Wow we made it to the top of Japan! 725km after setting off from Sapporo and after a glorious sunny ride from our cabin at Fureai Park we waited our turn for a picture with the monument. Elsie chose that moment to become camera shy so we went and had some lunch (yummy fresh seafood) then came back for another go.

In writing this blog I guess I often miss writing about those everyday interactions we have with others. I've mentioned that Elsie gets so much attention, especially when people see her travelling on the bike, but we also have a lot of other wonderful moments. For example, today when we ventured into the seafood restaurant at the top of Japan for lunch, the waitress immediately recognised us from the day before. We had seen her and her partner as they were leaving the steak house. They sheltered for a moment from the pouring rain and saw us also waiting it out and we all laughed together at the irony of them sheltering before running to a nice dry car versus us, resigned to cycling in the rain. Anyway, she recognised us and seemed delighted to see us, she even gave us free rockmelon with our lunch (delicious!). Rockmelon is locally grown here so one of the more available fruits.

We had promised Elsie a visit to the playground we had seen back down the road so we went back to that (we thought it was half a km but it was more like 3km - with a headwind). We had planned to go back over the headland road not the coast road so after a play we went back to the top of Japan, did our Sake toast to Bill which was an emotional moment for Shane, then went up the hill. Despite the fierce headwind it was a beautiful diversion and we joined up with the main road after 7km or so.

It was tough going cycling back so we stopped at the Seicomart for an ice block (one lychee, one mango and one watermelon with chocolate for seeds). We also stopped off at the beach and Elsie ran around like crazy and even spent a bit of time in the water. It was quite lovely and warm. Unfortunately she spat the dummy when I said no more I-pad for the remaining 3km home. Boy did I regret that but I didn't give in and by the time we got home she was all worn out. It's moments like those, exhausted after 50 odd kms of cycling, plowing slowly through a headwind with a screaming child trying to escape from the bike trailer, that I wonder why we do this. Fortunately, the moments of pure crazy joy are usually more frequent (cruising along at 30km with a tailwind, zooming downhill, pushing for the top of the hill, winding along quiet country roads, even cycling through a downpour).

Again, grateful for this cabin to crash out in (it even has a fridge so the beer is cold).