10/12 - Day 8

 Monday, 10/12/26

Today was our third day of riding. We rode around five lakes.

Here's view from the balcony.

Since we are at a smaller facility, there was no buffet. Instead, the kitchen made custom bento boxes for us. (This prevented me from overeating.) It was very Japanese.

Since we were by the water, we went through multiple fishing towns.

One village turned fishing into an amusement park activity. They built pens and dumped fish that they had caught further out in the lake. People paid to fish in these pens. It was: "Like shooting fish in a barrel." Here's the stocking part.

We watched one group take multiple attempts to net the fish. But finally, success!

Then you could pay guys to gut and clean the fish.

It was quite the enterprise.

This is how they repurpose old boats.

This trip took us through many small fishing villages.

it might have been because it was a weekend, but they seemed quite deserted.


Nonetheless, the scenery was quite beautiful.



We did a little climbing to get to our turn-around, the tip of the peninsula. That gave us a chance to view the villages from above.


Being by the ocean, tsunamis are always a concern. The sign in this kiosk suggests that at one point, a tsunami reached 20 meters.


On the hillside, they created these artificial walls to help prevent landslides and maybe also to stop storm surge.


An artificial breakwater.


This village was our turn-around point.


When we weren't climbing hills, we went through tunnels instead. We probably went through a half dozen tunnels. It was pretty nerve-racking.



Lunch was at a restaurant that specialized in eel. The idea of eel makes me queasy. I've only heard of eel in sushi and this was BBQd eel. I thought I should try it.

The restaurant was new construction and the owner was convivial, all very Japanese.


Like everything in Japan, small but efficient.



Here it is: BBQd eel.


On the way back, we ran into some consrtucion. These guys actually put a steel plate from their truck over the ditch so we could cross. Lots of "abrigatos" all around.


Then a couple of meters down the road, we almost had a pile-up when the first rider made an abrupt stop for a troupe of monkeys crossing the road.


They are Japanese macaques.

We were done early, so we took a planned trip to what Romain called "The Terrace". 

Because Great Explorations is a smaller outfit than VBT, they rent a van.They own the roof rack.


Getting to The Terrace requred a lift. 


Here's Walter overcoming his fear of heights. There were no safety bars on the chairs.


It's more impressive looking down and I was not about to turn around during the uphill ride.


On top of this bump was a coffee shop, bathrooms, Wi-Fi, amusements, all in a vrey small space. Someone went to great lengths to produce this attraction.

It is called "Rainbow (something)" and they played "Somewhere over the rainbow" on the PA system.






Here was our private room at dinner.


I don't seem to have pictures of what we ate.

Here are the stats for the day: https://www.strava.com/activities/20550762787

31.5 miles, 1977' climbing


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