The road much less travelled - Kimimachi Park

We spent Thurs looking around the local area at places that I mostly hadn't been to.  There are a multitude of minor sights in Akita, but the distances between them (and the total lack of signage in many cases) makes them totally off the tourist circuit, and  I suspect perhaps they are mostly visited only by people in the very local area.

The pictures below are of Kimimachi Park just off Highway 7 near Futatsui  - now part of Noshiro city. The weather at this time of year is about a month behind Tokyo and the sakura were about a day passed full bloom.

Looking down to the river from Kimimachi Park

Kimimachi Park

In the car park a tunnel that used to be used for the Ou train line.

The same tunnel, but with sufficient perspective to get
a sense of how very small the trains must have been.

http://www.akitafan.com/en/sightseeing/detail.html?data_id=6    This is a sightseeing guide of the park - it's the first time I have seen this website.  English information on Akita is very limited.

Niigata to Odate

As we left relatively balmy Niigata into Yamagata prefecture the temperature dipped sharply. Along the road there are temperature indicators - perhaps to alert to ice? I am not really sure though- it reached 8 degrees. Cold for mid afternoon on a May day. The single lane expressway most of the way to Odate meant slower traveling times than usual.

Hiro has a nostalgia for the the Yamagata seaside. His uni had a campus in Tsuruoka and has fond memories of the years spent living on the strip between the mountains and see.  We stopped off on the coast briefly before the final leg to Odate.  A shower of cold rain had us stop to put on rain gear and we made it to Odate by 6.30 or so. Hiro's mother had dinner waiting.

Rice fields ready for planting in Niigata

The coast near Tsuruoka

A rather concrete coastline

Helicopter rides  at the michi no eki (farmers market crossed with
service centre).  I was tempted to negotiate a price for taking us and the bike
straight to Odate... 

Looking south from the Michi no eki

Niigata

I have often watched the news at major holidays and marvelled at the 100+km build up of traffic on the Tomei (Tokyo-Nagoya expressway) as the holiday traffic is at its pinnacle. This time there was no marvelling - we were part of it. The first 100 or so km to Niigata we travelled at between 40 and 50 km an hour and we were moving much faster than the cars.... After the Nagano turn off things improved, and we met the very patiently waiting Yamashitas near Niigata station.

It was lovely, as usual to see them. We stayed the night on the condition Lily & Masa went out for a very overdue dinner together. And Hiro was quite chuffed by Reo opted for him to read a book to them rather than me.  Lily and Masa introduced Hiro to Wii....    on the bright side if Hiro can cope with deprivation, it would make for an easy Christmas present...

One of Niigata's claims to fame is being a senbei (rice cracker) capital, and much to the delight of Hiro (and Masa), Lily suggested a visit to a senbei factory. The array of senbei was mind boggling. They had a 'taiken' or hands on part of the factory - something that seems to be prioritized in Japanese primary school education. We could bake and season senbei and with the collection we had, there was no chance of us going hungry as we pushed on to Odate via Tsuroka.

A tobacco hut at a rest stop on the expressway - on the northern
roads the smoking area is usually outdoors.

Making senbei

Hands on

Every company needs an avatar

A shrine to the senbei

Golden week - another northern road trip

Another Golden Week, another trip north. This year the main purpose of the trip was to go the wedding of Hiro's cousin Takeshi in Hachinohe, Aomori. Hiro, either in an act of flagarant trivialization of work responsibilities, or a commendable effort to encourage the mood of work-life balance took Friday off giving a rare 6 day long weekend. (He insisted that his table all took either the Mon or Friday off to make sure everyone had a 6 day weekend.) With uncertainties about the shinkansen we decided that bike was the way to go. The route this time

Tues- Tokyo-Niigata
Wed Niigata-Tsuruoka-Odate
Sat-Odate-Towada-Shingo-Hachinohe
Sun- Hachinohe- Tokyo via Sanriku and Tohoku do expressway.
Probably a total of 1700km - almost half of it done on Sunday.... ouch!