Today was all about following the historic nakasendo hiking route to the best of my ability with my bicycle. It was fairly simple for most of it, especially the start. I tried taking the bike on a cobblestone walking path, but it was quite difficult to even push it along. From that point on I tried to stick to roads. The route was very mountainous. Although I didn't gain much distance, it was a very difficult day with lots of pushing. The first town I made it to was gorgeous. It was one of the places with no power cables to be seen, they run them underground to keep the old Edo period feeling. I had a flat white from a nice cafe, then a gelato and. chatted to the gelato man for a little while. It was a very good Japanese convo! He also likes snowboarding. After that I continued to the next town. This was similar but a lot older feeling. It looked straight out of Kimetsu No Yaiba. After that I continued through the Nakasendo. At the next town I got asked about my bike by a Canadian guy at a cafe and so I sat with him and his two brothers for coffee. They all live in different countries, one in Japan, one in Switzerland and one still living in Toronto, Canada. After that I decided to keep on the Nakasendo to the next roadside station where I'd sleep. However, it turns out this section had a ot of walking paths that had no road alternatives. At one point I stopped at a self serve shop at some bodies house and pet their adorable Shiba. It was becoming dusk and I still had some ways to go. I found myself needing to go through a narrow hiking path in the forest with stairs and everything. It was kinda brutal taking my bike that way. I saw no bears thankfully, but I did see a big group of snow monkeys doing snow monkey things (aka pissing each other off lol). I felt a bit stupid for still riding into the late hours of the afternoon, as that's peak bear activity time. I really didn't expect it to take this long, but I made it to the roadside station and out of the mountains by 6:15pm, 45 minutes before dark. All in all, today had some of the most beautiful sights of the whole trip. As I crossed into the Nagano prefecture, it was obvious why people say this is the most beautiful one. The mountains are breathtaking in a way that the other mountains I've seen before these ones aren't. I had many great Japanese convos today and I feel like all the listening practice I've been doing recently must be helping a little. The campsite for tonight is literally just the roadside station car park, it's gonna feel a bit sketchy but I'm sure it'll be fine. I even got to have dinner here, a nice set meal with sashimi, rice, miso, tofu, salad and a little jelly dessert. A great day!