I managed to sleep in until about 6:30am this morning, but alas my cold hadn’t magically healed itself. The frogs were chirping away though and I couldn’t actually hear the rain, although it was very much raining. The forecast now looked worse, with consistent rain all day and now a strong wind warning on top of that. At least if I could get to the next stop though there would be a drug store I could get some cold medicine at.

I had some breakfast, wrote some blog and tried not to think about riding in the rain. Miwa had explained the road wasn’t the best last night, but she’d kindly said I was welcome to sit in the lounge until midday if that helped.

I got ready reluctantly and checked out – reassuring her I had lights, wet weather gear, and if worst came to worse after visiting the temple nearby I’d pack my bike up and take the train. Then she offered to drive me, saying it was only 20 minutes away and she thought my bike would fit in her car. I didn’t see this coming at all, and although my gut instinct was very much not to trouble someone, I knew I should accept this amazingly kind offer for my health. I said I’d go to the temple since I had to do that anyway, and come back and gratefully accept if it really was bad.

Unsurprisingly, the rain was miserable! Miwa was right, it was chilly and not going to make me any better. The coloured banners at the twentieth temple Byōdōji 平等寺 looked cool and I was sad I couldn’t see it on a dry day. My guidebook said the water here proved to be effective in curing sickness, leg injuries and is also believed to bring good fortune. Fingers crossed!

I rode back to the green house and said a ride would be wonderful please. I offered to pay her, to do some cleaning, but she wouldn’t accept anything. I realised the best thing I could offer was company and conversation, so we had tea and then some lunch and chatted away for an hour and a half. We talked about the decreasing population of the local area, public transport and Iwate replacing train lines with buses that run on top of where the lines used to be after the tsunami, famous foods of the areas I was headed to like katsuo bushi tataki and sweet potato, different types of citrus and.growing yuzu, sky diving, wanting to fly, wanting a Doraemon dokodemo doa (anywhere door) or take-copta (personal helicopter attachment), compared tax rates, our jobs, her parents, bridges, language learning, the different nationalities of her visitors and DIY. I learnt the word for harvesting fruit and rice, and a lot more detail about the famous Tokushima festival Awa Odori as we watched some videos. The women wear traditional geta sandals, but actually dance on the tip toes of them, causing awful blisters when they start training. Perhaps cycling isn’t so bad after all! It was a lovely and relaxing conversation, and nice to talk about more than how I learnt Japanese and my trip plans. We headed off in the early afternoon.

Miraculously my bike just slotted neatly between the seats and I didn’t even have to take the front wheel off. It was a quick trip on the expressway through some tunnels, free because it’s not yet connected up and probably won’t be in our lifetimes apparently! I was glad not to be riding as the rain lashed down and the electronic signs warned of high winds with graphic icons of vehicles tipping over.

We left my things at tonight’s accommodation and said goodbye. The drug store was a ten minute walk away, and it was easy to choose some cold medicine:

Sadly the cafe nearby which served red bean paste and butter on toast wasn’t open, so after taking refuge in the library to Google open cafes in this very small town I finally found one to kill time in.

Mamebon Cafe had a fantastic “ladies lunch set” which included a salad, little bits of toast, a yuzu mushroom spaghetti dish, a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake all for 1350 yen or about NZ$15! It was delicious and really hit the spot. Dripping on the floor seemed ok as the only other customers were four other soggy pilgrims. Two were young Danish girls but they are having some challenges and telling two guys loudly about how everything was so difficult here with food and planning and booking etc. It reminded me a lot of listening to recently arrived European students when I worked at a high school. Hopefully Japan will grow on these two and their journey will be a good experience in the end.

On check in I then met a warm and gentle German man who’d finished his walk around all the temples, done some woofing on other parts of Japan, and then decided to come back to help Emi the owner as a volunteer for a few weeks. He really liked Hiwasa, and told me the onsen nearby was small but nice. On a cold day this sounded perfect, especially as I hadn’t had time to go on my trip so far. It wasn’t busy, and soaking in the hot bath was good for my muscles and sinuses. Walking back I noticed how stormy the clouds looked.

We had a curry meal together and I enjoyed talking to an older couple from Malaysia, and Dan a young careworker from Kanagawa in Japan. A couple of video calls back home gave me a boost, and hopefully the medicine would start to take effect soon – I have quite a distance to go tomorrow. I went to sleep in my futon listening to the wind whistle outside and the glass panes in the ancient house rattle away, while my neighbour snored through the paper panels.