The ride from Tsukigata to Asahikawa was mostly flat for a long time. There wasn’t much to see other than flat farm fields all the way to the horizon where the mountains began. The road I took ran through a valley much like the 395 does through the Owens Valley. I’ve noticed that the houses in Hokkaido are mostly non-Japanese style homes. They are styled more like rural farm houses you see in the Midwest states. Hokkaido has a reputation for being remote, and it is when compared to other parts of Japan. When I pass through these small farming villages, it reminds me of the towns you pass through along the Owens Valley. One or two traffic lights, a main street with stores half open and half shut down, one or two places only to buy groceries.
I reached a good sized town along the way where they were flying gliders along the river bank. Riding through town, there were a few places to eat but I decided to keep going. I could tell that I was reaching the outskirts of town though, so I thought that I’d start looking for a place to eat. As luck would have it, I saw a MOS Burger coming up so I ate there again. It was hot today and I was getting sunburnt. My ears are particularly vulnerable so I try to apply sunblock on my ears. It is probably because my ears stick outside of the helmet.
Before reaching Asahikawa the road runs along the Ishikari River, which is a pretty big fast flowing river. I found a cycling course along the river for a while that I took, seems like the road had been cleared recently but no one was riding it. I took this cycling road I had all to myself for several kilos before I reached the town of Asahikawa, which is the second largest city in Hokkaido. I was pretty happy to see a McDonalds in town as well as a Matsuya. I was also excited to finally see Wakkanai appear on the road signs...so close.
I checked into the guest house which was located right on the main shopping area close to the train station. I took a shower and went out to check out the town. I came back and talked to several of the people staying at the guest house. One group of guys went out to eat while I chatted with Kan who came from the Tokyo area on his motorcycle via ferry. Later on, two girls from Kutchan arrived as well. Kutchan was a town I had passed a few days ago from Niseko to Otaru. We talked for a bit and then the guest house owners asked us if we wanted to head over to a small bar they had down the street. We had a lot of fun there. The group that went out to eat earlier arrived and they all had some drinks while I drank pineapple juice.
Quinlan from Australia was a mountain climber who was going to hit the snow trails for several days starting tomorrow. Yuki was from Kanagawa and he was a serious alpine mountain climber, with the ice axes, cramp-ons and all. Jansen was from Hong Kong and he is a huge anime fan. Tomo and Momo were the girls from Kutchan on a road trip to Asahikawa. The guest house owners were good entertainers, funny that they are all Okinawans living way up north. One of them, Kuni cooked us some Okinawa food. Instead of SPAM they have a similar canned meat called Tulip. With a few drinks in everyone, the crowd started having some fun with Halloween masks they had lying around. We took a lot of goofy pictures and had a good time. After they closed the bar, everyone headed back to the guest house. Quinlan was heading out early tomorrow so he went to bed while the rest of us stayed up late talking.