August 18 Onward to Hikone

A long but productive day filled with rewarding snacks and meals. It began early, as most cycling days seem to, at about 5am. It took a little while for the legs to warm up (mostly for me) so we stretched a bit as we took in the scenery. Brendan patiently waited for me until my juices kicked in.





Pretty soon we had connected back up again with Japan Cycling’s Length of Japan ride (we’re travelling in the reverse order) at Sekigahara. At Nikko we’d learnt about a famous battle fought at Sekigahara so it was amazing to be there. It makes us excited about travelling to Europe as we know even more about the history there. Or North America even.







Now that we had a path to follow instead of making it up we relaxed and enjoyed the picturesque scenery we were riding through. This combined with some lovely long downhills made for the best cycling we’ve had in Japan so far. And the chocolate squares on bread was a big hit too!

Things slowed down a bit as we hit some uphills. I have to stop every 10m or so to let my heart rate drop so many inclines became frustratingly drawn out. We were rewarded by more long downhill stretches and, even more exciting, a dedicated bike tunnel adjacent to a main road tunnel. This is what makes cycling in Japan easy.







By the time we rolled into Hikone Castle area we were ravenous for lunch. The food was sublime. Brendan had chicken and egg with rice (oyaku don which means mother and child). And then another serve of the same. I had yakitori – chicken and spring onion skewers and seasoned beef with wasabi – and a bowl of rice. And then another serve of the same. Oh my god, wasabi beef, oh my god.





We were pretty tired and hot by this point so we were grateful to cycle to a lakeside campsite for the night.