Left our new and excellent hostel heading for the Shakotan Peninsula. But first a twenty kilometre ride out of the city in the morning rush (which wasn’t particularly manic) before hitting the coast – where the highway stayed busy and built-up for some time.

Hostel.

Friday morning in the suburbs sandwiched between the central city and mountains west of Sapporo.

Our obsession with documenting every different manhole cover we found seems to have taken hold – unfortunate it didn’t start four weeks earlier, we missed many.

Waiting waiting for another to trundle past.

Aww.

Bit of fun in a large supermarket trying to find a magnesium supplement – thought it might help both my muscles and sleep – before reaching the touristy centre of Otaru. A large canal was used  for loading barges in the wayback. Many of the warehouses were built of stone, unusually, and have survived. The first warehouse we came to now specialises in music boxes. Never seen so many in my life. Very popular place to visit and with thousands of boxes playing scores of different tunes all out of time – quite an assault on the senses, but not unpleasant!

Steam driven chime clock out front to keep with the theme of mechanisms.

Ornate ones.

Fun ones.

A lot of fun ones.

Old ones.

Half of the ground floor; you can see the stairs from the mezzanine to the third level in the attic.

Back outside to the relative quiet of tourists everywhere.

Back on the bikes to have a look at the canals and some of the other older buildings.

Not as old, but far more derelict.

Lunch eaten outside the, unfortunately, closed Otaru museum we then took a steep exit from the city through narrow streets and lanes – almost deserted though, so that was nice.

Stone store houses continue.

Seeking quieter roads, and being alongside the coast, we found ourselves at a quiet harbour as the cloudy day turned to drizzle.

Leaving the pleasant harbour the road soon turned to steep rough double track – quite a surprise in Japan. We had a work party as an audience, so extra effort made to pedal the whole way up. The back side was even steeper down, but rideable.

Through Yoichi, we struck by this wood clad storehouse (we’d see many of these from Honshu south, but hadn’t seen many so far).  It was part of a museum housed in old buildings, and somehow we got a guided tour.

The thick walls and sloped shutters a recurring feature.

Most of the museum dedicated to what was now becoming a familiar history of the extensive herring fishing industry – where the fish was dried and sent south for fertiliser.

Drying racks.

Onward to find somewhere to camp the night as the drizzle continued. Plenty of tunnels as the hills came down to the coast.

A good sign.

Shakotan Peninsula – always difficult to work out what we might actually see from such maps.

In a rest area at the one of the tunnel portals, there was an explanation of how the many emergency call points we’d seen over the previous month worked. Despite not being able to understand most of it, it was interactive enough (there were flashing lights and so on) to be of some interest!

Over a hill and through some long coastal tunnels we called it a day at Shakotan town as there was a nice seaside area for camping. Having scoped it out, off we went to an izakaya for both dinner and to escape the rain. Returning to make camp, the rain had mostly stopped and we had an entertaining rest of the evening under the shelter two men had set up for cooking and eating.

These guys were old university mates and were repeating a camping trip they’d taken with a group of friends fifty years ago, very cool. They had enough English that we could share stories; much fun, although I couldn’t work out how they were going to get any sleep both squashed into a kei car.

Rachel’s photo.

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.