Day 7: Wet, wet, wet!

July 1, 2009: I knew we were in for it when a monster lightning strike and thunder clap directly over our hotel woke me up at 5am, and I struggled to fall back to sleep while listening to the heavy downpour rage outside. The storm knocked out phone and Internet service throughout the entire town of Utoro, which the police announced every few minutes on a loud speaker, adding helpfully that they had no idea when service would be back up.
After eating breakfast in the hotel and prepping the bikes, Sho and I bundled up in our rain gear and rolled out into the wet, windy, cold day. We had a 93km (~58 mile) trek in front of us from Utoro to Bihoro. As we wound our way back along the wind swept coast, I actually looked forward to the uphill climbs, when the exertion would warm me up. After riding for 2 ½ hours through the driving rain, we met Eiko and Saya at a 7-11 for a quick lunch inside the rental car and watched the water stream down the windows. Sho had become thoroughly soaked and was shivering, so we changed him into a dry set of clothes. The rain finally let up for the final 2 hours of the 6-hour ride, although it remained cloudy and cool.
We had turned inland from the coast, and began to encounter a series of rolling hills that slowed our overall pace and made my knees ache. The wide expanse of farms and occasional forests glistened, verdant from the rainfall, as we rode by. In the final hour of the ride, we stopped at a small shop by the road to buy drinks from a vending machine. The gregarious shop owner, a woman in her 50’s with an easy smile, asked how we had fared in the rain and how far we had ridden. She was enthralled when we explained our plans to bike the entire length of Japan, and ran into her shop to retrieve a gift of two onigiri (rice balls) and 1,000 yen ($10). It was only after we were a mile down the road, I realized that, in my exhausted state, I had forgotten to take her picture.
Sho and I arrived at the Toge Sou Minshuku in Bihoro at 6pm, where we enjoyed a delicious meal with Eiko and Saya, and took a long, hot bath. It had been a long, messy day, but we fell asleep in comfort, snuggling with our loved ones.