Chocks away and we were off to rapidly lose 800 metres of altitude to the valley floor – all to the soundtrack of self-defence artillery practice booming alarmingly close by.

Another post-apocalyptic mower.

Fifteen kilometres along the flats to the ski town of Furano. Unfortunately too late in the season for the famed fields of flowers, but golden rice plants and many, many more onions enough to keep us interested.

Would be fun to return in the winter to all the ski runs we’ve seen covered in grass…

Up a steep hill to the ski area base station – as there was a big bike store, still couldn’t find a replacement chain for Rachel. Back down again for early lunch as no services on the afternoon’s planned route.

Out of town, we turned onto a minor road to take a direct, hilly option – only to discover it was a complete rat-run with many trucks and no shoulder or sidewalk. A heavy shower promptly soaked us and sent us back down to the major valley floor route – which was far quieter and had a big path.

Into Ashibetsu, under the watchful eyes of a former-recreation area, now privately owned, statue and pagoda. Lingered around a large visitor centre as more heavy showers came and went.

Leaving the valley we’d been riding down for forty kilometres, we popped over a small hill to Utashinai. Formerly a booming coal town of almost fifty thousand people, now there is no mining and only a couple of thousand people. Curiously, there was a distinct Tyrol feel to the place, in a Japanese way of course – an attempt to diversify and attract visitors. Was quite nice, but couldn’t see that it was really working.

Still a bit damp, the local museum seemed a good option. It didn’t look that big but inside it was extensive – partly due to the large basement devoted to mining equipment. We were charmed by the Japanese staff who helpfully guided us around with a modicum of English – but amused as he kept slipping into Portuguese! It was unfortunate that Ian was no longer with us to appreciate and explain the mining gear.

There was also a large room packed with all sorts of domestic items from the last century. Seems I’ve reached an age that things I remember using in childhood are museum worthy (none pictured below, if anyone is wondering).

Subaru’s first mass-produced car.

Pleasant rail trail took us eight kilometres down this valley, past plenty of abandoned buildings before we popped over once again to the next valley.

Kamisunagawa was even more down on its heels. Not much open, we rode through town heading for a campground.

Old mining shaft repurposed as a micro-gravity test facility.

The campground was apparently closed due to no electricity for the floodlights (suits me), so we enquired up the road at the large hotel. Campground definitely closed and somehow the hotel was full (seemed unlikely judging by the parking lot and general vibe). But it was raining again so we got a good ticket-machine dinner and made use of the onsen.

We loitered a fair bit after bathing, waiting for the rain to stop. Just as we were about to venture out into the dark, a staff member found us and said we could camp in the garage as it was so wet (was wet) and cold (was not cold). For some reason I was imagining a large underground garage – but bivvying in one of those prefab steel single garages suited me just fine.

This could have easily been in the museum we visited.