When you stick to secondary roads with little traffic and are functionally illiterate in kanji, the Japanese characters used on road signs, it is easy to get lost. Which is how we end up riding over the same steep pass twice today. Fortunately, it is a gorgeous route that winds up through rice fields and small farms, bamboo, pine and cedar forests, offering periodic glimpses down towards the Sea of Japan. It rains all day, a tropical storm that keeps us drenched but cool, and that imbues the countryside with a deep green color and clean earthy smell. By mid afternoon, we arrive in Wajima and eat big bowls of noodles at a shop whose owners sing out the ubiquitous “Irasshaimase!” with particular gusto.

Among the things I love most about seeing the world by bicycle is the detail; the little sights, sounds and smells you would miss if you weren’t traveling slowly. This flowering vine caught my attention today, making the most ordinary of metal road barrier into something beautiful. Note the spider and web to the left.