The New Normal: Noto Bike Trip: Day 4

The morning of day 4, we woke early with the sun, and being determined to for once set up camp in not-complete-darkness, hit the road for Nanao, the next major city and fully 50 miles away. The scenery was pretty but largely without tourist attractions, so despite hilly terrain and a murderous headwind we made steady progress. You may recall that heading northbound some days before we had also faced a strong headwind...meaning that the wind seems to flow counter-clockwise around the Noto, counter to our direction of travel. Were we doing this trip again, we'd try going counter-clockwise around the Noto - you wouldn't have the best views from that side of the road, but it would be more than worth it. You can always cross the road for a better look, but you can't cross the road to avoid gusting headwinds. We stopped for lunch in a local equivalent of pretty much a diner in Anamizu (where we'd gone for the oyster festival), which was...amazing...again. I ate more than I probably should have but it didn't prove to be a problem.

Campsite

Restaurant exterior in daylight

Boat that inexplicably had whole bamboo trees tied to it

Some kind of structure in Anamizu Bay

The helmet hair was pretty constant

Pretty darn good for nine bucks - and you could tell that most was fresh and homemade

We were definitely beginning to feel the miles we were logging, and the headwind stayed with us for nearly the entire day, so when we finally reached Nanao, most of eight hours after we'd hit the road, and 188 miles from where we started in Kanazawa, we were pretty bushed. They had another festival there, which seemed pretty standard until we heard chanting and then a four-story tall float darted across the main road before disappearing again to more chanting. The festival was lined up along a major street that lead to their "Fisherman's Wharf" so we went down to the wharf while inspecting the food offerings along the way. At the wharf, they had a restaurant named Fish and Chips which we fully expected not to serve fish and chips. When we checked the menu and they did, we had to try them. We weren't expecting much but the fish was obviously fresh and the beer batter of significant quality so we enjoyed them thoroughly despite the paucity of ketchup for the fries and the mildly deranged interior decor. Still hungry, we hit the festival and bought a gyro-meat pita from some Turkish immigrants and some dessert items like chocolate covered bananas and crepes filled with fruits and cream before pitching our tent in a riverside public park (which is A-OK in Japan) and falling instantly asleep despite the nearby train tracks.