After Hiroshima we returned to Tokyo, spent the night via AirBnB with a math student studying English / French, grabbed the bikes and headed north. To take the bikes on the train we have to Ringko - but them in a bag then carry them through the station. The bagging itself is straight forward, but carrying bike, panniers etc through Tokyo station was a work out.
Our train up was a Shinkensen up to Aomori where we changed to a local train for the tunnel to Hokkaido. The tunnel is 50km long! We disembarked in Hakodate, a city a 200 000. The night was spent stealth camping by a local shrine. Dinner was a seafood restaurant. Brendan indulged while I ate rice, tofu, and salad.
*stealth camping = camp in a discreet corner of a park. Would generally be frowned upon but accepted or at least not banned here
Day 1 biking faced a choice: take the direct route north, or the quieter but longer route. We opted for the shorter route to enjoy our time in the touristy areas to the north.
The ride was main road most of the way. The traffic was tedious but it was a gorgeous day and gorgeous views! One major climb which wasn't too bad. Brendan had a flat at the bottom of this climb. While we were changing it a passing motorist stopped and helped us, including the use of his full size pump! The first of many friendly acts from the locals and I'm starting to realize this is typical of the people here.
We ended our day in a town called Yakomo, stealth camping in a park. We had dinner at what is apparently a Japanese chain - they had an allergy menu! After we rushed to the santo, or public bath. A santo is a bath house with the male / female sides split by a wall. You take your clothes off, wash at the shower, and then relax in the bath / hot tub. It was fantastically relaxing! And reminded me quite a bit of my Turkish Barh experience in Istanbul. Incidentally: santos are public baths which historically were the bathing place. They are dying out now, but there are still people who don't have a shower in their house who rely on the santos. Cost is ~$4.
Trip numbers:
83km today
83 km total per MapMyRide
Note km numbers: MapMyRide drains the phone battery quite a bit so I only use it for the main segments each day. Most of these are written retrospectively so I don't have the odometer reading. Total km will be much higher. But to be written yet
Our route. Map My Ride screen shots aren't great for maps, I'll replace these with proper ones later. Note the calorie values though! I'm having trouble eating enough...
Elevation profile
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