Day 4: 90km ride, bike fails, onsen

The morning started with the alarm clock going off at 7am. I’ve stayed up till midnight to write blog, check some mandatory emails and charge some of my kit before heading to my camp spot to build my tent near Benkei statue. 

The night was pretty bad as I couldn’t sleep till 2am, mainly due to mattress fail, my fixing didn’t work, despite using 1/5 of my huge duct tape roll. That meant sleeping on the ground again. Soo uncomfortable. My new found friend stayed in his car and we agreed to get up early (he already went to bed at 9). That was ok with me, but 5h of interrupted sleep wasn’t great. It was really windy and the tent got pushed down in my face many times. Either way, time to get up. I had the cooked salmon from yesterday and my friend gave me a boiled potatoe. All mixed together, made a great breakfast. Some coffee and ready steady, rockn roll. Bring on the new day.

The plan was to cycle nearly 100km, all the way up to Cape Shakotan, Shakotan onsen to be precise, a leisurely 94km journey. We had the bikes parked at the onsen from the night before as Benkei rear spot was 7km away. That meant driving back to the onsen, rigging the bike, quick drink and lift of. 

Thankfully, The Valley of the Wind (Suttsu) was more forgiving leaving it. I had tail wind for the first hour or so. That felt great for a change, especially as the day before was spent facing strong wind. 

We agreed with Mr Shirahama to meet at Shakotan onsen at 5pm. That gave me enough time and he said he’ll be driving to explore the Shakotan cape. The first 30km went by really quickly and I made a stop to get a rice ball, a vitamin drink and tea. Those rice balls always give me enough energy for like 20km. But also having a protein rich breakfast was good. 

As I got to the first big(ish) city I noticed my front wheel/ tyre was extremely wonky. I stopped to check and the tyre itself was gone, I guess the internal threading ripped. Thankfully, this happened really close to a bike shop. As I parked my rig at the shop, the owner already came outside to investigate. We both concluded I needed a new tyre. We both fixed it and I had to ask him 5x to pump up my tyre more. He was always surprised when I asked again, but I insisted. It’s the one important thing, fully pumped up tyres. The rest almost doesn’t matter. The new tyre was a bit slimmer too 700 x 28C, instead of 30C. That suited me well. There isn’t much weight on the front and slimmer tyre means less rolling resistance, hence easier cycling. 

It was decided that the kilometres would be easier travelled with music in my ear. Thankfully, I had plenty on the phone, recently downloaded from my fiends soundcloud account (thanks Martin: https://m.soundcloud.com/msaupe). That really made cycling (long distances) so much better. My next stop was lunch, some 60km into my journey. I had ramen with one egg in a small town. 

It was already 2pm and I had another 34km to go. The coastline was really amazing, through sleepy fishing villages, with people either fixing their nets or being busy laying out sea weed. Some small manufacturing/ fish processing places but not many. There were lots of derelict houses, restaurants and derelict rest places. 

At some point I saw a big ice cream sign and I made another stop. Gosh this was delicious. They say Hokkaido ice cream is the best because of the grass fed and well looked after cows. I can only agree. Very “oishi” (delicious). The journey continued through many long tunnels, the longest 3.7km. I must have gone through some 20 tunnels today. I decided in the morning to keep my long cycle top on as the tunnels are always cold, I checked that my rear light was on and also my head light. I met one other cyclist a day or so before who had no lights. He was practically invisible in the tunnel. Not a great idea especially with Japanese people being able to watch TV in their cars (most cars have it fitted into the dashboard), others are on their phones... I especially scared of big lorries in the tunnel and on one incident I had one coming towards me and one from behind. I could hear the one from the back slamming on the breaks as he simple couldnt overtake me and not crash into the other lorry. Thankfully all my gear is reflective, planners, bag, backpack. That increases chances to be more visible, even when the rear light fails - as it did today. All my lights are USB chargeable but as I leave them on the whole day (too many tunnels), they empty quickly. Must remember to charge them daily...

With just 10km to go and around 3.30, I was feeling great that I’ll be able to beat my anticipated arrival time of 5pm by one hour. Not that it mattered but today was a great cycling day. Almost no headwind and the new tyre did its thing. Then, bang - my whole rear rack fell out of its top anchor and onto the street. This sucked. The weight and the constant shaking and vibration must have made it come loose. I stopped, assessed the damage and what tools if need to fix it. Thankfully I had all tools. It was a bit of an annoying job as I had to align the rear rack neatly so I could screw it back on. It took me two goes before it was all fixed. It took me about half an hour and I had to have some left over chocolate to get my mood and energy back up. It was now almost 4 as I raced towards Shakotan Onsen, the agreed meeting place. After about 20min Mr Shirahama overtook me surprisingly. I then saw him some 10min later by the roadside, where I stopped. He showed me where the camping grounds were, by the beach, incl food prep area with running water and toilets. What a dream. I put up my tent and took my valuables and then we went to the onsen. I couldn’t wait, 90+Km were slowly being felt in my body. Even though it was not nearly as bad as at the end of day 2. I think my body slowly gets it. Cycling is the things it’s got to do every day (ideally without fail). 

Along the way today I saw lots of sea urchin, a local delicatessen that also the birds enjoy. There are lots of fat ravens that must pick them from the sea and then open them on the concrete, saw lots of opened shells laying around. 

On our way to the onsen, we took his car, we went for a quick shop for some water and other supplies. Shakotan Onsen (a 9/10 on my onsen score, the only one beating it was in 2009 on the Noto Penisula, near Wajima. That onsen was similar but you were so close to the ocean and at seal level and it was a bit more posh and hidden) is relatively famous, for all the right reasons. It’s a sunset onsen where you can either have dinner and watch the sun go down, or chill in the hot spring pool. It was absolutely amazing. We had dinner (special salmon, rice, miso soup, picked veg) before going into the onsen. The usual procedure is to wash yourself, before going into any of the pools or sauna. 

Onsen in Japan are usually separate for men/ women and it’s no clothing allowed. Most places don’t allow tattoos and people carry their little “modesty towel”, a face towel that is either used to cover the important bits or work stylishly on your head. Today I finally bought a towel too, just to fit in a bit more. The onsen experience was amazing, the outside pool was a salt water hot spring and had views onto the ocean and the setting sun. It’s an amazing feeling to use both hot/ ice cold pools and then to just sit on a stone or whatever and get air dried whilst staring into the ocean. The water in the whole onsen was very soft, very different from all other ones so far.

After dinner (and another ice cream) and onsen, back to the campsite just a short drive away. The beach was calm and just a light breeze kept the mosquitoes away. I hung my towel and stuff to dry, charged all my lights, WiFi box and made some tea before my daily writing exercise. Luckily Mr Shirahama was very considerate and organised some card boards for me to sleep on since my mattress was unfixable with what I had. I think the beach is also pretty soft and I’m hoping for more sleep than yesterday. Tomorrow will be quite a bit of sight seeing, Cape Shakotan on foot, then a whisky distillery and a famous canal a few town away. I could have gone all the way to Sapporo  it it seems too stressful and not in the spirit of travel to just race there. 

Over and out