Saturday October 11, 2025

We decided today to use Google maps and not RidewithGPS. I couldn’t find the end hotel on RidewithGPS and I knew we were going to be north of Fukuyama. The route today was a mix of rural and highway riding. Of course the highway has a shoulder that can be good or diabolical. The diabolical is when the cycle/pedestrian path reduces to shoulder width and your bike with panniers is the size of a small car. If we cycle on the busy road, most of the cars give us about a foot of space, some slow down, as they pass but it can be scary.

Today was not a particularly pretty route, there were some nice areas. We went through a village that had lots of paper cut-outs on strings. We were trying to decide what they were representing – respect for a death in the village, celebration of some sort or drying out toilet paper?

Googles answer is:

In Japanese villages, the meaning of hanging paper cutouts is most often rooted in Shinto traditions. 

• Shide: These are zigzag-shaped paper streamers that are frequently hung from ropes (shimenawa), branches, or ritual wands (gohei) to indicate a sacred, ritually pure space. They are believed to mark the boundary between the sacred and the profane.
• Purification: Shinto priests wave a wand with shide attached to purify a person, item, or piece of property and ward off evil spirits.
• Harvest and fertility: The zigzag shape of the shide can represent lightning, symbolizing fertility and the potential for a good harvest.
• Teru teru bozu: These are white paper or cloth dolls hung by a string, typically in windows. They are used to wish for good weather and prevent rain

Currently they are harvesting the rice, and it is forecast for rain – I think these cut-outs were Teru-teru bozu.

We passed R9Yard Hotels. These are “hotel” rooms in shipping containers. Usually they are not too expensive, but for a Saturday night they were well out of our price range.

Tonight, we are in our second love motel. It has an Australian theme, a drawing of the Sydney harbor bridge and the opera house on the screen doors. It is very clean and spacious. After we settled in we wandered down to a restaurant. We had a lovely meal with pork and ramen and a beer.

Of course, when we walked in we could  almost hear a collective intake of breath, and rock, paper, scissors as to who is going to serve the foreigners. We quickly translated the menu and ordered two pork ramen and one large beer. The waiter who lost the rock, paper, scissors breathed a sigh of relief and took the order back to the kitchen. He came back with a large bottle of beer and one glass, he quickly got a second glass. As we left Ralf had already translated “That was really good, Thank you” and showed it to the lass at the cash, she had a big smile on her face. Yeah we served foreigners and it was good.

Back to the hotel room with a bottle of Korean Happy Water. We have no idea what is in this alcoholic drink, but it is good. We drank it when we were in Korea and really liked it, pleased to find it in Japan at $3.50 a bottle. In Canada it is $10.00 a bottle.