This was the morning after the splinter. I woke up and my foot was still in agony as soon as I touched it to the carpeted floor below my bed.

Fuck this. I’m going to quit, I told Shraddhan on our morning call.

“The train station is right there,” I said, looking out the window. “I recognize those cars. Those are Tokaido Line cars.” They go directly to Tokyo Station. “I can be home in about an hour.” (*)

“Well, are you sure that’s what you want to do?” Shraddhan asked. “How will you feel when we talk tomorrow morning?”

Silence.

Silence.

“No, that’s not what I want to do. I want to keep going. Fuckit. I’ll just wear my sandals and it will be fine.”

And that’s what I did.

Once I got walking, the agonizing pain stopped. The splinter removal didn’t bother me the rest of the trip.

Now that it’s 9 months later, I don’t recall much else about this day. Google maps says I walked 23.1km in 6 hours 42 minutes. Saitama Grand Hotel Honjo to Hotel Ruka, which I often read as Hotel Ruruka.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LMY75HbGsLHrADtt5

Photos show long straight stretches along highways and a river.

(*) It was 本所駅 I could see from Saitama Grand Hotel.
Apparently would have taken 2.5 hours to get home via train from otherwise but I was otherwise correct about the train line.

date: ‘2021-04-23T10:40:01+09:00’

title: 'walking along Tone River'
location: 'geo:36.27622,139.18082;u=31.381000518798828'

Walking along the river and found this nice sign..

I like noticing how some of the lines on the solar panels line up all the way across their field

Mountains coming soon

2021 apr 23 13:29:21

Interesting to see how this highway just cuts through all these smaller roads that were lined up in a grid.

I imagine there was a lot of discussion and consternation when this highway was planned to come through.

2021 apr 23 13:52:21

date: ‘2021-04-23T20:09:32+09:00’

title: 'Summary of Day Eight'

date: ‘2021-04-24T04:26:46+09:00’

title: 'day 8 finished'
location: 'geo:36.38188,139.09379;u=10.875'

I made it to my hotel last night just after dark, turned off all the lights, took a bath in complete darkness and fell asleep in the bath, woke up when the water started getting cold, put ointment on my feet and jumped directly into bed.

Summary of Day Eight

Summary of Day Eight WAS: