Date

2022-10-16, Sunday

Distance

62.87 km (244.8 km in total)

In the morning when we were packing our stuff, a Japanese couple said hello to us. Later the man spoke to us, making himself the first random person to interact with us in Japan. Though the chat was short, we felt being welcome.

The ride to Aoi Pond is an easy one on dedicated bike path. This attraction truly lived up to the hype. The water of the pond, like the name suggests, is of blueish turquoise colour. It appears to be a popular shooting location: one lady even brought her rabbit as model to pose in front of the pond. If I had the luxury of time, I could easily spend an entire day watching the light and shadows dance across the surface of the lake. But the road calls — we had to keep pushing north!

Nevertheless, we still dropped by the nearby Shirogane Dam (四季彩湖) which is actually closed for visitor, but we ignored the sign and ran into two locals who also broke the rules by going, discreetly they said, for fishing in the area. The old man told us to watch out for bears and showed us his alarm that produced very loud noise that he used to scare wild animals away. This is not discreet at all!

On our way passing by the town centre of Biei, we visited the Biei Shrine. I purchased their shuincho (御朱印帳) to start collecting the seal stamps given to visitors that meant to be a special kind of prayer. A shuin is composed of a large red-inked stamp and a calligraphic writing that says the name of the temple/shrine and the date of the visit, together with other markings distinct to each shrine/temple. It’s a very beautiful tradition.

After a few days of bad experience of passing through unpaved segments suggested by both Komoot and Google Map, we learned to stick on the main roads that are guaranteed to be paved. The traffic is heavier, however the majority of these roads have, strangely, paved ‘sidewalk’ that are wide enough for cycling. When there is no such sidewalk, we would bike on the side of the road with caution.

In the afternoon, near Asahikawa, we ran into Chou (周俊廷), the Taiwanese guy whom my friend met in the airport and who also set to cycle across Japan starting on the same day as us. Contrary to us, he was able to book a flight to Wakkanai to start his journey southward, whereas we struggled to make our way to the northernmost point of Hokkaido. This is his second time cycling across Japan in order to visit the 100 or so castles of Japan. He claimed to receive many encouragements thanks to his gigantic poster fixed at the back of his bike that stated: ‘A Taiwanese biking across Japan, from Wakkanai to Okinawa’. Drivers would make a little melody to cheer him up and people would come to offer him food and drink. This makes me very envious as I too want to interact with the locals. Time to upgrade my Canadian flag!

Today I also learned that Hokkaido farmers still burn the remains of the crop to fertilise the soil, so sometime the air smells smoke. This is an old method of farming; so am not sure if it’s environmentally friendly — any thought?

To pass the night, we found a discreet spot in the park in a small town beyond Asahikawa called Pippu. I was constantly afraid of being noticed and then kicked out of our tent, whereas my friend was much more composed. She even went for a bath in the public bath while I was falling asleep in the tent. I woke up at midnight, and toured around the town to find a public toilet. To my surprise, the toilet is an old-styled squat toilet, not a sitting toilet with electronic bidet that I have encountered mostly in public setting in Japan. This is really a small town that lacks the budget!

The full take — 31 more photographs from this day