Some of my friends already know my bear story. I overloaded my poor little folding bicycle and rode it from
Amanohashidate in Northern Kyoto around
Tango Peninsula, camping for two nights. I read on the internet, and was told by a friend, that you can camp anywhere in Japan. (Possibly that's changing, because I saw many "No camping!" signs all around
Lake Biwa.)
Tango Peninsula is pretty remote,so there are plenty of beautiful and deserted spots. At the end of my first day cycling through the picturesque fishing of Ine and along the Eastern coastline of the peninusla, I found an abandoned rice field surrounded by forest at the top of a small hill. I set up my small tent on what appeared to be level ground (but wasn't) and crawled inside as the light faded from the sky.
It was dark! I was miles from anywhere. There were no lights. There was no traffic noise. I was all alone, isolated in my hot mosquito-infested little shelter. I discovered that summer is too hot for camping in Japan.
Exhausted from cycling all day, I tried to go to sleep. Suddenly a branch cracked loudly in the forest nearby. Maybe a
tanuki, I thought. Then I heard an animal growl. Ummm... fighting tanukis...? And then I heard the bear. I never even thought about bears before. There are no bears in New Zealand. If you go camping in New Zealand the most dangerous things you meet are sandflies. I was so scared! I texted the outdoorsy friend who told me I could camp anywhere and asked "Should I be worried about bears?" but he didn't reply. I put all my food inside plastic bags and tied them up tight because I remembered reading that bears are attracted to campsites by the smell of food. Then I sat and flicked my flashlight on and off in the hope that it might resemble a campfire.
The bear didn't approach my tent. I didn't even hear it again, although I heard a lot of other strange and frightening noises through that long and almost sleepless night. The next night I paid 2000 yen to camp in a beach campsite with cold water showers, smell rubbish bins and lots of mosquitoes. Never mind - there were no bears.
I was reminded of my brush with a bear on my recent bicycle trip around Lake Biwa. I wasn't camping this time. Instead I left my bicycle at train stations overnight, traveling home to Kyoto and returning next morning to resume my journey. On the second day I rode from Omi-Takashima to Ranten right at the top of the lake. I was planning to ride over the scenic driveway. I arrived at Ranten about 4:00 pm and saw that the driveway was closed overnight from 8:00 pm. I knew it would get dark about 6:30, but my bicycle has lights. I didn't feel like riding for 2 hours back to Makino where the last train station had been, so I decided to press on. I slogged up the steep slopes for about 30 minutes, passing a group of workmen and a couple of policemen doing something to the road. One of the policemen followed me up the road, and told me I shouldn't continue, especially because I was alone. He said there were bears in the hills and it was too dangerous. Needless to say, I took his advice.
There are still a lot of areas of Japan that are very wild and remote. There are monkeys and deer and wild boar and tanuki and BEARS in those hills!
I've seen much more wildlife in Japan than I ever did in New Zealand. Probably that's because I usually traveled by car in NZ. So I saw a lot of farm animals, but rabbits and possums (both pests) were the only wild animals I saw. There are lots of interesting birds in New Zealand, but they're hard to observe from a car. Apparently we have herons and white egrets, but I never saw one.
