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.