Fun on a budget

So, today is a national holiday in Japan. Yay! I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I was at the school festival for Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn’t really go out of town. I also wanted to do something cheap, but at least a little exciting. I finally decided to take the local train to the first stop, and then make my way back home.

I often don’t have much of a sense of direction, so this was kind of a big feat for me to undertake. My sense of direction does seem to be a bit better when I’m out in the middle of nowhere, though.

I rolled out of bed this morning and somehow managed to make it to the station in order to catch the 6:24 train. It was a beautiful morning with lots of sunshine, although by the time I got to Bakkai, it was a bit overcast. Here is the Bakkai station:

It’s kind of a cute place.

Here’s the town of Bakkai with Rishiri in the background.

 

 

So, I headed north along a road that basically ran up the coast. It was just lovely and so satisfying.

Unfortunately, I discovered that since I was heading north, Rishiri was behind me the whole time. Argh. Well, the good thing was that since Rishiri was behind me, I could enjoy looking at other things.

        

Erm, I may have turned around a few times…

Can you blame me?

It was a really beautiful day for a walk, though.

  

There really weren’t any buildings for the coastal part of the walk. Lots of people were driving and biking (both kinds), though. Not too many other walkers. Thankfully, there was sidewalk all the way!

 

Eventually, I got back to civilization. Still had a ways to go, though!

 

As I headed inland, I passed some groups of bikers heading towards the coast. It was really fun to hear them exclaim about Rishiri as it came fully into view for them.

I kept going, and discovered a wall of daisies. Hello!

  

It made me very happy.

By the time I got home, I was ready for a shoulder transplant, but it really was worth it. What a lovely day!

In all, I think I hiked around 7 or 8 miles, a big hunk of that right up the west coast. Total adventure cost: 260 yen (about $3 or so)