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.

Late start after a big cooked breakfast in our wee studio apartment. Not only farewelling the pleasant city of Asahikawa, but Orlaith too – great touring buddy who found plenty of interesting things to see, and kept us on our toes with each morning’s “question of the day”. Back out of town the way we came in – cycle trail up the Chubetsu River. That only lasted five kilometres as we left the river to head through farmland on the slightest of climbs. Another rice area, difference in this one being a staggering amount of earthworks for new, larger rice fields.

Asahidake in cloud again.

Oh, there’s the airport – didn’t see Orlaith but.

Surprised, but pleased, to see a few Massey Fergusons in this lot.

Rice growing gave way to extensive onion and potato crops around the trendy little town of Biei. Seems bus loads of tourists come to see the flowers and gardens, before heading up to the Blue Pool – where we were also going, after lunch and getting supplies for overnight.

Gently climbing, cycle trail ran beside the Biei River pretty much all the way to the pool. The water was so clear, and unsurprisingly looked pretty blue – apparently from aluminium coming out of a volcanic area.

Many more of those flood control weirs up this way.

The Blue Pool wasn’t all that exciting. As indicated earlier, many bus loads of people – so decent people watching.

Seemed the pool was artificial.

Looked pretty green to me, the Biei River was bluer.

I still can’t work this map out, and I was there. Usually they make some sense.

A short distance up the valley from the pool is the Shirahige Falls, with some good viewpoints. It started to rain heavily enough to curtail our viewing. What we did see looked pretty.

Climbing a bit more to finish the day, it stayed wet enough that choosing a hostel bed over camping was the attractive option. The adjoining onsen was notably excellent too. Cooking in a proper kitchen also far better than over a gas stove in the rain. To our amusement, we were complimented on the meal we cooked by some of our Japanese hostel buddies.

Seems I also remembered to take a couple of photos to show what a typical Japanese hostel dormitory room is like. Not dissimilar to others, so long as proper slipper etiquette was observed.

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.