Great sleep on the sheltered trampoline and off to an early start on a cloudy day.
Goodbye to another park camping spot.
A slight climb to the first of a few beautifully preserved villages on the Nakasendo trail. In the name of heritage, they’d made the effort to rid these villages of the otherwise ubiquitous utility cables. So nice not to have wires in every photo – of which I took far too many. Being so early we had plenty of space to have a good potter around the main streets and some temples.
Onions hanging to dry
Footpath getting a bit tight for bikes, but great deserted tunnel for echoes.
Not minding the early signs of autumn yet, with the cloud a lot of the day was under 20°C – drizzle was a small price to pay.
Lunch in Agematsu was a good way to get out of the rain for a bit. We happened across a restaurant run by the cutest elderly couple, assisted by their son. They were very interested in our trip, we explained as best we could.
From this restaurant, we started to include “elderly couple” in our searches online for restaurants – such places always seem to serve food made with utmost care.
I’m unsure what I’m trying to explain, with my very limited Japanese, but Rachel has captured the moment well.
Down the valley for thirty kilometres we continued, the towns spacing out a bit more for slightly faster progress.
Hydro plant.
Mischievous macaques on an abandoned building – the first we’d seen.
A brick building!
Along with the waterwheels we’d seen earlier, we happened upon a man making more in his garage. Interesting to stop and look for a bit – no structural nails and his working model was intricate.
Rain cleared by now and brightening up.
After this town, Tsumago, the Nakasendo climbed 400 m over a hill away from the river. Bit too steep for us, so we took the road to the same point.
Just as well we did, as the where the trail emerged back to the road, at the top, it was rather busy with walkers.
Down into Gifu, as we attempted to get through the metropolitan line, the following day, that’s almost continuous from Nagoya along the south coast.
One more lovely town on the Nakasendo for the day. Would have been nice to stay up here, but we couldn’t find anywhere suitable to do so.
So we lost five hundred metres rapidly and had a short ride to a business hotel onsen in Nakatsugawa to end an unusually climby day (for this trip). Excellent day of sights it was too; unfortunately Rachel was starting to show signs of having caught the illness that had plagued me in Tokyo.
Bonus – these tyres were unwanted by the purchaser of a new bike, so only forty dollars equivalent each. So much faster – don’t tell Rachel.
A little life left in the rear one, more on the front – they may have survived the final month, but I was keen to have slicker tyres too. Rachel had her Mezcals swapped between wheels.
Found some of my favourite Japanese candy.
Bodes well.
Bit late to forage for salad ingredients.
A rare sighting of an old kei truck.
Not often we saw roofs held down with rocks, only a few in our three months.
Another plus of being back in the hills.
First standard trains, well after the morning rush.
Watching point-and-call in action, as well as the rails.
Three stations between the termini give somewhere for trains to pass.
Flashbacks to 
Goodbye and thanks to Thomas, Keiko and Leila for the stay in their home, and the many outings.
I was unreasonably pleased to get a tea bag coaster.
Quiet in the suburbs mid Sunday morning.
Into Shinjuku Park after the busyness outside.
Restorative ramen and broth for lunch, watched it made in front of us.
Into Akihabara – famous for electronics and manga.
Streets closed to traffic on a Sunday, very pleasant.
Huge lotus pond in Ueno Park, nice to walk beside.
Seems I still had a thing for finding old pillar boxes.
Trying to sneak down the back of a long alley of stalls.
Bemused by these guys hanging around on roofs. Not quite the strange women lying in ponds handing out swords that we’d not seen earlier.
Loved this patterning and the texture.
Just as well it was Sunday, I was hardly dressed appropriately.
Going to the black ring of the observation deck, on an elevator thankfully.
With the sky dark, an animated Halloween (still a month away) film played all around the deck’s windows. Dancing pumpkins anyone? More impressive, and entertaining, than expected.
Not fitting in, in many ways (Rachel’s photo).
Surprised to hear, and then see, a convoy of go-karts. All a bit Mario Bros, unsure how they are legal or if we’d slipped into another world.