Friday, 15th May - Man and Nature

This morning, disaster struck at 7.15am - my electronic toothbrush finally ran out of battery. Oh nooo! What should I do? I tried charging it in different places but the charge indicator just flashes funnily and the thing doesn’t work. Worst case scenario has finally arrived. I am unwilling to start my day knowing that from now on I have to brush manually. Something I haven’t done for many years...What to do, what to do...

Well, well I got over this expected, yet dramatic situation quickly and got ready to find Tatsuoka Castle, only one of two built in the star-shape, inspired by European fortresses. Fortunately the castle was really just around the corner and I cycled there within ten minutes. The only things left of the castle are its moat and some ruins depicting where the kitchen was. I walked around it and the structure (pentagram) was still very visible as the outer walls remained. Very impressive and I could just imagine when the army of Samurai would plan out their invasion of the castle. It would come different as the local kind of got tired of their castle after some time and decided to burn it down. At its height the warlord controlled over 60,000 Goku (bushels of rice, 'Goku' is a unit of measuring rice; one Goku can feed a man for a year). There was a small tourist building with two guides and I met a Japanese couple there who spoke very good English, so they translated some of the info from the guides. We also talked about growing vegetables and the local's fight with monkeys, deer and raccoons that come and steel the vegetables in the night. After the castle I went to a really old Buddhist Shrine near Tetsuoka which had a treasure house pagoda from the 8th century (picture left). This temple was build along a steep mountain so I decided to climb up to see the other smaller nature shrines hidden in the forest and nearby streams. There seem to be Gods 'Kami' everywhere. I sat down for a while on a rock and enjoyed the sweet forest air and the sun.

Back at tent I decided to go to Saku, the next biggest city a couple of miles away. The 24h internet shop was closed... But I went again in the evening to check mail and write my diary entries. On my way back to the tent I stopped at very expensive Matsumo supaa to get Miso paste (a Japanese soup stock), grapefruit, pepper, and an extra bag for my rubbish. This was a very uncomfortable situation which I discovered back near the tent as I put my rubbish (one bag) where the locals put all theirs but upon my return my bag was emptied out into the street and the contents scattered. I felt kind of bad but there are no public bins ANYWHERE in the cities and only some recycling containers for bottles, cans and plastic. Upon my return to the tent I would pick up my rubbish from the street - and separate it into plastic and organic. Those things I left next day near a trainstation where there were some drinks automats. In the evening I would practice again with my Bamboo Bo (from Shimonita by the river), make some campfire and go to bed. Next day was a big day crossing over to Matsumoto, some 50 miles away.