Delayed start to the day’s riding as it was still drizzling first thing. Slightly off our route to the north of the island, cherry orchards were a draw for someone – but we all balked at the price of aesthetically perfect fruit, something we’d continue to do for the next few months.
Something else we’d become familiar with – small community groups out keeping their place up.
Marigolds particularly popular in many places.
Waiting at the cherry orchard…
One of those places where the size and grandeur of the dead centre surpasses the rest of town.
Arriving at the first large town of the day, I was keen to find something to treat the intense itching and swelling of my left arm after the previous day’s hornet sting. After a couple of pharmacies, I found a soothing gel that proved most useful.
Never seen a tall bowling alley building before; maybe that’s why it struggled to stay in business.
Urgency to ride was not so high that we could miss a patisserie.
Sun out, we were back on the bikes along the coast.
Various animals holding fences around worksites another feature all the way around Japan, much more interesting than death by a thousand cones.
Around noon, a large museum right on the coast drew us in. I was hoping for lunch, but instead was interested, so far as I could understand, to learn how large the herring fishing industry was in the early modern settled history of Hokkaido (which being late nineteenth century, I later learned, was much later than I expected). While some was dried for food, mostly the herring was processed and sent to the south of Japan to be used for fertiliser.
Building used for processing the herring, quarters for the cheap labour, and owner’s residence as well.
Glass buoys always seemed a bit fragile to me, but they must have worked ok or we wouldn’t have seen so many surviving examples on our travels around the coast.
Predictably, a konbini was not far away for lunch supplies.
We found some green space below a temple to stop.
Occasionally I remembered to take a photo or two of some of the abandoned buildings that plague the countryside of Japan.
With rural depopulation and those left aging, and I think there are some tax reasons that make walking away from property advantageous, the number of buildings decaying (at various stages of decline) we saw was staggering. Along this coastline, it was particularly noticeable.
Getting into bear country it seems. Hopefully they’re not this big, nor with alarming and disturbing electric eyes.
Sometimes the street furniture got a little overwhelming.
Passing temple.
And I thought the bear above was disturbing…seems they have giant penguins too.
Pleasant late afternoon cruising towards our campground.
Camping huts, alongside the popular and free tenting area. Further up the coast, tomorrow’s ride.
North to Rishiri, a volcanic island we were aiming to take a ferry to in a few days.
Just a standard campground observatory.
Campground lighting was often excessive in Japan and kept me awake (I had to buy an eyeshade eventually) – this bordering on the ridiculous.
Tents erected, we wandered down to the seaside to take in the sunset. Well worth it:
After that spectacular display, we got back into the habit of cooking our dinner on a picnic table. I skipped the onsen trip that night, can’t have thought I needed it after an easy day’s biking in sub-thirty degree temperatures.