Ashizuri Rainy Road to Sukumo

So, we woke to the sound of rain and wind blowing in off the coast. Great. This morning's breakfast was equally as beautiful as last night's dinner, but without quite as much fish, which made it even more enjoyable for me

Real Tosa Breakfast

We hoped a big breakfast and a longer shower would help the rain lessen. We, of course, hoped wrong. It was pouring. Our options were, essentially, to spend another night here hoping it would blow over by tomorrow or plod along in the rain. Since this was the most expensive (by far) place we had stayed at, staying another night wasn't very appealing to our pocketbook, so out into the rain we went.

Luckily, the next temple, Kongoufuku-ji or Number 34, we were going to visit was a mere 700m from the hotel, so we got a break very quickly, which was good, as the wind had started blowing the rain sideways at this point. This temple had many more statues and other artifacts than some of the others we had visited, but due to the rain, I was confined to the sheltered area in front of the main square, so I only got a few pictures

We were somewhat disappointed you can't see how hard it is raining in this picture. Still a beautiful place.

The Turtle Temple. This one had many turtle statues and this turtle fountain.

After doing her henro thing and getting yet another stamp (only 85 to go!), we were back on the Ashizuri Rain-er Sunny Road back around the cape and inland to our next stopping point, Sukumo. There's not much to tell and not many pictures because it was raining pretty much the whole time. The views were still amazing, and we stopped a few times, more out of exhaustion than anything else (wind and rain tire you out more than you would think) to take some pictures, but for the most part we kept on pedaling.

This was what most of the ride looked like. That's not fog in the background, but rain.

A rocky beach at one of the valleys.

A pretty fast moving river, with all the rain,  near our destination of Sukumo.

A narrow road gets even smaller. This is a two lane highway.

So, early on in the day, we decided our brakes were shot. Awful grinding sounds accompanied our slowing and taking off one of the pads confirmed there was no rubber left. Perfect for a ride through the mountains. We took it slow, braking with our less worn pads as much as possible and all but walking down some steeper grades. It took most of the day, but we made it into Sukumo in one piece. We needed to find a bike shop before the next leg of the trip, which was going to be even more mountainous than the last few days.

Rolling into the hotel, we thankfully found a very helpful front desk lady (who spoke no English), that got us our room, found a bike shop and called them to see when they opened in the morning, made an appointment for us with them for 9AM (apparently they don't open in the morning unless there is a reason to), AND let us use the hotel laundry machines (located outside) for free! The only downside to all of that was the dryer. Japanese dryers are usually not as strong as US ones, as they generally prefer to hang their clothes up. I set this one to Tsuyoi (strong) and came back an hour later to find it still going and the clothes still damp. It had a third setting, TAABOO (Turbo). OK, why not? An hour later on Turbo Mode and everything but my jeans were dry. Good enough.

Our dinner this evening was true Japanese cuisine: the famous Mos Burger. Mos Burger is kind of like the Wendy's of Japan. It's better than McDonalds, has fresher ingredients, is made as you order, but still a fast food burger. It was also about the only non-suspicious thing within walking distance of our hotel.

And it was very good.

So, the forecast again calls for, as today did, sunny and 82. Today was the wettest we've had so we'll see what happens. It will be a short trip tomorrow, since we have to get our brakes replaced  at 9.

And finally, I'll leave you with more of the oddness of Japan

Had to include this one. The local pachinko parlor in Sukumo. If you squint, it kind of looks like the Hemispheres font

I have no idea where the suit of armor came from.

Not odd, but I wanted to show this little guy. He was slowly heading towards a drainage hole in the side of a mountain. I managed to catch this one picture before he disappeared.