Niimi, Okayama & Kitami again

I had kind of lost my desire to travel anymore in Matsue, for a couple of reasons. I was tired of cycling since my hands were hurting due to some kind of nerve damage which must have occurred during cycling, especially with a bike like mine and with distances like I took. So if rest is a good remedy for most ailments, I'm sure it would work for my hands as well so I didn't want to make my hands any worse by prolonging the trip any further. Another reason was that I was running out of money and therefore wanted to be with Tomomi instead of going to new cities, since in my experience, the cities themselves are nothing to be interested about. I don't care that much about old buildings, no matter who gave the order to build them or what kind of destruction was planned inside them. They're overrated anyway.

So while presented with two choices, cycling 120km to Tottori and from there, at least a hundred more to Okayama, or go about 160km straight to Okayama, I took the latter option. Again, there was a pretty severe uphill at the start of it, right after Yonago, but before it got really hot, I was already past the highest peak and on my way down. After that, most of the trip was downhill.

I took a stop at Niimi, which was famous for one thing, its two limestone caverns. One of them, Ikura-do, was kind of built up to be an amusement park for kids and adults alike, with its theme-based restaurants full of miniature waterfalls and caves as well as the souvenir shops all the other adorable amenities of a tourist attraction. In other words, I loathed the place. But the cave itself, after getting over the 1000 yen entrance fee, was beautiful. Only that it was also infested with parasites of human form - children. While I was expecting to have a sort of serene experience just peacefully going through the tunnels, I was condemned to listen to the whine of the kids from 1 to 10 year-olds until the end. The parents didn't think, of course, that their darlings would have disturbed anyone in the cavern. So the kids just screamed constantly. What could've been more fun than that, right?

Well, in any case, after getting over the frustration and building a mental block to all sounds too high-pitched, I could enjoy the beauty of the cave too. It was definitely worth going, but I only wished that the ever-so-polite Japanese would also mind about their kids, as it's not the only place where they let them scream and run free.

After leaving Niimi, I eventually arrived to Okayama in a pretty good shape, all things considered. When I went to measure myself, though, I was only 67 kg, so in these few days, I had lost perhaps 1.5kg more, although I was eating normally. I suppose it's not enough to just eat normally, though. For the record, I'm 1.84m tall, so my weight is really too low. In Finland, it was 72kg before I left for Japan. I'll put myself on gaining my weight back right away.

There's not much else to tell - I spent a few more days in Okayama and then it was time to hit the ferry again. I took a couple of trains and a bus and a ferry and then, I was back in Hokkaido. Because my hands were still aching, I went to Kitami by bus as well. A bit inconvenient but it couldn't be helped, since my hands are more important for me than gaining mileage. I just hope they will get better soon.