10/15 - Day 11

 October 15, 2026

New botel, new breakfast buffet. Mike was especially happy to do his own grazing. 

By this time, we could recognize some Japanese breakfast staples, but it didn't make it easy that this buffet kept us guessing or using google translate.

Before riding, we returned to the island for a short nature walk.

The morning light makes the bridge look completely different from last night's light.

This is looking back across the bridge. This short generated a deja vu!


Here's a view from the top.



I didn't think of turning on Strava until we halfway through, so it's probably about a 3/4 mile trail.

https://www.strava.com/activities/20592490570

The ride was along the coast for a while and the surf was up!


At one of our many stops, we used this public bathroom. Like almost all of the public bathrooms in Japan, it was clean and many were nice-looking buildings, not concrete blocks.


This was one of the very few bikepath railings that was overgrown.


Lunch was at an "Italian" restaurant. I chatted with the proprietor and he had spent a little time in Italy.

The usual one-room kitchen,


Salads in Japan are somehow different than salads in the US. The ingredients aren't all that different. But there is something in how they make the dressings that made them better.

This wooden bowl was so finely finished that it looked like plastic. We'll see another example of this later.


Romain pre-ordered a pasta dish for me that was plant-based since the other choices included bolognaise and alfredo sauces.


The feature was Japanese pizza. They boys had a more traditional-looking pizza with cheese and a white pizza.


Right after lunch, we went to this woodworking shop where the artisan was one of the few women we saw.


There were examples of bowls throughout the store are various stages of completion. Looks like our salad bowls from lunch.


This is a tree what produces sap used in laqueur. The tree grows for about 10 years, then cuts are made in the bark to harvest sap. The harvesting lasts only one year after which it is cut down.
 

We took a walk along a gorge trail. This was the bridge to the trail.





Romain was very solicitous of my knees because I had complained about all the walking in Kyoto. I appreciated that although it was nothing compared to seven miles in Kyoto followed by a kneeling tea ceremony

When we finished the gorge trail, we climbed this bridge to the village that had multiple arts and a crafts shops. Mike was in heaven!


Here's main street.


As an appeasement, Romain brought us to a shop that sells sake where we had a tasting.


There were dozens of bottles at different price points and quality. I don't remember why I took a picture of this one.


Here were the three samples. The higher quality sake is on the left and what makes it better is that the rice is polished more before distilling. The middle one is unpasteurized. The one on the right is the rock gut special.


I've tasted sake before and my opinion of it hasn't changed: I think it tastes like something from a paint store. 

We rode to our last hotel. 


Resort is right.

This is the entrance to our room, suite really.


This door leads to the bathroom, toilet straight ahead.


To the right of the previous picture is the wet room.


We saw this a lot. It's a room where you don't have to stand in the tub to shower. Because the hotel had a walking pool, a hot tub, cold tub, and onsen, we never used it.

Every toilet in every hotel had a bidet. Sometimes it was challenging to figure out which buttons to push.


Around the corner is the main suite.


Tonight dinner was on our own. Romain recommended a Chinese restaurant and we can all usually find something we like in a Chinese restaurant. He offered to drive us down and it is a good thing he did because the menu was all in Japanese. After Romain left, we used google translate.


Again, a one-person kitchen so dishes came out one at a time. 


Mine came first. These were supposed to be pea greens. They were good, but not like the pea greens at Red Chili.


Walter had seafood fried rice that he later regretted. Mike had chicken noodle soup. It was a most unusual Chinese restaurant.

I always wash my hands before eating, so I see a lot of bathrooms. This arrangement for refilling the toilet tank seemed to try to serve too many purposes.


Ride stats: https://www.strava.com/dashboard?feed_type=my_activity

27.5 miles, 775' climbing


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