Statue of Nine Women at Wakkanai, JapanMost of the wharves are accessible by foot in Wakkanai, which makes for some nice boat-watching.
Lunch was one of our favorites: Omu-raisu (omlette rice). This is usually slightly tomato-flavored fried rice (usually with chicken) draped with a big thin omlette, covered with a beef-stock sauce. Delicious.
As Haidee worked at Wakkanai Station (with free WIFI), I wandered around the north end of town. One of the big drawcards in Wakkanai is the Wakkanai Port North breakwater dome. This grandiose, 424 meter long piece of Greek-inspired architecture was completed in 1936. Now, it is a popular spot for long distance cyclists and motorcyclists to free-camp.
As usual, today the town was littered with touring bicycles. Many from university students, doing mad dashes down the country, as part of university cycle touring clubs.
One particularly interesting fellow was a guy with an old Bridgestone bike. He had cycled from Miyazaki prefecture (at least 2000km south). He had a bottle dynamo (an electricity-generating device which spins against the bicycle tire) wired to a dry-cell battery. He said the dynamo created so much drag that he could only use it (charge the battery) when going downhill.
His back brakes were hardcase too. Some of the earliest bicycle disk brakes. He lamented the fact replacement brake pads were hard to find these days. He could only find them in out-of-the-way old-school bike shops. “They’ve got asbestos in them, you see,” he explained.
