Off through the near-deserted seaside village to Seicomart for konbini breakfast – hot already!

A brighter pre-fab garage than the many galvanised or otherwise dull ones.

A short stretch besides coastal rice fields.

Must have been excited to see some brighter, gabled houses – generally I found the architecture in Hokkaido drab and boxy. One could imagine it was due to the harsh climate, but the colour in Mongolia puts paid to that.

One of many short golf courses we’d see around Hokkaido, seemingly mostly used by groups of seniors.

As expected from our view around the coast the previous evening, the plains soon gave way to hills. But far less climbing than expected – tunnels galore! The theme of the day seemed to be defence against nature – mostly by concrete. Serious business in Japan, somewhat understandably – although in places there were defences for no communities, industry or infrastructure. Good for the cement business though, after a few days I was sick of the sight of concrete, especially in otherwise undeveloped places.

Artificial harbours (more concrete out into the ocean) also a regular sight, with associated fishing activities. This area seemed to be big into octopus and scallops. We popped down to one, that also had a small seafood market, to take a look and snack break out of the sun.

Vending machine snacks – didn’t get the weird chip/crisp flavour again, melon flavour common and quite good.

With the heat and vending machines and konbinis all over the place, my consumption of cold, sugary drinks (much cheaper than at home) increased by fifty to a hundred times in Japan.

Kei vehicles! Cheaper tax, cheap to run, not needing a dedicated parking space to own and ever so practical – hard not to be charmed by sensible solutions (the trucks particularly – workhorses) that are not oversized and wasteful.

Leaving the market.

Climbing away from harbour.

Only mechanical of the trip – Orlaith replacing a tube (?!?) at some convenient roadworks.

Into the hills.

Eventually worked out what all the collapsible fences were that we’d started to see the day before – to prevent snow drifting onto roads. The arrows for indicate where the edge of the snow-covered road is.

Local food for lunch at a roadside restaurant.

The bicycle wheel whirligigs were more interesting than the temple we diverted to see.

Into the tunnel area, some were kilometres long (up to five-ish); we must have spent twenty-plus kilometres in tunnels that day. Only one didn’t have decent path to ride on, but traffic is slower and more courteous here – so not too bad. But oh my, the noise! I started putting ear plugs in, the noise building from trucks hundreds of metres back to reach a deafening crescendo before slowly fading as the traffic passed. The tunnels did provide some relief from the temperatures in the mid-thirties, at least. At one, a lane was closed for maintenance – we went last after the vehicles and had a blissful few kilometres of a huge tunnel all to ourselves.

Plagued by these surprisingly fast and large critters all day – they could easily keep up with us on flat roads and had a sharp bite.

Between two tunnels I also managed to get stung above the elbow by what we later identified as a Japanese hornet – holy heck! That stung, itched and swelled (down to my hand) for days afterward.

One of the many varieties of large concrete tetrahedral solids used as coastal defences.

Typical roadworks stop. Bemused by the only English writing being “Safety First” buried at the bottom of the sign.

Standard slip prevention.

Different tetrahedral concrete shapes.

With heavy rain forecast, we opted to stay indoors in Mashike. Our induction to the accommodation included a lengthy lesson on slipper etiquette and correct rubbish disposal – amusing but also useful for the rest of our time in Japan.

Former sake brewery.

Guesthouse.

We took a stroll around the harbour and up some hills. We’d not seen many birds so far in Japan, mostly crows – now we saw hundreds all around the harbour. Flocks of them flying around was starting to feel a bit like The Birds.

>Konbini dinner with local cider to go with.