Somewhere in the Akita mountais

As climbing up out of the lake (again, my suffering was very real and I was as slow as a turtle), I bumped into a german bike packer! We stopped in the middle of the road in this funny inclined road and chatted and shared about our experiences for more than an hour, so exciting that I was finally meeting other cyclists. Even crazier, going down we met a taiwanese bike packer! Ming and I were cycling separately (I told him I would cycle on my own, because I don't like to have to feel like we need to match paces) and my route was a bit wilder (and slower) cause I normally like to get into smaller dirt roads to keep it fun. Ming needed to find a new tube for his bike and a new pump, so as we arrived to the next big town I pretty much lost him, he couldn't find a bike shop and then said something else was wrong with his wheel, and even though I tried to follow up, he kinda faded away (I probably scared him through my way of travelling haha). I had two options for the night, a campsite or a hotel, but the campsite was way too far and steep for my abilities, so I stopped at the hotel to ask for a room. It was a place known for an onsen geranium (whatever that means). Beautiful place in front of a river. And again, I had the place for myself. The owner was so lovely and he sat to chat to me for a while, left me some food and the next morning I woke up to a plate of veggies. As I was here, though, I started thinking, do I want to do this for two more months? Or should I revisit the idea of going back to Spain to do the silks training that I was looking into.

⛺ Shibari Onsen Motoyu (5900 yen), there were a lot of bears around and I had to cycle another 7 km of 600m uphill which was undoable. Owner is the loveliest and super nice room with amazing viewsRead more