Heavy rain overnight pleasingly eased to slight mizzle as we breakfasted and decamped.

Better than some monuments to degrees of latitude we’d seen.

Barely having started the climb up Hachimantai, a mama and baby bear wandered out of the forest a few hundred metres ahead of us. Reaching for the bear spray as we all checked each other out, we were most relieved they didn’t find us interesting, or threatening, and soon walked up the road and back into the forest. Phew, bear attacks were becoming too-regular news that summer in Japan. The rest of the thousand metre climb was spent in vocal conversation with regular calls to any other bears. We didn’t see any.

We didn’t see much of anything as the mist was very thick; still warm, it was nice riding with little traffic. There were a few small installations harnessing the geothermal energy from the mountain.

I started to be more concerned with goblins than bears in this atmosphere.

Stopping at a large, but deserted, visitor centre part-way up the climb, we took a short stroll to some plopping mud pools.

Near the pass, the cloud broke up some to reveal a limited, but still beautiful, look at the surrounding contours.

A huge parking lot and visitor centre at the top of the road was clearly built for days with views better than ours. But a bit of sun and a good breeze was handy for tying our wet tents to our bikes to dry while we headed off to walk a few kilometres of tracks through stunted forest and around small lakes.

Active drilling for more geothermal activity right by the road.

First lunch was found in the visitor centre, along with curious photos.

Seems they make quite an effort to clear the road in the winter.

That might help scare them straight?

Back outside in time to pack our tents away as rain started. Absolutely pelted with stinging rain on the 1100 metre descent, the only respite being the long snow tunnels. Consequently we didn’t see much (again), but soon mostly dried out as it was hot and dry on the valley floor.

Soon found a michi no eki for second lunch.

A pleasant afternoon of riding on back roads and cycle paths skirting towns as best we could.

As we’d had a few nights wild camping, and gotten a bit wet earlier, it was time to find somewhere inside to stay – and do some laundry. Somehow Rachel found a large hotel in a new part of town that seemed to specialise in sports teams staying – we never worked out how. They were very welcoming and even let us store our bikes in the main foyer.

We turned our room into a drying room, and the white shower cubicle was no longer so pristine.

Seems I finally remembered to take a photo of the standard, bewildering, toilet controls – front wash, back wash, pressure, deodorisation, seat temperature, masking music all common choices.

Having got clean and dry, we weren’t keen to go far in the rain to find dinner. At least, I think that is how we ended up at a much fancier restaurant than usual. All worth it as the copious amounts of raw fish was up there with the best meal we had in our three months in Japan.

The only part I didn’t particularly enjoy was the raw fish mince (bit hard to see here, but can see top left on Rachel’s plate above).

Another excellent day, despite the bear scare and the painful rain – plenty more delights to put those in perspective.

Beside Lake Towado briefly before a stop at the new roadside station.

With good facilities and ample parking, overnight stays are popular and well catered for – both in campers, but also kei cars.

A prolonged climb took us over the crater rim – lovely forest, good views, impressive roads (and viaducts) and some waterfalls too. Still pleasantly cool in the morning.

Choosing the shorter, scenic route doubled our climbing for the morning to over 400 m – but did give us a great descent to Kosaka – a town built on extensive copper and silver mining and processing. The industry is not quite as large as it once was, but metal processing still plays a part. There was an area of restored European buildings, from the town’s heyday, that we looked around.

Playhouse, with rotating stage.

(Rachel’s photo.)

Hazardous staircase for the tall; even I had to watch I didn’t crack my head on the underside.

Late morning spent riding the twenty kilometres to Kazuno up the valley floor, successfully avoiding the main road. Still very much enjoying the contrast between the bright rice fields of the flats and the dark forest covering the hills behind.

With a bit of topiary in the mix too.

And the odd factory.

Chickens apparently a theme around these parts.

(Rachel’s photo.)

(Rachel’s photo.)

In town we found a long, once-bright, covered shopping street while we hunted for lunch.

Somehow our searching online gave us a restaurant that was in a flash hotel; being hungry cyclists, we made sure we got our money’s worth. Yum!

A bit more of the same early afternoon as the valley gradually narrowed.

More poultry!

A rubbish bin in the wild!!

Leaving the rice fields behind, into the forest now – on some increasingly marginal roads that mostly connected.

A bit overdue, we detoured to bathe at a small onsen built right beside a river that just screamed flash flood risk.

Cue more big concrete walls.

A very pleasant and quiet onsen over, we tried our luck continuing up the valley on the steep side road. Unfortunately that meant I was soon covered in sweat again. Oh well, cleanliness was nice while it lasted.

The road started to show signs that it might not be maintained.

Frustratingly, as we were only a kilometre from rejoining the main road, we could go no further with our loaded bikes.

Dropping a hundred metres, and then regaining those metres, had us riding through a sparse, spread-out and deserted for the season mountain village. But we did find the local konbini not quite closed – time for an ice cream sandwich, which were becoming a favourite.

As drizzle closed in, we were pleased to find that our wild camping option just up the road (at a small park marking the fortieth parallel north) was adequate – as the campground we had planned to stay at was closed due to bear sightings. Amusingly, we found the young Belgian cyclist we’d met the previous day had found the same place to camp.

A slightly later departure after trying in the light of day to repair/bodge Rachel’s tent pole joiner that had broken overnight. (It limped on for the next couple of weeks until she was able to pick up the replacement that her sister had sent from the UK to her brother near Tokyo.) An unusually cool morning was welcome as we had a nice forested climb to warm us up for half an hour. Over the high point, we soon joined a larger road down to Oirase – where we hoped there were some resupply options. Pleasingly, we soon came across crews upgrading the road – which continued to interest me with differences from home.

The road became so smooth, for a glorious long descent through fairly open beech forest. Absolutely blissful riding, this was some of what I’d been hoping for/expecting in touring Japan.

At Tsutunuma we found a small hotel and onsen complex – situated near a series of volcanic ponds in more beautiful beech and chestnut forest. Unfortunately we didn’t find any food, but there was of course a drink vending machine. A calpis, no doubt, helped a nice forest walk around the ponds – which were bemusingly translated as swamps. Whatever they were, clear and still in the forest they were for a backdrop to a tranquil stroll.

We didn’t find much at Oirase town itself, so turned up the Oirase gorge towards Lake Tokado. The road was put in for tourism purposes, as there are plenty of picturesque water falls, cliffs and rocks in the beautiful forest. It wasn’t long before we found a good cafe, with views of a small water bottling plant, next to the information centre with a remarkably good moss display.

An idea of how many waterfalls there were to see.

While quite a busy road, in traffic volume – with plenty of buses, being in Japan it was all rather sedate and pleasant riding. Being on bikes made it easy to pause or stop to look at various things and wander a bit. Cue, a lot of waterfalls…

(Rachel’s photo.)

(also Rachel’s photo)

Eventually we popped out at Lake Towada, fifteen kilometres took us a languid three hours, to find another fading tourist town (abandoned large hotels again etc.) – but still with some signs of life and new development. On the edge of the main town, a short walk to the ornate Towada shrine before returning lakeside.

Continuing around the lake a short distance, we found a large campground with absolutely no one there – but the water was still turned on, so that was enough to keep us there for the night. We even managed a rare camp fire, it helping to distract from the meagre meal we’d scraped together from the nearby new roadside station – possibly the only disappointing meal we had in Japan. Not bad for three months touring, and didn’t dampen the beautiful day’s riding we’d had.