Our Travels In Japan (and other places): Shiroishi

One of the cool things about having done these cycling trips over so many years (16 to be exact) is seeing how much has changed since we first blindly struggled our way across Hokkaido in 2008. The technology is so vastly superior than 16 years ago we often don't even know the exact route we're taking the morning we leave. We have a general idea, but things change as we go. One of the downsides to the modern reliance on technology is that sometimes technology is dumb. Numerous times over the last few days we were following the route Maps had planned for us only to told to turn off of an nicely paved, mostly empty road to one like this:

And sometimes the roads don't exist any more, We had a phantom bridge that Maps believed was there that either never was there or was removed years ago. But overall being able to have fully interactive maps downloaded onto your phone is something I wouldn't want to live without anymore.

Today we took an easy ride from Fukushima to Shiroishi, a small-ish town with a lot of history. This was one of the favorite places for Masamune Date to stop on his way to Edo, to the point where the castle had a special entrance reserved just for him. Speaking of the castle

Shiroishi Castle

It's a smaller, 3-story castle that has less dramatic history than many of the others. They did have a big cast iron bell once. During the Meiji Restoration it was sold to a temple. During WWII the temple managed to not have it melted down for the war effort. Like I said, less dramatic.

The ride to Shiroishi was quite pleasant, though a bit windy. We were on a bike path that followed the Abukuma River for a long stretch with no trees or buildings around us and 15-20 mph winds. All in all, though, a nice ride through some old farmland.

Peaches? Sure, why not.

A bell that was not sold to a temple...

Another bell. This time an old (still functioning) fire tower

We got to the hotel quite early, so our room wasn't ready yet, but we were able to drop off our backpacks there and bike to the castle. Biking without a 30 pound weight on your back feels remarkably easy, I must say.

After visiting the castle and an old samurai residence in a beautiful neighborhood (samurai were apparently upper middle class) we headed back to the hotel where the room would be ready. Now, I've made mention several times this trip that we had some really large rooms at ritzy resorts and that they were not normal in Japan. Our room here was much more normal in size, but they were very clever with how they packed everything in such a small space. Here's an example.

Open Desk

Closed Desk. Lower arrows got weird, sorry.

Used Desk...

The hotel had a decent-looking restaurant, so we decided to splurge tonight

Lots of fresh veggies

Thinly sliced high quality beef

Sukiyaki!

Easily the best food we've had since we got to Japan. The broth was tasty but not too salty, the beef was excellent. We had an hour for free "refills", but we were stuffed after 30 minutes. We waddled back upstairs to our room and got stuff ready for tomorrow's trip to Sendai.

And here is a small collection of pictures that amuse us.