The show must go on... Sorta

So...

My bike being in maintainance, and me having a hard time bending down or leaning back or use my arms for anything (and gods forbid I try and lie down) I decided to take it easy and use the public transportations and go to Osore-zan, one of Japan's top 3 holy mountains, and the scariest one, since its the gateway to hell.

A train and buss.. And 3 hours later, I find myself at the mountain. I must admit it has a very creepy athmosphere. Theres the white rock and sand barren land with smoke comming through vents in the rock.. The white sand beach... The old temples... The cool, lonely wind blowing through the path weaving between cairns of rocks adorned with children's toys and pinwheels (built for children who have died before their parents)...

The river is the equivalent of Styx, and its very acid that only one type of fish live in it. Maybe because of the sulphur vapors or something else, but the very.. Active insect life that one can usually find in Japan is absent here, the only thing you can hear are crows. It was strange but somewhat calming and quiet, I walked about two hours, stopped by a small free onsen on the temple grounds.. I really chose the time of year to visit here, it seems.. The Obon festival, Japanese Halloween, in a way. I therefore had the chance to see Japanese Itako, mediums, who come during this time of year and use Kuchiyose to call on the spirits of the recently desceased to posses them that they may speak to their close ones. They are traditionally blind old women...

Anyways, it was very interesting. Waiting for the bus, an old man struck up a conversation with me and I told him about Mikasa, my trip and accident, etc. He kindly offered me a lift to town, as he was going there, and on the way I learned that he was visiting Mutsu for Obon because its his hometown, but he has been living in Nagoya for 50 years. I told him I had been on a student exchange in Nagoya, and we talked about miso-katsu and other Nagoya-ish things, it was fun. I was able to take a train back to aomori, and made it back in the late afternoon.

After one sleepless night in Hakodate because of back pains and douchebag mosquitoes, and one more or less sleepless night in an Aomori Internet cafe because of the hard (compared to a bed and mattress) sleeping area... I felt like a real bed. I checked at the tourist info area a chose the cheapest hotel i saw (still 45$), and fell asleep the second I hit the sheets I stopped writhing in pain and found a position that didnt hurt.

Checking my e-mails the next day, I saw that my bike had been repaired, so I decided what I'd do next. I came up with a few guidelines..

1. No more non-mattress nights (hurting my back)
2. No more mountain roads (when going uphill, you need to pull with your arms and push with your feet... My legs are ok, but pulling or pushing with my arms causes pain)
3. I'm still gonna try biking around Japan for a bit more.

Therefore, I chose to send most of my stuff back to Canada, including my tent and ruck sacks. I will be travelling light and sleeping in hostels, hotels or guesthouses. I kept Spike, my ipad, toiletteries, important papers, bike multi- tool, bike bag, camera and some other small stuff. I just put it in a big bag, roll it up and secure it on my back carrier with my hooked elastic band. It makes a big difference in weight.

So after a quick stop at the post office, I put my bike in its bag, took the Shinkansen bullet train to Morioka, and started biking my way south. The way is flat, and my bike is much lighter, so it went well. In one afternoon I was able to bike 50km easily. I will continue to Osaki and figure out what I do then. If the road stays as flat as it was today, I should be able to reach the town tomorrow.