Day 10: Wakkanai and Cape Soya

Ensconced in our lovely Crowne Plaza room, we enjoyed a fabulous morning sleeping in and dry on day 10 in Hokkaido. We seriously considered staying there all day. Eventually we talked ourselves into going out to get my rack repaired. After that the northernmost point of Japan was within 30km and remained our goal. We steeled ourselves to the weather, donned our gear, headed down to the bikes, and started off.

The ride out was brutal. flat but into a headwind most of the way. No idea what the wind speed was but with drafting it was all we could do to maintain 15km/hr at times. Finally, after many twists and turns, we made it! The northern most point of Japan! We grabbed some photos, had a quick snack, and headed back before the light failed.

The ride back was a full tailwind, and I hit 50+km/hr on the flat. Average speed was closer to 27km/h and we returned in no time.

On the return we went in search of Lonely Planet recommended Russian restaurant. It proved elusive, and finding it required asking directions from some teenagers walking on the street and typing the name (Pechiko) in Japanese into google maps.

Eventually we found it and I'm glad we did! The food was fantastic and the hosts warm. We even met and had photos with the owner! A great end to a wet but satisfying day.

Stats:

63km today

699km total via MapMyRide

841km was final total via odometer

Route is incorrect unfortunately. Not sure what happened. Elevation was also not available.

Cape Soya, the northernmost point in Japan. There were still a bunch of bus yours around when we got there!

Vodka. You could order it by the bottle.

Dish 1: bacon! More like back bacon than conventional bacon

Brendan had a set dinner sampler including potatoes, skewers of meat, and salads.

Our fellow patrons, including local policewomen, and the owner who presented us with buttons.

Day 9: Shosanbetsu to Wakkanai

Day 9 dawned with a brief pause in the rain. From our onsen hotel shelter it was 115km to our final destination and northernmost city in Japan, Wakkanai. The forecast was ominous so we decided to go for it!

We made the next towns, Enbetsu and Teshio effortlessly. It started raining again though and so, to avoid trying to find something last minute,  from Teshio we booked accommodation in Wakkanai. Unfortunately, restricted to English sources, we had one option: the Crown Plaza.

Set on Wakkanai, we set out alonbrg the flat but slightly longer coastal road. 2pm, 70km to go with no towns en route. We were in great spirits despite the rain and left Teshio singing Final Countdown.

14km out our spirits dashed as my bike became wobbly before failing. Initially I thought I had a flat. Turned out both of the rack stays to the seat post had sheared and my rack was on the ground behind the bike. I could rotate the rack around the lower screws, but nothing to hold it upright. We instituted a temporary fix with a tube we had been using as a bungee, and rode just over 1km to a random tunnel shelter.

In the shelter, the repair was reinforced with bungees and the lower screws tightened. It was rideable, but it was afraid the lower bolts would shear. It had also cost us precious daylight and was still pouring rain with 60km to go. Decision time: continue riding or find a JR station and use our rail pass to train into the city. Closest station was 11km uphill and into a headwind, with the train leaving in just over an hour. Bad choices either way.

Failing daylight and a fear of further breaks convinced us to pursue the train and we had an 11km sprint, followed by rapid ringkoing of the bikes. We made it with 15min to spare! And then were told the train was 50min late. Go figure. We hung out in the shack waiting. When we did get on, it was a tiny car with one other passenger.

With the delay, and a further one as we waited on a siding for the express to pass us, we got into Wakkanai at 9pm, a full 4.5 hours after the mechanical failure. We checked in, hung up our wet items, and went looking for food. We found one "open" restaurant from which we were quickly encouraged to leave by the proprietress running towards us with her arms crossed and saying what could only have been "closed!". we made a meal of convenience store and freeze dried foods and went to bed.

Stats:

68km ridden, with 60km bypassed by train

636km total

1 flat, 1 saddle repair, 1 minor rack repair, 1 major rack repair

Random tunnel structure in the middle of the open road. No idea on its purpose but it provided us shelter for repairs

Our lovely station we spent 2+ hrs at cold and wet. Came with electric lights but no toilet and no heat.

The jury rigged repair, taken at a bike shop the next day. I didn't take any pictures of the failure for some reason...

Yep, we're remote. We're actually close to Russia and there are periodic ferry sailings north to Russia.

Day 8: Rubio to Shosanbetsu

Our 8th day started with the need to repair my saddle. Its a Brooks saddle and the front bolt had fallen off in the field, relaxing the tension in the leather saddle. We were unable to stretch it back properly ourselves, so we had to find a bike shop, which didn't open until 10. The first bike mechanic looked at it, shook his head, and turned us away. The second did the same, but I persisted in trying to show how I thought it should be repaired. He didn't have a better idea, but did have tools were were able to use and eventually change the saddle. He had a few to choose from, including a ridiculously wide one. I went for a slender used saddle for 500\.

With the saddle repaired, we stocked up on food and off we went. First order of business was to mail the Brooks saddle back to Sam who had lent us the bikes. The Rubio post office was uphill the wrong way out of town, so we chose the first hamlet post office up the road. Mailing a package from a tiny rural post office with no common language is a challenge! Eventually we succeeded, with some help from the phrasebook and the attendant filling out most of the form.

With that we were off and had an absolutely ridiculous stretch - we were flying at 35km/hr on the flat for a good hour, on fully loaded touring bikes. It was amazing! Sadly it didn't last and with changing weather / topography, our tailwind shifted to a headwind by the end of the day. We powered through the next town Habboro, and on to a hamlet called Shosanbetsu, hoping to make the town of Enbetsu further up the coast. By Shosanbetsu though the rain was bad and it was getting dark. We glanced around for a potential camping spot (gas station and awning of a nature conservatory were both candidates), before heading to a restaurant. There we had a delightful bowl of ramen while trying to talk with our hosts. Eventually they understood what we were doing and asked where we would spend the night. We asked about a hotel, and they suggested the onsen hotel 5km up the road. They even called for us to confirm there was one tatami room left!Though this was all realized after. My takeaway at the time was: there may or may not be indoor shelter 5km up the road. Weary, we hopped on our bikes and continued on.

An onsen experience after a long, cold, wet day in the saddle is spectacularly relaxing. We were able to shower, relax in the hot water, dry our articles, and sit reading / blogging in the lobby. Staying at the hotel for the fully onsen experience made it all the better.

Stats:
80km today
568km total
1 flat, 1 minor rack repair, 1 saddle replacement

Up down up down up down...

Yep, 5km split at nearly 30km/h, on a touring bike. NBD.

Gorgeous tile waterfront... In a tiny village. Rural public works projects and bridges to nowhere...

Snake, it's a snake! (Or as I tried to type here on my phone: a snack, which may also be true)

Storm's a brewing. And yes, we were riding towards it.

No onsen photos unfortunately. Probably on the other camera.

Day 7: Atsuta to Rumoi

Day 7 we woke up super early, were out of camp by 7, stopped at Seicomart for breakfast, then... waited for the rain to clear until 8:45. Still was a great day though.

The ride can best be summarized as.. TUNNELS. Lots and lots and lots of tunnels. We counted 29. And at least two of them were 3km long. It was insane. And many work crews. This is living proof of the practice of politically powerful rural regions in Japan having excessive public works projects. So too is the gorgeous waterfronts in every little hamlet. Also a bit scary in teh ride was the 50km of open road with no services (well, except for the tunnels)

Ride was great and we made good time to Rumoi, a city of 30,000. We had choice of food in Rumoi, but both of the suggestions we obtained for beef were closed. We ended up at Red Burg, a strange Japanese take on an American 50s diner. Food was mediocre but cheap - I had a full plate of rice and curry for $4.

After dinner we headed towards an onsen at the suggestion of a local shopkeeper who graciously gave us passes. At least we tried. First we had to pick up the pieces from my saddle attachment that had fallen apart. Sigh... The onsen was quite relaxing though. It is like a sento but with natural hotspring water. After a nice relaxing onsen, we wearily headed to setup stealth camp.

Stats
101.4km today (our first century!)
488km total
1flat, 1 minor rack repair, 1 saddle broken

Km is horribly wrong but the route is generally accurate. MapMyRide doesn't like tunnels. Actually 101km

Not sure on this accuracy either. The pre trip profile looked quite scary - we went under most of the hills!

Tunnel...

Many tunnels!

Fortunately there were emergency pull off lanes we could take a break in. We also took advantage to start some videos here. (To come as a YouTube link)

3km!?

Gorgeous ride when not underground though

Not a great photo but you can get a feel for our "American" diner from it

Our camping area, sea over the fence to the right

Day 6: Sapporo to Atsuta

Our rain deluge out of Bifue had taught us that our equipment was inadequate. Our morning in Sapporo we headed to MontBell, a local outdoors store similar to MEC or REI. We'd previously visited one in Hiroshima where I'd purchased a GoreTex shell. The Sapporo store was in a massive mall downtown. Here Brendan purchased shoe covers and I purchased gloves. Brendan also bought the store out of their half price blueberry Cliff bars. Curiously the Cliff bars weren't a Japanese label, rather they were a Japanese sticker applied to the back.

Our shopping consumed the morning and once again we set out after lunch. One realization in this time: Japanese floors are numbered 2F, 3F, etc., just like dungeons in video games!

We followed the main road out and made good time. Eventually we remembered to check out a side road and weren't disappointed... the downsides of navigating by google maps car directions. During one of these side roads the rack on my bike required repairs - the brackets that gripped the frame had lost their rubber spacers and were rubbing on the frame. Electrical tape provided an easy fix, but cost us daylight. We reluctantly setup camp in Atsuta, some 30km short of our goal. Needless to say we were up early the next morning!

Atsuta is... tiny. All the restaurants were closed by 7, so we had an improvised dinner of Seicomart and freeze dried food. Seicomart is usually our breakfast and lunch as well, so this was discouraging. We were in an official campground though.... kinda. It had open toilet facilities and functioning water taps but no showers. And no attendant. I doubt anyone knew we were there at all.

Stats:
50.16km today
377km total
1 flat, 1 minor rack tweak

Hilly ending to the day

Fancy mall

Cute village, gorgeous skies

We weren't sure what to make of the sign

Our water pavilion at the campground. Best part was we could leave our gear under it with an excellent chance of it being dry!

Day 5: Bifue Campground to Sapporo

Bifue campground on Lake Shikotsu was quite lovely, at least the main building amenities, it was too wet to see much else. We took advantage and did laundry. While sitting around waiting the staff gave us buns, chips, and coffee from their store, no charge. Talk about hospitality!

Eventually everything was ready and packed when the staff asked us where we were going, or as close to that as possible with minimal overlap in language! After many gestures, pointing at a map, and phrase book look ups, we became much more knowledgeable on our route. Chitose was a nearby city, approximately 40km downhill. Our next major goal of Furano would be two long, hilly days after that with no food access. Alternatively Sapporo (major city of 2million) sounded like a 2 day ride away, with a quiet but hilly northern route and flatter but busier ride through Chitose. Unclear on our plans, but approaching noon, we headed to Chitose, to decide upon the way.

Our ride into Chitose was very wet, but we did find a nice dedicated path we could follow that paralleled the road. We also flew downhill, covering the 40km in sub 2hrs! Now it was decision time: stop? Continue to Furano? To Sapporo. Soaking wet but still energic, we headed north to Sapporo, continuing to fly downhill and covering 80km in approximately 5hrs, all after lunch.

Accommodation in Sapporo was at Inos Backpackers Hostel, a Lonely Planet suggestion. Thankfully they had space for walkins. It was cute and homey, larger than Pan and Circus in Kyoto, but still with character.

For dinner we set out via subway in search of an old ramen alley. I wasn't overly optimistic I could eat. Most ramen places use fish sauce and egg noodles. I need the rare combination of pork sauce and soba (buckwheat) noodles. Pessimisticly,  I inquired at three shops if I could eat, being turned away each time. The third shop even showed us that the Hokkaido noodles he and everyone else used had eggs.

I was resigned to eating elsewhere, I told Brendan to choose a ramen place for himself. He chose one that had some patrons but and empty seats. He was in the process of saying just for one person when I decided to ask one more time. I could eat both their salt and soya sauce ramen! Hooray, I'd found that rare combination! It was quite salty, but still delicious!

Sadly a bowl of ramen just isn't enough food after a day of riding. So, for the first time in my life, I went from one restaurant I'd had dinner at, directly to a second for second dinner. That night second dinner was a grill your own affair with lamb sausage, beef tongue, and shoulder. Yum!

Numbers:

78km today

327km total

1 flat so far in repairs

Yep, I think we went downhill today

Back to neon lights!

Ramen alley

Neil safe ramen!

Ino's House had a circus theme. These stilts and pogo stick (both much harder than they look), were joined by juggling balls inside.

Day 4: Lake Toya to Bifue Campground

Day 4 started with a trip into the tourist townsite by Lake Toya, in search of an onsen (natural sento or spa). We didn't find one, but discovered they're usually connected to hotels. We did learn that Lake Toya hosted the G8 summit in 2008. A nice picturesque place for it.

Our route for the day aimed for nearby Lake Shikotsu. we followed the river inland, anticipating a slow, constant climb. And yep, it was!

Near the end of the day it started to rain. We were tired, wet and dreading upcoming switchbacks on the map, not sure if they were up or down. Ahead on the road appeared... A dinosaur!? Yep.

 The dinosaur was connected to a large building with adjoining farmers market. Inside we found everything mushroom: dried mushrooms, brined mushrooms, powdered mushrooms, tempura mushrooms, fried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, mushroom tea and wood for smoking mushrooms. The tea which was quite delightful.

After eating (well Brendan ate, I couldn't have the mushroom sausage), we reluctantly headed back into the cold, wet day. We continued climbing a couple more kilometres to a tunnel, and passed though the tunnel to an epic descent! The switchbacks were down! I think we both exceeded 50km/hr. It was an exhilarating ride :)

At the end of the descent we faced a choice: continue 20km further to a village, or turn down a questionable road to a campground. With te sun low in te sky, we opted for the campground. At first it was a nice road with lane markings, then became a strip of asphalt, then I unpaved. At this point we reassured ourselves that even if the campground was fictional, there was a lake with water we could treat.

We needn't have worried. Despite the questionable approach (which would have likely been better if we read Japanese), the campground was quite nice. We were welcomed warmly, had warm showers, and were able to do laundry the next morning. There was also sheltered sitting areas, both inside and outside.

How does my experience with a Japanese campground compare? Generally European in flavour and it reminded me a lot of one in Dublin. More tents than the Swiss ever had though.

Numbers:

53 km for the day 

249km total

1 flat

Route. Lake Toya is clearly visible, but Lake Shikotsu didn't make it.

Yep, we climbed.... All day.

Cute garden at a public toilet we stopped at

Dinosaur!?

All things mushrooms

Including tea

And mushroom fried rice!

Day 3: Toyaka to Lake Toya

We started day 3 in Yakumo quite tired having covered 160km plus the previous two days (largely out of necessity on appropriate places to stop that would have food). We opted for a short semi rest day 3.

We started with a leisurely ride down the coast, looking for historic sites in the village of Usu on the way to Date. The sign posts for navigating to them were there but we never found them! They allegedly exist...

We wanted quiet roads so we headed inland towards a service road by the expressway... With far more of a climb than we had anticipated. We'd completed half our intended climb for the day, and thus didn't descend back to Date. Expressways deserve special mention: there are limited access roads branching throughout Hokkaido. They're all toll roads though and t seems most traffic sticks to the original roads. Our rides would have been much quieter on an expressway! Go figure.

Our climb brought us to Sobetsu and our regular fare of convenience store food for lunch. In the Seicomart I was approached by a Japanese gentleman who explained he'd appreciates the help of locals back when he was in Italy, and wondered if we could use any help, offering us to come by his place for lunch.

"Awesome" I thought, but this turned to concern when he asked me to pay for his groceries, all $3.79 of it. Not a huge amount and he had invited us into his home, so sure, why not, though my scam detectors were tingling. Thus was my introduction to Taka. 

We followed our Taka to his place down the road. It was... A disaster. The yard was in the shambles and the house suggested equally bad, though we never ventures inside. Instead we are our convenience store food under a tree at a nearby shrine, with Taka first explaining to  us how to properly approach. We shared some stories, and played guess each other's ages (he put me at 36!), and we learned that Taka had grown up in this valley and was proud to show it off. He offered to show us around a bit. So, with nothing else planned but climbing a short hill and finding accommodation, we agreed.

Taka took us walking on a trail to a waterfall that is the only outlet of Lake Toya, and to his friend's farm. There we saw the apple orchards and strawberry greenhouses, and shared afternoon tea with the farm hands, before declining an invitation to sleep in the barn, in favour of continuing onto Lake Toya. Our time with Taka drew to a close but he had certainly enriched our trip.

A short ride on we encountered Lake Toya. It's a doughnut shaped lake, formed in a volcanic crater and is immensely beautiful.

With light fading, dinner was hastily found at what turned out to be a Chinese restaurant, and they in turn recommended a campsite, which we readily accepted.

Numbers:

36 km today

196km total

1 flat

Route. I stopped after Taka drove us to the farm so a bit off. Lake Toya is the blue in the upper right.

It wasn't a lot of distance, but there were several climbs!

Brendan in the orchard. He commented the farm reminded him of home.

Strawberry fields forever! Or not, there were about four of these greenhouse structures

Taka

Not a great photo, but gives some idea of the doughnut shape

Lake Toya

Dinner!

Our improv campsite :)