September 14, 2025
Day 12 — Rumoi to Shintosakawa
It’s hard to know exactly the defining moment between the previous day’s post and this one, given that we were snoozing in shifts through the night and monitoring any potential tent damage or water ingress. And so the night passed.
Sometime in the wee hours the heavy rain began to lessen down to a drizzle, though the high winds persisted. Sometime after 5 am, it began to lighten up, and we planned a rapid tactical retreat from our position. Contents of the tent were packed up, then run over to the covered sink area where the bikes were stored. Then a rapid dismantling of the tent, taking care in the high winds that nothing was damaged or torn. The tent was then hustled over to an indoor toilet area (it’s Japan, so it’s far nicer than it sounds) a ways down the road, where we packed it away, soaked, then we made our way back to the bikes and packed the whole damp mess up.
We then pushed our bikes up the hill, then ventured across town to a community centre / michi no eki we had stopped at on the way in the previous afternoon. This was not scheduled to open for another couple of hours, so we got enormous coffees at the Lawsons, then sat sheltered from the wind outside the centre. The sun started to poke through, and we spent some time alternately sipping coffee and examining the insides of our eyelids in the sun. On the plus side, I found an outlet to charge our devices (this is an ongoing challenge in Japan) which were running low. Eventually we decided we had had all the enjoyment we could stand out of Rumoi, and to just down some snacks and hit the road.
With the sun out and the howling wind now at our backs, we made our way through the outskirts of Rumoi, and onto the largely vacant highway heading southeast. And just like that, it was a nice day and we were cruising through pretty countryside.
And cruise we did. The road was pretty flat, and the wind had us clocking away in high gear for kilometre after kilometre. Our only pause was at a sunflower themed resort / fun park, guarded by the dragons below.
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Given the once in a lifetime tailwind, we were at our destination in Shintoshikawa by early afternoon. The campground was in a large family oriented sports park centred around a hotel and onsen. The place just had an amazingly wholesome vibe to it. Families camping out, kids playing in the playground, organized team sports. We were assisted in setting up by the family in the spot next to us — Kozi (?) from Sapporo, who had a big family group coming for an evening of grilling and beer.
We set our chairs overlooking the amazing view across the valley, and snoozed in the sun for the afternoon. What a difference a day makes.
Napping accomplished, we went for a good soak in the liveliest onsen yet — full of kids, and the men’s changing area had a TV with the Sapporo Fighters game on and a bunch of naked dudes sitting around watching a nail biting 4-3 Fighters win — then we retired to the sorta fancy hotel dining room for dinner. We realized we were the only ones there without kids — it made us think of Harrison Hot Springs back in the day.
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We were in bed by 7:15 and slept like babies
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 577 km (358 miles)
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