Early start today as the village chimes rang out at five in the morning, ouch! Rewarded with a beautiful sunrise, although the colour brought the proverbial warning.

Leaving the lake for the first few kilometres, the sky became more ominous.

Soon after leaving for an even quieter road, the heavens opened and we were soon drenched in the heaviest rain we experienced in the four month trip. Fifteen minutes were spent under the edge of a forest, besides rice fields. Rachel hopped over a small water race to get further out of the rain.

Unfortunately on hopping back she took a big slide in the mud down the slope. Only damaged pride, thankfully – that concrete a bit close for comfort.

And a very dirty rear, to my amusement. No shortage of water for cleaning though.

The rain easing to drizzle, we rejoined the new cycle path we’d found just before the thunderstorm had found us.

It was good, besides the inexplicable gaps.

And overgrown sections.

Soon we were back lakeside and found where all the boats go to hibernate for most of the year. All looked a bit bleak, but this place must be busy in August.

Reminders to be ready to reach for the bear spray.

These foxes presented no danger.

A fun, wet descent through twisting back roads to Aizuwakamatsu –  where we spent a few hours waiting to see what the weather was going to do (still ahead of schedule to meet Thomas in a couple of days, so no rush). We passed the time having a look at the restored castle (impressive moat) in the rain, went to a couple of cafes for morning tea and then lunch.

More doorstop cheese-on-toast. Cafe at the house (now museum) of Dr Noguchi – a famed bacteriologist, whose face we were used to seeing on the 1000 yen note.

With the sky and forecast improving, another forty kilometres towards the coast was on the cards. The first half fairly flat through outlying houses, suburbs and fields before small hills crossing between and riding alongside different waterways.

The campground in Nishiaizu was attached to a large hotel-onsen, so we checked in there. Heading down to make camp, we found this alarming sign. As we were the only campers, we thought we’d probably sleep in the large kitchen!

Soon after, a guy drove down in a kei truck and wordlessly starting firing flares into the scrub to scare away bears. A little alarming, but mostly amusing – and slightly deafening.

Back up at the hotel we had a wonderful soak in the onsen, pleasing to have a hot soak after the cooler one earlier in the day. We were the only diners in the dining room, where a sweet elderly woman cooked us lovely oyakudon with local rice, chicken and eggs.

Typical old-school soap dispenser – I find them charming in their simplicity.

And the common sight on entering a bathroom – bathroom slippers to swap into.

Just a half-day of riding on leaving Seiko’s house, as a little ahead of schedule to meet Rachel’s brother for the upcoming long weekend. Not even fifty kilometres and only four hundred metres of climbing – far more restful than our day off bikepacking yesterday!

Bye to Seiko’s home.

Bit of flora on the covers for a change.

This house must have caught my eye early on as we endured a rat-run for morning commuters.

Birds starting to reappear.

Halfway through the climb to Lake Inawashiro we got back out to the countryside, plenty of harvesting of rice – which was a nice change from the traffic on the secondary highway earlier.

Short detour to find a konbini for lunch and overnight supplies. The 7-Eleven was unusually lacking fresh produce, so we ended up with frozen meals and veges – bound to thaw in the afternoon heat. Around the lake we went, passing a few free campsites – suitable besides being still morning and too early to stop.

Still a wee way to go; very flat though, as why go over when you can go through a hill.

At camp by one o’clock made for a relaxing afternoon in the shade of the campground trees, right on the edge of the lake. After making camp, tea, and a nap it was time for a wander around the quiet village.

Appearing from the cover above.

Kiwifruit!

Bell for the fire station.

Grain store with roof elevated off walls.

Back to camp to see how our now-thawed frozen meals would work out – quite alright. Although a cat found the milk carton in the porch of Rachel’s tent overnight, pierced it and stole our milk!