A day off touring in Asahikawa, Hokkaido’s second city – main objective was to find a bike box for Orlaith’s departure the following day. For a change, it seems I bothered to take some campground pictures.

Twas a very nice park in the city, and a free campground too – we did find a lot of those in Japan.

Typical cooking shelter at campgrounds – well used to those long concrete sinks.

Squirrels were a different addition to this place.

Just as we were leaving, this one showed they’re quite used to people.

Hello there.

Crossing the river, we returned to where we came into town previous evening – but headed upstream for twenty kilometres on riverside cycle trail.

A few kilometres from the river was the rice art we’d come to see.

Various varieties of rice had been planted to make a picture.

This year it was honouring a local javelin hero.

This is what it looked like at ground level.

Unfortunately, the viewing tower was closed so we couldn’t appreciate it properly from height. There was a lot of activity, packing down after some event. Eventually it clicked that the weekend’s festival was where the fireworks we’d seen two nights before had come from – we’d only camped five or six kilometres away on the other side of Pippu.

Got a view of Asahidake in the distance though.

Back to the city we headed, aiming for a bike shop on that side of Asahikawa.

Finally snapped a photo of these curious rice field half-tracks for my nephew.

A promising entrance to a bike shop.

New bar ends anyone?

Orlaith had some success getting a bike box, Rachel not so much trying to get a replacement SRAM chain. Next stop was a sake park. I’m not much of a fan of the drink, but went along. Pleasingly there was a small process and associated equipment to study. I know of only one reader who will appreciate this (there may be others, but seems unlikely) – these photos for you Liz.

I lingered with the process equipment and history display before eventually getting to the free tasting and gift shop. To my amusement and much to Rachel and Orlaith’s chagrin, they were denied sake to taste as we’d biked there and zero tolerance for drinking and driving seems to extend to bicycling too!

Weird to be somewhere with bigger streets and many big signs.

After a little shopping in a sports store it was time for lunch – at the Asahikawa ramen village.

Worth a short queue outside in the heat.

Eventually it was getting close to being able to check into our studio apartment – it’s much easier to pack everything up for a flight home if you’re not camping for the night. Back to the park to decamp and move a little across the city. Somehow we’d ended up doing well over fifty kilometres on the bikes on what I thought was going to be a rest day!

Rest of the afternoon spent doing errands and wandering the streets.

Furrito Alley for dinner at an izakaya.

Many small dishes – fish, pork, asparagus and potatoes most noteworthy.

Rachel and Orlaith did get their sake in the end.

Quite a large bottle. We were amused to see the glasses filled to overflow into the small dish beneath.

Required some method not to spill it everywhere.

Heavy rain overnight eased slightly, but not enough to entice us outside the hostel until after numerous cups of tea had been consumed. A bit of walking around to waterfalls cascading out of slot canyons above the gorge.

Giving the climbing legs another work out trying to get a better view of the falls.

On the bikes well after noon for a long ride down the valley beside the Ishikarigawa River. Bit of a headwind most of the day, but a lot of cycle trail and trees helped to make it even more pleasant.

Lack of traffic meant being able to stare more at the impressive canyon walls surrounding us.

A path on the outside of a galleria – more pleasant.

Out of the canyon, the valley opened up to rice farming land. We detoured to have second lunch in Kamikawa town – following a recommendation of hostel staff. Town quiet in the middle of a Saturday, but the melted cheese on pasta hot plate dish did not disappoint.

Getting back to our route gave the only climb of the day – all of fifty metres. The remaining twenty-five kilometres spent trying to find quiet gravel routes, but they didn’t always work out. Picturesque riding through the golden rice fields sped by; finding ourselves on stop bank cycling road near the end of the day, the elevated vantage point was appreciated.

Don’t think that bridge is going to get us across; backtracking involved.

River still looking dirty through these flood control gates.

Bypassing Aibetsu we thought we’d try to find somewhere a bit further downstream to camp. We found one of the most elaborate toilet block and gardens with picnic shelter we’d seen yet – away from all other people and roads. It was excellent. On the river side of the stop bank there was a small air strip. Investigation later showed that this strip hosts a large annual model aircraft meet – the toilet block just for that, as no other facilities around. Brilliant place to camp.

It was my turn to bike into town to get supplies. Less than five kilometres into Pippu I was treated to some beautiful evening light, as well as a quick ride on smooth trail with little load on the bike.

As if our little find of a camp spot couldn’t get any better, as we had our last cups of tea of the day we were treated to a large fireworks display beyond Pippu. Fantastic.