last leg

Hey, gimme back our tent!

Still laughing about our tent relocation.

Japanese cranes, Hokkaido Japan.

This couple is helping to save the Japanese crane from extinction.

Ino's Place, Sapporo Japan.

Our last day of biking across Hokkaido was a long one. We woke at 3 am (remember that,s when it gets light, plus faithfully the Ha Ha crows, are there every morning to crow their HA HA alarm... think very large obnoxious crow creature) then rode for 12 hours to the marshlands about 30 km north of Kushiro, where we planned to catch the train to Sapporo the next day. We navigated with our faithful guide, the Touring Mapple (a road atlas for motorcyclists that we love to death!) to some smaller back roads, and ended up on a serene and lovely cedar forested, rolling hilly, narrow road, east of Tsuri, the town we would sleep in. There were one or two farms, but otherwise, no houses or anyone out there. It was the one road all trip that wasn,t marked with signs and at one point, we happened upon a woman walking down the road with her fishing gear. I stopped to ask if we were on the right track and she was very excited that we spoke english and called happily up the road to her husband, English, english! Well, we were lucky becasue he spoke the best English of anyone we,ve met all trip. They were both sweethearts. He had moved out to this part of Hokkaido from Osaka to `take care of the cranes`. We were near the protected Japanese Crane marshlands and he had taken it upon himself to feed two sets of cranes and their babies. He asked if we would like to rest before continuing onto Tsuri (we were on the right road), and invited us up to his house where he showed us the cranes, their babies, and told us all about the cranes and their life. Sorry, we haven,t figured out how to post pictures! We have great photos of our friends and the cranes. He fed the cranes fish he is raising in his pond, and fed us the most delicious apple juice and biscuits we,ve tasted. Well rested, we were ready to finish the journey, back down (and up)some more sweet roads into Tsuri, where we ended at another onsen.

It,s early mroning, and we are waiting for a taxi to take us to Tokyo. It,s been wonderful to recup. at Ino,s Place, Jen,s favorite place to stay in Japan.