With only the slightest sense of guilt at not walking (see yesterday’s post for the explanation), I took a couple of trains across Nagoya to Kuwana. This was, once upon a time, the western end of the ferry trip from Atsuta, which I’d reached the previous evening. A sea wall has been constructed in front of the old ferry landing place, allowing a view across the Ibi River to the largely industrial landscape beyond.
Behind the sea wall, a little park preserves the site of the ferry wharf, including its guiding light.
Picking up the Tokaido route from the road just behind the torii gate, I soon passed a large shrine with a row of paper lanterns, where I paid my respects for the day.
A couple of maples in a canal-side park provided a splash of autumn colour.
Just around the corner, a shop owner was mopping the tiles at the front of her store before opening. “Good morning,” she said in English. “Where are you from?” Introductions over, I asked Yoshiko-san what her shop sold. Clams (in Australia we’d probably call them vongole) cooked in soy sauce was the answer, a local specialty, apparently. Yoshiko-san’s husband did the cooking; she did the selling. I assumed the shellfish were local, but it turned out they were from China. She offered me one to try – it was very tasty, but with the soy sauce certainly dominant.
Just past Kuwana, the Inabe River crossing is one of the many on the Tokaido where the modern bridge has been built in a slightly different spot to the original fording point. This is what the eastern side of the old crossing looks like now:
Next to Ise-Asahi train station, a huge bike park has been provided for commuters. This is just a part of it, chosen for a photograph because of (again) a colourful maple.
Still in Asahi (not sure if there’s any connection with the beer), Josembo temple was notable for the colourful flags just outside its gate…
… while just a little down the road, the gate to Saiko temple provided the setting for a dramatic burst of sunlit autumn colour against a threatening sky.
Fortunately, those clouds produced no more than an occasional very light shower, but they arrived with a change in the wind that seemed to be coming straight off the steppes of Manchuria.
Lunch today was taken in the food court of a large shopping centre. A very different setting from yesterday’s ramen shop, but another taste of ‘real’ Japan a million miles away from the tourist trail. The dish was a noodle soup “packed with vegetables” (according to Google Translate) – which consisted almost entirely of cabbage. Still, it was hearty and, hopefully, fairly healthy.
At Yokkaichi, a stretch of the Tokaido has been turned into a shotengai, a sort of old-fashioned shopping street (often covered) that I think are pretty common all over Japan. Sadly, perhaps, many of them – like this one – are struggling, losing out to the sort of mega-mall where I had lunch. Probably only about a quarter of the shops in this street seemed to be occupied.
I pressed on past Yokkaichi and was able to reach Utsube, chosen as my destination for the day partly because it’s the last stop on the delightful narrow-gauge Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway Utsube Line, from where I could get back to Nagoya and thence my hotel fairly easily. The line’s ridiculously cute little trains trundle along the single track just metres away from houses and back gardens, and over countless level crossings that are themselves often little more than paved tracks between rice fields.
Sadly, the line only runs as far as the major centre of Yokkaichi, from where I transferred to a standard commuter train into central Nagoya. I’m looking forward to making the return trip on the Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway Utsube Line when I resume walking on Thursday after tomorrow’s rest day.
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