Monday 15th May 2017

Mito to Tokyo
Tokyo to Yokohama

We did a total repack of the car this morning before we left the hotel at Mito. We had to decide what to leave with the car and what we would take with us.

Due to the distance done yesterday we were going to be in Yokohama earlier than planned. As the shipping agent couldn't meet us earlier we decided to drive into Tokyo and drop our luggage at the hotel. We only missed one turn which, thankfully,  wasn't too much of a problem, took our luggage into the hotel and made our way to Yokohama.

                                              The GPS showing a very large intersection

We met the agent and followed her to the shipping warehouse to drop off Puce Goose.

So after 9,858kms on the road we farewelled the trusty Morgan as she departs on her (probably) last sea journey.

It is now Sayonara from us and hope to see you all soon.

Sunday 14th May 2017

Ishinomaki to Mito

We took a taxi to the ferry terminal as today we were going out to the much anticipated cat island of Tashirojima, where cats outnumber the one hundred residents who live there. The ticket seller motioned for us to sit down and wait. Eventually he helped us to buy return tickets from a machine. About twenty other people came in and bought tickets. Just before the departure time of 9am the ticket seller made an announcement  (in Japanese) and there were mutterings and chatter amongst the crowd. The ticket seller handed me a note in English stating that he did not know if the return ferry would operate due to the bad weather conditions. As there is very little accommodation on the island and our car was parked in front of the hotel, we decided not to risk going out. All the other passengers did the same and refunds were handed out.

As the cat island was the only point of interest for us here, we decided to cancel our second night at the hotel and get on the road to lessen the long day we were facing tomorrow. It was still drizzling and the traffic was slow. We eventually reached Sendai and on the outskirts we heard that all too familiar megaphone, red lights flashing and asking us to pull over (we assume that is what was said).

Up walked the policeman and not a word of English. The senior man got out and asked questions. He had been on his honeymoon to Sydney three years ago and liked it very much. On his phone he used a translation to ask for "our documents". The suitcase came off the luggage rack and the car papers were handed over. He took these back to his car and talked on the phone for ages. Next he asked for passports, then driving licence. This was all happening in the rain with us and the junior policeman standing there and the rain getting heavier.

Senior man came back and kept apologising. It seems we were pulled over as we did not have a Japanese numberplate. Japanese numberplates are standard, all the same format so we were an obvious target.

After this delay we got onto the Expressway and whilst traffic was fast moving, the conditions were still terrible. 

Rice paddies were all along both sides of the road and it would be a lovely sight if it wasn't pouring rain. Road signs indicated there were monkeys, racoons and wild boar along this route. We didn't see any. We have not seen any "road kill" on any of the roads in Japan. Either the animals are smart or those human litter gatherers we see along the roads pick them up as soon as it happens.

From Sendai down to Hitachi we were in the radioactive contamination zone (the map shows 20km, 50km and 100km exclusion zones). We passed around Futaba, the nuclear disaster centre. It took us a while to realise that the strange electronic signs on the roadsides were actually contamination readings.

At Mito as the rain was starting to ease we decided to stop for the night and we would have about a three hour drive to Yokohama tomorrow to deliver the car to the shipping agent.

                                                    Light in hotel at Mito

Across the road from our hotel we found a traditional restaurant and we indulged in steak, potatoes and red wine (from South Africa), for the first time in two months.

Saturday 13th May 2017

Asamushi to Ishinomaki

Set off from the lovely old ryokan at 8am for what was going to be a leisurely drive of 340kms to the east coast and then down the coast road. About 9am it started to rain, heavily enough to stop and put the bimini on. We reached Hachinone on the coast and then down to Kuji.

All along this coast there were inundation signs of where the March 2011 tsunami had hit this coast as a result of a 9 magnitude undersea earthquake about  70kms off Tohoku.

A lot of repair work and roadworks are still happening. Near Noda a massive concrete wall is under construction to guard against future tsunamis.

The mountain sides have newly laid concrete blocks to hold back erosion.

The temperature never rose above 10 degrees all day according to the information boards on the roadsides. It was foggy in places and it rained continually.

We often wondered who (owners, paid gardeners) maintained the topiary trees we see in the front gardens of houses. Well, today we saw a huge paddock full of mature topiary trees for sale. It seems you can buy them as mature trees and people would only have to trim them every so often.

On the gardening front pretty apricot and pink azaleas were growing all along this route- in people's gardens, planted along the roadside and growing wild amongst the trees. There were huge bushes, almost tree-like and in full flower.

Once we reached Miyako and it was still raining we went inland as far as Surisawa and then south. It was still slow going, slow traffic, rain and fairly ordinary road surfaces.

We finally reached Ishinomaki just as light was fading having been on the road for nearly eleven hours. 

Friday 12th May 2017

Otaru to ferry at Hakodate
Hakodate to Aomori

It rained overnight but had cleared by the time we got on the road at 7.30am. It was quite a slow journey out of town in thick fog, one lane slow traffic until we reached Kucchan. We had a ferry to catch at 12.20 and even though Hakodate was only 240kms away, it would take us 4 hours to get there in time.
No time to stop or no coffee stops!
We did pass through very large acres of cherry trees. The tops are espaliered horizontally and covered in white netting.
Once we reached Oshamanbe we got onto the Expressway and were able to make better progress. It is an Expressway in name only but expensive toll all the same.There are no petrol stations along this stretch so had to get off at Mori, about 40kms from Hakodate to fill up.

Reached the ferry terminal in plenty of time and for some reason we were directed to wait out of line.

The cars were loaded and eventually we were motioned on and all the other cars were on a top deck. We were on the bottom deck so we were right at the front to drive off with many trucks behind us.

Hakodate to Aomori is a four hour trip and as previously most of the locals were in carpeted rooms, shoes on  shelves. One room had a party going on with Bento boxes and big bottles of sake.

Arrived in Aomori exactly on time at 4.10pm and drove about 14kms to the Asamushi spa area. Here we are staying at a ryokan which has been in the same family for 400 years.

Booked a hot springs onsen and donned our yukatas which are worn all around the premises. The onsen was so hot had to get out after 20 minutes.

Dinner and breakfast were in our own private dining area and were the traditional meals with about 25 dishes.

The ryokan is near Aomori, home of the large float festival which we have mentioned previously. The ryokan has several large float pieces .

Thursday 11th May 2017

Otaru

Late breakfast this morning as we were warned by reception that there was a large party of school children staying in the hotel.

It was drizzling rain so we booked on a canal cruise, on boats especially designed for use on this canal and to get under the low bridges. The recently made boats (2012) are fibre reinforced plastic making them light and manouverable. The canal is less than 20 mts wide. We were very surprised to find that the plank seats had heated padded sections. Almost too hot to sit on.

The port is protected by three large breakwaters, the first one built in 1908. It is only since the mid 1980's that use of this canal area has been made attractive for tourism. 

A point of interest along the way was a factory which has been making cans for food since the 1920's and currently makes cans for Suntory, Kirin and Kikkoman products. Also a large barge used to carry goods from ships in the port to warehouses along the canal. It is now a rusting hulk! The decks of these barges were the same height as the canal banks.

One warehouse had a tiled roof which is rare in Hokkaido. The roofs are easily damaged by the weight of snow. This one had silver Koi, as decoration but also as protection against fire. Apparently water pours from the mouth of the fish if fire eventuates.

Dinner was another hole-in-the wall affair. Again the proprietor and staff were women and we were the only customers. One visitor to the restaurant in 2014 was a Japanese Dakar Rally driver (Team Hino). Presume Puce Goose's business card will go on the wall next to his. Food was excellent but whale sushimi though on the menu wasn't available.

Wednesday 10th May 2017

Wakkanai to Otaru

It was daylight by 4am so up early and on the road by 7.30am as we had a long drive ahead of us. Puce Goose had a nice warm night in a stacker. Wakkanai is only 43km south of the town of Sakhalin in Russia, hence all the roads signs in Russian. Before the war, ferries ran this route but not since.
The lift in our Wakkanai hotel had a toilet in the lift (for emergency use!)

                                                                    Wakkanai

                                                        Emergency use toilet in hotel lift

Driving out of town the kindergarten bus came the other way. It had a moulded Mickey Mouse type character on its front.

We headed south down the coast road. We could see the islands of Rebun and Rishiri out to the west. The two islands constitute the first (or last) volcanoes in the chain that stretches the length of Hokkaido. The circular Rishiri island is about 63km in circumference and has Mt Rishiriyama in the centre and it was covered in snow. This island is famous for kelp, sea urchin and other marine products. An amazing amount of driftwood washes up on this coast (as well as rubbish).

We passed several fishing villages.

                                                             Drying fish

                                             Driving through the Sarobetsu wilderness

                                             Traffic lights in the middle of nowhere

                                                       Typical coastal village

At one, women were busy stacking new fishing nets onto a boat. Others had new nets ready for the season.

In another town old women were digging street garden beds for planting.

It was terribly windy all along the coast and in places we were buffeted by a strong cold wind. Large groups of turbines were turning briskly.

Interestingly the houses along the coast in many places had put up timber wind barriers in front of their properties.

                                                      Wind barrier with its own door!

Many derelict and tumbling down properties also along this road. Apparently there are about 8 million abandoned houses in Japan (this doesn't include commercial premises). We surmise that most of them are on Hokkaido!

One town we came through had a welcome sign, indicating it was a "romantic sea town" (didn't look very romantic!), another had a welcome sign on a very large plastic penguin.

South of Rumoi we drove through tunnel after tunnel. Unlike other areas of Japan, they don't have a sign indicating the length of the tunnel but some were quite long and also seemed quite new. In one there was a fox who stood and stared as we passed him. 

We are staying in Otaru for two nights (the Goose is in a stacker again). We walked towards the Music Museum and came across a Museum of Stained Glass and Art Nouveau Glass. It is a marvellous collection of French glass by Galle, Lalique and the Daum brothers. The stained glass windows (140 of them) were complete late 19th century and early 20th century windows from churches in England.

                                                      Furniture  by Louis Marjorelle

Parallel to the canal there is a street with many buildings from the late 1890's which is now devoted to shops selling all manner of glass objects. Glass craft started here in the early 1900's as the fishing industry increased and there was a demand for glass floats used in fishing. Currently there are 13 glass blowing studios in the city.
Amongst the shops selling tourist tat there were food shops, many giving out samples of chocolate, cake, biscuits, Italian wine etc.

                                               All manner of tourist tat for sale

Looking for a place for dinner we came across a small place with a woman proprietor who said she only did Japanese BBQ. We thought that would be alright. There were only 3 other customers in the 10 seater restaurant. A lot was lost in translation and we ended up with a small plate of beef and chicken and pork shaslicks. Nothing else! Had an icecream on the way back to the hotel.

Tuesday 9th May 2017

Rausu to Wakkanai

Up early for a complete Japanese breakfast in our own tatami mat dining room.

What a difference a day makes! It was clear and sunny. Queried whether the road over the Pass was open. We were told it would open at 10am. Checked the road board and it said the same thing. We didn't want to hang around for nearly three hours so we took the road back to Shibetsu and then across to Shari on the north coast (on the Okhotsk Sea). We could still see a lot of snow on the mountains.

                                     The high red markers show the side of the road when under snow

Around Shari and Abashiri there were large farms under cultivation in rich volcanic soil and large dairy farms. The outbuildings were three or four Nissan huts, mostly painted two tone blue. Some of the sown crops had white plastic covering whatever was germinating underneath. Many paddocks had what seemed like newly planted grass.   This is certainly a more prosperous area than the east coast we travelled yesterday. We passed one large farm which had separate wooden stalls for each cow and smaller wooden ones for the calves. Tractors drive along the roads and many farms have two or more tractors ploughing in the paddocks.

Some interesting things along the way:

                                                      A large bank of vending machines

                                                                    A big crab claw
       

        A Soviet like sign

                                                              Happy travels by car??

We drove by a Curling Hall. We didn't know that curling was played in Japan. Some large timber processing places were along this route, looked to be some kind of pine. We also saw several large piles of what looked to be shells. When we got a chance we drove up to a pile and discovered that they were scallop shells. Apparently these are bagged and used, what for we don't know but have seen many of the pink bags along side roads and other barriers.

We then came across "litter crews" who were manually picking up any rubbish and putting it into plastice bags by the side of the road to be picked up by a following truck. We couldn't see any litter but these men were getting down into the gutters alongside the road.

All along this coast we have passed massive wind breaks. It was certainly windy. Roads signs tell you the temperature (15 degrees today) and how windy it is.

Just before reaching the northernmost tip at Cape Soya, we passed a police car in a layby. He came after us with lights flashing. He was telling us he had radar and that we were going too fast (60kms is the speed limit on this major road). After examining passport and looking at the car, he brought out a translation book and said to keep the speedo down. Giving up, he let us go.

We stopped at Cape Soya (latitude 45 deg 31), looked at the monuments there and drove on to Wakkanai.

Coming into town, the signs were in Russian as well as Japanese.

The Kuril islands which we could see this morning off the eastern coast have been a source of contention between Russia and Japan for years. An agreement reached in 1945 returned the islands to Russia although Japan maintained a claim to the four southernmost islands. Despite increased diplomatic pressure in the 1990's Russia has been unwilling to relinquish sovereignity over them.