woke up around 8 and got ready to head out…the youth hostel owner gave me suggestions on where to go and so I walked several minutes to the nearby Akiyoshi plateau. It is a nice area, rolling hills with fossilized reef limestones jutting out everywhere. Apparently it was heavily forested until people came along and turned it into a grassy plateau. It’s too early in the season now, but it’s supposedly really nice during the summer when the hills are green and the flowers blooming. There are several hiking trails in the area so I hiked around for a bit and took some pictures.
Next, I walked over to the elevator entrance to the Akiyoshido cave. It takes you down about 80 meters to the cave system below. I was pretty impressed with how large it was. There are many various rock formations that are named random things along the route which is about a kilometer in length. I can only imagine how awesome it must’ve been before they built all the concrete paths and lights. As always, I tried to avoid the tourist crowd and isolate myself in this amazing place. Some kid kept pushing the information button that turns on this loud and annoying speaker that explains each section of the cave. It drove me nuts, yea I can be grumpy. The front entrance is even more impressive, as the underground river comes roaring out into the open. I couldn't resist so I sipped some of the water.
Afterwards I went back to the youth hostel to pick up my stuff and head out. I bombed the gnarly hill I pushed my bike up the day before…it was exhilarating. Then I headed towards Yamaguchi City. Once again, the route climbed over several passes and since I didn’t eat anything for breakfast l felt weak. On the way, I bought an energy drink from a roadside vending machine and picked up kuri chestnuts on the side of the road. The good thing about going up a mountain is knowing that you'll get to bomb the downhill and so I did into Yamaguchi City, pretty hungry.
I stopped at the first café I found and went inside. Usually, I prefer these small shops over the chain type restaurants because you get the local experience so to speak. It was run by a lady in here sixties and the menu was pretty simple. Against better judgment I ordered a ramen, and was saddened to see that it was just instant ramen with condiments added to fancy it up. It was a rip-off at 560 yen. Before I left, the lady started talking to me and I told her I'm heading north. She started talking and telling me that she was envious of what I was doing and that our generation had it the best. She kept talking and was friendly enough so I stuck around for a bit. Somehow she brought up palm reading and she read my palms. She seemed to be a believer in that kind of stuff. Once she found out I was year of the boar, she got even more excited because she also was year of the boar. Since there were no other customers, she continued talking and I listened to be polite, Eventually though I grew tired, but there wasn’t a pause or a silence where I could make my escape. She talked about everything, her life, palm reading, working, business, social problems, etc. Finally she set me free after two hours.
I figured I still have a few more hours of riding before it gets dark so I decided to ride to Hofu. Once again, I had to ride over a pass and then downhill all the way to Hofu which is a good sized city near the coast. I planned to camp, but once again I decided to scratch that and stay at a business hotel…showers are just too tempting. I’ve been thinking about how I haven’t really been budgeting and started worrying about running out of money before I’m done. For dinner, I ate at Sukiya, a Yoshinoya competitor…it was filling and cheap. I will have to start looking for these, talk about bang for the buck. Tomorrow's forecast says heavy rain in the afternoon, not looking forward to it but will push on.