I descended from the pass not in the fog any more – what a relief. The evening approached, so I was looking for a place to sleep well deep in my soul I dreamed so it was a dry one . Well, and I almost almost made it. Noticed a nice place by the river to in a village which looked nice at first glance. The place turned out not to be perfect after closer examination, , but then I noticed the beautiful green weed (oh I'm sensitive to such nice pieces of grass ..) in front of a building. So – I thought to myself – I'll ask, no harm...
Imagine my surprise, as I was greeted by gaijin! (that is the japanese term for foreigners, apparently not very cool, no but we foreigners are all gaijins). Andy turned out to be a New Zealander, who works for the company organizing all kinds of outdoor activities such which headquarter was in this place “survival and adventure” ie. Kayaks, bungee jumping and other. A few other people from antipodes worked there in the office toghether with several Nepalese guides.
So soon the owner came, Naomi - so nice Japanese woman, who with her Australian husband ran the business. The building itself was beautiful and charmful, proved to be an old school now adapted for other purposes.
I thought,, I have a lot of luck and I'll spend a pleasant evening talking.. but, but I counted on too much apparently or was dissolved by my previous hosts. People there were nice, but not prone to making friends.. That surprised me slightly. They asked if I wanted to use the kitchen, but I did not want to use the kitchen because I have mine, just wanted to sit down and talk a bit.
But I was not surprised any more when I saw the owner. Not too friendly. not alike his wife.
Nice of them was though that, there was no problem to take a shower and dry my clothes.
The next day I hit the road again admiring the scenery. The road was quiet and river gorges and other natural circumstances spectacular. At some point I noticed a bridge, I turned there. and I saw Nepalese people , which I saw in school. I found out that , it was there wher they held bungee jumping, a young Japanese couple was just trying the big jump. From word to word they said to me, that they come here every season, since the Australian guy also own such business in Nepal. Big boss in a word...
For me, the central Hokkaido makes the quintessential charm of the island. And if you like some other activity than the bike - that's a paradise.
