Hugo G.C. Vanneck

Trip to Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita & Yamagata

From Tokyo to Oarai port in Ibaraki Prefecture (about 120 miles north-east of Tokyo) by road, ferry to Hokkaido, back to Japan's main island of Honshu by ferry and then by road back to Tokyo. About 1500 miles, partly in the company of fellow Airhead Minoru Matsuura and partly in the company of long time companion, Moto Guzzi riding Yuko. These are some pictures of the countryside and sights in the northern Tohoku region of Japan.

2001 Sunday, 29th July

Tokyo and on the Ferry - After 3 or 4 days of fiddling with the left carb of my R65 to get it to stop leaking petrol departure time loomed. I was to leave my place at 7pm on Saturday the 28th July with fellow BMW rider Minoru Matsuura for the night-ferry from Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture (just north-east of Tokyo) to the northernmost island in Japan, Hokkaido. I made it...just. We set off at 7.30 and apart from loosing sight of Minoru in the dense traffic out of Tokyo on the expressway - I caught up with him 20 minutes later - we arrived without incident at the ferry port some 120 miles from Tokyo, bought tickets and boarded. It's now midday of the day after and we have another 6 hours of tedium before we arrive at the port of Muroran, our arrival point in Hokkaido.

The Ferry - getting ready for the next 20 hours of on-boredom

I don't remember ferries being as boring anywhere else in the world as they are in Japan. There's nothing to read, nothing to do and nowhere quiet to sit and drink coffee while you do it. They do have baths, TV's and vending machines everywhere, and a small cinema where they're showing a crap '70's Japanese film about truckers with lots of macho men and fools and women with high squeaky voices. Any area with a view of the sea has a TV turned up loud in the middle of it.

If I could go down to the car deck at least I'd be able to try to find out why the rpm won't drop to idle when the engine's hot - I suspect an air leak or the idle set too high - instead of just sitting around thinking about it. I've had the left carb off the bike 3 times in the past week trying to find out why it was leaking fuel and the last time I was in a hurry so I might have not tightened the carb to head clips properly. Tracing the cause of the fuel leak was frustrating. At first I thought it might be the in-tank gauze filter allowing particles to get through and stop the float needle valve from seating so I renewed it. Then I renewed the needle valve, then the float itself. I even set the new float level deliberately low but the petrol still overflowed. Eventually I swapped the float and needle over with the ones in my R80 and the leak followed the swap so now I think the new needle valve must have been a duff one.

Minoru leading the way to Akita

Monday, 2nd August

Hokkaido & Aomori - We arrived at Muroran, the port in Hokkaido at 6pm and headed straight for a hot spa town called Noboribetsu, a 50 minute ride away from the port. Pretty uninteresting, as unfortunately was most of our trip in Hokkaido. Reportedly beautiful views were denied us by the weather which ranged from cloudy to raining the whole time we were there.

Minoru and I in the rotenburo. The water is about 42C (or 108 F). When you get too hot you simply get out and sit at the edge and get back in or splash water over yourself if you start feeling cold

Japanese bikers constantly rave about Hokkaido and I can only think of 2 reasons why that might be - one is that it's considerably cooler than the rest of Japan in summer and the other is that, unlike the rest of Japan, there are roads that are straight for miles and miles on end. But as I overheard Minoru saying to a friend on the phone, 'Hokkaido's fine if you like straight, pine tree lined roads for miles on end'. Give me twisties anytime. As I said, we were rained on most of the time. Apart from that, the food wasn't anything to write home about either.

The Genkan- the place inside the front door of all Japanese houses and traditional inns where you remove your shoes before slipping on a pair of slippers.

In the end we decided to cut the 2 day ride back from the eastern end of Hokkaido to the ferry at Hakodate in the far south-west in half and shorten our stay by a day. To do so meant riding at 3 times the speed limit for a lot of the way but we had no desire to hang around. The speed limits in Japan just don't make sense. The roads we were riding so fast on were 30mph roads but dead straight for miles at a time with no buildings, no hedges to obscure your view and the nearest house 20 miles away.

We had a bit of a shock when we were entering a small settlement (we did obey the speed limits when we saw houses) when we came around a corner to find a policeman standing in the middle of the road directing us into a parking area where there were another couple of policemen and a crowd of people waiting. We were both sure we'd been clocked but it was just a local safety group called 'The somewhere or other Retired People's Tortoise Campaign Group' doing a safety campaign. Tortoise = slow, right? I pulled up next to a woman of around 80 years old who handed me a packet of tissues, a pamphlet extolling the virtues of safe riding and a little hand made plaque with a figure of a tortoise on it made from half a walnut shell and soy beans for its head and feet. Written on it was the name of the retired people's group and on the flip side was a hand-painted picture of a mountain in Hokkaido that looks just like Mount Fuji. We were amazed and I told the chortling old girl that I was sure we'd been caught. She thought this was the funniest thing she'd heard all day and laughed, together with a policeman and about 4 other elderly people standing within earshot. She asked me to drive slowly and be careful. I assured her we would. Out of sight we were back up at 90mph in no time at all.

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We are now back in Japan proper...in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Honshu, the main island where Tokyo is, at an 'onsen' (hot spa) called, 'Nurukawa'. This is in what is called the Tohoku (lit: East-North) region.

The problem with Hokkaido is that is has no vehicular history to speak of. I realised while riding from Aomori, the port city and prefectural capital of Aomori Prefecture, to Nurukawa, that the winding roads we were on were ones used by locals for centuries to go from village to village. Not built specifically for modern needs the roads twist and wind, up and down and are great on a bike. However, the settlement of Hokkaido by the Japanese is very recent, only dating from 100 years ago. Roads between towns are consequently the straightest possible lines between 2 points and lack the idiosyncrasy of roads dating from perhaps a 1000 years or more ago. Way back then, 'A' needed to fetch some eggs from 'B' so he beat a path that no modern road planner would even contemplate. This path became the route for lots of A's and B's for years to come and eventually became metalled for a couple of wanton bikers to grind their pegs down on.

Talking of corners, I rode Minoru's R80ST for a part of the journey in Hokkaido and I rediscovered the desirability of a pair of good, progressively wound fork springs. The ST has the original, probably shagged out, items and the side-to-side wallowing deep in corners was very noticeable compared to my R65 (with Progressive fork springs).

The other thing I noticed, this time on the R65, was what a difference a good rear shock makes. I'm used to riding with an Ohlins on the R65 but I took it off and fitted it to my R80 leaving the R65 with an OE shock, albeit brand new. Whereas the Ohlins is rock steady when nailing a corner the OE is rather flaccid in comparison and makes it feel as if the rear wheel wants to tuck under so I keep having to make small corrections to my line. The Ohlins just keeps the bike going where you point it and the only limit is the stickiness of the tyres.

The Entrance to Nurukawa Onsen. You park across the road and walk across a bridge which is obscured by the R65. The inn is hidden in the trees behind us.

The only good thing about the trip to Hokkaido is that I now know I have no need to visit it ever again. The food is better elsewhere, the roads more interesting, the architecture more pleasing to the eye and the lodgings superior. If I want cool weather any mountain will do.

Here at Nurukawa Onsen we are in paradise. Great food. The sound of a river outside our room. A very pleasant outside bath and mixed (men & woman together) to boot. Tomorrow we head for Nyuto Onsen in Akita, the next prefecture down from Aomori (like France Japan is divided into prefectures as England is into counties). We'll be staying together at a campsite there for 1 night before Minoru heads back to Kamakura, where he lives, leaving me to enjoy a further week on my tod, although Yuko may come up to join me. She recently passed her big-bike licence the other day (in Japan there are 3 licence tiers - up to 250cc, up to 400cc and unlimited) so at last she can buy a BMW (or a bigger Moto Guzzi).

My neighbours at the campsite - Mr Saito and Mr Takusakawa

Saturday, 4th August

Akita - It's mid-morning and I'm sitting at a picnic table at the campsite waiting for the washing machine to complete its cycle some 20 minutes hence. Minoru has left to return to Kamakura and his dog, Stella, an elderly Beagle bitch, and his ward while his wife and kids escape the sweltering summer heat of Japan for the wintery summer of England. I rode with him as far as Morioka where he took the Tohoku Expressway while I turned back on the R46 and came back to the campsite. I was sad to see him go.

6 years ago, shortly after buying my R65, Minoru and I (we've been close friends for some 20 years) came up here together, me on my first ever bike trip in Japan and him on his almost brand new Ducati 400SS.

Neither of us were really prepared and we both got completely soaked through a couple of times for want of waterproof clothing. It was mid-August 1995 and sweltering hot. The Ducati, with its racing-crouch riding position, was killing Minoru. His wrists hurt like hell from supporting his upper body weight and his left hand too from the constant need to change gear with the heavy clutch - the small Ducati is useless at anything under 6000 rpm and hunts like mad.

OTOH, Minoru is absolutely delighted with his R80ST on this, his 1st long trip riding it. He keeps telling me what a great bike it is.

My neighbours and I went for a ride to a place that had this view over Akita

The high point of that trip 6 years ago was our discovery of a hot spa about 4 miles up the road from this campsite called 'Kuroyu Onsen' (lit: Black Hot Water Spa) situated in the overall hot spa area called 'Nyuto Onsen' (lit: Nipple Juice Hot Spa - I kid you not). Kuroyu is only about 70 years old but looks much older. It has a main building with 3 smaller buildings with self catering lodgings - a bit like camping indoors. These cost $25 a night and for that you get a large tatami mat room with an open hearth for cooking set into the floor, called an 'irori'. All the buildings are wooden and either thatched or tiled with tree bark. The best part of Kuroyu is the baths.

Back at Kuroyu Onsen - this is the view from out room. In the foreground you can see the hot water bubbling up and in the background a deserted private house belonging to the owner of Kuroyu.

There's a building with a mixed changing room and indoor bath, an open part with a roof with 3 streams of water about an inch thick falling from a height of 7 feet and which you sit under on a little block of wood...you shift your body to direct the water on different parts of your head, neck and shoulders for massage. And then the best part -the outdoor bath.

The outdoor bath, or 'rotenburo', is what I remember most about coming here 6 years ago. It's the same size as the bath indoors at about 8' long by 6' wide and 3' deep and is made from 'hinoki', a kind of Japanese cypress. It has open sides with a bark roof supported by 6 rough hewn logs with their bark still on. One even had a small branch with leaves still growing out of it. The water is milky white, opaque and full of sulphur which the Japanese reckon is good for the skin.

The rotenburo, or outside bath, at Kuroyu Onsen. Rusticity and sulphur rich water giving it a milky colour thought by the Japanese to be good for the skin. The white water gives the onsen resort where Kuroyu is located, Nyuto Onsen, its name which translates as 'Nipple Juice Hot Spa'. This is a mixed sex bath where even the changing room is mixed. Ideal for whiling away a couple of hours with friends and strangers and perhaps to drink some sake.

The water is naturally heated underground. Men and women, strangers, can sit together drinking sake and chatting all night if they please as the baths are open 24 hours a day (although non-resident visitors can only enter them until 6pm). The water turns silver black owing to its mineral content (I was told which mineral was responsible but it was in Japanese and meaningless to me).

Sunday, 5th August

Akita - I'm sitting at the same picnic table at the campsite but this time I'm waiting for Yuko to arrive. She has decided to join me here and set off on the 430 miles trip from her house at 7am this morning. It's now 3.30pm and I kind of expected her to get here at sometime between 2 and 3pm. As she is now licensed to ride any size bike this will be the first time we'll be able to swap bikes when riding together.

It'll be nice to ride the Imola. It's an '82 or 3 Moto Guzzi 350cc machine that was manufactured to take advantage of a tax break in either France or Italy, I can't remember which. It's a lovely little bike.

Yesterday, after my washing finished, I set off for something to eat in a restaurant in a village some 3 miles down the mountain from here.

I had a bottle of beer, 2 fried eggs, some kind of mountain vegetable that looked like a bundle of flower stalks about 3" long and an eighth of an inch thick - they were delicious - a couple of tiny pickled aubergines (eggplants in the US), a bowl of plain white rice and miso (soy bean paste based) soup with some other mountain vegetables, these being leaves that looked like weeds, but tasting better (as if I'd know...).

After dinner I bought a couple of large cans of Sapporo beer and headed back up the mountain to Kuroyu. I always take enough beer and/or sake for myself and to offer to anyone else in the bath as I find it a sure way to make friends <g>. From the car park it takes about 4 minutes to walk down the steep path to the buildings where you pay the equivalent of $4.50 and head for the baths. There were 2 people already there and it turned out that not only were they bikers too but their tent was right next to mine at the campsite. One was on a 250cc Suzuki Balhius with 50,000 miles on it and the other with a just run-in 1200cc Kawasaki something or other. As they left they asked me if I'd like to join them for a drink later - well, of course. I stayed on for another hour or so taking the photos which you can see on ImageStation.

The indoor bath at Kuroyu - the rotenburo in the previous pics is out the open door, which slides like most doors in Japan. Behind the bamboo blind you can see shelves with plastic tray to put your belongings in when you bathe. You can see my bike jacket and helmet in the right hand corner on the top shelf.

Later, back at the campsite they got me completely drunk on sake and when I fell asleep on the grass they kindly woke me to suggest I'd feel better in the morning if I slept in my tent. Before that we'd talked a lot about biking in England and Japan and one piece of information I'd been completely unaware of is that in Japan, if you are caught doing more than 40 kms (24.7 miles) over the limit you not only get a ticket but they arrest you, too...complete with handcuffs.

Whoops! You get taken to the local police station and charged but don't have to spend any time in a cell. I'm going to have to find out more about this as to my mind arrest = criminal and could get me deported.

This morning came and with it a 'nice', authentic sake hangover...a slight headache behind the eyes and over the crown of the head. One of the problems of drinking in Japan is that your hosts constantly top your glass up for you before it's empty with the result that you have no idea how much you've drunk. Particularly with sake, you can be sober one minute and then drunk as a lord in the flash of a stream of liquid from the neck of a bottle. I managed to make some tea (the life blood of Englishmen) and revive myself somewhat. The next 4 hours were spent chatting with my new friends about bikes with me assuming my Airmarshal mantle (I'm the Airhead Beemer Club's rep. for Asia) and expounding on the virtues of arguably God's greatest gift to biker (devotees of other brands of motorcycle are advised to take this claim with a pinch of salt <g>). I invited them to go for a ride on mine. They both came back impressed at how light and easy to ride it was. The Suzuki rider, Mr Saito, told me he'd often thought he'd like a BMW so I gave him my card and told him that if ever he wanted me to have a look at one for him I'd be delighted to ride it and tell him if I thought it was worth buying.

I had a go on Mr Takusakawa's 1200 Kawasaki and was simply amazed at the power on tap. It redlines at 10500 but I only got it up to 5000 in 2nd before running out of road. It just gets there in the blink of an eye. Awsome! But where would you use it? We then went for a nice ride together up to a mountain pass an hour or so away along some great roads - all the roads around here are great. Then I left them to come back to wait for Yuko.

Yuko arrived while I was writing and I could hear the rorty booming of her Conti's as she opened the throttle out of corners about a mile away. The Conti's on her bike are a pair of straight-through silencers that don't silence and make her 350 sound like an 850. I must say that while they do make a great sound they are just too loud for me. I'm afraid Yuko suffers from the Japanese (and world-wide Harley) disease. Lots of bikers come up to her to tell her what a great sound her bikes makes. I did actually persuade her to put the OE silencers on a while ago but one fell off when we went up to Matsumoto to pick up fellow AirheadTakashi's G/S some months ago and now she only has the Conti's.

Yuko looking dazed after 7 hours and 40 minutes and 430 miles just as she takes her helmet off. This is the 1st long ride she's ever done on her own.

Wednesday, 8th August

Akita & Yamagata - I'm sitting in another campsite, this time in Yamagata, the next prefecture south of Akita. We're slowly making our way back to Tokyo. Yuko and I stayed 1 night together at Nyuto Campsite and then decided to savour the delights of a night at Kuroyu Onsen by taking a room there for a bit of 'old world experience'. The lodgings there are Spartan but adequate.

Yuko in our room. In front of her is the traditional 'irori' or (open hearth) for heating the room and cooking. The floor is tatami matting. The sliding door behind has no lock and no need for one.

There are no locks on the doors but you don't need any as the kind of person who would make the effort to stay in such rude comfort is not the kind who is going to steal your camera. They're mostly hikers, climbers and fishermen with a few people like us who just come to enjoy the baths and relax for a few days.

Yuko and I enjoying a bath together at another spa, called Tsurunoyu, in the Nyuto Spa area. This one is the more famous than Kuroyu but is also more crowded. As you can see, the bath is mixed. This used to be the norm in Japan but nowadays young women don't like mixed bathing so mixed baths are becoming rarer. IMO, a great pity as it means you can no longer share a bath with your wife or girlfriend or when you travel in mixed company.

The room we were given overlooks bubbling pools of sulphurous water.

This is not where the water for the baths comes from - that's further up. We didn't use our open hearth except to flick cigarette ash in but our neighbours, 3 fishermen and 1 fisherwoman used theirs and came and knocked on our door to invite us to join them to eat fish and drink a bottle of Kubota sake with them. Kubota is a renowned brand that sells for around $140 for a 2 litre bottle....if you can get your hands on it at all.

I'd never eaten fish grilled on bamboo spits over a charcoal fire before. Over the 'irori' in their room our neighbours had assembled a stainless steel frame made by a friend of theirs and this held about 30 fish altogether ranging from 5" in length to about 11", all of them caught the day before in Hokkaido where they'd all just come from.

They brought them to Kuroyu in Akita live in water boxes filled with water from the river they'd caught them in. Very fresh. We all sat around the 'irori' eating fish and sipping sake and chatting - Yuko and I had just been down the mountain for dinner so we couldn't eat much but I managed to eat a big one, a trout, and a small one called an 'ayu'. Ayu are only found in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, according to our hosts. All the fish were simply covered in natural salt and grilled and were excellent with the delicious sake.

This couple plus 2 guys off-photo caught all these fish in Hokkaido the day before and carried them live to Kuroyu in water boxes. They knocked on our door and invited us to share them with them and to drink excellent Kubota sake.

The following morning we were bathed and packed by 9.30 and then set off for Yamagata, where we are now. The roads down were through the lovely Akita countryside, past or over mountains and along some wonderful roads...20 miles of winding road at a time without seeing more than 2 or 3 cars. Over the passes it got quite chilly, especially for me with my Vanson perforated leather jacket but bearable knowing that in 20 minutes or so we'd be lower and warmer. By 3.30 we'd covered about 150 miles and decided to look for a campsite.

Lodgings like the ones we were in. In this building there are 4 rooms, each with tatami matting and an 'irori' (open hearth) for cooking.

Looking at the map we found we were under half a mile from one right at the seaside as well as there being a choice of 5 hot spas all with baths overlooking the sea nearby, so we headed for it. The campsite, typical in Japan, was well kept with new, clean facilities. Being on the north-west coast we decided to watch the sunset from one of the onsen nearby so as soon as we'd pitched the tent we headed for one.

We were disappointed to find that none of the 'onsen' (Japanese for hot spa) had outdoor baths so we could only watch the setting sun from behind plate glass windows. A pity.

Me pretending to be deep at Lake Tozawa. Like Lake Towada earlier on where I went with Minoru, Lake Tozawa is a volcanic lake. It is also reckoned to have the 2nd clearest and cleanest water of all lakes in Japan. Behind me you can see a 'Tori' (shrine gate). These are typical in Japan and always stand before the entrances to shrines. This one's shrine is off photo on my right. As is often the case in Japan, this lake is regarded as sacred for some reason.

On the way back to the campsite we passed a trucker's diner so we decided to eat there. The woman running it was a truck driver's dream. Petite, buxom, with a fine singing voice (we didn't hear her sing but this fact was attested to by her numerous 1st prize awards for singing in folk song contests on the walls) and a very pretty face.

Back at the campsite we both fell asleep almost as soon as we'd crawled into our tent, both fully clothed, at about 8.30pm. I was up at 6 to make tea and wait for Yuko to wake up. She can ride and she can certainly sleep...yesterday, while following her, I marvelled at how well she rides. In 4 years she's gone from trying to stay upright on corners to using the tread on her tyres all the way up to the edge.

On our way from Akita to Yamagata, the next prefecture to the south, we came across this corner that looked like fun for taking some pics. This is Yuko on her Imola.

She's smooth and keeps good lines and puts the vast majority of riders here to shame. They're mostly more interested in looking good and sounding loud than developing their riding skills.

We swapped bikes for a while yesterday and when I got on hers I found the steering head bearings way too loose so I suggested that if we saw a bike shop we could stop and ask them to tighten them for her. We passed a likely place so I suggested we turn back and ask. I did a u-turn and went back. It was a place with a big Honda sign but it turned out that it was a Honda farm machinery dealer and not a bike shop. All this time I was wondering what had happened to Yuko as she hadn't followed me and suspected she'd let the bike fall over. When I got back she was in the same place as I'd left her except there was now a dark petrol stain on the road beside her and a gouge in the road were the R65 foot peg had dug in. Sure enough, with the R65 being too tall for her and heavily laden she'd overbalanced and fallen over. A passing car driver had kindly stopped and helped her get the bike up again. The damage was a dented head cover, a mirror stalk twisted in its mounting hole, a bruise on Yuko's right knee and a sore shoulder from trying to stop the bike falling. BTDT :-)

The thing about the R65 that Yuko noticed most of all was its tendency to resist corners and want to go straight ahead. I'd never thought about it but compared to her Guzzi she's right. You have to push the R65 to get it to lean while the little Guzzi corners effortlessly, no matter how tight the corner. In some ways (horror of horrors) the Guzzi is a nicer bike than the BMW and its willingness to lean while being rock steady is one of them (the engine tone is another). I have no idea if this is the same with the bigger frame Guzzis. Incidentally, the Guzzi has Nikasil plated bores like the later Boxers and the engines last for ever. I must confess that if I'd ridden a Guzzi before a Boxer I might well not be an 'Airhead' now.

With breakfast of tea with milk and raisin bread consumed it's time to pack up and head south. We rode the length of Yamagata to another 'onsen', this one in the most nearly inaccessible place I've ever visited. Called Odaira Onsen it's in a gorge and to get to it we had to ride up a mountain road with long stretches of gravel. The corners were so tight and steep that cars can't get around them in one go but instead have to go as far round as they can and reverse once before taking it the second go. The road...I should really call it a track...was just wide enough for the smallest of cars. It was on this track that I realised why they make so many small cars in Japan and why most people drive them in the countryside.

This is the sort of road that you can find everywhere in Japan once you get out of town and into the mountains. Not a car in sight on this small section - the road was like this all the way up the mountain and all the way down the other side...

It took us about 30 minutes from the main road to get to the parking space from which you have to continue on foot to the 'onsen' itself. This part was the hardest as the path was so steep as it wound down into the gorge. I really doubted I could make the last 3 stages as the muscles on the tops of my thighs were turning to jelly and shivering with each step. The inn itself was nothing to write home about, except that every piece had to be carried there by hand. The 'rotenburo' (outside bath) was splendid though and was right at the edge of the river next to it as you'll see in the photographs.

The way back was exhausting and we had to sit down and rest 4 times before we got to our bikes the next morning. It took us 40 minutes.

On the way there was an old man making a dry-stone wall and a beautiful wall it was too. As in England, the art of dry-stone walling (laying stones without cement, you have to choose the shapes carefully) is a dying trade with few people around nowadays who can do it. Like thatchers. You can see a photo of the wall but the builder was shy and wouldn't stand in the picture for me.

Friday, 10th August

Yamagata & Tokyo - In Tokyo now, we arrived back at about 6pm. The ride from the campsite in the north of Yamagata, through Yamagata to the 'onsen' and on to Fukushima, the next prefecture south, was a dream. More beautiful countryside and more wonderful, almost car-free roads - the ride was great.

If we weren't going up or down a mountain we were going past one. In the foreground are paddy fields with the rice plants lush green. Not long before harvest.

On the way, still mindful of Yuko's steering head bearings, I spotted another Honda dealer, this time definitely a bike one so I suggested we stop. I explained to the guy there what we wanted doing and he eventually asked us if we could do it ourselves if he lent us the tools. He brought a 32mm ring spanner, a pin spanner and an 8mm Allen key out for us and the job was a cinch. When we went back into the shop to return the tools I noticed a lot of trials race pictures on the walls and asked him if they were of him. They were.

Mr Maruyama and his bike shop where we borrowed tools to tighten the head bearings on Yuko's Imola. He's an all Japan trials champion and a very nice bloke. The bike shop is in a village in the north part of Yamagata.

As we were admiring them we got talking. He went and got us a couple of cans of fruit juice and invited us to sit down and drink them. It turned out that he, Mr Maruyama, had won the local annual all-Japan trials race 13 years running. He was a very nice guy. When Yuko offered to buy him a beer for his troubles he very adamantly refused, explaining that people in the neighbourhood often borrowed his tools, usually without even asking and that was fine with him. It was a very small town, nothing more than a village, really.

We left and finally decided to pick up the expressway about 90 miles north of Tokyo. As we came down out of the mountainous Yamagata region it started to get hotter and the nearer to Tokyo we got the denser the traffic got and it wasn't fun anymore so we decided to just make Tokyo as quickly as possible. The expressway is the way to do this.

An old style level crossing in the Yamagata countryside - shortly after this photo we joined the expressway back to Tokyo. The end of a great trip.