Weather: Fine
I woke early once again - this time at 3.30am - but was able to doze off again and snooze through to just after 5am. I got up, showered, packed, and watched TV until the hotel restaurant Liberty opened at 7am. The breakfast buffet at the Boston Plaza Kusatsu was one of the finest we encountered throughout our trip. It featured a variety of Japanese and Western dishes. Erik, as usual, sampled the Japanese fare, while I stuck to the familiar in the form of toast, scrambled eggs, cereal, and fruit.
My foot was still a bit tender when I got up. However, once I got my shoes on I hardly noticed any discomfort at all. We checked out and were back on the Nakasendo by just after 8am. The first few kilometres went smoothly, but we made a few wrong turns later in the morning as we were using the walking map for the first time and still getting used to it. The route was pretty flat all day, much of it alongside a busy highway. We stopped for lunch at a newish-looking service area known as a michi no eki (literally a "road station"), where I had ten-soba, or noodles topped with tempura.
We were back on the road 45 minutes later and pressed on to Omihachiman, arriving at 2pm on what turned out to be our shortest day's walk. After checking in at our hotel, we went out to find Modern Jazz Quarter, a coffee shop recommended by my brother Mark, who used to live in Omihachiman. We asked at the tourist information centre by the station, but the woman had never heard of it. I recalled seeing a map on the MJQ website back in New Zealand showing its location, so we set off in what I thought was roughly the right direction, and sure enough we soon spotted a sign indicating it was just around the corner. It was a lovely little place. We enjoying chatting with the owner. There were all sorts of coffees to chose from (they also sold coffee beans from all around the world), and of course jazz music playing over a high-tech audio system. When we left, we took a card with a map of the coffee shop back to the woman at the tourist information center, thus fulfilling one of our tasks for the day, which was to "help someone".
From the station, we then walked to Himure Hachimangu shrine a couple of kilometers away. We wandered around the nearby canal area before heading back to our hotel. While we were out, Tomoyo, who had helped a lot with the planning of the Shiga leg of our walk, had dropped by to deliver a delicious birthday cake. I also got birthday cards from Keiko and Hitomi, and some presents from Erik. Hitomi had also sent a Lawsons card, which we used to buy water, coffee and other essentials at convenience stores along the way.
After devouring as much of the cake as we could, we went out for dinner at Capricciosa, an Italian restaurant inside a mall across the road from the hotel. We both felt good and our confidence was high. The weather was perfect, and we were surprised at how early we arrived in Omihachiman. The next day was meant to be even shorter. What's more, my feet felt fine, even though I'd hiked without blister plasters for the first time in over a week.
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