From Shiretoko to Akan national park

When we left Utoro in the morning, the rain was pouring down. Again. The forecast told us it would rain for the next couple of hours, but it would become gradually less. Well, it did rain for the next couple of hours indeed. We didn't notice the getting less however. Until well after Shari, more than 50km after we left, we had continuous rain. We were quite well prepared and in fact it was even a bit of fun in the beginning, but after 4 hours of continuous rain you can't stay completely dry, and you don't enjoy it anymore. We stopped for lunch in a small town, had hoped to find a restaurant so we could sit down and warm up but unfortunately had to settle for a convenience store lunch. While we were eating our lunch inside, the young woman at the shop came telling us we could not eat inside! Ehh well, we made it clear to her that was a bit ridiculous and we didn't have a car like all the other people, to eat our lunch. Luckily she realised it wasn't reasonable to expect that, and she allowed us to stay inside. Phew... Japanese and their rules...

Ready to go!

Looking good!

After the rain had stopped...

We had doubted to continue cycling past Shari as the weather was so unpleasant, but had pushed on and luckily after our lunch the rain subsided and we could continue in nicer circumstances. It was still gray and a bit cold, but at least it wasn't raining anymore. It was a beautiful ride the entire day, and because of the clouds sometimes quite mysterious. We also realised afterwards that there had been high and beautiful mountains on our way but we hadn't seen any of them! We planned to continue riding until Kawayu, just before reaching the Kusharo lake. When we got to Kawayu, at 3pm after 88km cycling (with such weather you just keep going, so we made very good progress), we didn't find it an inspiring place to stay and decided to continue until Teshikaga, where we knew there was a very nice guesthouse. Before we left Kawayu we stopped at the free hot spring footbath however, and that was simply heaven. After riding for hours with wet, cold feet we could soak our legs in hot water, ahhhh. Even though our shoes were still wet and so our feet remained wet afterwards, they were no longer cold! We rode the last very beautiful 18km (making it a nice 106km for the day) along the Kusharo lake to the guesthouse, Yado Hana Furari, checked in, enjoyed a Japanese hot bath, had a fantastic room, and ate a great dinner. This place is probably the nicest guesthouse we've had in Japan, and one of the nicest on our whole trip. We would have wanted to stay another few days, but unfortunately (as it goes with these great places) they were full for a couple of days...

A gentle climb through dense foggy forest

Enjoying a hot footbath in Kawayu

So we checked out in the morning, but left most of our luggage at the guesthouse to make a day trip. We went up to the rim of the Mashu lake caldera, one of the volcanic lakes in this area. It once held the world record for the lake with clearest water... When we arrived at the rim, after 500m climbing, we still had a decent view, although it was clouded. It was cold however, with a northerly breeze cooling us down. We climbed further to the next viewpoint, enjoyed that for a little while too, and then had a fantastic descent - which nearly froze us. Cold!!! During our descent we already spotted our next destination: Mount Iwo, a young and very active volcano. You can't climb up the volcano as it is too active and unstable, but you can visit and it is impressive. Hot steam vents everywhere, sulphuric steam hissing out at high pressure, strong sulphur smell (we smell sulphur regularly while cycling through this region), small hot springs, warm rocks, ... Impressive. We also wanted to make a 2,5km nature walk around the volcano area, but it was closed. Later, while soaking our feet in the hot spring again, we heard the trail was closed because... a big brown bear was spotted in the town earlier that day!!!

On the way up to lake Mashu, with YES some blue sky!

At the lake Mashu viewpoint. Where's that blue sky now???

Not here...

Not here either...

Maybe behind that curve? (spoiler alert: no)

We rode back to our guesthouse to collect our luggage, said bye to the people there - they were so nice, a small family business with great people, they all came out to see us off. We finished our day at a campsite at the Kusharo lakeshore, with an open air natural onsen within walking distance. It's still cold, around 10C, so we ate and stayed in our tent after our hot bath. Tomorrow, the weather should be better, finally...