Last Stop in Hanamaki

 Our last day of riding was a pretty easy one, relatively speaking. 33 miles, mostly downhill, overcast and 65. There was really only one road that went through the valley, so it was either be on and off a busy highway or climb over a mountain so we opted for the former. For the most part there were decent shoulders and sidewalks with only a few times we needed to ride "in traffic" as it were.

A section of the ride was on the Tono-Towa Cycling Road

The mascots are a Kappa and a Cucumber...

Turns out that Tono is a big Kappa town. In fact, you can purchase fishing permits for Kappa in Tono. The best bait for a Kappa is cucumber, hence the mascots. To be clear, Kappa are fictional water creatures.

The remote area between Tono and Hanamaki at least had a train line, the Kamaishi line that runs between Hanamaki and Kamaishi towns

It's not a very big line...

Sometimes the cycling paths are a little...rustic

The path goes into the grass, right by them

Maps wanted us to turn here

But all in all, the ride was smooth. When we got into town, we came across this

They were staring at a 7-11

Long story short, Kenji Miyazawa, a rather interesting guy from Hanamaki, was the author of some very famous children's novels, including Night on the Galactic Railway and The Life of Budori Gusuko, whose anime adaptation these guys came from. Why they are in front of a 7-11 I still do not know.

With a little time before check in, we decided to check out Hanamaki Castle. After Tono Castle, we made sure to see a picture of...something before we climbed up the hill. Reassured, we did indeed climb up a hill and were rewarded with...

A fake Nihonmaru

Looks great, right? It's all a prop. The back is empty, the walls are held up by boards. The castle grounds, behind the gate here, are more grass-covered ruins. Ah well...Back down the hill and up again brought us to our hotel, The Grand Ciel Hanamaki where our luggage was shipped. We checked in, then rode our bikes for the last time this trip to get the dinner of Sumi's choice.

Yes, this was her choice

Back at the hotel, we took apart the bikes and pared down our gear to just what we needed for our last few days in Tokyo, packed up the bikes in their cases, packed up the rest in our large duffle bags, and hit the end of a very successful cycling trip. Almost no rain, lots of different towns, some great scenery. Tomorrow we spend the day on trains getting back to Tokyo.