We’re in Gujyohachiman (That’s a mouthful) Japan. Speaking of mouths full, we ate last night at the small restaurant in this small hotel. All three couples ordered barbecued eel, by far the best Japanese dinner so far.
Today is an easy ride following the Nagara River (see photo) which eventually becomes the Kiso River downstream. Downstream is the same as downhill! These two rivers along with the Ibi, are sometimes referred to as the Japanese Rhine because of similarities with the Rhine in Europe.
Since we crossed some small mountain yesterday the rivers have been flowing to the Pacific.
Due to other commitments, five of the 20 riders (including the leaders!) have left the group. The celebration dinner this evening will be for 15 riders and the 3 guides.
We have another total Japanese breakfast this morning. They’re elaborate; we each have 12 small bowls or dishes. I eat a little out of 3 or 4 of them, mostly rice. A little soup. Then I come back to the room and eat a Power Bar. For the rest of the trip we’ll be in larger cities and hopefully they’ll have some western dishes. If not, I’m sure we can find a McDonalds and/or Starbucks.
We did make a great find about lunchtime: a bakery! Mostly made from rice flower, they were REALLY GOOD. And a nice garden patio to boot.
Check-in isn’t until 3:00 and we have plenty of time so we shop a little. Barb finds the lamp store (“Interior Light Pure”) interesting but they won’t ship to the US. Lamps remind me of electricity. The Japanese wall plugs look exactly like ours, except only two pronged. We know that the Japanese system is 100 volts at 50 cycle instead of our 120 volts at 60 cycle. All of our appliances work w/o an adapter or converter. I suspect if we had an old analog electric clock it would not keep proper time because of the frequency differences.
We have a Japanese bedroom tonight. I’m writing this blog on the little table in front of the windows.
The ride is over and we’re relieved that there were no accidents or injuries. I don’t even know of a flat tire the entire trip! Although we were mostly on small roads without traffic today we did have a close call. Coming into a town a large truck came so close to us – within inches – that even the guide was scared. We didn’t have room to move to the left so all we could do was hold on. Pretty scary; it’s easy to lose your balance in a situation like this.
We’re in Gifu, both a Prefecture and a town. It is in the center of Japan, the crossroads between the east and west. There used to be a saying, “Control Gifu and you control Japan.”
The celebration dinner. You imagine a yacht – ok maybe a house boat. A Michelin Starred Chef cooking Kobe steaks on the beach. Well no. It’s a row boat and the food is in a bento box on the table. Now I’ll have to admit this was one of the better Japanese dinners we’ve had. But not luxurious; we couldn’t even wear our shoes in the boat. Oh yes, only 2 glasses of wine, whine only.
And we spent way too much time watching “cormorant fishing”. A cormorant is a type of bird.
Because cormorant fishing is a daily activity for nearly five months of the year, the fishing masters begin each day by selecting ten to twelve healthy cormorants for the evening’s activities. When the birds are selected and the boats are prepared, the six fishing masters draw ropes to determine the order in which they will fish.
When the cormorants catch the fish, they are brought back to the boat using ropes attached to their bodies. When they are back in the boat, the fishing masters remove the fish from the birds’ throats. Each bird can hold up to six fish in its throat. The birds are prevented from swallowing the fish because of a ring tied around their necks. The cormorants, however, are still able to swallow smaller fish. Though the ropes are strong, the fishing masters are able to quickly break them if a bird’s rope gets caught beneath rocks, ensuring the bird will not drown.
Today, this is practiced primarily for tourists, and primarily in Gifu, Japan
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