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70 Yrs. Old, My Happy-Go-Lucky Bicycle Trip
A Round-Trip to Hakodate (Hokkaido) from Kawagoe (Saitama)
One day, when a Contemporary Don Quixote ("Don" for short) was enjoying cycling, a good idea suddenly occurred to him.
"OK, I'll go to Hokkaido by bicycle to eat my favorite crabmeat".
This simple idea brought him to embark on a round-trip to Hakodate (Hokkaido) from Kawagoe (Saitama) and to get back home successfully by bicycle, a total distance of about 1260 miles.
Although this idea occurred to him suddenly while he was cycling, it would be incorrect to say that he didn't have even the slightest confidence in his success. The bicycle was a vehicle he had frequently used since childhood. In his hometown, Don had commuted to high school by bicycle every day for three years, spending about 30 minutes one way. Riding a bicycle after a lapse of many years as a means of preventing metabolic syndrome, he only felt it natural that he could ride a bicycle. However, because his legs had become weaker, he was easily overtaken by younger cyclists and had no choice but to see off their backs as he was enjoying cycling on the riverbed cycling road.
Oddly enough, when Don was riding his bicycle, he felt as if he had gone back to his younger days. Probably, "he" as he was in his boyhood, might still live on somewhere in his body. His shadow reflected on the riverbed cycling road had not much changed, either. If he could only keep running at his pace, he felt as if he could go even to the end of the earth. While he was running by bicycle a distance of 100 to 200 km on weekends, he thought that he could definitely make it to Hokkaido.
Don had a positive attitude. He liked to eat almost any food. He could sleep anywhere. So, it did not take much time for him to make a decision after he had come up with the idea.
"Well, this coming September 24th, the day after my 70th birthday, would be a good day for my departure."
So, he exercised much harder. Two weeks before his departure, he had an accident, breaking of 2 of his ribs, on the way home from his daily exercise. But the plan was carried out as scheduled.
Initially, according to his schedule, he was to take Routes 16 and 6 from his home to Tsuchiura (Ibaraki prefecture), keep running on Route 6 along the Pacific coast north up to Sendai (Miyagi prefecture), switch to Route 4 through the inland course north up to Aomori via Morikoka (Iwate prefecture), take a Seikan ferry boat to Hakodate (Hokkaido) and then, take the same route back home in the opposite direction.
In his initial plan, his destination was not Hakodate but Sapporo. However, an unexpected incident had occurred which forced him to change his destination to Hakodate from Sapporo. He had failed to bring his bankcard, with which he had planned to settle a part of his trip expenses. His trip schedule was badly affected by this unexpected incident. He had to give up visiting many places he wanted to see, he had to give up eating his favorites, and he had to rush ahead even in the rain. He took about 500 photos with his digital camera, but most of them were landscapes taken from the national roadways. Actually, however, his return route was different from his route to Hokkaido. Specifically, he took the same route down to Towada (Aomori prefecture), and from there, he took Route 45 down to Hachinohe (Aomori prefecture), kept running further south down to Sendai along the Sanriku coastline, and then he took Route 4 (partly Route 16) all the way back home through the inland course via Fukushima and Utsunomiya. Thus, his entire route was in the shape of a figure "8" in the north-south direction.
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