Hokkaido Touring Day 5: Toward Kushiro

English | 日本語

I wake up at 6 a.m. It's cold and drizzly again this morning. I ate yesterday's leftovers as a breakfast. I don't like the taste of salmon in soy sauce, so I'll never it buy again.

As I was leaving, a motorcyclist came up and asked me "Are you touring around whole Japan ?". I answered "I'm just going around Hokkaido". He offered me a bottle of tea with saying that he was supporting someone who was traveling around Japan. I thought that was funny, but I was grateful for his support. He's riding his motorcycle around Hokkaido now, but he showed me his picture of his bike GIANT great journey and a doppelgänger trailer. Maybe that's why he was interested in my touring setup and we talked a lot about them. He said he'd like to go on a bike someday, but I think he'd better ditch the motorcycle and go for a bike ride soon !

I cycled for a while and bought some seasonings, foodstuffs, and retort foods at the Coop store in Onbetsu town. I usual get foodstuffs from Coop store or Seicomart during this Hokkaido touring. Unlike convenience stores in the main land, Seicomart is more like a mini-supermarket, so it's more convenient for me. I forgot to buy a iced bottle in order to keep the food cold. Well, it's cooler today, so it will be all right.

There were no supply points for the next 70 km on the route I took today. I was taking it easy because here is Japan, but if cyclists doesn't check the course carefully, this kind of thing is likely to happen more often in Hokkaido. I managed to ride on a handful of candy, fruit and tomatoes in this situation.

Yesterday I passed about 10 cyclists, but today I saw only two persons. One is a gringo looking down and getting up the hill, and another is an old man with a white beard carrying a backpack on foot when I was crossing the Tokachi River. The old man seemed to be walking around Hokkaido on foot. It's pretty interesting, but since he can only go 30-40km a day with his equipment on his back. It would take a lot of ingenuity and time. If I were to walk, I wouldn't be able to carry as much as I could on my bike. In Hokkaido, I can't use the strategy of getting supplies using money in order to reduce my equipmentthe because the supplying places are farther apart. It sounds hard though, but I'm becoming feel like I want to try it intensely strongly.

I also met a road pattern of climbing up and down today.So I'm sick of the view of the downhill with the uphill ahead of me. My right calf has been hurting for a few days now, so I put some banterin on it today.It still hurts when I put pressure on my calf. I can't listen music from my broken speakers, but I can hear the silence and other natural sounds well. In remembering my Vietnam cycling, I have stopped listening music finally, so I guess I could cycle without the speakers.

The roadside station I arrived at, Shiranuka Koima, after riding more than 80 km, had no showers and no rest rooms. It seems difficult to sleep here tonight. Moreover the park across the road is also just a wasteland with lots of tall weeds and is overgrown. I was thinking about what to do tonight with eating the fried potatoes (200 jpy, they were delicious!). It was still just 4 pm early, I decided to head to Kushiro where is a big city and may be exist an Internet cafe, public baths, coin laundry and etc.

※photo from google map

I rode to Kushiro town and entered a regular public bath called Sakurayu (440 jpy). I didn't see that there was no shampoo or soap inside, so I washed my hair and body without them. After then I went to a coin laundry beside the bath, but I think the price 900 jpy for laundry would have been expensive.

※photo from google map

I stayed at the Internet cafe "KAIKATSU CLUB" tonight (1,500 jpy/8 hours). The light that was broken yesterday was useless because the speaker didn't sound even though it was dry and the light went on and off unintentionally. Finally I threw it away. For night lighting, I use my camping headlights and decided not to use the speakers. Moreover the solar panel isn't charging well maybe it's the cloudy weather today. I may need to consider other power solutions for example using a high-capacity mobile batter. I'll have to keep operating the solar panels for a while to verify if it's worth the weight.

It's still drizzling outside. I'm going to Cape Kiritabu tomorrow, but I'm worry about how the weather will be. According to the weather forecast, there will be no rain from tomorrow, but the temperature will remain cool at around 20 degrees. I went to bed at 0 am.

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From Bansei Hot Spring to Kushiro 125km