The last lap.
After three days and tens of hours of cycling covering over 600km from Sapporo city in Hokkaido to Kesennuma city in Miyaki. I now have a day and a little less than 170km more to cover before I reach home.
Last night I slept in Ochiai Naomungo Monument Park next to the beautiful Kesennuma bay and woke up early the following day. However, I hesitated to get out of my tent because it was raining cats and dogs. I took a peek outside by creaking open my tent's zipper, and my day could not get any better. I saw heavy raindrops splattering on the ground beside my tent. So, I stayed in the tent for a while before I emerged, undone my tent, and packed my stuff onto my bike.
Today, my journal starts from Kesennuma city to Hobara Town in Fukushima Prefecture. My today's cycling will take me through Matoyoshi, Minanisenriku, Ishinomaki, Matsushima, Shiogoma, Tagajo, Sendai, and Tsukinoki. I have a distance of 172km to cover. I have decided that once I reached Tsukinoki I will take the local Abukuma train to Hobara Town in Fukushima. With much satisfaction and pleased with myself, I jumped on my bike and slowly made my way down Route 5 and 26 along the Kesunuma ports toward route 45.
After leaving Kesenuma city. I cycled for a few kilometers and reached Tome city. Located inland in the Miyaki area of Japan. The sign board over the road reads"Tome City".
The rain continued to fall when I reached Tsuyama. It is a roadside market in Tome city along route 45. I stopped there for a couple of minutes to take pictures but did not go in.
The Tsuyama was half open. Some sort of construction was going on there when I took this photo. For this reason, I did not go in there.
After leaving Kesunuma early around 6am and cycling for several hours over a distance of 75km. I finally reached Ishinomaki around 11am. The city is along the Pacific coast of the Miyagi area. The rain still continued to fall, but I was so excited.
In Ishinomaki, I cycled along the mighty Kitakami river. The river was flooding because of the continuous rainfall.
Along the Kitakami river, I passed by the Kitakami Great Wir. A huge bridge dame built across this fast following river. It was magnificent. I stood there for a while and watched the flooding water rushing through the open floodgates of the Kitakami Great Wir.
The rain finally stopped, but dark rain clouds still covered the skies as a reached Higashi Matsushima. It is a city in the Matsushima buy area next to Sendai city. Here I took a picture of a jet fighter aircraft. The fighter is next to Kasuma station. I have never seen one up close like this one. I have to admit. It was so dumn cool.
I was cycling non-stop for 9 hours. I have 32 km more before reaching Sendai.
I finally reached a famous area in Matsushima city. The Prefecture Natura Park of Matsushima. This place holds a lot of history. It is the home of the noble warrior, Date Masamune. During his rain, he built a lot of temples there.
This is where the people take ferries to go to the outer islands for sightseeing.
The Matsushima park sign. Before I moved to Fukushima I lived in Sendai, Tagajo city for 1 month. While staying there, I visited this place. Coming back here was beautiful.
The view of Matsushima bay from a small hilltop as I left the city and made my way along route 45 to Sendai.
I stood there for a while watching the ferries ferrying people to the small island within Matsushima bay. It was really beautiful, especially after raining the whole day.
Passing through Tagajo. A beautiful small town where I used to live in. I bought my bicycle here. At an Asahi cycling shop just around the corner. It is a nice place to live. It is next to the ocean.
I took a shortcut and did not cycle into Sendai city. I cycled all the way to Tsukinoki Station. This is where I took my final local train home to Hobara, Fukushima.
After 4 days of cycling, taking the ferry and train. I finally reached my home at 20:40pm on August 18th, 2022. It had been a beautiful and amazing life experience that I will never forget.
The best memory of my travel.
- Taking the Silver ferry to Hachinohe was the best experience ever. I have a single room all to myself and I took a good rest.
- I slept in parks next to the ocean and woke up early to see the beautiful sunrise.
- I cycled through the rain and warm myself in the convenience stores and drank hot coffee.
- I saw many beautiful places in Japan which I never imagined would see.
