The morning started in style at the onsen hotel. Typical Japanese breakfast (rice, miso soup, picked veg, some fish, some egg) with 2 extra scrambled eggs and 2 cups of coffee got me ready for the day. I know I need to eat better. Ive already lost 3Kg over last few days and need to make sure I get enough protein.
The journey was going to be 74Km today to Suttsu, further up the west coast. Again, I’ve picked an onsen in Suttsu to help my aching bones recover. This ride wasn’t far the quietest. Up until maybe 10km before Suttsu I only saw 20 cars.
People even dried their sea weed on the main road (and on the pavement), despite this being the main coastal road. Generally it seemed this area and the people are dependant on the sea, lots of fishing villages, lots of dried fish outside and sea weed, i saw many people turning it to dry it better.
My first stop wasn’t that far outside Setana, maybe 15km or so. I stopped at a fish place and had what I think were either giant mussels or oysters. I had two, they were...interesting. Not my usual style but I wanted more protein. Thankfully I had those two as there wouldn’t be another shop for the coming 40Km.
Along the way I saw lots of dead things on the road, big bugs, dragon flies and even 2 snakes. For one I turned around and my suspicion is I may have actually killed it as I saw it too late, sunbathing on the side of the road. When I went back, it’s tail was still moving a bit but the head was pretty flattened. I felt sorry - if it was me that killed it, not evading it fast enough. I do Lu attention to the road a lot, I have to. Despite getting use to “the rig” (human-cycle-combo) and doing a few Km with no hands on the handle bars (to save my wrists), i always check what’s in front of me. Maybe not that time. I was contemplating what generally happens if we are getting (too) comfortable, in a place of warmth or general position in life. Things can just bulldoze over you.
It’s strange how I’m not able to think about things for a long time on the bike, or contemplate things more deeply. Cycling feels almost meditative, being pretty much fully absorbed in the activity. The odd song comes to mind, or thoughts about lunch, or looking at/ evaluating the scenery (incl what people do that I see), but that’s pretty much it. A lot of attention goes to the bike and body, both always talking to me, either requesting gear changes or changing hand or foot positions to mitigate the pain (maybe I shouldn’t have taken barefoot shoes for 1000 miles cycling) and maybe the headset is too low after all. Some things I may be able to change, eg the headset, in Sapporo. Other things I won’t be able to change such as different shoes - I’ll have to live with changing stance ever so often from toes, ball of the foot, middle of the foot (still kind of annoying)
I stopped at a shrine/ temple which looked amazing. Turned out it was a Buddhist temple and a friendly lady invited me in. Then she even got the head monk and we conversed as best as we could using google translate. Eventually I wanted to leave but asked if there was a restaurant nearby. As it was too hard to explain, the headmonk jumped into his car to show me...me cycling behind him in the car.
It turned out to be a great restaurant where I had a good meal. I also bought some fruit and veg there for dinner.
At some point, almost in Suttsu, I came by some ancient drawing and graffiti, they must have been there for thousands of years, depicting stories of old. Fascinating.
Eventually I stopped at a big resting ground, with a huge statue of Benkei, a famous samurai who lived around 1155–1189. Wikipedia gives a great account of this formidable warrior (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei).
As I was having my fruit, looking at the ocean with the sure knowledge of Suttsu only being another 8km away, I was approach by an elderly Japanese person. To my great surprise he spoke really good English and told me he was a traveller too, from Tokyo. We talked and talked about evening plans. I told him I’ll go to the onsen, to soak myself. He liked the idea and said he’ll meet me there. I though this would only take me 20min, for 8km. How wrong I was. Not only was it hilly, i was also extremely windy. We are talking standstill windy. It took me nearly an hour to get to the onsen where Mr Shirahama was already waiting. He kindly had already paid for my onsen ticket. This was a very, very popular onsen. There must have been 20+ people in there and it had 7 baths, inside and outside area (onsen score of 7/10). We talked a lot, where he was from why he is travelling and eventually decided to hang out some more. We went back to Benkei Rest stop as it had toilets and even an indoor food area, with electricity and running water. We had a meal together, for me salad and edamame beans, for him squid (yikes, raw). He kindly shared his instant-pumpkin soup and I shared my salad and edamame beans (he said it’s too healthy). We talked some more and eventually he retreated to his car, where he sleeps. I had to do emails, there were some important work things (and I had left them behind, part from 1 specific topic: funding/ fundraising). Then i cooked some salmon for tomorrow’s breakfast and final activity of the day, writing the blog. I know i would forget a lot of i wouldn’t write it down, so, here it is.
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