We rented bikes and rode to Moerenuma Park. The park was designed by sculptor Isamu Noguchi in 1988, just months before his death. We had heard of the park in 2001 when we first visited Japan and had always wanted to see it.
The Glass Pyramid building is named Hidamari and is the symbol of the park.
Here's a looking up toward the apex from the interior.
This is the Tetra Mound sculpture, a triangular pyramid 13 meters high made of 3 stainless steel columns and a grassy mound.
Noguchi's design of Moerenuma was based on the concept of "the whole park being a single sculpture”. We loved it!
The stainless steel surface changes depending on the sunlight. It was hard to believe the area had been a waste treatment plant here before it became a park.
Pete got this cool shot of a dragon fly.
There are 7 different playgrounds in the park, and all the play equipment was designed by Noguchi.
There are three slides in this mountain sculpture. Pete had fun sliding down.
The Sea Fountain is in the center of the park and Noguchi described it as "a sculpture of water." Lots of families were enjoying the park when we visited.
After returning our rental bikes, we enjoyed bowls of miso-based ramen at a tiny shop called Keyaki.
We walked back to our hotel and enjoyed the evening view of Sapporo.
The next day we took a train to Wakkanai. We arrived too early to check in to our hotel, so we took a walk. We looked at this Shingon Buddhist temple with a statue of its founder Kobo Daishi.
We saw a beautiful temple garden with stone lanterns.
It was fun to see these students drawing some buildings at the Hokuman Shrine.
The Hokuman Shrine is a Shinto temple. Shintoism is an ancient animist religion that has been absorbed into modern Japanese culture.
This fierce guardian statue was at the front gate of another Buddhist temple.
Inside the gate was this graceful Kannon sculpture, the Bodhisattva of compassion.
We were happy to be reunited with our tandem bike bag and bike parts that we had shipped from Tokyo ten days earlier. It took Pete a few hours to put our tandem bike back together.
Then we rolled over to the local bike shop to put more air in our tires.
We took our tandem for a test ride. It felt great to ride with everything on the bike working properly. Pete is riding under the North Seawall Dome that was originally constructed in 1936.
The design has Greco-Roman influences and an unusual overhang for a sea wall. It was rebuilt in 1980.
We have been looking for Japanese manhole covers since 2013. Each city has their own design, and Wakkanai's is their sea wall.
Wakkanai is the farthest north city in Japan. It’s so close to the Russian island of Sakhalin that the signs are in Japanese, English and Russian.
In Japan it's super easy to move luggage around. So we shipped the bike bag and our big rolling bags to the final city of our cycling tour using Takuhaibin service.
We have seen their logo around a lot, and we liked how the mamma cat is carrying her kitten.
After our ride we soaked in the awesome baths at our hotel, Dormy Inn. The men and women have separate but similar facilities. Kristina was able to take these photos because she was the only one in the women's baths. This is the indoor pool.
It's especially nice to sit in hot water and feel the fresh air, so we prefer the outside pools.
We went to nearby Take-chan restaurant for dinner and sat at the counter.
We started with crab inner roe, sake and beer.
The sushi was great! Vinegared mackerel, scallops and salmon.
The grilled sable fish topped with grated daikon (radish) was moist and flavorful.
And we had seaweed salad and pickles to finish. "Goatch samma desh ta" means "it was a feast!"
Day 1, Wakkanai to Hamatonbetsu, 104 kilometers with 550 meters elevation gain
We loaded our gear on the bike and felt excited to start our Length of Japan cycling trip!
We rode along the shore.
And out to view Rishiri Island that is an extinct volcano in the Sea of Japan.
Of course we wanted a photo with the cheesy dolphin clock.
As we rode we noticed how important the sea is to the people who live here.
These are rusty anchors.
This family was curious about our bike, so we stopped to talk to them. Tandem bicycles are unheard of in Japan, so we have been getting lots of double-takes as we ride.
We saw black-eyed Susan flowers growing along the road.
This is kombu, kelp, driving in the sun. This area of Hokkaido is known for its delicious kombu.
There were wind turbines as we got close to the northern tip of Hokkaido.
And here we are at Soya Cape, the northern-most point on our Length of Japan cycling route. It's about the same latitude as Portland, Oregon.
Kristina says, “give me tentacles” to this octopus sculpture. At this point we were riding alongside the Sea of Okhotsk, looking out toward the Pacific Ocean.
Past Cape Soya there were lots of fishing boats of all sizes.
We turned inland towards the end of the day and rode into the town of Hamatonbetsu.
Throughout the town we saw a swan theme and learned that swans migrate to the lake here in winter.
Our hotel had a pig dressed as a swan for its logo. The hotel receptionist spoke excellent English, so we asked her to explain. “Ton” is the Japanese word for pork, so the name of the town, HamaTONbetsu, has a pig hiding in it.
Day 2, Hamatonbetsu to Nayoro, 114 kilometers with 1,024 meters elevation gain
All day we rode under gray skies but we didn’t get rained on. We stopped to check out this octopus slide in a park.
We rode through agricultural land, with most houses having flower gardens.
The wooden building style is so attractive. This one was three stories tall and quite beautiful.
Japan has readily available clean public toilets. This was the charming cow-themed weather vane on top of the building.
This map near the bathrooms shows our route at the beginning of the day, starting from the tunnel at the top and continuing down the right side following the orange road along the river.
We rode about 3 kilometers on a gravel road, which was pretty tough because the previous week Typhoon Mindulle had washed out sections of the road.
To the right of Pete and the gravel road is an old highway sign.
A favorite Japanese vegetable of ours is kabocha, winter squash. We saw lots of fields of kabocha as we rode.
We also saw asparagus and other Western crops like corn.
As we rode into Nayoro we paused at this bridge to enjoy the view.
We liked the look of these cone flowers that were lit up by sunshine.
In Nayoro we had soba noodles for dinner. We chose the hot noodle soup version.
Day 3, Nayoro to Asahikawa, 88 kilometers with 580 meters of elevation gain
We never get tired of looking at Japanese temples, so we stopped to check this one out that we spotted from the road.
There were exquisite wooden carvings above the entrance to the temple.
These onions had been left in the field to dry a bit before being harvested.
We also rode by lots of fields of rice. Japan makes it a priority to grow their rice rather than importing it.
As we rode past rice fields, we noticed stones with calligraphy that were tied with a decorative rope. We researched this and learned of the ancient Shinto practice of forming rice straw into a rope called a shimenawa to ward off evil spirits.
Day 4, Asahikawa to Furano, 75 kilometers with 575 meters of elevation gain
As we started to ride we saw Japanese farmers working in this cabbage field. Lots of people use bikes as transportation.
We went a few kilometers out of our way to go back to Higashikawa, “photo town”.
Higashikawa is home to the Roaster Coaster coffee shop, which we had visited with our friends Paul and Julie. The weather was warm and humid, so we opted for iced coffee.
Then we rode to Clover for some fantastic ice cream. It was hard to decide with all these flavors! Clover raises their own cows, and the quality of their ice cream was incredible.
Kristina couldn’t have been more pleased with her matcha (green tea) and sesame scoops.
We are finding Hokkaido to be green and lush.
Kristina is in front of the Ken and Mary Tree that was in a 1972 commercial that now draws busloads of Japanese tourists. To us it just looked like a tree, but it was cool to see a rainbow near it.
We had been watching the weather since typhoon Lionheart was forecasted to hit Honshu and then head north to Hokkaido. We saw lots of rainbows to the south as we rode!
Nearby we spotted this cool pinwheel made from an old bicycle wheel.
This is Lavender Park in Furano, which has flowers in summer and snow in winter. Notice the ski chair lift to the left. It started raining on us here, so we didn’t dally.
Day 5, Furano to Sapporo, 115 kilometers with 1,140 meters of elevation gain
We spent a night in the ski resort town of Furano. Here we are in front of our hotel.
Today's route took us through several tunnels, the longest was several kilometers.
We kept our eyes open for foxes, but didn't see any.
This reservoir was brown because of all the rain and runoff from last week's typhoon.
There are so many rivers in Hokkaido. Kristina is taking a rest on this bridge.
We couldn't resist posing as soft-serve ice cream cones, or softos as they are called here. We have been indulging in lots of Hokkaido ice cream.
In addition to getting surprised looks from Japanese people, we have also received some small gifts like candy. Today we were given melon softos by a friendly taxi driver.
We liked the look of these slightly terraced rice fields. Hokkaido is so beautiful.
Here's a close up to show the graceful rice kernels.
Kristina is in front of the Mihara Bridge in Ebetsu. We had already ridden a century at this point, and were heading toward Sapporo.
And here's the famous Sapporo clock tower with Pete and our tandem bike. It was challenging to ride into downtown Sapporo.
Day 6 Sapporo to Toyako Onsen, 106 kilometers with 1,470 meters of elevation gain
The next morning it was challenging to ride out of downtown Sapporo. Pete's expression shows that he's not really enjoying his final look at Odori Park.
This temple was too beautiful to pass by without looking more closely.
We liked the roof fish detail.
And the landscaping around the temple was so pretty.
Finally we were out of the Sapporo traffic and onto the pedestrian and bike path alongside the Toyohira River. We learned about Sapporo's "Circular Greenbelt Concept” for the city: by linking through bike paths like the one we were riding on, Moerenuma Park and other green spaces across the city of Sapporo could be more easily explored. We applaud their Greenbelt!
Our bike and we were popular with these little school kids.
We rode through agricultural land, and we checked out some roadside stands.
Kristina took this photo as we rode through a long tunnel.
As we climbed up into the hills, the temperature got a bit cooler, but it was still about 80% humidity.
Hokkaido is fairly mountainous. Pete got this artistic photo of a mountain with a stone lantern.
This is the same mountain, this time with the narrowest house we've ever seen in such an open space.
It took us awhile to figure out what these plants were: daikon radishes.
We rode around part of Lake Toya, which is a volcanic caldera lake. Here's Lake Toya's manhole cover.
And we liked spotting the real Ukimedo pagoda on Lake Toya.
The island in the center of Lake Toya is named Nakajima, and it's volcanic.
After our first week on our Length of Japan cycling tour, Pete donned his yukata robe and enjoyed a Suntory highball.
Next we'll enjoy a day of rest on the shores of Lake Toya before continuing south to the island of Honshu.
