with thyroid issues (Mary Ellen), so I guess we are off the hook. I say, yeah….no more Natto for us. We’ll leave it for those who love it.
It would be frowned upon and very wrong to take photos of a Onsen that is open for business. The Onsen was closed so Barry was able to take some photos of the men’s Onsen. As you enter the pools without any clothing, this is where you leave your belongings.
Before entering the pools, the etiquette requires that you bathe thoroughly. These are the cubicles where you bathe. The round black bath in the foreground contains very cold water. It sits just outside the sauna. The idea is that when you leave the sauna you sit in it to cool down.
Mary Ellen doesn’t usually hop into a deep tub of super cold water. However, while in the sauna, she and a local woman chatted as you do when each speaks a different language. When leaving the sauna, Mary Ellen was scooping cold water with the container to cool down, but her sauna buddy with many gestures, encouraged ME that she must get in and submerge herself. Yikes, it is a shock to the system but it worked.
There is nothing like an Onsen with natural hot springs to restore a sense of well being and help to relieve aches and pains. We see all ages there from very young children with a parent to the very elderly.
Cats are such a popular animal in Japan and their likeness is everywhere. This cat looks pretty impressive holding up a pen that dwarfs it. The wee cat is saying…”I can do hard things!”
This young woman is a ray of sunshine and has a sweet and welcoming manner. We enjoyed chatting with her. We see such a high work ethic and expectation of workers in Japan. She worked until the evening and was back at it at 7:30 the next morning.
When we went for breakfast, the young woman at reception had a sign typed with our name and room number at our table. As well, she had printed a sign and had our shoes waiting for us when we left.
Tanuki is is a wild species native to Japan that is related to wolves, foxes and domestic dogs. Tanuki has served as a cultural icon in Japanese folklore for centuries.Tanuki is known as a mischievous trickster That shown up in mythology as a Shapeshifter with supernatural powers. The Tanuki that sits outside homes and businesses is often depicted with massive testicles.
We had read that soy sauce was invented in Yuasa. There is a small museum that is free and dedicated to sharing this history. It was delightful and made us respect the back breaking work that went into its production..
The museum is housed in one of the original buildings where it was made. It is filled with artifacts, all made by hand of course, which were needed in the production of soy sauce.
After exploring the museum we rode around this historic centre of Yuasa. It makes you feel that you are stepping back in time as the road is very narrow with traditional old wooden buildings. This shop sold produce .
It has been a challenging ride since leaving Yuasa. The winds are quite fierce and the hills are the biggest challenge we have faced so far. To add to our discomfort, our batteries don’t have a full charge and the hills have depleted much of our range. Oh dear, we’ll have to ride “old school”.
Good to see the sign for our route. We will be following this for much of our ride to Tokyo.
We can see the Pacific Coast and it is beautiful. The problem is the weather has turned nasty. The winds are making it hard to ride as it is quite changeable with headwinds, sidewinds which almost flip us and swirling winds. As well as being hard to control the trike, small pebbles hit us in the face as we attempt to go downhill.
Going inland was good advice. Yes, there was lots of traffic but we were able to ride, somewhat slowly with little or no battery assist. The monster hills which we had ridden for the first part of the day had depleted our range. Barry had read that in this prefecture, we could take a local train with our trikes. Unlike other trains in Japan, the bike could just roll on…no need for disassembling the bike or putting it in a bag. we decided to do this and will try to take a train to today’s destination, Minabe. We hope that they will approve our trikes which don’t have the small footprint of a regular bike.
We reached the train station at 4 pm and there was not a problem accommodating our trikes. The challenge was the train is leaving soon and we had to take an elevator to get to a different track. We raced to the elevator but they were small. Barry had to take one trike at a time and stand the trike up on one wheel to get it in. Meanwhile, several of the staff were running alongside, taking our bags and racing up and down the stairs to our platform. As I was helping Barry I noticed my trike had disappeared. Two of the workers had picked up my trike and were carrying it down the stairs for us. Wow!r
We were so relieved to get on with all of our belongings. As we left, the ground crew were laughing and waving to us as we departed. What an experience….the kindness of strangers reinforces one’s faith in humanity.
However, the day of complications is not finished with us. The entrance to the hotel has stairs cut on an angle. As Mary Ellen came out to deal with her trike, her cycling shoe caught on something and she plunged headfirst down the steps. Luckily she didn’t land on her knees but her leg and hand took the brunt of it. Thank goodness we were wearing slacks as it helped. But the pain was incredible. The final event of the fall was that her head hit the ground hard as her position was downhill. Thank goodness she was still wearing her helmet as her head bounced hard a few times but it was protected by the helmet. It was scary. Barry meanwhile returned from taking one of our trikes to the garage and he found her stretched along the steps unable to get up. Poor him as it is a sight none of us want to see. Mary Ellen will be sore for a while but we dodged a bullet on this one.
Bill ShaneyfeltCringed with that one. Hope you recover quickly. Guessing that bruised leg will be a pain for a while.
One more shout out for bike helmets! Be sure to replace it, even if it looks ok. There may be undetectable cracks that would reduce its protection. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
Scott AndersonIt’s remarkable that you made it there at all but that fall is so scary! Hopefully you’ll wake up tomorrow and everything will be well. Good luck. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesLucky ME was still wearing her helmet. We absolutely concur with Bill's advice to replace the helmet asap. Once they take a hit they are done, and should be ditched for a new one. Reply to this comment 1 week ago
Rich FrasierOuch - that one looks like it hurt! You might need to take it easy for a few days. Sometimes the next morning is the worst. Hope you heal quickly!! Reply to this comment 1 week ago
