After a great day the day before, it was time to make it back to Nozawa onsen! In the morning I sat in the hotel lobby and had a coffee and onigiri for breakfast. After that it was a descent into civilisation, where I had another 7-Eleven meal. I put on some Brasilian music and cycled through the various farms on my was to Nozawa. I saw a grape farm! That was cool. Some of the towns were honestly quite beautiful, but I was pretty keen to get cracking. I made it to Iiyama with ease where I had a Gusto breakfast (yes I made it there before 10:30!), restocked up on razors and got some groceries for Nozawa. I immediately picked up the gluten free bread at Tsuruya, as I knew exactly where to find it. It had been soooo long.... At Nozawa I spoke to all of the year round staff at Shimataya, and I was surprised at how my Japanese ability had improved because this time it was easier to talk to them! A lot of them actually cannot speak English well. They let me stay in a room for 2500 a night. I made toasties which was amazing. In the evening I met up with my friends at Yamane (the hotel where they now lived) and they were having a pizza night. I made fried rice and then mini pizzas on my sliced bread. We chatted for a few hours and it was great to catch up!