We rode our motorcycles southwest from Tomakomai City, which meant approaching the center of the storm. I'd like to have avoided the southwest direction, but the arrangement of accommodation at an old inn was already done. No matter what route we chose, we had to reach the inn. The rain got harder, and we took a rest in front of a warehouse company, which you can see in the first picture.
I wondered if we could take a footbath in Noboribetsu Hot Spring, which is now well-known even out of Japan, but the rain was too heavy to do so. We could only ride around the town and headed for the south. We had planned to go over a hill from Noboribetsu and view Mt. Youtei and Lake Toyako from the top of the hill, but a landslide alarm was issued on the route. So, we changed the route and went south to Muroran City. I like caldera lakes. I wanted to have a rest at the lakeside of Kuttara Lake, but didn't do it due to the terrible rain.
The blue flag in the last picture was presented from ANA in commemoration of the tour. The color of blue is the color of the company. I assumed that ANA wanted to raise it on my motorcycle through the trip, but the horrible rain hampered it. There are generally so many riders in Hokkaido who put flags up on their motorcycles. I'll write about the custom of doing that later in another entry.
(Vocabulary)
footbath 足湯
Kuttara Lake 倶多楽湖
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2007/08/lake-kuttara.html
大雨の中を出発。登別温泉をまずは目指しました。雨はだんだん酷くなり、白老町あたりの潰れた？倉庫会社の軒下で雨装備を厳重にしています。登別温泉では足湯くらいは浸かりたかったのですが、そんな余裕なし。倶多楽湖畔で珈琲タイムとしゃれるつもりでしたがレストランも閉まっていました。どういうわけかカルデラ湖に興味があり、十和田湖とか、摩周湖とか、小ぶりではありますがこの倶多楽湖も好きな湖です。いつか長白山(支那側の呼称)、白頭山(朝鮮名：この麓で金正日が生まれたことになっている）のてっぺんの池(天池）にも立ち寄ってみたいと思っています。登別からは山を越えて、その峠から羊蹄山を眺める予定が、、崖崩れ危険情報があり、室蘭を回ることにコース変更しました。最後の写真の青い旗ですが、帰宅後に撮りました。ＡＮＡのカウンターでいただきました。本来はこれをバイクに付けて走って欲しいと言うことでしたが、この雨では傷んでしまうので出せませんでした。北海道ツーリングと旗の関係についてはまた後ほど。
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