From Wakkanai, I followed the coast eastward, through uninteresting city streets at first and then very pretty grassland shoreline with a lot of the same konbu gathering activity I'd seen on the islands offshore. Just before the famous cape that was my final destination, I decided to follow some advice from multiple sources by turning right at the sign that said "Soya Hill." The advice turned out to be very good indeed, leading me to a very pretty green hill and pastureland area with Hokkaido's signature grazing cows.

Two more turns and I was at my final destination: Soya-misaki or Cape Soya, the northernmost point in Japan (as the sign at the famous monument in the photo says). From here, it's only 43 km to Sakhalin (you could cycle it in a couple of hours, if your bike could cycle on water!), and I could see a Japan Self-Defense Force (SDF) ship patrolling the waters offshore - the cynic in me says this is probably mainly for PR purposes. Standing next to me in the commemorative photo are the two people who have followed me around for the past eight days to film the "Hello Nippon" segment that will feature KANcycling: on the left, Mr. Kagawa (the director), and on the right, Mr. Ikeda (the cameraman). We decided to celebrate the end of the trip by following some other advice from multiple sources, which was: go directly to the restaurant Mamiya-do, just up the hill from the monument (and thus on our way down from the hills) and sample the hotate (scallop) ramen. Yet again the advice proved to be excellent: it was out of this world. I even broke a firm rule of cycling by indulging in a beer before hopping back on the bike and battling headwinds for another 23 km to the airport. As I write this, I am relaxing in the airport bus approximately 20 minutes away from Kobe and home - the official end of the "real-time" tour. I didn't resolve all of the mysteries I encountered along the way, but a little mystery in life is not a bad thing - it's just one more reason to strap on the helmet and set off on another journey. Thanks for coming along on this one.