October 10, 2025
Day 38 — Aizu-Hongo to Shimogo
Well it was a lovely morning at the campground in Aizu-Hongo. We were once again headed up into the hills to visit Oichi Juku, a historic village that retains its Edo period character.
But first came some small challenges. First, we (ok, I) got busted by the camp caretaker for charging our power bank in the men’s toilet. One of the real challenges with camping in Japan is keeping devices charged. Campgrounds typically do not provide outlets — in fact they go so far as to cover and lock the outlets — no electrons for you! Despite having paid ¥3000 for a campsite, you’re not entitled to ¥3 worth of electrons. (Even more frustrating is the lack of garbages. You’re supposed to take it home with you, which is a problem for us, plus the over the top food packaging creates a huge amount of garbage!!). Anyway, the “hack” here is that because the toilets need power for their heated seats and many spraying functions, often there is an outlet only half occupied beside the toilet, which I have often sneakily used as a charging station. Well, I got busted this morning, and had to do the walk of shame to remove our power bank from the men’s toilet. We can never show our faces at the Aizu-Hongo Auto Campground again.
Second, Marilee snapped the arm on her sunglasses. They weren’t prescription or expensive, but necessary and will be tough to replace. We spent some time in the morning going to a couple of large drug store / home ware type of shops which in our part of the world would have racks of cheap sunglasses. Not so here. We ended up at a home improvement big box store, where for ¥680 Marilee acquired a pair of safety shades. Not her idea of fashionable but they’ll do for now.
The actual challenge remaining was getting up into the hills to get to Ouchi- Juku. The Garmin told us it would be a straight climb of 680 m. Then right back down to the town of Shimogo where there was another campsite awaiting us.
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Once through Aizu-Hongo, and the flat river plain on its outskirts, we started the climb up to Ouchi-Juku. Again we just put it in gear and pushed away. It helps that the weather was beautiful, traffic nonexistent, and as we got higher we got, once again, stunning views.
We paused briefly at a pullout near the summit, when a van came screeching in, and the woman in the passenger seat yelled “there is bear! 3 minutes ago! Bear! Here! Very dangerous!!!” Blasé Canadians that we are, we shrugged and got moving. I will say that I would prefer to face that bear than the tunnel we were in not 5 minutes later with two burnt out lights in the middle.
Anyhoo, we did arrive safely at Ouchi-Juku, which was a true delight. Back in the Edo period it was an important and affluent post town, connecting the capital to the valleys north that we had just come through. It was disconnected from political and trade lines during the Meiji Restoration. The result is that it changed little from its bygone era, and still possesses a long Main Street of thatched roofed shops and buildings, like a time capsule from hundreds of years ago.
A number of the old buildings have been converted into period authentic restaurants, serving local specialties. Marilee and I had a memorable lunch of local soba noodles — mine had deep fried mochi cakes that had a crispy outer shell, while the cake itself melted into the hot soba broth, almost like deep fried cheese.
Lunch over, it was time to get back on the bikes. It was the usual super fun scream down the switchbacks. We did pass the last remaining thatched roof railway station in Japan as we headed to our campground in Shimogo.
Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,927 km (1,197 miles)
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And... we need a photo of Marilee's safety sunglasses! Just how unstylish are they?
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