Last night it rained a lot but I was able to stay dry despite the tent floor being soaked. I woke up at my beach campsite and treated myself to some macadamia chocolates for my birthday! The cycle out of the beach to Himeji was technically not that big but felt like it took a while. At first I was passing through big old rusty factories before I had a yoghurt at FamilyMart by the coast. I then went inland from there up a really steep hill, at one point I dropped an earphone in the gutter and had to fish it out. Over the other side of the hill, I made my way to the highway where I could pretty much stick to most of the time. I had a call with Steph where we talked about bears, I got some maccas hash browns and then I went to a dog groomer and cafe place. They had rice flour wraps, so I had a great sukiyaki wrap breakfast. I told them about my cycle trip which they were very in awe of. To be honest this was a very random area so who knows how many foreigners ever go there, let alone ones cycling across the country. From there I went straight to Himeji, with a stop at Lawson to call Mum and Dad. We also talked about bears. At Himeji I went to a cafe and got 2 coffees from the same cafe as they were so good. I then sat by the hostel outside for a moment just doing stuff on my laptop, when a Japanese woman asked me about check in procedures (she thought I worked there). We chatted for a little about working in Japan, she showed me a website to find part time seasonal jobs in Japan. I then went for lunch. For lunch I went to a small vegan restaurant, where everything was also gluten free. The woman was very sweet (and very tiny) and we chatted while I ate. We spoke about music, Japan, my trip so far. She moved to Himeji 10 years ago to escape domestic violence, and one year ago opened her own restaurant. The food was delicious, and I even got a muffin for dessert. When I told her it was my birthday, she let me pick a drink for free. I had a tea. In the evening I went back to the hostel and checked in. I met Mark (Austrian) and Lee (Korean) and we had some drinks together in the common room. Lee is also cycle touring Japan, taking it slowly and exploring the cities and sights of Japan. Mark recently quit his job and is travelling until next year, doing many hikes along the way. His favourite style of travel is hiking, so he plans on hiking the Japanese alps, in Korea, and then maybe in Italy back to his home in Austria. Like me, his life plan is open from here. I stayed up chatting till about 10pm, where I ran into the Japanese woman again (I think her name was Keiko) and we spoke over food until I went to bed at 11pm. Overall a nice birthday, and it was nice to spend it with some other people!