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Where: Akita, Iwate, Aomori
How Long: 5 days
How Far: 2,500 km
Accomodations: Business and Love Hotels
Highlights: Tappi Mizaki, Matsushima
Garmin GPS Track: Download
Author: Geezer
---------------------------------------------------------- The Tour ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seemed a bit early in the year, but I had business in Akita and the weather forecast seemed favourable, so I hopped on the bike and headed North.
Here's a map of the whole tour:
18 Mar 2008 (purple)
Blasted up the Tohoku and Akita tollways as far as Yokote, then took R107 through the mountains to Nikaho. Nice weather all the way, but it got a bit fresh in the mountains in the evening.
Still "traces" of snow in the mountains. 8)
19 Mar 2008
Wasted the whole day looking after pesky customers. This job is really beginning to interfere with my fun.  Oh well, at least I got a decent dinner and drinks out of it. :drinking:
20 Mar 2008 (green)
Cmac was in training for the upcoming Goldenbutt, so he caught up with me in Nikaho. He also wanted to show off his newly restored bike, which is now better than ever. Looking good!
We blasted North, towards Oga Hanto, where I wanted to check out this thing that I saw in a satellite photo. Wasn't sure what it was, but it's bloody huge! Ogatamura turns out to be the biggest piece of reclaimed land that I've ever seen. Must be like 15km by 20km. Unbelievable!
Anyway, we had a decent lunch there, then parted our ways. Craig had to get back to Tokyo, so he decided to check out Oga Hanto on the way. I headed North along the coast, which was a nice ride.
Found this neat onsen, right by the sea.
Pleasant riding all the way, ended up in a business hotel in Goshogawara. :drinking:
21 Mar 2008 (magenta)
Headed North on R339, which goes inland, then along the NW coast.
Nice fishing villages along the way.
About 10km from the tip of the peninsula, the road was closed for the winter! Bummer? Not really. This road is so nice that it was a pleasure to go back down again.
Went around the other way, via R12, R14 and R280, all the way to Tappi Point. Pity that the photos don't show it, but I could see Hokkaido quite clearly across the strait.
Then headed back along the coast, towards Aomori. Nice road, more neat fishing villages.
Found another business hotel in Aomori. :drinking:
22 Mar 2008 (green)
Original plan was to head South through Hachimantai, Towada-ko, Tazawa-ko, but I met a biker that told me that the roads are still closed for the winter. So I decided to head down the Pacific coast instead. I was under the impression that the Pacific coast is not very interesting, but that's not true at all! I hit the coast around Misawa, then headed South on R45.
By evening, it was getting quite cold, so I started looking for a hotel. Drove for ages, heading inland on R45, almost as far as Ishinomaki, but no luck. Finally, shivering uncontrollably, I saw a sign for a love hotel in the middle of nowhere. Yes! :drinking:
23 Mar 2008 (magenta)
I really wanted to see the rest of the coast, so I backtracked up R45. It was worth it. Beautiful roads and scenery.
Along the way, purely by accident, I bumped into something pretty neat. A memorial for the last Canadian killed in WWII.
This overlooks Onagawa Bay, where he died.
A bit further down the coast, I bumped into a fantastic skyline road, R220, on a peninsula that I can't pronounce. It's just a bit East of Matsushima.
This road is great! I suspect that this is heaven for riders from the Sendai area. It runs for maybe 20km, full of twisties, no cars, just a bunch of maniacs on bikes.
A bit further along, I bumped into this ship. Not sure what the story is, but it's called the San Juan Bautista.
The next peninsula, Miyato Hanto, is quite nice too. Right above Matsushima.
Next was Matsushima itself, which is one of the 3 most famous tourist sites in Japan.
That's about it. It was time to go home, so wound my way along local roads, got on the Tohoku Hwy. at Izumi and blasted home.
The weather was great, with highs of 13C. Fantastic roads, met some nice people. All in all, a pretty decent first tour of the season.
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