Cycling Japan – day 57 – Sapporo to Hamamasu

Day 57 – Sapporo to Hamamasu
Distance: 82.9km
Ascent / descent: 577m / 662m
Weather: rainy all day
Accommodation: camped at Hamamasu seaside park campground

I had another wonderful night with Kanji & Mieko and after a delicious hearty breakfast, I set off in a light rain through Sapporo. The rain grew heavy quickly and the river path I was following became flooded so it didn’t take long for my shoes and socks to be completely drenched. Spoiler alert: the rain didn’t stop until I arrived at the campground this evening so there are hardly any photos today.

A rainy day leaving Sapporo

After a few hours of cycling with wet feet and feeling pretty miserable, I stopped at a park bench to change my socks. I also decided to put plastic bags around my new socks because my shoes were just so wet that my new socks wouldn’t stay dry very long. This seemed to work and my feet even started to feel warm at one point. I considered staying the night at a fantastic Michi-no-Eki called Ishikawa Airodo Atsuta, but I couldn’t understand why everyone there was looking at me funny until I realised it was because of the squelching and squishing sounds of my shoes and the sight of plastic bags sticking out of them 😉 I took cover from the rain at this Michi-no-eki for over an hour and worked on my planned route for Hokkaido, which changes everyday depending how tired I am!

I was in and out of numerous tunnels after the michi-no-eki which made my elevation much easier than the profile had initially suggested.

Plastic bags and wet shoes

Mountain views at dusk from Hamamasu

Sunset in Hamamasu

As I was taking the above sunset photo on the beach next to the Hamamasu free campground, a man on a dirt motorbike rode straight up to me on the sand and asked me if I was camping here. I said I wasn’t sure yet (I was but my instincts told me not to divulge this), and he said if I did, then ‘take care’ and he rode off, leaving me with the question, take care of what?! He was also camped there (and there was no-one else), so did I need to be careful of him? Of someone / something else? I did set up camp here because it was too late to continue and there’s a Seico Mart opposite for dinner, but I was now on edge… thanks for that dirt bike guy!