September 30, 2024
Day 5: Miyano to Assuba
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Headwinds and headlands and landslides, oh my!
We had planned a shorter day today, which ended up being further shortened, twice! The original destination was a free campground in Iozan that involved 300 meters of climbing. The backup plan was a free campground in Esashi that involved climbing 43 stairs. But after careful consideration, we settled on our current home for the evening in Assuba at -- you guessed it -- a free campground. Once again we're abandoning our original route for something slightly more direct. Lovely as it is, we've now seen enough of the west coast. Let's head inland, get our ferry tickets booked, settle into a nice hotel room, and wash all the grime off. We're seven for seven with camping. Quite an accomplishment if I may say so myself!
The wind did a 180 on us. Does that mean foul weather ahead? I certainly hope not. We set our hearts on the next konbini, about 15km south. After that was a little michi no eki, which didn't have much going for it except shade. Shade is good though.
There were a couple of short tunnels, and a long 2km one. We could've used more, because what we got instead were some roller coaster hills. I suppose the variety is nice, and the views are to die for, but we were spoiled by yesterday's easy riding.
We wanted to dine out for lunch, but the only open restaurant served western food. No thanks. We settled for konbini fare yet again. We struck out finding a nice place to eat it. After much meandering and swearing, we found a bench with a little shade. It wasn't perfect, but in these situations it's really all about solving the hunger problem. Things always seem to look up after that.
We've talked about battery anxiety. Let me introduce a condition that's new to us in Japan: gomi (trash) anxiety. We have yet to see a public waste bin. Occasionally you'll see a small one in a restroom. When we camped in Chitose, we paid 200 yen for a trash bag. We're used to this from living in/visiting Korea, but that's for home use. There are enough public trash facilities to get by when out and about.
Here, the strategy we've developed is a sort of "pay it backward" approach. We collect our trash (usually from a konbini) and deposit it in the next konbini's waste bin. It's working out fine for us so far. It certainly makes one aware of how much trash one generates. We're trying to be good, but we're not the ones who are overpackaging every little item! It's like that meme with those bananas wrapped in cellophane and styrofoam. By this point I wouldn't even faze me if I saw that in a market here.
We wanted to take more photos of the sea stacks, but on film, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. As I mentioned before, we were finally getting some panoramic views, but usually after a climb, we'd rather enjoy the descent than stop and get out our phones. These all sound like lame excuses, and perhaps they are.
For three days we've been seeing digital road signs warning of a land slide ahead. My wife deciphered most of it, including the fact that there was a detour, but she wasn't familiar with the characters for the place name. If I knew where it was, I could at least look on the map to see how gnarly that detour might be. Maybe I could take another route to avoid it.
When we neared Otobe, she figured it out. By then it was too late. We were staring at the detour signs in front of us. We'd have to deal with it.
It was steep and full of switchbacks. We didn't know exactly how long it would last. We'd reach a summit, only to see a dip and another climb ahead. In all it was maybe 3km long and 100m of climbing. It was more about the uncertainty than anything else.
The reroute to Assuba led us down a country road that eventually opened up into some nice farmland. Still fighting the headwind, we made it into town and to our campground on its outskirts. Expecting to find no one, instead we were greeted by a groundskeeper who led us to the open tent area. We were soon joined by a middle-aged motorcyclist. My wife tried to strike up a conversation, but he didn't seem too interested in talking. Instead he is occupying himself with beer and a little fire pit he brought with him. He's harmless enough, but I now see why we value our solitude so much.
Tomorrow we have a 300m climb, with the descent ending in Hakodate. While we're up for the challenge, we're also eager for a rest day and a new beginning on Honshu!
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 386 km (240 miles)
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