After the long injurious walk plus getting glass in my foot the previous day, I was a bit nervous about walking again, but this is my new job for the next 3 weeks and it’s time to go to work.
Systematically getting all my stuff packed again, having done almost none of the document-the-day work that I wanted to do just because I was so exhausted, I headed out and downstairs, thinking that I might see the same guy I had talked to the previous night, but the reality was that of a love hotel in Japan: that absolutely no one talked to me and I just headed out alone into what was for me a new world.
I stepped out onto the street and could see very quickly: No sidewalk.
This was a highway not designed for people to be walking. Oh shit. Hmm
Fortunately, there was a man driving some kind of backhoe in a parking lot adjacent to the hotel so I went to speak with him.
It’s not really common to talk to strangers around Tokyo but he was quite friendly and learned about my plan to walk from Yokohama to Niigata and we even got a picture together.
He agreed that the highway was not a good place to walk and let me know that there was a park that had trails and stuff which would take me the directions I needed to go.
Compared to walking along sidewalkless highway, It was wonderful.
Heck, compared to almost anything the park was fantastic. Nice smooth sidewalks made of carefully laid bricks with gently curved corners, all of which were clean of any dirt or debris. Super smooth walking and I was really happy that I had found the courage to talk to that guy.
I could have just said “oh woe is me” and walked along that highway, destroying my feet on rocks and sticks and pine cones, plus endangering my life with highway traffic.
The sidewalk went along a lake and then crossed the lake and I made it through the park
Even in the nice park, my feet were still pretty sore from the previous night but everything ended up okay and I got through the park in an area having a sidewalk available along the highway which was great news.
The sidewalks kept getting larger and wider as I went through the day and I even saw some kids walking across a pedestrian bridge over the highway on their way home from school.
They all crowded around me asking questions, basically wondering why the hell was I walking barefoot and two of the boys got a photo with me.
Kept on keeping on and the walk got hella boring after that point and the kilometers went by like at a snail’s pace and I can remember just counting my steps trying to pass the time and entertain myself as the meters wore on.
I estimated in just 1.2 kilometer I would get to a convenience store which was very close to my hotel for the night, I tried to count the entire way focusing just on my left foot steps to halve the number of steps I needed to count.
From there it was just a few minutes walk to the hotel and oh my God those minutes took forever I could see the stand of trees and what I hoped was the sign for the hotel what looked like a mile away and step by step going across the parking lot I finally got to the next road to turn right and then along that road and cross that road and watch out for traffic and go and go then turn left at the next street and then the road started to get really rough and painful on My feet and somehow got there and got to the entrance and was so so grateful that they greeted me and realized who I must be because I had made a reservation months in advance and they were like wow and actually took a picture with me it was really sweet and I’m really grateful for their support and they gave me a free drink as I waited for the room to be ready and then headed upstairs.
date: ‘2021-04-19T20:54:54+09:00’
title: 'lovely greetings at Hotel Will Resort'
location: 'geo:35.89916,139.38705;u=1799.9990234375'
The owners greeted me as I came in struggling with my luggage.
They even opened up a non-smoking room for me at my request.
Thank you for the lovey support!
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/s77qqb/comment/ht9fc2p/?context=3
https://goo.gl/maps/aLiqeHSmfKyHZUc7A
That led me to where I saw a crane under a bridge
