Following the route 55 , the Tosa-higashi highway. through Anan and along the coast.

Sorry for the Google images, but due to the cold and the grey weather, my phone battery died.

Phone batteries never like the cold!

Not a very awe inspiring country , but with japan it can change in a heart beat.

The road starts to climb into the hills. You know what that means , YES there will be a tunnel and you know how much I LOVE tunnels.

Into the hills

nice road, made even better by a crunching graunching sound from the bikes bottom bracket. It cant be the bearing as they are new !

Decided to stop early this day and have a relaxing evening , so when I saw a sign for Fukui Damn. I thought " hello " we might be in luck here.

Turn down the side road aver a small walking bridge follow the pathup into the hills and you enter some abandoned rice fields with a lovely stream running along side. Rice needs good water and so far its been very drinkable. 

You can see the path behind the tent

 It was very peaceful. Very hard to find a place where there is no noise. Very hard. If you are lucky,,,

Mountain weather changes very quickly. So yes it was sunny and then raining and then raining. Oh well.
The tent stood up well. Though it does need to be set up a little better than my slapstick affair. I left the window open.
Not too much of a puddle in the morning. The sleeping bag is water resistant, so all in all, everything was fine.
 One trouble with the tent is; its black inside and out ! I mean pitch black inside and coupled with the peace outside. I slept in.     big style.
 Oh well,  a lovely cup of coffee and a wash in the stream made the rest of the day so much better.

you can sense the sea

On the other side of tunnels, 90% of the time the road goes down hill.  It even feels nice to type that word, downhill.
On the other side of the tunnels  the road drops down through green heavily wooded mountains picking up the a stream that runs long side the road

Navigation is very easy , follow the road and when you hit the sea, turn right.

On the subject of signs and navigation in Japan. pace beads and a good compass are the way to go.

Google maps is workable, when the phone is working and the wee man who operates the map service hasn't drunk too much. The road signs are a work of art. IF you know the next town and IF you can fine one they work.

down from the mountains , turned right. towards......

But if you dont and you are heading towards a big town e.g. Tokyo,  good luck AND don't even THINK of asking a local or into a convenience store to ask. . IF you are lucky and meet a young person you MAY be in luck.  Otherwise you could face a delightful time trying to pronounce that large cities name in as many variations as you can imagine ...

Muroto point ......to meet Ryoma .....