After a phone call with my dad, I started walking to the public toilets. It was raining a little, but not enough to bother me. If anything, it felt nice. But then, all of a sudden, the heavens opened. The rain came pouring down as if the gods had burst into tears. It was so fierce that I wondered whether I'd done something wrong. It was like divine punishment. An intensity I'd never seen before. I quickly turned on my heel and ran to the tent. I completely forgot that I'd needed the toilet, and decided in an instant that tomorrow would do. In that single minute my whole body got drenched. I thought that if I hadn't already pitched the tent, I'd have been in serious trouble. I sat in the tent listening the whole time to the sound of the rain, like amplified static. When it stopped, not a single drop was falling. It suddenly went silent, and all I could hear was the sound of a train passing by. In that moment I thought, so this is the rainy season.

While riding along the coast, I spotted an island with a lighthouse known as a "Koi-suru Tōdai" (a lighthouse for lovers). I generally have no sightseeing plans, so when I come across a beautiful place like this, it feels like stumbling on treasure.

I chatted briefly with a woman called Yamazaki-san. She recommended a particular roadside station. She said they have delicious crab. I stopped by later and got talking to the staff. After we talked about the tour, one of them treated me to manjū and sweets. The crabs were absolutely huge, but I forgot to take a photo. While I was still at the roadside station, I bumped into Yamazaki-san and her husband again.

In the morning, to cope with the muggy heat, I tried cooling my forehead with a frozen Calpis, but it barely cooled me down at all. In the afternoon, even though I was wearing waterproofs, my whole body got drenched. What is this weather?

People often use the expression "take it day by day". In my fourth year at university, my friend Radi also used to say to me all the time, "I just want one more day from you." I feel like I've finally come to understand what that expression really means. On this tour, if I think about anything beyond the day itself, my brain stops working. When that happens, the number of mistakes suddenly shoots up too. So I make a simple plan for the next three days and focus as hard as I can only on what's happening right now. I can't predict what will happen in the rest of my life, but I believe this experience matters. I thought so before I started too, which is why I wanted to cycle the length of Japan.

I went to an onsen in Jōetsu as well. It rained all day today, so I needed to go. My legs have started hurting lately too, so I also went to rest them. It felt great! I soaked in a hot bath, soaked in a scorching cauldron bath, soaked in a freezing cold bath, and repeated that three times. I felt like I'd come back to life. I was able to just zone out too.

Right now I'm reading a book called 動じない心の作り方 (How to Build an Unshakeable Mind). A passage I read today matched something I wrote before, so I'll note it below.

Munen musō (a mind free of thoughts): when you're doing something, don't think about anything unnecessary. Put your whole attention on the one thing you need to do right now.