I was lucky enough to be hosted by another amazing couch surfer, this time Jonny in Gifu city, Gifu prefecture. I arrived earlier than expected again haha. Jonny was being a legend and preparing some sushi for myself and the other couch surfer, Wally – a touring cycling from Holland (aka another legend).
My Couch Surfing review basically says it all:
Jonny is the friendliest Canadian I have ever met, although that’s usually not saying much, he was very kind and accommodating during my stay and exceeded all couch surfing expectations. Jonny was kind and flexible enough to let me stay an additional day too.
When I first arrived Jonny was preparing sushi for everyone to eat that night before we went down to the local river to watch some cultural river fishing, although a net would probably be more effective because it was as if we were standing there in the boat with the fishermen puppeteering the cormorants. It was a great night. We were interviewed by a local news crew but never caught a glimpse of our fame on TV.
Jonny had another bicycle tourer stay during my time and we all went down to the local river, had some food and drinks whilst swimming and playing Frisbee.
Unfortunately whilst we were having a great time, a 12 year old boy went missing in the water, although the rescue crew searched for hours they had not found anything after hours. There were 4 fire trucks, snorkelers, divers and 4 helicopters. It really makes you think how fragile life can be. We caught a glimpse of the family as we were leaving and it left us all in a very sombre mood.
On the way back I decided to see a temple. This is where I received my first injury of the trip: a broken toe nail. Well maybe completely f****d is a more accurate description. It happened as I was parking my bike and happened to stub my toe on one of those wheel stop things.
I managed to clean it up a little in a local stream, then a nice lady came up to give me some food after reading my hat: 日本一周中 (travelling all around Japan). I showed her my toe and she also agrees it would be better to rip it off, but not after offering a full medical kit to me.
I had a blast during my stay with Jonny. We stayed up watching sports and talking about our travels. I would love to meet up again with Jonny and if you’re ever in Sydney, hit me up. Thanks for everything mate, hope you make it to South America!
Cycling Around Japan 