We’re back on the road, baby! Or so I wish I could’ve happily said this morning as I crawled out of bed at 7AM to move about 30+ kg worth of luggage towards Tokyo station. Yeah, this was a rough one. I don’t think I was mentally prepared to get going so early again, especially after spending 5 long and exhausting days in the city. Going through a stressful process like this with only a mere few hours of sleep (‘cos, you know, it got quite late again the day before) was probably the worst start of a day I had this year. At least I could nap for a bit on the Shinkansen towards our next destination: Koriyama, or only briefly as we swiftly made our way to the old village of Ouchi-juku and now, Ashinomakionsen. At least this rough day ended very well with one of the nicest (and one of the very few private!) onsens of the journey but, crikey. I guess traveling for this long is quite draining after all. Who’d have thought! The final few days of this journey will be somewhat more comfortable though, since we’ve swapped our bumpy rental van for a much fancier vehicle and additionally, stored all our heavy luggage back in Tokyo, which means we’re only traveling with a backpack each. Quite a light and refreshing end to the road trip. Let’s make the most of this last leg!