Day 3: Sagami-Ono - Hachioji

Distance covered: 20 km
Weather: Fine

With just 20 km to walk today, I departed at the relatively late (for me) hour of 8.30 am. To start with I felt OK, but after a while my blisters started hurting, and more worryingly, my knees started to get sore. Luckily it was flat for most of the day, otherwise I might have really struggled. As it was I had to take a lengthy break after walking for an hour, and an even longer one later in the day after lunch.

The road was four lanes and pretty straight for the first 10 km or so. The traffic was unrelenting, and there wasn't much variation in the "scenery." It was quite a relief when the narrow footpath gave way to a lengthy section with separate pedestrian and bike lanes, a rarity in Japan. At least it meant I didn't have to keep stepping aside to make way for bicycles on the footpath, which is quite narrow in some places along Route 16.  

Near Hashimoto Station, I stopped at a branch of Komeda’s coffee for lunch. I ordered the "egg pizza toast," which was basically a super thick toasted egg sandwich with a pizza-like topping of tomato sauce and cheese. It was pretty gross!

After lunch the road narrowed and became windy. It was nice to escape the heavy traffic, but I didn't enjoy the hills, which hurt my knees and sapped my energy. It was also getting pretty muggy.

With just a couple of kilometres to go, I noticed a pleasant-looking park on my left and decided to stop for a rest. Katakurajoseki Park is a popular bird-twitching area and also has some funky statuary.

I lingered in the park for quite a while before tackling the last stretch of Route 16 into Hachijo. It was downhill, but I had to go up and down some stairs to get to the other side of the station, and as I was descending I experienced excruciating pain in my knees.

It was too early to check in to my hotel, so I treated myself to an iced coffee and cake (with ice cream) at a Tully's coffee shop. Later, after dinner, I decided that if my blistered feet and knees weren't any better by the morning, I would take the train to Kawagoe instead of walking.