7:00 am — TSH, day 14

Resting seems to be a right decision. Yesterday throughout a day there was a dripping rain in Shizuoka. And today my feet feel half-alive (instead of completely dead) and overall body feel is way better /except the tooth I broke yesterday/.

Thus I’m eager to continue the trail. Oh, and I’m following my plan now in terms of dates.

Paying attention to a public transport schedule worked just perfect. I came to a bus stop just 10 minutes before the first /and the only/ bus departure even though it meant to skip a hotel breakfast.

Now I’m going directly to the point I left the trail from.

3:00 pm — Utoge Falls

One of today’s points of interest was Utoge Falls (or Utoge-no Falls). At first I mistook a path and got to a river like 20-30 meters before the waterfall. I haven’t even tried to get to the cliff from the top (there was no walkable path to), yet I was able to use some water to cool down myself. It was fun to see thick clouds of steam going off my back and shoulders. It looked like a high quality VFX for some film.

Then I moved to a right path and got to see a waterfall. It is cool. At the same time a rain started so I spent like almost an hour in a shelter near the waterfall. Btw, nice place and in case of emergency there is enough space to even set a small tent under its roof. Yet the rain stopped and I went on.

And near the town I’ve met this nice construction with a set of “trekking poles” under a roof to protect them. Nice.

Rocky stream flowing through forest with fallen leaves
Tall Utoge waterfall cascading through green foliage
Rustic shelter with wooden walking sticks under metal roof

4:30 pm — The trail

What I expected to be a real challenge suddenly turned out to be an easy walk. Actually I’m glad and my feet are even more glad. Most of the trail ran over a paved road with slight inclination up and down. The sky was cloudy yet dry so it was comfortably not hot /yet extremely humid/. Thus I was able to get to a daily endpoint quite early even with a relaxing pace.

Panoramic view of forested mountain valleys
Stone torii gate beneath massive ancient tree
Terraced tea fields with forested mountains
Carved wooden dragon statue at rustic camp shelter

8:00 pm — Wrapping the day

Okubo Camp is the best camping I’ve seen in Japan so far. And one of the cheapest at the same time. Camping slots are separated by the bush fences and the facilities are clean and in a good condition. Bungalows also look good. Actually, there are some kind of school/kindergarten summer camp here right now. A few adults took the bunch of children and went with them to the site on the other side of the road and from the sound of it they had a big campfire with songs and dances and also they shot some fireworks and so on.

Oh, and while I was preparing my dinner random wild tanuki tried to steal my trashbag (a plastic bag I’m putting the trash into). It failed, I’m big, loud, scary and react quickly to a sound of a plastic bag…

Campground with hedge-separated sites and trees