08/09/2018 / Last updated : 07/02/2023 d.d Scenic Drive / Spots

Mt. Iwaki and Jogakura Ohashi, Autumn leaves and orchards　岩木山

Day 41, October 2016, Ashino Koen(park) Wake to a beautiful morning in Ashino Koen(park). The truck gent has moved his parking spot for no obvious reason but the tent dispenses a youngish, obviously, homeless man who coughs and spits. Not the best of neighbors. We have forgotten to get bread so have no breakfast and have a spot of panic as I think I have lost my wallet but find it on the floor of the car. We go for a walk across the (apparently) famous bridges. The first, is a floating bridge which is passable but is in a distressing state. What repairs have been carried out are very […]

29/07/2018 / Last updated : 07/02/2023 d.d Arts / Places of interest

Tsugaru Peninsula　津軽

Day 40, October 2016, Today we will tour the Tsugaru Peninsula. There was rain in the night or rather early this morning but my nocturnal peregrinations were not inconvenienced. This morning, there are many camper vans in the car parks. One of them is especially swish and I see some people get the guided tour. We have can coffee and left-over bread. This is the first time we have not been fully prepared for a meal. D. wants to wait until the michi-no-eki vegetable stalls open so we hang around. I walk across the road over to the sea. There is a small, pointed island with the ubiquitous shrine just […]

26/07/2018 / Last updated : 06/02/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Osorezan, communing with the dead　恐山

Day 39, October 2016, Yagen Valley　薬研渓谷 We wake to a fine day and breakfast in the early morning sunshine. Before visiting Osorezan, our plan is to walk along a small, nearby river, so we drive a little further up the valley. The footpath, we discover, is in the pine trees and very gloomy. It runs along an old, narrow gauge railway line, now barely visible and the river can hardly be glimpsed at all through the undergrowth, so the prospect for the walk is not encouraging. In the end, we walk back along the road – there are almost no cars – and take lots of useless pictures of the […]

25/07/2018 / Last updated : 06/02/2023 d.d Scenic Drive / Spots

Hotokegaura, white ant hill　仏ヶ浦

Day 38, October 2016, Oma, Aomori　　大間 After arriving in Ooma Shimokita peninsula in Aomori by ferry from Hakodate, drive through narrow streets out to the point where everything is Maguro(tuna). We park and wander around the usual shops selling junk and fishy things. A tentacle stall catches my eye, before we find the point itself. Here people are taking pictures and the couple from Osaka are there entering into the spirit of the thing more than D. and I are able. They give D. a name card and we learn they run an izakaya in Sakai city in Osaka. Hotokegaura To find a supermarket, to get some lunch, we wind through […]

21/07/2018 / Last updated : 14/07/2022 d.d Japan road trip tips

Michi no Eki – Roadside Station

Sleeping in your car (Shachuhaku) On any given night, at a rough guestimate, there are scores of elderly people sleeping in their cars the length and breadth of Japan. This is not poverty or eccentricity but, rather, practicality. Plus, yes all right, a bit of eccentricity. A number of people, not all elderly but the retired have the time to travel, choose to sleep in their cars rather than spend money on hotels. This saving makes it possible for people to travel all over the country, for days, weeks or months if they so choose. For many it is sightseeing, visiting the many beautiful shrines and temples, castles, mountains, hot […]

10/06/2018 / Last updated : 06/02/2023 d.d Hiking / Walking

Northern Fisheries Museum and Hakodate town walk　函館

Day 37, October 2016, The morning breaks cold and damp but the weather is fine as we eat breakfast with a superb view of Hokuto and the sea. By the time we finish and are preparing to pack up, very ominous clouds appear over the mountains. Within 10 minutes, it is pouring with rain. We delay the clearing up and packing and wait for the worst to blow over. Eventually we check out of the Kijihiki campsite and descend into Hakodate but it is raining solidly again, so we go to an art museum. This is very disappointing, as the exhibition is very small and of limited interest. A few […]

07/06/2018 / Last updated : 19/03/2023 d.d Scenic Drive / Spots

Cycling Onuma park　大沼公園

Day 36, October 2016, A warm, sunny morning and we enjoy breakfast outside, more comfortably than last night’s dinner. Packed, we drive to Hakodate and D. buys warm socks in Shimamura. (A cheap clothing chain that, we discover, has a major presence throughout the Japanese archipelago. Well, I can’t vouch for Okinawa but I wouldn’t bet against it.) Cycling Lake Onuma Thus equipped, we head back to Lake Onuma and rent bicycles. After dropping into 7/11 to buy onigiri for lunch we set off cycling. A short distance later, in Onuma Park, we are obliged to ditch our bikes so recently acquired, as they are not allowed. Consequently, we walk […]

02/06/2018 / Last updated : 06/02/2023 d.d Scenic Drive / Spots

Mt.Esan, Hakodate　恵山

Day 35, October 2016, Dry weather but D. is not in the best of health so we delay our departure. I discover I can view the geyser from a vantage point on the ridge behind the michi no eki without paying an entrance fee. Strangely, I feel no sense of guilt over this clandestine geyser viewing. Mt. Esan D. feeling better, we get under way along the coast heading back towards Hakodate. Here is the very active volcano, Mt. Esan, a very menacing affair. It looms over a fishing village which has its back, very much, to the mountain wall. A steep, narrow road winds to the viewing point for Esan. […]