Today we woke from our river side location and packed up before breakfast, we eat in a nice shelter before heading off to the 7-11 where we had arranged to meet Rob, and cyclist and longboarder more info, www.14degrees.org we met him through a friend of Cliff’s girlfriend. It was good to speak and learn about his adventures. Rob is going to be cycling with us for a couple of days.

The weather after we left the 7-11 was not very nice it was not raining but very grey. We cycled along the coast cutting in land a bit to go over mountains and through tunnels.

We made good time, and found a nice camping spot, but first we headed to the warmth (I was going to say dry but that would be wrong) of the Onsen. There was an outside pool, and we stayed there for about 3 hours spending more time in the relaxation area, before heading back to the camping spot.

The tents were up before the rain got heavier which was good we are now cooking in the sink shelter.

Its now raining quite hard, tonight might be like sleeping in a drum. Good job I brought the eye plugs!

Today started with a bit of rain so on with the waterproofs it soon stopped and it was on with the sun cream.

We cycled on up and down some nice hills. The next thing that caught our eye was a sign to some space apples, we were not sure what these were and will never be as we didn’t find them but we did got ushered into the Nikka Whisky Distillery in Yoichi. The museum was very good and there were some interesting videos in English.

As we arrived they let us park the bikes inside and stuck a sticker on us which meant we were not allowed to have any of the three tasters, in the end we took this off and had a little try.

After looking around the museum we went to the gift shop, were we brought a snack of crabs, they were dried and had some sort of seasoning on them. They were alright.

The story behind the whisky distillery set up goes back to scotland. Masataka who set up the distillery was the first Japanese to study the techniques of whisky making in scotland and bring them back to Japan. The distillery was founded in 1934.

The angles share is the whisky that is lost to evaporation during the maturation process.

Cycling on we headed to the city of Otaru the city of canals, we had a quick look it was no venice, but only have a quick look and never being to venice that a pretty unfair assessment. We took some time finding a supermarket that was over the train tracks and in a massive shopping centre before we headed on the outskirts of Sapporo. We spent quite a long time looking for somewhere to camp. We saw signs to a greenspace, this turned out to be a pitch and put, and an unfinished park. We headed to the ‘dream beach’ www.d-beach.jp this was more of a nightmare, the sand was a gray dusty colour and there were a lot of sheds trying to sell thing most looked closed at the moment.

We headed on to another forest park this was perfect apart from the annoncement that we thought said it was closing so we left and headed on to a river bank that is quite nice and good for camping.

Parts of today can only be described as cycling in a sauna. I think it was the hottest it has been but then I think back to some days in Australia and it was pretty hot so in fact maybe it wasn’t the hottest, but it was pretty hot!

We made a few stops one at a service time station called a Michinoeki these are all across Japan. They are normally a shop selling local produced and arts and crafts. This one was fairly standard. We brought a massive 500ml can of coke for the same price as a much smaller can at the next door vending machine. We washed our clothes and filled up our water bottles and headed on.

An aside about vending machines. There are lots all over Japan some in the middle of nowhere.

We cycled on to another Michinoeki this one had a good view of the mountain shown in the picture.

We had a little chat with a Japanese cyclist who was interested in our equipment and Cliff’s copy of Found Magazine that a couchsurfer gave to us.

We brought a few postcards got some water and cycled on to a MaxValue a super market chain, to get lunch, dinner and breakfast.

Cycling on up and over some lovely hills and seeing snow capped mountains in the distance it was a good afternoon if a little hot. We got some good waves from some motorcyclists and two cyclists. Before finding a layby with a stream above it.

We had a good wash of ourselves and our clothes which was great. There is nothing better than a good wash after a sweaty days cycling and we got to try out the washing line we brought for a ¥100 at the supermarket.

Dinner is now cooking so I best cook and eat.

Today we cycled a fairly long way and didn’t stop other than to get food and water.

Nothing much happened scenery was good but not amazing saw a few trains. Cycling was good.

We tried a few places to camp most were unsuitable due to ground conditions. We thought we found an alright spot until the ants started to attack then we moved on and found somewhere with fewer ants.

This blog is fairly dull so sorry.

Today we woke after going to bed a bit to late, collected a kindly prepared packed breakfast said our good byes and headed to the ferry port after collecting some lunch from a supermarket on the way.

Collection of the prebooked ticket went fine and we were soon waiting in a small line. After the cars and lorries went on we rode on. I nearly went up stairs but this was the wrong way and we parked our bikes and the guy lashing them down looked for a stand there was no we lent them against, the wall and then went upstairs on an escalator.

The ferry was very nicely ikea furnished and I read and slept a bit on the crossing.

We arrived in Hakodate and after collecting dinner head of on route 5. Heading a long this route we found a nice rest area by a lake. The only problem is all the mosquitoes. It is now pudding time (danish) before bed.

Today we woke up to dampish tents and yet another bready feast for breakfast.

We had a long day ahead of us so we made slow start stopping to walk out on some rocks with a man made walk way it was hard to tell why it had been made. There was a man fishing well wading about looking in baskets of some kind.

Pressed on for about 5kms before stopping to buy some squid there was a famous squid place. I tired a bit and did not really like it that much, cliff loved it and eat a whole one minus a tentacle which I tired.

Pressing on further not much happened until we reach the city of our destination Aomori. From here we will be getting a ferry to the island Hokkaido the northern most main island of Japan.

We book our ferry ticket, but thought it was a little expensive but then found out it was the high speed ferry that goes at 36knots not 20 we tried to book on the slower cheaper one but they had run out of bike space. The ferries looked massive but they only have room for two bikes.

We are couchsurfing again tonight but are host is busy till later so we spend a bit of time looking for a laundrette, the closest we got was dry cleaners, we also looked for a internet cafe the closest we got was some massive games arcade with lots of noise and you had to become a member first so it was a little expensive.

We found a lovely spot for dinner the Circle K conveyance store carpark near the bins!

Tomorrow a new island!

I think this is going to be a short blog because I cannot remember what happened today. I remember riding me bike for most of the day.

We stopped off at a big slide. Instead of a fixed material for the slide it had rollers lots of metal rollers which meant that it was very strange to slide down. This slide was new nearby was something I called racoon land. This was a deserted theme park that looked like it was never very good and didn’t have any rides apart from maybe some little go carts.

We left Racoon land and headed on. We decided that it was best to cut the route a little short so we didn’t have to cycle as far tomorrow. As we were deciding this a gentleman who was a former school teacher/botanist talked to us about our trip, kindly gave us a laminated dried flower each and a sheet of paper titled why is the Aokie so blue? He gave us both the english and the Japanese version but neither made much if any sense, which is a bit of a shame because the gentleman was very enthusiastic.

We cycle some more until we turned off into a grassy laybe on a very quite road, so far no cars have past us.

Well we have just eaten some asda chocolate brought from a supermarket in Tokyo. Asda make some claim its the best I wouldn’t go so far, but it was alright.

Today we left our hosts house as she left for work and headed to a lawson convenience store for breakfast. I tired a can of coffee it was warm milky and sweet (sugar) not sweet as in good, it was fairly bad but what do you expect from coffee in a can!

We cycled to what looked like a rocket launch site it wasn’t very exciting just a sign really.

We stopped again in Akita and visited two museums. The first Akarenga-Kan Museum/Katsuhira Tokushi Memorial. This was in a old bank that was european style. More than half the time and cost were spent on the foundation works. Tokushi was a woodprint artist, he was unlike other artists as he did all the woodcutting, designing and printing himself. There was also a Sekiya Shiro memorial room, he was a metalwork artist. The museum was interesting and had lots of photos of the city through the ages.

We headed onto the Akita city Traditional Performing arts heritage hall Neburi Nagashi Kan Kanto Festival Center.

The Kanto festival is a festival involving a lot of poles with a lot of paper lanterns hanging from a frame at the festival people balance these on various parts of there bodies. They are pretty tall maybe 5 or more meters high.

We had a go and it was pretty difficult. We had a personal guided tour of the museum, which was very interesting and we had a go on some drums.

Also at this museum there was a old shop/house/store we could look around the person showing us around told us how the doors locked and demonstrated how strong the doors are by swing on them.

Both museums were good and I could recommend a visit, I couldn’t recommend the coffee.

We got supplies at a supermarket and headed out of the city. We saw these statues on the photo.

There is no karaoke bar nearby so best go to bed.

We woke to the crashing sound of waves and rain. Well it was the lapping of waves and the pounding of rain.

Breakfast was a bready feast inside and unused tunnel. We cycled to Sakata, this ride now seems a long time ago for some reason, and I cannot remember that much of it or what happened.

We looked around a few sights of interest in Sakata, a famous families home and some old rice storage warehouses, that were shade and protected from wind and sun by some specially planted trees. We also visited a relocated light house and a small boat in a park.

We were couch surfing in Sakata and met our host at a supermarket near his house we dropped of the bikes and stuff at his flat that was roomy and had a lot of interesting things on the walls.

We headed to the Onsen which had a great view over the rice fields to the city. We cooked dinner at the apartment and listened to music and chatted and had a fairly late night for us, after 23:00!

TODAY

We got up with our host and had a bready breakfast and headed off the first stop was at a shrine that was quite a walk from the road, it was good.

Heading on and closer to the coast we stopped as recommended by our host at Sixteen Buddha carvings that were in the rocks, by the sea these were impressive and there was a good view back to Sakata, a long the coast.

The day ended in Yurihonjo were we were collected at the station by our host, it just so happened that there were two couch surfers in close location. We dropped our stuff off at our host flat before heading out to see a lot of Jizō on a hill, these are statues of children, we didn’t fully know what they repressed, but they are moments to children, we have seen a few a long the road but never in this number and the view from the hills was great.

After dinner we headed out for a spot of karaoke, before bed.

Oh I forgot to say we visited a empty children’s science museum that had a lot of cool hands on stuff like a musical slide and a bubble to stand in, and a few things outside like a bouncy castle and a big greenhouse thing to climb around in.

Today we arrived in Niigata. This city seemed fairly modern. Cycling was as normal.

We couch surfed tonight, so met our host at a local post office and followed their car for the last part of the journey. We arrived we kindly got given a lot of fresh fruit and other foods. This was great and very kind. We took a shower before driving to behind a was a waste incinerator. Football was fairly low key which was good after a days cycling but it was still pretty tough.

We head on to a big sports store, where our host collected his new bike, and I brought some new brake blocks.

We head back to our host house and got ready for the Onsen, a thermal spring, bath. The Onsen process, arrive put shoes in a small shoe locker, take the key to the reception pay, collect a locker key, go into the changing rooms, undress, no clothes allowed in the Onsen. Then shower on a small low down stool. Then into the pools, they are like a shallow swimming pool. Sit down and relax. The pool I liked the most was outside. This Onsen was a little different to others as it was salt water.

After the onsen it was quite late we headed home had a lovely dinner kindly cooked for us and then watched a bit of TV before going to bed.

Today, we had a bit of a lie in today till 6:45, before having some breakfast, and heading off up the coast.

The cycle today seemed tough it was relatively flat, I think it may have been the late night and football the day before that made it feel so hard.

We cycled until we reached a campsite that was marked on google maps this was on fact an abandoned campsite with not much grass and a shower block that had been taken down.

In the end we found a nice stop on a cliff, near a tunnel where the old road used to be.

A supermarket with cheap food made us eat a lot of dinner and whilst cooking a lady came to talk to us she was very friendly and happy but due to language difficulties communication was limited.