Day 17: Komatsu to Tsuruga, 69.3 miles

Heading up to the mountains and it's been snowing again. I need to get away from The Sea of Japan and its bad weather pronto.

I decided to make a break for it, brave the weather and head South, away from this weather front. I can't afford to waste anymore time being stuck in this area. It's 2 deg Celsius on the flat and 1 deg on the hills; just above freezing. This means that it rains and hails during the day and snows at night. It's cold but also really wet and the rain is so heavy it penetrates all my extreme weather clothing meaning I can't get warm. I also had more mountains to cross today.

Got to Tsuruga to find myself being turned away from hotels again so I went to the tourist information office (it doesn't strike me as a particularly touristy place but they do have a nuclear power station here, maybe that's an attraction). The girls there were fantastic and did some ringing round and found me a little traditional guest house just a couple of blocks away.

It's f*cking freezing again. I have to pull over and find shelter every time the rain turns to hail stones.

G-force have a base in Fukui Prefecture.



More Japanese crustiness. I really like the effort the Japanese make with their signage and logotypes. This sign must be about 10 feet long.

View across Tsuruga bay. The clouds were slowly giving way to better weather.

Tsuruga and it's port tucked away in a bay surrounded by mountains. If you click on the picture & zoom in you can see the nuclear power station on the left, right next to the town.

I fell on my feet again. After being turned away from the four hotels in Tsuruga (I think they were really full this time, everyone is really friendly here and were patient with my lack of Japanese) I got to stay at this guest house run by this lovely old couple. They didn't charge me the full whack for the room then insisted that I take a packed lunch with me in the morning when I left.

It was nice to stay in a proper Japanese house for a change, I'd wondered what they were like inside. I wanted to take more pictures but was worried about seeming rude. Their toilet was like something from Star Wars and they had a water feature in the hall.

Tim was AMAZED at the elegant minimalism of the traditional Japanese bedroom.

BAFFLED by said room's sleeping arrangements

OVERWHELMED by the abundance of tasty food in local supermarket.

SHOCKED by stash of porn in bedroom magazine rack.