J212 – 7/17/2006

The Eastern China Sea is still on our right.  Small mountains are getting closer to our route and Serge turned left, on a small hilly and winding mountain road which led him to Sendai, a spa village with a hot spring.  There are many of these springs in Japan and they are very popular.  Baths, aside from giving a feeling of well being also seem to have therapeutic benefits.  Around these springs one often sees a hotel and several souvenir shops.

Serge got back on highway 3, which runs between rice paddies.  There wasn’t time to stop for a bath but he appreciated the fabulous scenery and the songs of the birds, which one hears in this green micro cosmos.

We left highway 3 cutting toward the Southeast to reach the city of Kagoshima.  We have many changes of direction and, luckily, Mr. Koshita is an excellent guide who runs with Serge when the road becomes difficult.

Today is a holiday in Japan, so it is a long weekend.  School holidays will begin in August and for only one month so the school children have to be patient.  For Serge, it’s not the time to think of vacation.  It’s the same pace, and the same pleasure for Serge to run on these roads, even if his head sunk into his shoulders at the end of the stage.  He’s suffering because of his tendon and as a result the pain had migrated to the bone by the end of the race.  The whole area is hard, red and hot.  Serge won’t let anyone touch it and is in despair over the conditions in the coming stages: Japan is the opposite of Holland, everything is in relief.  Sidewalks tend to slope and he hasn’t a choice of running on the left or on the right.  Serge runs where there is a sidewalk.

The rules are very strict and the followers’ cars can’t park where they wish.  Even the parking for shops is private, reserved for the customers, and nobody can sidestep the rule.  It is beginning to give us problems for stopping to feed Serge.  Since it is a case of absolute necessity, we park as well as we can and bother as little as possible………