Japan. Onsen Explorer. Day 5

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Onsen Explorer. Day 5. Furofushi. Aomori.

Japan. What a delight on this tour to have such wonderful Japanese meals with such a variety of seafood and veg. We don’t always know what we are eating but sometimes it is better not to know and taste it with your tongue and not your eyes. The Sake wine is very good too. Would you like some more Vicar? Don’t be silly.
That is yesterday’s dinner out of the way. Now for the excitement.
We were in bed at 9.15 only to be woken at 22.22 by my mobile phone screeching a siren and shouting in Japanese. Almost immediately the bed started to shake from side to side for about 30 seconds followed by loud shouting on the tannoy speakers outside. Apparently there had been an undersea 6.8 earthquake 50km offshore just south of us. We had tremors of 4 on the Richter scale and there were warnings of a possible tsunami. How exciting!
Breakfast was all a buzz with different tales of nights of terror and intrigue.
The cycling was great again today with sunny warm weather of about 20 degrees. The wind was mostly behind us which always makes life a pleasure on wheels. The mid morning breaks are just too much so I am cutting back, otherwise I will burst. The Ramen at lunchtime was enough for two, even though I had little beforehand. There was a roadtrain established for the last 20km, which was quite pleasant and which eventually split when Paul decided to go for it to the finish. I was with him until the hill and then I had no chance so pulled in a poor second. The racing snake having to hold back due to leg injury from a previous contest. At the afternoon break we met a lady who had carried the Olympic Flag for Japan in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when she was 19 and played in the tennis competition. Bravo. The Hotel in Furifushi is down by the coast and has rooms overlooking the sea with several onsens, indoor and outdoor, brown and browner, hot and hotter. Phew! What more can we ask for?

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