Woke up this morning, teeming with rain. Decided to have breakfast and discuss our plan for the day. Rylan delivered the tent pegs and pole just after 10am. So that meant we had everything we needed to ride apart from the weather.
Left the hotel at eleven in pouring rain and high winds (Typhoon Hagibis).
Felt diffent riding on the left hand side of the road and using the cycle paths you share with pedestrians.
Off we went, Linney and I happily cycling along in the rain. It was'nt cold, above 20°. After about an hour the wind seemed to be getting stronger.
Stop and start all the time, japanese are very strict on waiting for the lights to change. Even on pedestrian crossings they were waiting in the pooring rain.
Debris from the trees, spilt bins and bikes fallen over seemed to be everywhere. Broken umbrellas and potted plants strewn across the pavements. Linney hit a patch of steel and lost his front wheel. Luckily he managed to step of the bike and he stayed upright. only his dignity hurt as he picked up his bike. I was thinking should we be doing this?
After a couple of hours and very little progress due to the stopping and starting we found a fast food joint to eat in. Teriyaki seafood for Linney and burger and 10 chips for me. :(
Get back on the road and its turned colder, so we decideto ride on the road. Ride faster and warm up. Linney spots an hotel after a while, what about this place he says. Fine by me I say¥3900 for three hours whats that all about? I found out when we tried to book in. One old man(me) and a young boy (Linney) Think I went slightly red as it dawned on me what sort of establishment it was. Rode away fast.
Found a nice hotel a little later, but they only had smoking rooms. Ours smelt like a 70's cinema.
Great night in Murphys bar with owner Dave Coffey and his locals watching the Ireland v Samoa. Best bar i've been in for four months. Cheers Dave.

Late start today, Linney has had to many late nights.
Finally got away about 9:00.
Nice dry day still a bit blustery at times.
Nice ride out of town through some rice fields into the next town.
Where we stumbled across a Autumn festival. Not a big event just a group of guys carrying a large mikoshi shrine.
They took great delight in our interest, stopped and banged out a tune. I hade failed to notice that this thing had a 4 boys and a drum inside.
We left them to celibrate and cracked on. Shortly after Linneys back brake was making a funny noise. Pulled over dimantled and put back togethe, all good.
Into the next town we come across a massive Autumn festival. Guys all in their Sumo outfits and ladies in traditional dress.
All doing traditional dances and consuming alcohol. (tomorrows a holiday). We spent some time here talking to the locals and taking photos.
Onward we went out into the countryside proper. What a lovely place. Beaches, coves, fishing villages and lovely roads
Had been a pretty slow day in all, so we cracked on down the main road. Low and behold after about 15 minutes the Poice are on to us.
After the initial, who are you where are you going. They were very nice. Took all our details and asked us to follow them back the way we had come 400 metres.
Then insured we knew where we were going and checked our route, kindly shock our hands and let us go.
Linney says no worries only 6 or 7 to go. Off we set still laughing at our experience with the Poice.
Then we rounded the corner to see the steepest section of road I had seen in a long time. No worries says Linney you work up an appetite.
Over the hill, down into the lovely fishing village, a small homestay is our shelter for the night.
We meet our hosts and expain that we want to shower, eat and watch the rugby(Japan v Scotland). They were fine with the first three but slightly puzzled with the fourth.
After a lovely traditional chicken noodle stir fry, I opened the laptop up to watch the rugby. After their innitial apprehension, Japan winning and many SAKI.
They got right into the spirit of things. Excellent evening, the nicest saki ever and new followers of RUGBY. Cant be bad.