Ambling around

The weather forecast had been for solid rain from Friday, but it turned out to be really fine. However now this week is forecast for solid rain from Friday again. I suspect this is because my new bike got delayed for a week, so the rain moved forward to this Friday to piss me off...
Anyhow we made the most of the weather on the Sunday, and went for a trip right to the southern-most point of Chiba, after we got off the highway and the rest of the trip took about 2.5 hours to cover 175km. Touring in Japan is not exactly a high speed experience. But even though we couldn't go fast due to tight narrow roads, at least there were not so many traffic lights in the way, and that made a nice change.
Unfortunately we left a bit late in the day and ended up coming back after dark, which was a first for me, riding the big bike loaded up around pitch black tight windy roads where I could often only see 100m ahead. Another first for me yesterday was using my high-beam!! I've been riding for 7 years now and never had any occasion to use it, because I've never ridden anywhere that did not have streetlights!
We didn't spend much time at our destination point, where there was a lighthouse, like a lot of other places that jut out into the ocean. That's my FJ in the top pic, with baggage on. The side ones are 21 litre 'slim' ones which are practically a necessity here with so much lane splitting.
There was also a medium sized temple there with a rather unusual monument which provided a good bit of entertainment and made the trip more worthwhile, which is more than I can say for most temples. In the second photo you can see a shrine to certain parts of one's anatomy, hehehe. The idea is for ladies that rubbing the uh... wooden one will bring good luck or something, and fertility. I don't know if guys were supposed to rub the other one though, it didn't say.