A With much fanfare, we departed R9 The Yard with all of the staff coming out to see us off. It looks like we will have rain today, which is a surprise. Japan’s weather forecasts are usually accurate to the minute, but today may be the start of a new trend. Once again, we were given a gift from a local when we stopped for coffee. He rushed over with two bottles of cold green tea.
It took some time to get out of the city of Shikoku Chuo, but very soon we were climbing which went on for about 12 Km and yes, it was raining. Surprisingly the road was not as busy as expected, but there were some big freight trucks. They gave us space.
Today’s ride was beautiful with towering forested and lush hills all around us. Despite the challenging conditions, we could appreciate where we were. There was very little commerce and we were happy to stop when we saw a village general store, Yamasaki. We took advantage of a covered area with a basic bathroom and got hot coffee and a cinnamon bun.
Lining the road were persimmon trees heavy with fruit.
Our room at R9 The Yard. This type of accommodation is finding much successs. This group have these all over Japan.
There were a number of tunnels today. Most were short but this one was almost a Km long. We try to time it to be on our own, but that proved to be difficult. We appreciated how patient the truck drivers were.
The kindness of strangers….as we left Shikoku Chuo, a fellow gave us bottles of green tea, and then we sat down by the store, a woman pulled up and gave us these Snoopy candies.
Yamazaki was our refuge from the storm…plus they had a bathroom. It presented a few challenges as it was the traditional “squat” style, but we aren’t complaining.
We are staying at Family Lodge tonight. We were very pleased to see that there is a complex across the road with an onsen and restaurant. We barely unpacked and headed over right away. The onsen was incredible, busy with locals and 2 foreigners, aka the Bartletts. It offered so many different types of pools at 42degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit). The women’s side also had three outdoor individual sized pools each with different therapeutic offerings. Mary Ellen tried all three! After a day of riding in bad weather, she walked in limping with a sore foot and she left, not cured, but feeling better.
We also had dinner at this complex..Barry had wagye beef with udon.
