October 28, 2025
Day 56 — Gojo to Wakayama
Well it was a lovely morning in our own private campground. Enough sun that we could dry the dew off the tent before we got going. We were half expecting someone to roar in just as we were leaving and demand Y3000, but no, we managed to abscond from the premises in a timely way.
Our initial first few hundred metres found the way blocked to traffic. Presumably some bridge was out. There had been no traffic along the road leading to the campground — I guess we know why now. We retraced our steps through the forest road and quiet valley leading to the campground, and found another way to the main thoroughfare.
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We pootled along, trying our best to stick to bike friendly routes, which was proving a bit tricky — neither Garmin nor Komoot seemed to have the full lock on the best route, and observations on the ground compelled us to improvise a bit. We meandered through various small towns strung along rivers feeding the Kinokawa, the river whose mouth Wakayama sits on (er…that could be phrased better). We passed a school where there was an elaborate flag waving performance being practiced, so we stopped and watched for a while. While we were being thus entertained, another bike tourist rode up and made her acquaintance. Again, this was another solo young woman from Germany. We exchanged backstories and advice for a bit. She had been cycling the length of Japan, had been to Shikoku and was retracing her steps a bit. So like us, but waaay quicker.
The flag performance ended, and after chatting a bit we went our separate ways. She recommended a Michi no Eki up ahead, which we found and paused at for lunch. It was clearly persimmon season as half the grocery store was dedicated to persimmons. Apparently this region has the best persimmons in Japan, so they say. We did lash out for a couple of the cheaper ones in bulk — like every other fruit in Japan, the quest is for perfection in size, shape and color (and presumably taste), and the more ideal fruit can fetch ridiculous sums. Bringing a host gift of fancy fruit seems to be the thing here, instead of wine and chocolate babka.
The route through the afternoon should have been straightforward but kinda wasn’t. We quickly ended up on a dedicated bike path along the river, which was great. Smooth, some of it brand new, and clearly marked. Trouble was, — perhaps because it was so new — neither Komoot nor Garmin put us on the path, and both had us on streets paralleling the path and crossing and recrossing the river. After a while we gave up on navigation and just followed the bike path. Seemed a bit ridiculous to ignore it in its pristine, empty, smoothly paved, blue lined beauty. That did leave to a bit of a cluster at the end of the day, as the path went directly under the bridge which led to the main drag in Wakayama where our hostel was, with no way up evident for over a kilometre in either direction. Going forward led us onto a busy road leading to a busier bridge, doubling back was also tricky as it was now difficult to cross the road. It all worked out and we found our way to the bridge and to the hostel, but it was a bit of a gong show for a while.
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The hostel in Wakayama is bike themed, so we’ll see what that entails. We have a scheduled day off (booked the hostel a while back), so another day of rejuvenating is in store.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,894 km (1,797 miles)
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