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Letter 56
Sunday 06.10.13 48,73 km
There came two guests more, a couple from HongKong, who drive around in a
hired car. The manager, Toshi, had met his wife in New Zealand of all places.
But the daughter Amo was born in Hakuba. Japan has an agreement with a number of
countries among which are Germany, France and Canada, that you can get a 1 year
visa with right to get a job. And possible prolonging. He'd been there for 2
years, while his wife had been there for 7.
The entire family
When I asked about the rice hanging to dry, he said, that normally it was cut by
machine and later
hung up. The entire family are out to wave goodbye. Such sweet people!
I don't know exactly what I'll meet, but the sign saying Nagano 42 km is like I
was hoping.
The view from a writing place, just before the nearly disaster
And then a disaster comes close! Is it a puncture? An extra bump with the behind
in the saddle
confirms this. Shit. Off with the luggage to have a look. The rear wheel - no
wonder. When I get
tyre and tube off, there's no hole to be found immidiately, but the air
disappears out of the tube,
when I pump it in. But the tyre!!!
That's what a worn out Schwalbe Marathon Tyre looks like
It's worn all the way through at one spot and others are coming. When I find
the hole in the tube, it's also worn through, there where the hole in the tyre
is. Then 40 km is suddenly a long way...
There's only one thing to do. I have to reinforce the tyre and I've brought an
old tube, which is cut up and glued to the inside of the tyre. And then a normal
fix of the tube and tube and tyre on again.
But it's with a jumping heart I go on, waiting to hear a bang from behind every
second. But all goes well...
After having worked my way up a bit, there's a tunnel followed by a lo-o-ng
descent.
There's only about 18 km left, when signs start telling about a pay road. A
tunnel is coming up, and I see from a long distance the road, that I will have
to follow up across the mountain, if I can't go through the tunnel.
But there's a sidewalk through. So one can go on it? And I do of course.
After having passed through the toll comes up. There's a man ina cage in the
middle, so he can serve both directions, but I'm going out in the sidewalk.
Never the less a poster announces the price for every vehicle. A bicycle is 20 Y
= 0.15 €. So be it.
I stop and goes over to him. First he looks like he will refuse to take any
money, but then comes his japanese obedience to him and he shows with his
fingers it costs 20 Y. And I give it to him and he comes all the way out of his
cage just to wave at me, when I go on. I'm more or less expecting him to salute.
The impossible thing happen and I get safe to Nagano. But I've forgotten it's
sunday. Never the less there should be a bicycle shop that's open from 1pm.
There's a festival today in Nagano. When I sit down at a vacant half of a bench
to eat bread and bananas, somebody comes to take my picture. And another, who
looked like he'd wanted to, comes too, when they've talked. The last one has
something looking like a fisheye, he puts right up in my face, while I'm eating
an apple. I guess they're from a local paper.
Some of the performers
And others...
In T.I. I asked, if she could call 1166 Backpackers to find out, if they had
anything vacant. She didn't answer, but found a pamflet and showed me where it
was in the map. I think it's the first time, I've bumped into this, that should
be quite common: That you never say no, but comes around it in some way. I would
have prefered: No, we don't do that. But it's entirely in the japanese
spirit: noone must feel uncomfortable.
It was hard to find the bicycle shop. He didn't have a 26 x 1,75 tyre. I think
he mostly get stuff that's ordered by someone. He had 2 Schwalbe tyres of a type
I wouldn't have had anyway, and which apparently was ordered by someone. In the
end he came up with a solution, which suited me fine. He had a used tyre of my
type I could have for 1000 Y.
So now I ought to be able to get to Narita on wednesday.
I found 1166 Backpackers just before he closed to come back at 4pm, so I put my
luggage there.