Saturday 6th April 2017

Lake Toya to Cape Erimo

                                                             Our trophies

Said goodbye to the remaining  rally people and headed on our way. It was raining steadily so put the bimani up. The fog was thick but as we descended the mountain from the hotel it cleared. After a short burst on the Expressway we left it to travel on the coastal road. We've previously had the "singing road", today on two occasions we've had "whiny roads". As soon as you drive on them they whine. Initially you think there's a problem with the car.

The coast was nothing like we had imagined. In fact it didn't seem very Japanese at all. For many kilometres it was very industrial. There were also a lot of depressing looking apartment blocks. What stood out was the large number of closed businesses and run-down buildings. Even the houses were not like anything we have seen in Japan. Probably more western looking but without the neat appearance of towns we have seen. Many buildings were derelict and left to fall to ruin. Not many gardens at all and there seemed to be many junk yards. There were lots of car dealerships and many Pachinko (slot machines) places.

                                    The crab was advertising a restaurant, not sure about the bear!

Not far from Shiraoi there was an Ainu Museum. The Ainu people are the indigenous people of Hokkaido with their own language and culture. In the museum grounds there are five thatched houses in the original style.

We were lucky to time a traditional folk dance. One woman played a mukkuri, a mouth harp which was fantastic. Another sang a lullaby to a child with a trilling action with her tongue. There was also  a ceremonial dance for sending bears back to heaven.

  Singing a lullaby

                                                   Salmon curing inside a thatched hut

                                                     Playing a 5-stringed instrument

Unfortunately there were 3 caged bears, on concrete floors. They were absolutely huge so hope not to meet any in the wild on our tavels.

Once out of the industrial areas, the landscape became flatter and greener but still with the stunted bamboo growth that we have seen during our time in Hokkaido.

The roads in some places are poorly maintained. There are a huge number of horse and thoroughbred studs throughout this region. Through several towns even the lamp posts were decorated with horse figures.

In several areas on hills above the roads there were concrete bracings. Square open frames of concrete presumably to hold back falling rocks, or snow.

It was a long day on the road, in awful weather but after seven hours we arrived at our destination of Cape Erimo, at the very tip of southern Hokkaido. Our accommodation was the Yanagida Ryokan (or Cliff House) which has been operating since 1916. Our large room is furnished with 1920's furniture and overlooks the sea.

A delicious Japanese meal was included in the price of the room.

Friday 5th May 2017
Lake Toya

Many of the rally people were leaving this morning, either by train or shuttle bus to the Sapporo airport (many had also left around 5am as they had early flights). Said goodbye to new friends and old and hoped we'd meet again on another rally.

After breakfast we drove down to the lake to the village of Toyato looking for a Post Office and coin laundry. Driving down the main street Phil spied a car showroom with a Morgan & gold Corvette in the window facing the road. Finding the PO shut we drove back to the car showroom and parked on the footpath, parallel to the Morgan inside. We went in and found about 10 classic cars there. The black Morgan was a 1974 Plus 8, only 5 years younger than ours.

The receptionist, after running here and there trying to get maps to show us what she thought we were looking for we eventually discovered that it is a public holiday today for Children's Day which is why we continue to see "flying carp" everywhere.

Next was an attempt to find a coin laundry. With our "Point It" booklet we found a proprietor of a fashion shop who drew a route on a map. As well as others, he pointed out that it was out of town on the Sapporo Road and it was "in a house on the left side". Drove out there, sought directions from another man and indeed it was "in a house",  flags flying but with no signage in English. 

Lake Toya is beautiful, extending 11 kms east and west and 9kms south and north with four islands in the centre. A gigantic eruption created the Toya caldera and surrounding plateau. The volcanic domes of Nakajima and Usu came later. This area played host to the 2008 G8 Summit of the world's leaders. Mt Usu is a symbolic mountain and one of the most active volcanoes with repeated eruptions on a twenty to fifty year cycle. The most recent eruption was in 2000. The dominent mounain in the range is Mt Yotei and we have great views of this snow topped mountain from our hotel, which is perched atop a mountain looking like a wedding cake or cruise liner.

Driving back up the mountain to our hotel, we saw a fox sunning itself on the footpath. As we reversed back to get a better look, it ran up the side of the hill.

Thursday 4th May 2017

Hakodate to Lake Toya (188 kms)

The last day of the rally with four regularities before arriving at the finish line at Lake Toya.
The roads here on Hokkaido are narrower and not as well maintained as those on Honshu. The landscape is very different with large farms, a lot of cattle and horses and wonderful views of snow capped mountain ranges.

We did well on the first three regularities but lost time on the last due to the navigator reading an interim distance rather than the cummulative one. We were hoping we could hang on to first place in class and in the top ten overall.

Drove up the hill to the hotel and through the Finish Arch to receive finishing badges and glasses of champagne. After dropping luggage at hotel and parking the car we took the cable car down to an Italian restaurant at the bottom of the hill.

A French themed dinner and prize giving was at 7.30pm and everyone dressed for the occasion. We were first in our class (mid-sized engines) and received two silver trays. We also received a smaller silver tray for our  fast time on the Niigata Circuit.

We farewelled those who were leaving early tomorrow morning (4.30am!).

Wednesday 3^rd May, 2017

Lake Towada to Aomori (145kms)

Aomori ferry to Hakodate (Hokkaido)

Lovely sunny morning, hotel overlooks Lake Towada.

First up was a Regularity, 5kms from the hotel, about 6kms uphill at 50kph.

Arrived at the start for the second regularity, 23kms further on to be advised that it was cancelled as deemed “too boring”.

Lots of cherries grown in this area but it is too early in the season for any fruit. The trees here are espaliered across the top. Logging also operating here.

A 53 km run on the Expressway to arrive at the driving test for the day. We haven’t had any trouble at the toll booths lately, maybe we have mastered the different types. 

The circuit was 2kms in length, wide sweeping bends, little undulation and some almost blind corners. A large volcanic mountain with a snowy top could be seen from parts of the track but the driver didn’t see it as he was focussed on the track and the navigator was too busy hanging on to take photographs or busy counting the laps as we sped past the “A” board. We had to do 5 laps and exit on the 6^th lap.

Another 15kms on, the lunch stop was at Aomori Festival Hall. Lunch was a tasty sandwich (first brown bread we’ve had) and a locally produced apple drink.

After lunch we had time to visit the Nebuta Museum. Every year about 20 large floats are made for the Nebuta Festival held in August. The custom of this festival was seen nationally as a custom that was practised to ward off the sleep demons- the enemies of farmwork. These demons were said to cause drowsiness during the busy summer harvest season.  The external walls of the museum were rust coloured vertical steel slats.

Also in this area was moored the “Hakkouda Maru”, a ferry which linked Aomori and Hakkodate for 24 years until a tunnel was built, the world’s largest at the time. The tunnel was considered necessary after a typhoon hit some passenger ships with a large loss of life.

Lined up waiting to drive onto the ferry, there was a local band playing drums, pipes and cymbals and a large banner welcoming the Samurai Challenge.

On board the ferry there are large carpeted communal rooms where you can lie down & rest during the crossing. Shoes are placed on shelving. On the Sado ferry there were rooms with futons and pillows laid out which you could hire.

It was getting dark as we arrived at the hotel not far out of Hakodate, the first night arrival we have had.

Tuesday 2^nd May 2017

Tsuruoka to Towadako (376 kms)

The hotel last night had the most beautiful garden surrounding a large pond with the usual fat carp swimming around.

During most of today we had views of snow capped mountains.

The plan today was to drive up Mt Chokai (about 1,100 mts) which sits on the border of Akita and Yamagata Prefectures. It didn’t disappoint, hardened snow banked to about 6mts on both sides of the road with great views out to the coast and the towns along it. At a couple of places a large number of local cars were parked- people were skiing down the side of the mountain towards the road.

The first Regularity was various speeds between 30 kph and 50kph. Despite missing a left hair pin bend by 100mts (on a busy road with local traffic) we reversed and made it to the control without too much loss of seconds.

The test was at Aomori Circuit to do four laps and exit on the fifth lap. We had one of the better times.

Lunch was overlooking Lake Tazawako, the deepest lake in Japan at 423 mts. Houses with blue tiles roofs were also evident here.

The last Regularity was about 9kms with lots of navigation and varying speeds. There was a very tight left hair pin bend and despite taking it wide, we had to reverse to get around. Under pressure we then made the mistake of turning left over the small bridge instead of right. Quickly realised we should have turned right, we reversed to find the control was just around the right hand corner. Despite these blips, our timing wasn’t too bad.

Hotel for the night was overlooking Lake Towada, the largest caldera lake on Honshu. Set on its own in large grounds, many of us sat in the sun talking over the day with a cool drink, watching the sun go down over the lake.

Monday 1^st May 2017

Sado to Tsuruoka  (190 kms)

We had to leave the hotel by 7.30am this morning in order to drive 40kms to catch the ferry back to mainland Honshu. Lots of rice paddies on this route and hard snow along the roads.

After the two and a half hour crossing, we drove 18kms to our lunch stop at the Northern Cultural Museum, the mansion of a wealthy farming family. This is set in large attractive grounds with traditional buildings, farmers’ houses, tea house and so on. Wisteria flowers covering a large portico are just coming into flower.

We then drove 32kms to the Niigata Circuit to do four laps and exit on the fifth lap. Although slower than the fastest car, we were awarded fastest lap once the car age was factored in.

The first Regularity was about 6kms with speeds of 30 to 38kph. The difficult part was a tight left hair pin bend. Because we (and many other cars) couldn’t get around in one go we had to drive straight on onto gravel for 20mts to get around- unfortunately the control was just down the hair pin bend, out of sight.

The next Regularity was 5 kms at speeds between 38ph and 48kph. We did Ok on this one despite a left hair pin bend with evidence of the kerbs being hit by previous cars (not rally cars!).

Entertainment during dinner was a Samurai demonstration, with plenty of sake tasting.

We didn’t indulge in the after dinner Karaoke as some did.

Sunday 30th April 2017

Sado Island  (92 kms)

Four regularities before lunch today.

The first three were fine but completely botched the fourth. A lot of navigation in this one and easy to take a wrong turn especially when the distances between tulips are particularly short. We made the out control at lunch with 3 minutes to spare as we went back to the start of Regularity Four- it was very easy when not under pressure.

Lunch was at a large school gymnasium.

Next was a short drive to the old port of Shukenegi. This port was a major trading port in the seventeenth century due to its position on the Sea of Japan.
The Kingan gold mine brought prosperity to the region and an important port for merchant shipping. The harbour is no longer accessible to larger boats as earthquake activity has raised rocks above sea level closing the harbour to all but very small boats.

Shukenegi has crowded rows of about 100 houses, built with walls from ship planks and the bridges across the canals are made from ballast stone slabs. The village is now a National Preservation area for traditional buildings and architecture.

Shukenegi is also home to the Kodo Drummers and they are only "home" from 29th April to 6th May so we were very fortunate to catch a performance of Taiko drumming. This troupe first performed at the 1981 Berlin Festival and received international acclaim for their creativity in exploring the limitless of these traditional Japanese drums. "Kodo" means children of the drum and they say they try to play with the "heart of a child". The apprenticeship is two years and only 10 in 100 get through.  This was a sensational performance and the strength and stamina of this troupe is amazing. No photographs were allowed but we could take photos outside of some members of the drumming school.

After the performance we walked down to the harbour and had rides in the traditional round wooden tub boats.

The nearby Kinzan Gold Mine operated until the 1980's and was the most productive in Japan. As well as silver and copper it yielded about 400kg of gold annually. Despite wealth for the Shogunite, working conditions were miserable and workers (sent from all over Japan to work in the mines) did not survive very long.
Around this area we saw several people wearing white hoods with large red and black beaks. We later discovered that these hoods represented the Japanese crested ibis, the Nipponia Nippon. These birds are now being bred and nurtured to restore the population which almost came to extinction in the early 2000's. Even our hotel had a notice in our rooms that they were providing us with "Ecology Towels", unbleached and without fluorescent substances" in order to protect these birds.

After an interesting day we drove back to the same hotel as last night.