Day 10: Hosokute to Kyoto

Day 10: Hosokute to Kyoto

QOTD:  7 miles before lunch? 65 miles in a week? No problema….

Hiking Haiku:

Raven’s call, breeze skims

Across the trail top, a

Japan melody.

Weather: high 60s, feels warmer on the blacktop and no breeze

Pics:  Breakfast, French pastries on the Nakasendo, after 7 days with DB Fusao no longer needs tech support

Fusao provides a mini bio: Fusao Ariga, Japan Travelogue, Finnish Japanese; lived in Tokyo and Kyoto for 17 years;  now lives in London with wife and two kids; loves daifuku mochi filled with azuki bean paste and photography; guiding in Japan for 12 years. 

THB’s version of Fusao (as always, THB’s version is semi-fiction): Dad in the Japanese foreign service and met Fusao’s mom on blind date on assignment to Finland, fluent in Japanese and Finnish (THB cannot vouch for this) and British,  in his early 40s, wife grew up in Birmingham and works for the BBC, boys are 5 and 3 (so he has no idea what is really coming, none), reserved and informative (great combo) and polite, loves chatting up the innkeepers and restaurant folks (which seemed to get us preferential treatment), takes photos with camera and i-phone (allowing THB to get in his high-quality shots unobtrusively), always prompt, hardly ever took a wrong turn, encouraged us to make up our own rules (e.g., cab to the top of the mountain, start early, etc.), enjoys good cheat eats (as does THB, especially on the road), and most importantly got us to the end all in one piece with smiles on our faces. Highly recommended

Up and at ‘em by 8:30 so we can be first in line at La Province when they open at 10am. We’re actually a few minutes early, order two mini-muffins (THB is not quite sure about what they resemble: stiff sponge cake?) and a mini cheese cake tart for DB, and a chestnut mousse on a cookie for THB (both excellent), two café au laits,  $19. THB’s camera goes haywire for a few hours, so no close-ups of our elevensees.

We’re on the road again by 10:30, and at the end of the hike right around noon, in time for Fusao to get us 3 orders of stir fry noodles with egg on top and bits of pork and veggies mixed in, all for $5 a plate (camera not tried, too bad because meal very photogenic).

Three trains later, we’re in Kyoto at 3, say goodbye to Fusao, take a short cab ride to the Hyatt Regency ($7.30), and greet all three of our bags. Park Hotel has got the big back here from Tokyo and the Route Inn Hotel the two little bags from Ena. Everything is working smoothly!

Time to wash up, empty all the bags, rearrange everything, and sit down for a drink in the lobby to await E&J, who stroll in at 5:30 with their own stories of their first two days in Kyoto. Drinks for 4, $46. Dinner in the Japanese restaurant in the Hyatt: small portions (sashimi for DB, grilled chicken for THB, a shared small mushroom and eggplant salad seemingly minus the eggplant), free glasses of wine when they take 30 minutes to tell us the wine we ordered is not available, $55/couple, and off to bed.