Car of the Day .... Tunnel Count =9 What a varied day Today was - I could have stayed on the coast all day or head into the mountains ... I chose mountains. I would do 45 miles up in the hills to get me to Iwakuni and then a 30 mile ride along the coast into Hirishima. I left Shunan on quiet roads again and noticed they had dogns restricting traffic between 7 & 8:30, I guess it's to stop them being used as rat runs ... In Japan a polite sign works - In the UK you would need cameras and fines ! I stopped at the start of a 1200ft climb, for two reasons, First there was a huge Pipe descending the mountain to feed a Hydroelectric power plant. Secondly a house on the other side of the road had put two big wheels in their garden making the whole house look like a stagecoach .. I'd love to live there ! Into a tunnel and I emerged excited ... A dam ! I diverted to cycle the dam itself - I took few pics as although it was still early and a bit misty, the lake looked great. There was a back road to connect onto my road, it was barriered off but there was a gap plenty big enough for a bike, so I did what every cyclist would do to avoid retracing a climb. Unfortunately when the track reached my road it was firmly gated and fenced off - that gap was there just to tease ! The top of the lake quickly went muddy, probably due to yesterday's deluge. I turned onto a small road for my route and after a mile I was in the forest, literally in the forest- it was hard to see the road in places. Then a flashing sign to warn .. but I couldnt get the translate to actually translate it .. So I once again assumed all was good ! The tarmac turned onto hardcore, there was debris and flooding - I checked google maps and it showed a road and it reached another road in 3 miles. I was literally cycling alongside a babbling brook and at times it was debatable if I was on a road ir in the brook. Next there was a huge drop on the right but I picked my way carefully and eventually a building gave me encouragement. Then the tarnac returned and after half a mile there was even a sign to say uneven surface as the tarmac got a bit pot holey ! Road found the next climb of 1500ft began culminating at my second dam of the day. There was a really poorly placed statue of a lady looking over the lake, behind a picket fence in the dam control building grounds. I thought the lady shoukd have been on a promentory overlooking the lake instead of behind a fence ! At this point I also photo'd a cute Suzuki - there are some fantastically different cars out here and I've decide to do a car of the day as part of this narrative. I thought I was at the top and I was .. but there was more, drop 100ft then go back up for a double top ! But soon I was on a great descent and the only thing that stopped me after about 5miles was an electric substation. It was next to a train line going over my road and was obviously a power supply for the Shinkansen Bulket Train - I managed to linger long enough to get a video of one for facebook. Next Lunch .. In Kuga I reached a 7-11 which was 0.8 miles short of halfway ! After yesterdays lunch debacle I stopped and bought lunch... then cycked off to eat it after half way. I immediately hit the last climb of the day so I thought get that out of the way. It took me onto National Route2 which was the worst road for cyclists - a fast single carriageway road full of wagons a d a very small verge. After a mile I hit a tunnel - a one with a small elevated path on the side ... been here before - this wasnt quite as scary as the one on Kyushu buut it wasnt great. fortunately it was only half a mile long ! Then ... another tunnel with a path not even wide enough for healthy chef ! So I did what any confident cyclist would do ...I'm on the road - lights on. The tunnel was over a mile and one wagon and two cars passed me. I think I had a queue behind but I wasn't hanging about doing over 20mph. I wanted off this road and stopped at a garage where I sat down for my lunch ... there was no alternative, I had 4 more miles into Iwakuni and fortunately there were no more tunnels. And so I hit the coast road, it was squashed in next to the trainline and was busy, I cycled most of the 10 miles to the Hiroshima border on didgy paths alongside the road. My bike had collected grit and debris and was making noises, Eeee Eeee and Duh duh duh - I had to contend with this until I clean all the grime tomorrow. The last 12 miles was tedious, I was on a cyclepath following a riad which had junctions every 100 yards and everyone turned Red as I approached, resukting in a 3minute wait - I must have lost over an hour getting into central Hiroshima. With 3miles to go I was following a straight road when a Japanese lad came out of a street to my left straight in front of me - I braked hard but hit him ! He was sooooo apologetic but no harm done I repeated OK 6 times and we departed !. After taking 2hrs to do the last 10 miles the light was starting to go as I reached my Hotel without any further incidents. Tomorrow is a rest day after 8 days cycling, one to visit the Peace Park and the Museum to pay respect to thousands of souls who perished in 1945. Back on it on Thursday and Friday doing the most famous bike route in Japan .The Shimanami Kaido across the islands on the Seto Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.