A very grey morning, often misty and rain gear on and off fairly often. But still so much to see has we headed down valley all day to Wakayama.
Pleased to see our campground in the daylight – our shelter kept us dry, even if few of our wet clothes dried out.
Found the most important Japanese shrine to a water god shortly after departing.
Beautiful clear rivers, as so often.
One of the most-modified kei trucks I spotted on our trip.
Through another town not hiding the decay.
We then hit a lot of wood processing towns and mills – some small, some not-so.
Impressive number of slabs.
Often very quiet riding on the other side of the river from the main road.
We supposed these lengths were supposed to be drying, but probably not much in this humidity. Better than in the forest though.
Baited bear trap – thankfully didn’t see any bears, having given our bear spray away some days before.
Wee carport for a wee car.
Just quick enough to snap one of the deer bounding across the road – hadn’t seen any for a while, but Rachel had heard some in the night.
Considering all the mills we saw, this was the only log yard we noticed – didn’t look big enough to keep all the mills supplied.
So neat!
Probably took this video for my nephew:
Radioactive?
A factory open to the street was busy making disposable chopsticks using a variety of machines. Fascinating to watch the process, and we were given a pair each. I’ve kept mine, somewhere, as a good reminder of the scores of similar ones we were given at konbinis and eateries.
Cycle route, and later trail, most of the way into Wakayama – the most organised one yet.
Even the garbage trucks are pleasant – finally captured one of the many chimed ones driving past.
Surprised to see this, having visited a fair few of the outdoor gear stores – hadn’t heard there was a guest house, maybe more than one.
The old town of Gojo was nice, despite not having banished the utility cables as towns on the Nakasendo have; a difference here being that the upper stories were plastered, rather than wooden.
Kept seeing Mitsubishi Jeeps today, hadn’t seen any until this day, didn’t see any more. Odd.
We had a look around a doctor’s house, preserved as it was in the 1960s – before finding local refreshments down the street.
Unsure what was going on here.
Whatever it was, was mildly alarming.
Having booked a ferry from Wakayam over to Shikoku (our next island, very much anticipated!), we had to make faster time on the cycle trail than our usual pace. Not having to deal with traffic certainly helped.
Typical driving range.
Couple of months early, but one assumes we could have stayed here if we wanted the experience.
But all the Santas were a little offputting.
Most concerted effort to tame rampant spring growth that we saw – impressive remote controlled squat lawn mowers.
They certainly tidied things up.
Big hairpins on the trail; alas our pace wasn’t such to make them too exciting.
From the other side of the river, Wakayama looked a nice city and I’d have liked to spend some time there – but we had a ferry to catch.
I spied a blast furnace or two, and got distracted.
That bridge was surprisingly steep on a loaded bike.
But it gave good views of a chemical plant!
A different style ferry to the usual monohull.
Bikes first on again.
Inadvertently we upgraded our tickets to the lounge at the bow. Thankfully we had it to ourselves, as after a couple of damp days our socks were ripe.
Goodbye to Honshu, for now, a thoroughly enjoyable four weeks where I appreciated older Japanese history and buildings. Arriving in Tokushima after dark, we had an easy five kilometres to ride to a hotel – a good chance to dry some things out.
Nice change from camp museli and yoghurt.
But I spied a big woodworking workshop on the way, so got a bit distracted.
Covers showing the signs of the continuing rain.
There seemed to be some large formal event going on here,
but mostly I liked the trees.
We found the sacred wedded rocks,
joined by a hand-woven ten centimetre rope.
Frogs seemed to be a common theme among many of the numerous shrines.
Giant clam shells!
Our hostel as a starter for ten.
Not so old, but rusted out corrugated steel…
Again.
Away from the Kawasaki area of town, things looked a little drab.
Unsure if this is a stage and if so, how performers get to it with dry feet.
There were some good signs though.
Return of the tall, faded pink, coin phone.
A slightly modernised version of the typical menu display.
Not quite matching.
Colour! Always pleased to see some, especially missing the colourful buildings of Mongolia.
Poor, sweating telephone.
Unsure how this creature fight fires…
Curious firefighting method.
Some interesting clouds backed up the rain forecast for late in our day.
Sometimes the route would narrow and become overgrown, used to this by now.
Other times, it would inexplicably turn into steep staircases.
But still a cycling road, apparently.
Across the mouth of Ise Bay, as we approached the end of the spit and Irago – where we would board a ferry to Ise, avoiding Nagoya.
Approaching Irago, successfully avoiding the town – the port just behind the closest building.
Made it in plenty of time for the ferry, although we can’t claim to have ridden much of this PCR – interesting to see such a sign indicating a recognised route…
Quite a ferry for six cars and two bikes!
Tumbleweeds – although I was more taken with the clouds than the parking lot.
Japanese bagpipes?
Through many municipalities today – so many different covers…
Was quite taken with this cutting’s mossy retaining wall – green and tessellations, two favourites. 
Tiny deserted roads for a bit.
A roundabout!! The only one I remember for the trip. Welcome on this day as we stopped at far too many traffic lights trying to get through the sprawl towards the south coast.
Just the one completely charming, well-preserved village today.
A stone building, not quite as rare as a roundabout – but almost.
First generation Jimny, also a rare sight.
Mildly alarming, long time since we’d thought about pulling the bear spray out.
Yet more tunnel building.
Followed a river for a fair while, pleasingly there was a quiet road on one side of the river for us to follow.
Due to power line work we had to follow a detour five kilometres further into the boonies.
Again, Rachel orders doorstop toast; or perhaps it’s jaw-dislocating toast.
Pleasant setting, although soon time for us to leave the river.
They did have vibrant covers to distract us though.
Hadn’t seen much bamboo at all, I had thought we’d see more.