Rain

It rained the entire today! From the moment I left Kyoto till when I reached Hikone, it was raining. Wasn`t exactly pouring, torrential rain, but nevertheless, it wasn`t a slight drizzle as well....

Before I left Kyoka Ryokan, I spent about half an hour trying to waterproof everything. Once I thought everything was fine, I put on my Adidas windbreaker and headed out into the wet.

Initially, traffic was rather heavy along national highway #1 as I headed out of Kyoto City. Riding along the 6 lane national highway in morning rush hour traffic on a rainy day is really not fun. At first, I took care to avoid puddles by swerving around them or going through slowly, but after the first 18-wheeler came by and totally immersed me and my bike in water, I didn`t really care anymore. hahaha....

Its surprising that just the day before, when I reached Kyoto it was 25 degrees Celsius, but on a rainy day, the temperature could drop 8 degrees! Its a good thing my jacket most of my body dry, but unfortunately, it wasn`t as good as stopping the wind as my Salomon.

Anyways, reached Biwako (Lake Biwa) right on schedule despite the wet conditions and I proceeded to cross Biwako Bridge to get to the other side of the lake.

Biwako is the largest lake in Japan and its almost like a small sea! Crossing the bridge from one side to the other, the view would have been fantastic if not for the very gloomy weather. So, unfortunately all I saw was a vast expanse of grey.

Crossing Biwako Bridge

Risking getting my N95 wet, I try to take some pictures of the lake

After crossing Biwako into Omi-Hachiman City along Route #477, the road to Hikone was rather quiet. It was mainly countryside with the scores of rice fields as usual.

Golden rice fields on my way to Hikone City

Reaching Hikone City, I check into the somewhat pricey Hotel Estacion and begin to check my equipment. All my bags were totally wet and anything that was not ziplocked was soaked!

Luckily, everything important had been waterproofed and I did not destroy anything important. My bags were extremely dirty though, and even a little oily from the dirty water that the trucks repeatedly splashed onto me. It took me a whole 3 hours to wash everything and slowly dry everything with the hairdryer. The hotel`s electricity bill for that night must have sky-rocketed! hahaha....