well somehow the last 1-1/2 hours of writing just disappeared before my eyes. And I have to go soon, and this is expensive. I'll have to be really brief. The last seven days have been very full and interesting, but even trying to encapsulate it briefly seems to take a long time. Last night I wrote for four hours. Now I was trying to boil it down, but even that was taking a very long time, and it just got deleted anyway.

Well anyway, right now I'm at in internet cafe in Nagano. I spent the previous seven days biking, with the exception of yesterday, when I took the train. On the first day I left almost made it to a lake called Kasumigaura, and slept right next to a slightly neglected shrine overlooking a strange mixture of industrial, agricultural, and residential lands. On the second day I made it to the outskirts of a town called Utsunomiya, and in the nick of time found an open area next to a river where I could camp.

On the third day I didn't do much except find a youth hostel in Imaichi (too-hastily chosen at a gas-station payphone the previous night -- it turned out to be a good 12 miles from Nikko) and talked to an old man who was bicycling from Osaka to Hokkaido, meaning he was about half way. He was eating cherries off the path next to the road. Japanese cherries are different -- small, not much larger than a pea, and a tiny bit bitter. I climbed up a fence to pull down a branch so we could both eat off the tree, and we talked a bit. His bike was a basic commuter bike -- three speeds at most, with a big basket on the front, and a bag stuffed into the basket.

I spent a day being a tourist at Nikko, and so far it was my least favorite day. I felt like a tourist oaf, looking at prettily-painted ornate buildings with thousands of other tourist oafs (most of them taking a break from the World Cup soccer games,) completely lacking any understanding. On the way out I heard someone say in a pasty Australian accent that he was bored to tears. I feel like I owe it to myself to research Toshogu (the most famous temple/shrine in Nikko, where I visited) so I know what I was actually looking at. Also, I'm not so sure that places like Toshogu are all that significant anyway -- I've seen maybe a hundred little shrines along the way so far. Even in areas packed with strip-malls and used car lots, you can find a little alcove tucked away with a small shrine in it -- some of them not much larger than a dog house with a small statue inside, and maybe some flowers or fruit which someone left. Some of them, like the one I camped next to on the first night, were beautiful but not ornate -- austere, and maybe a bit neglected with an urban industrial world grown up around them, but still respected and still important.

On the fifth day I left Nikko a bit late after dawdling around, and climbed mountains (mostly pushing my bike -- when my speedometer dropped below about 5 1/2 mph I figured I might as well just walk.) Japanese mountains are beautiful -- unlike the Cascades, which say a lot about austerity and severity (maybe even chastity) with their rigid conifers, white peaks and jagged cliff faces, Japanese mountains say something to me about sensuality, with their curves and deciduous trees. I made it about 35 miles before it was getting dark and and starting to rain. The next day I was facing a bigger set of hills and didn't want to do it wet tired and hungry. I knew there was a hot spring resort right before the next batch of hills, so I went looking for a hotel.

I was not warmly welcomed! The first place I checked, a fat ugly man at the desk saw me coming, and went back into the office. I waited about five minutes for him to come out but he seemed busy in his office shuffling papers, so I left. The next three hotels I checked, all of which had "rooms available" signs in their window (in Japanese, of course) I was informed that no rooms were available. After this happened three times I was tempted to get confrontational, but figured why go where I wasn't wanted.

I gave one more place a try, and they had a double room to offer for 21000 yen after tax (a bit shy of $170.) At first I balked, but when they said breakfast and dinner were included, I slapped that credit card down! And I must say it was a pleasurable experience -- the meals were not to be sneezed at. The dinner especially -- it was maybe ten courses, offering soup, cold soba noodles, beef stew, sashimi, salad, baked fish, fruit, rice, vegetables, and maybe some other thing I cant remember, all painstakingly prepared and presented. The woman who was assigned to serve me, tightly-kimonoed and in her 60's, seemed a bit strained at the seams to be friendly, but oh well. I wanted to eat, and trying to engage in small-talk with my limited Japanese was a struggle I could have done without.

The spa itself was nice too. In the bath area there was an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. After enjoying the indoor-pool a bit, I tried the outside one. But it was simply too hot -- had I jumped in, I would have died. But it was nice to sit there and splash myself with hot water while a light rain fell on me. The next day I could still smell sulpher on myself.

The next day I braved the mountains, after a warm send-off from the hotel. The woman who seemed annoyed with me the night before, wrapped up the leftover bread from breakfast for me, including jam and butter, to eat along the way. The desk clerk, and maybe even the manager, helped me load up my bike and asked questions about my bike and trip, and ran to get some spray-lube for my chain.

So far on the bike trip, this was my favorite day. It happened that the previous day's hills were far worse -- after just a little more than an hour of puffing it up hills, I found myself sailing down winding roads, losing all the altitude that I had gained that morning and the previous two days too, with a gentle head-wind to help keep my speed down. Also, this was the day when I least had to fight cars -- except for the occasional automobile and tour-bus, this long stretch often felt like mine and mine alone to enjoy. I felt light, free, and like I had accomplished something by making it through the mountains.

I stopped at a little private fishing park to have lunch. A woman at the gate-office explained what the place was after I asked if it was a park. There was an admission fee of a few dollars, so I wanted to just sit on the grass near the gate to sit and eat, but she waved me in, saying it would be our secret. Before I left, I asked her if she would pick a photo of Bellingham, from the bundle I was carrying with me. I had carried these to offer as gifts to people I met along the way, but this was the first time I thought of using them. She picked Dave's photo of the Bellingham Marina, and asked me to write my address on the back, saying she'd write to me. I hope she does.

Before I made it to Numata it began to get quite foggy. This was perhaps the most dangerous stretch -- Japanese drivers seem respectful of bicyclists, and I usually try to be unobtrusive, but in this situation I was also almost invisible. I hope my front and back lights helped -- anyway, there were no close calls even, and I'm still alive.

After messing around along the way I made it to Numata (which means swamp-field.) I was tempted to take a train to Niigata, where I could take a ferry to Sadogashima island, but it was getting a bit late. I watched a pack of school kids bully a slightly crazy young guy who was sitting on the bench next to me.

I sat on the bench wet and a bit shivery studying my map (it had started to rain the last few miles before I made it to the train station) trying to figure out where to go. A young man who spoke English really well eventually asked me if I needed help, but I said I was fine. Regardless, he took me to the train desk, where I realized that it would take quite a few hours to make it to Niigata even by train, and I'd　get there nearly at 11pm with no where to stay. So the guy also helped me find a cheap place to stay, which happened to be close by. While walking, we talked -- he used to live in California, but his parents got divorced (his dad liked girls, he said) and he came back to Japan (with his mother maybe?) He looked at me, wet with a big bunch of wet stuff on my bike, and asked me if this was fun. Honestly, I had to say "yeah." After he brought me to the cheap hotel and talked with the front desk to help me understand the place, he left. I kinda regret that I didn't think fast enough to offer him some token of gratitude, maybe as simple as my US address, but he left so quickly.

The place I stayed in at Numata was weird. Health-land, it was called. It's a massage parlour and bath house, and sorta-motel. It was only 2000 yen (not even 17 dollars) to stay the night, but I had to sleep on a lazy-boy chair, in a room with about 30 other chairs in it. Each chair had a TV directly in front of it. If I had arrived after 10pm, it would have cost me another 1000 yen. And once I checked in I couldn't leave without paying admission again. As I was fussing with my stuff when I arrived, a couple women in the lounge, possibly prostitutes, seemed amused by me. It actually wasn't so bad, and for a slightly shady establishment, quite clean and well run. The front desk offered to look after my bike bags during the night. It was a bit smoky though -- most of the people there (maybe nine other people) smoked until they fell asleep, and then as soon as they woke up. I slept ok.

Anyway, so much for a brief summary. That was Wednesday. Yesterday I got up, took the train to Nagano (I keep wanting to call it Nagoya, which is bad when I'm using the trains!) It was my second time bringing my bike onto the trains, and it wasn't so bad as the first time. It's a bit unwieldly but quite managable. Yesterday and today I'm staying at a youth hostel a bit north of Nagano, but not far from Joetsu, in a small suburb called Obuse. Tomorrow I'll take the train to Joesu, and then take a ferry to Sadogashima, where I can hopefully spend a couple days camping -- I've been ripping through the money too fast. After that I'm not sure. Maybe try to bike it to Kyoto, where Nobuyuki lives. My bike has held up admirably.

I weighed myself last night, afraid that I might have lost weight from the exercise, but I'm fine. At 62.5 kg, I might have even gained a pound or two, probably in leg muscle.