Rained in at Ofunato and through the mountains to Tono

 Turns out Japanese weather forecasting is way more accurate that back home. It rained on and off all day Tuesday, then really came down Tuesday night, so our day off in Ofunato was timed perfectly. I had a grant proposal and some other work to get done, so I did that and laundry while Sumi...pretty much slept all day. She did drag me out into the rain to walk a mile to catch a Japan-only Pokémon, though.

This was pretty much Tuesday

 
Today we got up had a non-fish breakfast

To be clear, those are "Mini Hash Browns" and "Breakfast Sausage" not tater tots and hot dogs

And had a day of perfect weather for biking, Overcast, 60's, a little windy but nothing too bad. This is good because we also had almost 1 mile to climb across two mountains to get to Tono.

This road was covered with branches and rocks and we were the only people on it

The second climb we did was on a road that clearly hadn't been used by anyone in a long time. It was still in reasonable shape, but large branches and rocks were strewn across it, and most of the signs were worn away from age. We were a bit worried it would just end or something (we've had that happen before) but it made it across to the other side where there was significantly more usage and traffic.

All in all, a great ride, though we were happy to roll into Tono at about 3:00. We couldn't check in until 4:00, so we figured we would go see Nabekura castle. The park area that it was in housed a temple and a museum/library, though we didn't stop at the museum.

The entrance to the temple

Of course there are stairs

And statues

And a temple!

The temple was well below the castle grounds, so we had to climb up a bunch of smaller stairs and paths to make it to the top of the bluff where the castle was.

An overlook just below where the castle was

The castle....

So, yeah, the castle ruins are...hiding there in an overgrown field. Had we gone to the museum we probably would have known that. But hey, if we knew that we wouldn't have climbed up 1000 feet through a bear-infested forest on already tired legs. Oh, did I mention there were bears in the area?

The little yellow sign warns you of bears in the vicinity

This is the second time we've been to a Japanese park with nice benches and open areas to hang out with signs warning you of dangerous creatures living IN THE PARK. Well, we once again didn't get eaten by a bear, so yay?

With that little adventure behind us, we headed to our hotel, stopping at several convenience stores to get the proper brand of ice cream treat and food for the night, We are looking forward to a real meal in Hanamaki tomorrow.

The place we are staying at tonight is up in the foothills of yet another mountain in a pretty nice part of town. It's a minshuku, so it's more of a owner-operated kind of place rather than a big hotel and much more traditional Japanese.

Kuranoya

Another wonderful, spacious room

It looks like the rain will hold off for one more day, allowing us to get to Hanamaki, where the shinkansen station is located. We'll pack up the bikes after tomorrows ride and get ready to head back to Tokyo!