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  • Day 665

    Off the beaten path...or the entire path

    July 7, 2019 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Welp, I managed to accomplish my goal of getting away from the crowds....a little too good. When we were planning this trip, I wasn't keen on being sequestered in stifling cities at the peak of summer. So, I looked for places that were supposedly quieter (a la Kanazawa, the sleepy town of 400k...lolol) and a little more rural. And by god, did I get it. Oops.

    Today was spent traveling from Kanazawa to the Iya Valley. It was supposed to be a few train rides and then a car rental at the train station. The Iya Valley was touted on the internet as an incredible, majestic, serene, off-the-beaten path destination. It was the destination of choice for fleeing, defeated lords across the centuries as a place to hide out after their exile so they wouldn't be killed by the new reigning leaders. That's how remote this place used to be. However, the internet assured me it was so totally worth it and renting a car was no big deal right there at the Awa-Ikeda train station.

    I even did my research and learned that to rent a car or drive in Japan, you need an International Driver's License. You cannot get one of these in Japan. You must obtain one in your home country before departing. I had Jonathan fill the form, take his passport-sized photos, and get all officially licensed up before we left. (Igloolik does not offer these services, so I was not able to get my IDP).

    The internet assured me that even though the roads were single car width through the mountains, a foreigner not used to driving on that side of the road would be fine. So, I told Jonathan he'd be fine driving in unfamiliar mountain roads on the left. He appreciated that I volunteered him for this. :)

    I had even booked a full service hotel replete with dinner service because the internet explained that food services were hard to come by in this isolated corner of Japan.

    We were totally prepared. We had this nailed. Imagine my surprise when we flounce off the train at our car-rental-designated train station and discovered from the tourism lady, in broken English, that there were NO rental cars at all there. Not even a company that was closed. No. Nothing. She didn't even know what I was talking about with car rentals--we were those crazy tourists with completely wrong information. I was flabbergasted. The Interwebs had failed me! Thus far, Japan had been a demonstration of silky smooth efficiency. I was not prepared for any wrenches in my plans. This wasn't like traveling in Africa where every plan needed 6 alternative plans cause no plan is a real plan.

    The lady could see we were pretty much at a loss as to what to do. She took pity on us and called the nearest car rental agency, which was 40 min by train back the way we had just come. It was a moot point anyhow because they didn't have any cars either.

    There should have been some signs along the way that we were leaving the well traveled path....the decreasing tourists at each station. The dwindling occupancy in our train car. We didn't bother to notice them.

    We gathered ourselves and began figuring our what we were gonna do. The tourism lady told us that there were buses to near our hotel. She told us to get back on the train and continue riding it down to where the buses would pick us up. We needed to hurry because there was only one bus left and we would need to be on the next train to get it. Otherwise, we'd be stranded right where we were. Super.

    We got our tickets, hustled on the train and arrived at the train station where the buses passed. It was a one-room train station. We had to cross the train tracks, in fact, to get to the station. This was a far cry from the multi-level, multi-city block train stations around Tokyo.

    We consulted with the androgynous attendant and she/he somehow conveyed that the bus would come. My trust now broken, I went out and read and reread the bus timetable sign about 7 times to convince myself that we were not, in fact, now stranded in an even smaller town with no transportation or places to stay.

    However, Japanese dedication to timeliness and consistency showed once again when the completely empty bus pulled up and Jonathan and I got on as the only riders. We looked at each other and nodded. Mission accomplished. We have, apparently, left all civilization whatsoever in this densely forested steep valley.

    Our ride was incredible and breathtaking. The roads I read about online were, indeed, only one lane despite there being 2-way traffic. Smaller vehicles would have to back down and away from our lumbering, careening bus. After about 40 minutes of riding on the snaking roads (I mean, if you're bored, check out Google maps for the roads--switchback central over here), we arrived at the bus stop.

    We were the only folks there besides a few vendors selling ice cream and meat to invisible patrons. We got an ice cream to fortify us for our next leg of the journey. What was supposed to be a relaxing day of train and then private car travel was turning into a 12 hr marathon of trains, buses, and now, our feet. We humped our backpacks and started walking to where we were shown, on a map, our hotel should be. The problem with most maps, is that they are not topographical. With topography, at least you can mentally prepare for what lies ahead. But not with regular, run of the mill, maps. Nope, your route to your hotel looks like a jaunty little caper down the road when in fact, it's a slog up a 20% grade in 90% humidity.

    The best blessing came when we made it to our hotel, an authentic Japanese ryokan, and were shown to our room and I saw a gleaming, fierce air conditioner mounted right above the sleeping area. Yes Maam!!

    We finished our day by rinsing the sweat and travel off of us just in time to make it downstairs for dinner, wearing our authentic Japanese grass sandals. Dinner was a culinary field trip consisting of about a dozen courses. I honestly lost count. All I know is there were about 29 little dishes that had to be carted away. Jonathan and I were so hungry that the full fish with head and eyeballs included did nothing to sway our eager stabbing with the chopsticks to get at its flesh. Have you ever tried eating a whole fried fish with chopsticks?
    So many different, interesting flavors. I may have dropped the ball on the rental car and backup plan, but I nailed it by making sure we had dinner when we arrived! Whew!

    Now, on to the exploration of this Iya Valley with no car.
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