Noto Bike Trip: Day 2

The second day dawned sunny and mostly clear, thankfully contrary to the weather service's estimated 90% chance of all-day rain. We broke camp and jumped back on the bicycles, feeling pretty good about ourselves and the trip. We had a goal of reaching or passing the city of Wajima, which if you check the route map you can see is not particularly close by, and we put in many hours on the bikes to that effect. The roads from Hakui to Wajima don't have a whole heck of a lot on them aside from scenic overlooks, and we dutifully scenically overlooked at regular intervals.

Day 1 Campsite

Hitting the road

Scenic view from the road

We were far from the only people out there for the views

These didn't have a scenic overlook but we saw them through the trees - most people must miss them

These rocks with the rope between them are supposed to be "married" for the good luck of the relationships around them

We got off-course to varying extents a few times, due in part to not paying enough attention to signs and on other instances via misinterpretation of signs we did pay attention to. At one point, we came to a dead end on what we thought was a significant prefectural route. A headwind bedeviled us for most of the day, cutting down both our speed and reserves of energy. We devoutly hoped that the wind held and we'd have it at our backs going south down the other side of the peninsula when the time came.

Not route 49 - that's a dead end at a shrine

Some pretty dramatic coastline out there

More coastline and photographic proof Ana was enjoying herself

We found a rock like Totoro - not on any tourist maps we saw

Later in the day, closing in on Wajima, we decided to take a more direct inland route instead of the coastal road we'd been following all day. What we failed to consider was the fact that once you get more than about 500 feet from the ocean in Japan, you're virtually guaranteed to find ginormous mountains. So we walked the bikes up, and up, and up said ginormous mountains, until finally coming to a very long (0.8 miles long) tunnel, after which the road turned steeply downhill for more than a mile and we plummeted downwards like re-entering spacecraft late to an important event. After that, we only had five or six flat miles to Wajima, and scenting dinner, we pushed hard to get there. Wajima seemed to have more laquerware shops than people (they're famous for lacquerware there, and the prices are famous also - my boss knows someone who can get it for him at half off and he says it is still unaffordable) but seemed awfully short on restaurants. We cruised the strip and consulted the map a few times before discovering and selecting a yakuniku (literally: grilled meat) place for dinner.

That tunnel went for 0.8 miles and finally, finally started us downhill

There were some nice farms and valleys on the other side

Wajima - we were glad to see it

We have enough ability to read in Japanese to identify the different animals on the menu (beef, pork, chicken, etc), but had some trouble reading which parts of the animal we were ordering, making our first orders a bit hesitant. The staff eventually warmed up and started suggesting things (we were the only patrons there early on a weeknight for most of the time) and we had a pretty good time grilling a variety of animals. The sides were also very good, but at this point our ability to objectively evaluate food items was definitely beginning to suffer - everything tasted amazing for the rest of the trip due to putting in so many miles and revving up our metabolisms.

Yakuniku restaurant - no English spoken, unsurprisingly

Simple but high quality sides

That was good after a long day

After we finished up there, we inquired about finding an onsen, as several were listed as being in the area on the map, and after two days of riding we could stand to be cleaner and our muscles cried out for a soak. The staff debated this amongst themselves for some time, and eventually directed us to a large facility that happened to be right on the main road further along in the direction we were traveling in.

Sunset over Wajima

Onsen

We headed out there, paid at the front desk, rented clean towels, and went and got clean before having a nice long soak in the hot springs. There are no pictures, for obvious reasons, but both the men's and women's sides had outdoor springs with gardens, blooming cherry trees, and ponds with carp around them. This was quite nice and totally worth the ~$9 each we paid.

After that, cleaned and relaxed, it was time to find a spot on the side of the road to camp, and set up the tent once again in pitch darkness (headlamps are so worth it when doing this kind of thing). Finding the spot was actually the more difficult element, and we didn't want to go too far in search of really good places - we ended up in a substantially more overgrown piece of fallow land than the night before and had to do battle with pricker bushes to claim the piece of territory we wanted. Jungle-esque terrain aside, we slept quite well.