6th Nov – Unomachi, Shikoku – Trial Pilgrimage!

Could not sleep well the whole night. Woke up once at 2am and 5am, probably worrying I would overslept. At 5am, I was already eager to wake up. By 6am, it was still an hour and half before my alarm would ring, but decided to wake up since my eyes were already very wide opened.

Had a nice shower and was trying to put my contact lense, but the right one didn't feel comfortable, so I took it off and "oops", it felt on the shower floor. Couldn't locate the needle from the deep sea, I had to give up and used a new one.

Had a heavy breakfast. A milk, banana, 2 bun of raisin bread and a coffee. After a dosage of yogurt and milk as suggested by Nick, my constipation problem was slightly better off this morning. Should had stuffed in more yogurt last night.

Continued to upload more photos on my blog. It was about time to leave and I tried to catch up the time and uploaded 6 more pictures only to find out it failed later!! Perhaps that was the sign to leave already. Said goodbye to my beloved guest house with deep feeling.

Still I managed to catch the 830am bus and was an hour early at the ferry terminal. It wasn't crowded at all. Amazingly, I managed to fill up the Japanese form!! All thanks to my little ability to read some Chinese characters. Only could not confirm the Kanji 才for "age" which I guessed correctly after asking a fellow passenger. Got my 3020yen ticket and waited patiently.

Soon it was time and we boarded like going up the famous Titanic!! There were 3 decks and there wasn't any seat for 2nd class area but actually a large matted floor for passengers to lie down and rest! I looked around the different levels and took pictures. Then, read my lonely planet and rest till 1130 to get some coffee and had my yummy raisin bread!!

On the ferry, I was on my iTune and suddenly I thought. We have earphone already. Why don't we have a mouthphone too!! So that you can sing it out and won't disturb the others. (for your info, all rights are reserved and I'm patenting this creation, sorry!!)

I read and noticed this suna-bashiri (sand run) at Mt Fuji where rocks were like sand and the mountain like big dune!! I missed that on my 1st hike!! I couldn't help but immediately thought of doing it again in July or August!!!

3 hours were quick. After snack, the announcement made that we had arrived at Shikoku. A long walk to the train station. Taking the bus would cost 160yen, the same from Beppu station to the ferry terminal. That was how long the walk was. The next train was still 45minutes to go. I could pay an extra 310yen for the express which come 20min earlier. But why the waste?! That was just exactly enough for me to have an udon soup just next door! =]

It was really true that you can find power sockets almost anywhere outside. I saw one at the wooden staircase that connects the train platforms! I had seen those on the ceiling next to vending machines as well.

Saw a basin with a mirror at the platform. Think it was for those rushing to work, to brush their teeth and comb set hair! Reached Unomachi exactly at 2pm. I had 3 hours to find my accommodation before it started to get dark. Walked and walked but saw nothing close to any kind of place to stay! Called the Temple 43 but there don’t provide accommodation, although the guide said otherwise. So, I thought I probably had to resort to one of the place I called at Ogata which cost 4300yen to check out if meals were provided. Just when I wanted to find a public phone, there were none to be seen. Finally, found one at a department store, and the chances of it not working was the negative of “almost”, but yet I hit it. Walked further and found a working one in the end!! Unfortunately, the place I called had no more rooms available for the day! The guy on the phone was very nice and still hold on to the line, even thought I had a very long pause, thinking what should I do. I almost forgotten I was on the line too. So, I called the 5300yen hotel and they agreed to cut down to 5000yen. However, I had set a rule myself for this pilgrimage that I would avoid paying anything more than 3000yen for a night of accommodation. As a result, my mind already wandered off to the thought of sleeping out. So, I tried to walk to Temple 43 first to check out the stuffs I need to buy and see if I could get any help there. Already had a taste of the actual pilgrimage before it started. But, overall, the walk wasn’t that bad. I managed to free both of my hands by having my waist pouch on my waist and my jacket covering the top of my backpack. I was like Buzz Lightyear, carrying a spaceship-like wings behind me.

Just outside the temple, I managed to get the name slips and the stamp books. I had to get separate books for the actual 88 temples and the 20 unnumbered temples, called “bangai”, in which some may also covered these in their pilgrimage to make the holy number of 108. I got the smaller “bangai” stamp book, although the bigger was nicer with descriptions of each “bangai”. But it was too big to fit into my waist pouch. I spent a long time with the owner on the stamp books. I was trying to get one which included both. He was very patience trying to explain in English using his phone which converts anything that you said in Japanese, and vice versa. After that, I realized there was a city office, which actually help tourist on information. Too bad, I was already at the temple. It was 4pm and the city office closed at 5. The walk to the city office would be half an hour. I decided to try and ask the owner first if there was any cheap accommodation around. The lady boss suggested one which was also in my guide. I called but they were charging 5000yen too. Then, I turned back and thought of checking out the temple. The owner saw me again and suggested to camp near the toilet at the temple. I asked the temple in charge, but he said it was not allowed. After I came out, the shop owner even went upstair with me again to talk to the temple in charge. But, it was still not allowed. However, he suggested a place, at a park, behind the train station. I bowed and thanked both of them very much.

When I reached there, I spotted the perfect location. There was a toilet with water. When I found out that there was even toilet paper, the feeling was like hitting the lottery! One problem was solved. But, I didn’t use it in the end. So it was like hitting the lottery but did not buy! I thought of walking to the nearby vending machine to rest a while and then get my dinner before I set up my tent. Met a couple there who suggested I could get cheap food opposite at the department store. They had been to Malaysia and Singapore before. The husband also walked the pilgrimage previously and he said I could leave my backpack behind a hide-out area to get my dinner. They wished me all the best on my trail and left. I did a daredevil again and left all my “properties” there to go to the department store. It was also getting dark and I was racing against time to get my bread for breakfast, yogurt, milk and my dinner. I was pretty excited actually at the thought of setting up my tent for the first time! I was just hoping the weather will not be too cruel to me.

When I came back, everything was still in tact. Time to set up the tent. I looked around and saw a corner which was less obvious to passerby. But it was next to the swing. I hesitated a moment. I thought those things usually were there. I couldn’t be bothered much. It was 5:30pm already and almost dark. I quickly tried to get my headlight, and what a time to run out of battery. So, I clumsily ransacked out almost all my stuffs from the backpack in order to retrieve the extra batteries. After a tedious and gawky 45minutes, I was so proud to set up my very first tent in my life, thought there many room for improvement!!

Next was meal time. I walked over to the bench at the opposite of the road, where there was street light. So there I was. Sitting on the side of the road, seeing cars passing by, having my dinner, no, 370yen of cold rice, a skewer of cold chicken and cold fish. Yet, everything was still very tasty!! It was amazing how cold weather could do to your appetite!! The people in the cars could be thinking I must be crazy! Yes!! This was all about it!! Being crazy!! And I think I made it today!! Tonight was definitely one of the craziest things I’d done in my life!!

After my splendid dinner, I went to my “study room”. The bench next to the vending machine, with a power plug, to write all my thoughts before I forget! And also to charge my phone. Then, I read up on the proper etiquette at the temple and prepared my name slips (osame-fuda) to be placed at the Main and Daishi Halls at the temples. The moment I couldn’t get a cheap accommodation, I thought it would only be wise to bring forward my pilgrimage and start tomorrow!!! Yes, tomorrow was it!!

It got colder already and bought a hot oo-loong tea from the machine to heat up myself a bit. The next task was tough! Cleaning up using cold water!! I thought for a long while and decide it would be better to clean up. Saw a guy in the toilet, who was probably surprised to see someone washing up in a public toilet. He told me one whole lot of things but I could only picked up “park” and “the light will go off”! He probably suggested some other better places. And yes, at 10pm, the toilet light went off!! Luckily I was already packing up.

My backpack was too bulky to sleep with me inside the tent. Leaving it outside was too obvious and wasn’t any better than the place I left it previously. So, I took out my laptop and camera with me and left my backpack there again with a note. “Watashi wa henro desu. Ben desu. Shingaporu kara. ‘Please do not steal’. Domo arigatou gozaimasu!” (I’m a pilgrim. My name is Ben and I’m from Singapore. Please do not steal. Thank you very much”).

I went inside my tent. It was pretty cosy. The weather had been very kind to me so far. It wasn’t cold at all and I didn’t even need to use my sleeping bag yet. I was well prepared and took out my gloves, scarf, pom pom hat and the heat packets for standby. Not too long, I dozed off, but was woken up by the rain at 1:30am! It was pretty heavy and I was worried the tent would collapsed! And it started to get very cold. I put on my hat, wore another sweater, tuck in my gloves and slipped myself into the sleeping bag. The sound of the rain drops made it tough to get back into sleep, but eventually I did after many turns.

5th Nov – Beppu Guest House

I woke up earlier to bid Morioka’s family farewell. We took pictures using my camera and Yuhei’s. After breakfast, Yuhei-san sent me to the station. Luckily I don’t have to walk 4km again! Before that, he was very nice to bring me to the nearby waterfall! It was a nice photogenic place. There were benches to sit down, read a book and enjoy the view! Yuhei-san also recommended the Aso mountains at Kyushu. He offered his place for me to stay! I thanked him in advance. At the station, I bid him farewell again and thanked him very much for the great experience.

Still another 20minutes before the train was here. Called up the accomodaion at Unomachi. Unfortunately, both were 4300yen and 5300yen respectively! Over my budget =[ Reached Beppu at 10am and checked in to my favourite place! I stayed at the penthouse today with a balcony!! Think I was alone in the room for the night all by myself. It was so sunny. I quickly did my laundry. Washed almost everything I had. By late afternoon, they were all dried up. I was still thinking about using the dryer at a nearby coin laundry!!

Caught up a bit with friends online and checked out the various accommodation at Unomachi (where I would start by pilgrimage at temple 43), but no luck. Went for lunch at a nearby ramen shop and then tried to walk to the ferry port to check out the place. It was a long 35 minutes walk. Checked out the schedule at the bus stop and decided to take the bus instead tomorrow morning. Bought my breakfast and snacks and went to check out the drug store to get my heat packets as well. Another addition weight to my already burdensome backpack! Came back to rest a while and update my blogs to the website and try to check out the accommodation again, and then saw a super babe at the Guest House in the evening!

Went to the same ramen shop for my dinner and then headed to the nearby 100yen onsen! On the way, I met this Japanese guy. He asked me where I was from and we chatted for a while, and he told me he had been to Malaysia and Singapore. He said Changi airport is huge! Then, I told him I was going for the Shikoku pilgrimage and he said, “Chotto mate!” (Wait a while) I thought he wanted to give me o-settai (gifts for henro on the pilgrimage) Instead, he showed me his passport that he had been to many countries. Cambodia, Thailand, Laos.. I wasn’t paying attention actually! The onsen was better than the previous I went last week. Had my bath there as well.

Just when I thought how perfect this guest house was, I met a “Siu Keong” in my room, trying to play hide-and-seek among my new washed clothes!! I hope I don’t have cockroach for supper or breakfast tomorrow!

So, this was it!! 2 more days before the start of my pilgrimage!! This was what all this blog was about! The sole reason for it’s existence!! Don’t felt much at this moment. Only worried that I could not get a cheap accommodation at Unomachi! I would just have to take one step at a time and worry about other things later.

Will not be able to access internet for a while. If you don’t hear from me after 10 days, call the police!!

4th Nov – 10th day at farm, last day!

Last night I was curling myself inside the blanket and suddenly it reminded me of a childhood game I play with my sister. We would cover ourselves under the blanket and pretended we were some kinds of animals. I would then tell my sister, “When mom or dad comes in, we don’t move and fake sleep. Can you do that?”

The thought of getting internet access soon tomorrow felt great! It was like those days when you waited at the letter box yearning for the postman to come!

It was the hottest day in the afternoon by far. I started off to cut the radish and cleaned them up, before I went for weeding again. I kind of enjoyed it today. Although it was unfriendly to my back, the weed was lower where I could see the onion, unlike the day before where the weed covered everything. This made things simpler and faster to finish a row, which in turn motivated me to do the next row. After a few days of weeding, my thumbs went numb, pinching too hard on the weed to pull them out. I wished the onion were as strong as them.

After lunch, we went to collect the wires and poles that were used to surround the paddy fields. We also harvested a little bit more of the paddy plant. After that, we used a special manual machine to separate the grain from their stems. You pedaled using your leg to move the machine and then stuck the paddy plant into it to get the grain out. To me, it was like making sugar cane juice without putting the whole sugar cane through. Then, we went to wash soil bags at the river again. I could still smell the white soil. Dried them up and that was it! My last day at farm. It was really a great experience that I would never forget. It was tough, especially the first two three days. But, by now, I supposed I got used to it already. I really enjoyed my time here and would like to stay longer. In fact, I planned for 3 weeks, but somehow I cocked up my schedule, and wanted to plan more days for the Shikoku trail. But, I don’t think I would be able to do it for months. I also learned why Japanese eat every grain of the rice on their bowl. It’s a show of respect to the farmer, to the food!

We had vegetables in cream sauce for dinner today. The sauce was something like those the cream based pasta. I noticed Yuhei-san’s family has a TV smaller than 14 inch! Life is tough for farmers. After dinner, Yuhei-san went to Aikido session alone. I went for shower and packed my stuffs. Aiko-san then left me a note book to leave some farewell messages. I finished writing and went to bed at 10pm.

3rd Nov – 9th day at farm, tiring day!

I could not decide, if I should I get the walking stick as well for the pilgrimage? The guide recommended at least this and the stamp book. Since my backpack was heavy, I was hoping to have 2 free hands all the time. And, I wouldn’t want other to recognize me just for the o-settai (gifts to henro who did the pilgrimage). I read a henro’s story that, while he was walking along the road, suddenly a car stopped and the guy got off and give him 10,000 yen as o-settai!! I realized sleeping out was almost impossible with this kind of weather. Probably wasted almost 2kg of my baggage, on the tent. Now, I wonder if I can survive the rest of the days with the money I’d budgeted.

This morning was so cold, but by late morning, it was very sunny and actually hot! Could wear a t-shirt, in fact. The newspaper has a lot of red suns all round the different cities. Today was a public holiday in Japan. Some dance festival, Aiko-san said (found out from lonely planet that it’s called Culture Day). Yuhei-san must be working late again on the rice cakes last night. He seemed just woke up when I came over. Aiko-san made us some fried rice cake, and it was very nice to go with soy sauce! =]

Today was a tiring day. I guess there was a lot of squatting. The whole morning was weeding, and I’d finally completed the half of the onion patch! I liked lunch a lot today. Sardine mixed with vegetables and egg plant (I could not spell “brinjals”) Yummy! Must try it back home! After lunch, we went for vegetables collection. Yuhei-san was looking at the order sheet, and picked the different vegetables. Chinese cabbage, small pak-choy, kangkung, two kinds of radish and also pumpkins, and many others that I don’t know the name!! By the time we knocked off, my back was screaming and my eyes could hardly open. I thought I went out to make a call, outside the cake shop, to the accommodation at Unomachi (the place where I’m going to start my pilgrimage at temple 43), before dinner. Unfortunately, I remembered wrongly, and there was no public phone outside. The walk in the cold was in vain.

Surprisingly, dinner was obento today (lunch/dinner set box). I thought the family would not eat bento or outside food. Anyway, it was good. There were prawn, chicken, beef, fish balls, potato salad, fried noodle, rice and a slice of orange, all in the bento set!! Yuhei-san looked very tired, but he went back to work right after dinner! To pack up the vegetables for sale tomorrow.

I was too tired to do anything at night. I took a short rest on my bed, and then finished up Don Weiss’s book on his pilgrimage, but still slept at 10:30pm.

2nd Nov – 8th day at farm, good day!

It got cold again these two days. Today was tougher to wake up. Saw the newspaper that the coming few days were going to be colder as well! After breakfast, I started work as Kabosu (Lemon like fruit) Quality Separator again. My standard got better, in term of speed and quality control. Lesser numbers were rejected by Yuhei-san. After 3 baskets of Kabosu, I moved on to pack rice into 10kg bag. This time round, there was a machine to weight the bag automatically! The machine will suck the output from the Rice Separator machine and stored in a compartment. You lift the latch to pour the rice into the bag, and it will stop automatically once the bag is weight 10kg! There was another machine, which work as a dryer and the output was pour directly to the Rice Separator machine. After around 6 bags, we stopped and Yuhei-san started to clean up each of the machines again. Today, there was dessert after lunch. It was a very delicious fruit cake made by Aiko-san!

There was still an hour before I start work again at 2pm. So, I decided to try out the “Find Home” function on my Suunto watch. Walked to the Cake shop outside Yuhei-san’s house to try searching “Home” from there. However, it seemed to detect my Singapore home and showed 4350km!

At 2pm, we packed and kept (or more like Yuhei-san himself actually) some stuffs in store. Yuhei-san is a very organized person. Everything was kept nicely and placed at the same location after used. He also like to mumble to himself all the time. Shortly after, Yuhei-san told me to go weeding! Instead of a “sigh”, I was actually pretty happy about it! In fact, before we started packing the rice in the morning, I was thinking about asking Yuhei-san too, after my Kabosu’s task. And so, I did for 2.5 hours. I thought I could finish the remaining patch, but, I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t. One or two more round perhaps! Yuhei-san later came to pick me and we went to Chika-san’s school where she was having her volleyball training. Then, we went to buy some stuff and came home for dinner.

Every time I washed a rice cooker, I thought of mine last time. It has been almost 2 years and I wonder if the feeling will ever go away. Not sure if Yuhei-san could read my mind. He had been asking me questions these days. Instead, I got quieter. After dinner, Yuhei-san asked for my blog address. I hope he would not mind what I wrote about him =]

You just can’t stop eating in this kind of weather. Just back to my room and I already yearn to have a bite. One macadamia chocolate could not satisfy me. So, I could not wait till later at night and had to munch the raisin bread I bought last Sunday. Yummy!! I love raisin! This afternoon, I have already planned for a movie again tonight. Think I was addicted to it. Perhaps, that was the only other entertainment I had. I could have played some games on my laptop or iPhone, but I wasn’t very much a gamer, especially playing alone. In the end, I decided to read up Don Weiss on his pilgrimage at Shikoku instead.

1st Nov – 7th day at farm, sunny day.

Today’s breakfast was special. Two sausages and a fried egg with, you got it, miso soup and rice. Yuhei-san wanted to sell his vegetables. I got the message immediately. Weeding!! What a way to start the Monday blue. So, I worked hard for 4 hours, stopping just once to pee. By now, I’d almost completed the half of the onion patch on the field! Another couple of hours would be done. It was a great day too. The sun was finally seen. I could even felt the heat on my back. After lunch, I quickly went back to my room and wash the rest of my shirts and towel to hang them outside. Yuhei-san said we shall collect Kabosu again later at 2pm. Since it was so sunny, I decided to go for a walk and catch some sunlight!

Today, we went to a different Kabosu site. Not so fun this round because it was not easy to find good ones to pick. We went back after a couple of hours and I started to be the Kabosu Quality Separator again.

Suddenly, from a sunny day, it became so chilly in the evening. It was exactly 1 week before my schedule pilgrimage at Shikoku. With this kind of condition, how am I supposed to sleep out without a shelter? If I would to stay at accommodation every night, that would cost me a bomb! Perhaps, I would be better off to quit. Sigh, before I even started to walk, I already had the thought of quitting. I wonder if my mental strength would be strong enough to carry on for the whole pilgrimage. Previously, I made the decision to start from Temple 43 to save cost, but starting from temple 43 would also be tougher since the next temple is 68.5km away! Already the beginning I would start off with such a challenge. Wonder if that was a good idea for my morale. Anyway, I thought I would need to do some research on the cheap accommodation along the way when I had internet access again at Beppu on Friday.

So, I had 3 more days at the farm now! Already, I had such a great experience here. I hoped I could do more WWOFFing with other hosts in the future before my membership expired in October. Today dinner was great. We had steamboat with chicken and vegetables. Found out that, adding lemon (Kabosu, in our case) and soy sauce into the soup could be so tasty!!

Eyes were tired, but it was still 8pm only. So, decided to watch a movie again before I sleep. Another stupid show, Splice, recommended by Mr Ben Lim Kok Leong!

31st Oct – 6th day at farm, holiday!

It was rainy morning. Woke up later than planned. Went to ask Yuhei-san for an umbrella, but realized breakfast was prepared. Had natto for the first time. Heard about how bad it was from a fellow Shikoku 88 temples pilgrim, Don Weiss, on his website. He described the way of making natto as “to feed raw beans to cows, then make them regurgitate the beans after they had passed through the cow's first stomach”. It was pretty bad, but I managed to finish them off in order not to be impolite for not finishing my food. Luckily, there were miso soup and salty anchovy to cover the smell and taste. After that, Yuhei-san asked me how was the Natto. I decided to tell him the truth.

So, I followed Yuhei-san’s direction and got conned by him. He mentioned it would take 20 minutes to walk there, but I checked my Suunto X10 (ahem, not trying to be cocky here) and it said a solid 3.7km (plus a few hundred which were missed out because I started the log on my watch later). You probably need to run or walk very very fast to cover that distance. I took 50 minutes on average speed.

I tried my luck to ask if there was internet café at Ogata. The station staff said no. No problem. Bought my return tickets to Mie town (where I saw the Internet café sign yesterday). Expected the return ticket to be cheaper, but it was just the price of 2 single trip tickets. Got to Mie, but the station staff also mentioned there was no internet café! I still decided to check it out at the place and asked for direction to the Hoyo hotel, which was located near the sign I saw. It was not raining by now, and I realized I had left Yuhei-san’s umbrella at Ogata station! Sigh! Got to get him a new one for replacement. The station staff drew me a map (left), but yet I got lost. Came to a cake shop and asked for direction again. The lady was very helpful and explained in details, but I didn’t give her the confident look. She suggested drawing a map for me and I couldn’t thank her more. It was perfect. I saw all the buildings that she mentioned in the map (left). On the way, I got my umbrella. The shop assistant asked me where I’m from. She said there was no internet café in town although the sign I saw was just 100m away. She also mentioned the nearest would be at Oita city, as Yuhei-san mentioned too. I wasn’t satisfied and finally reached the building with the big sign that says “Internet Café”. I asked the shop assistant at the ground floor and she directed me upstairs. Unfortunately, it was a company office instead. After walking around the building for one last round, I gave up. Wasted my trip here and the time. Had my lunch at Mos Burger nearby. The great meal consoled me!
So, Oita city I went. I was lucky to reach the Mie station just in time for the next train. Oita is bigger. I wonder why Lonely Planet has nothing on Oita, but small town like Beppu. I was holding my iPhone all the time while I walked around to detect free wireless like I was trying to detect a bomb. Even Starbucks here does not have free wifi. Not long later, I found an English café with secure wifi, but I had already bought my Venti latte from Starbucks. So, I tried again and bingo! Found one that worked, but unfortunately there was no seat around. So, I hid inside a stairway and enjoyed my internet access till my laptop went flat.

Then, I continued to walk and look for a place for dinner with a plug and free wifi. Found one, but I would have to eat Mos burger again. So decided to go back to the earlier café. Anyway, I was more than happy there was one where I could sit down comfortably and charge my laptop while using the free internet access! Time flies. Left at 6pm to get some fruits and chocolate before I catch the 7pm train back to Ogata. I think I saw more pretty girls here than I was at Tokyo last year! Saw a couple of young ladies in Halloween costumes and quickly took the opportunity to snap a photo of them. They gave me each a sweet! Reached Ogata at 8pm and guess what!! The umbrella I left behind was still at the exact location!!! I smiled and the guy next to me noticed my disbelief and smiled too. Made a couple of quick calls back to home and to Ah Chung who gave me a call earlier in the afternoon. It was great to go online today and catch up a bit with my friends. I felt much closer to home again. Wish I could do it more often at Shikoku.

After the phone calls, it was 8:20pm already and the tough part began. By now, the blisters on my small toes were getting pretty worse. Sigh. Wrong shoe again! I reached the junction where I need to decide going back the same way that I came from this morning as Yuhei-san suggested; or take a different route which seems to be nearer according to Yuhei-san’s map!! It was very dark but there were still cars moving along the main street. In split seconds, I decided to do a dare-devil and go for the unfamiliar road in the dark. I walked very fast. Still couldn’t see the junction which I need to make a right turn. After 1km, finally I reached and almost regretted. The road in front of me was pitch-dark. No sign of cars at all. I hardly see what was in front!! I was so glad I had my iPhone who lid up a bit for me to walk all the way. It was going uphill. A couple of cars passed by. After that, I was all alone. Both sides of the road were like jungle. At most within an hour, I must see the cake shop in front of the entrance to Yuhei-san place, or else I would be lost! I walked and walked but no signs yet. I started to worry and asked myself “I’m not going to die here killed by wild animals or a serial killer, am I?” If this was the wrong way, I would be doom. Finally, I saw some light in front!! Could this be the cake shop?! I kept praying “Cake shop, please. Cake shop, cake shop….” When I confirmed it was really the cake shop, I was so relieved and a shiver ran through me! My iPhone saved my life! Without it, I wouldn’t even be able to see my hand in front of me! And thanks a lot to Yuhei-san’s perfect map for an act-clever guy like me. It took me 43minutes and I reached home at 9pm. According to my watch, the distance was actually pretty much the same, about 200m difference. Yuhei-san and his wife were still packing up the vegetables for sale. I quickly went for my shower, fixed my blisters and update my new adventure today. At 11pm, Yuhei-san was still working!!! It’s time to work again tomorrow and I went to bed at 11:30pm. What a day it was!!!