We breakfast to the serene sounds of cicadas and the Japanese military training with heavy artillery. A lazy morning, we’re on the road at 8.15am, cycling along quiet farm roads with millions of cicadas singing to us. Occasional tractors are working in the fields, or people out whipper-snippering or hoeing.
We reach Biei for first lunch and a food shop at 11am. 7-11 is generally the food shop of choice, it’s barely more expensive than a supermarket, and they’ll warm things up for you too. And they’re more common than supermarkets, and have washrooms.
Another lunch at 2pm, then the heat starts to get to me (only 25oC or so, but I’m fresh from a Canadian winter and just not used to it). I have prickly heat on my hands, wrists and legs, and feel nauseous and crampy. Then the Boy loses a screw on his cleat. We fix it, and keep cycling through town and farmland on mediocre roads.
At around 100km we reach our campsite. It’s closed, with no hope of stealth camping. I curl up on the road and drink some Pocari Sweat (a Gatorade-like drink) and have a chocolate macadamia. Apparently this is what I was needing all along, as suddenly I feel fine. We cycle on to the next campsite, just 10km away. It’s closed for the winter still, with no running water and a mosquito plague. Well the next one is only 7km away…. we push on to the tourist town of Sounkyo in Daisetsuzan National Park, and have a bento box dinner at the 7-11, surrounded by tourists in fancy hotels, and huge impressive looking cliffs, and a roaring river.
After filling ourselves up at the 7-11, we head on to the campsite in the dark. It’s a parking lot. But the next one is only… 200 metres away! It’s closed, but we wheel our bikes in and set up with our sleeping bags and mats under the picnic shelter. And fall fast asleep.
Location: Kamifurano – Sounkyo, Hokkaido, Japan
Distance cycled: 121km