I had this whole plan to leave Tazawako early and spend half the day looking around the historic town of Kakunodate 25km south of the lake. It was a ride that would take two hours tops, but a heavy rain started in the morning at about 5am and only got stronger as the morning progressed. By 9 the campground was as good as flooded and my tent soaked. The weather was too foul to cycle through so I tore my tent down quickly and sheltered under a marquee the campground used to dry their tents under.

By now all the car campers had fled the campground but I found two motorcycling tourists also cowering from the weather with me. We shared soup and coffee while waiting for the weather to fair up. Miro, one of the tourers had a smartphone that informed us of a small window of opportunity at 2 which I could use to get to Kakunodate.

Hiding from the storm with Kay and Miro

The weather cleared for a but and I raced to Kakunodate. Almost as soon as I arrived the rain started again. I found a nice cheap guesthouse for the night, with my tent soaking and the rain continuing I didn’t really fancy camping.

It cleared up in the evening and I ventured out for a onsen and some food. On the way back from the restaurant I was eating at I spotted a foreigner who I had glimpsed back st the restaurant. He was a really nice American guy. Called Alex who had just come over to Japan to teach English. We went to grab a drink, ran into more of the English teaching foreigners here in Kakunodate. It was a. Daze coincidence that probably would not have happened without the rain spoiling my plans earlier. The road , it seems, will provide.