Back in Asakusa

 After shipping most of our stuff to the airport, we spent the morning in train stations getting to the shinkansen, then the 2.5 hour ride to take us further than our two weeks of cycling did back to Tokyo. In the train stations in Hanamaki we came across some cultural displays

A deer oni playing a drum

The Michinoku Deer Dance Festival (Shishiodori) is a traditional dance from the area where people dress up as...well, deer spirits, and dance and bang on drums. It happens in mid-June so we'll miss it by a few weeks, but it sounds kind of cool.

Hanamaki Mikoshi

Mikoshi, portable shrines carried by citizens of the region during parades in festival season, are common throughout Japan. Hanamaki has a world-record setting matsuri every September celebrating the founder of the city, Nobuchika Kita, where they have a 114 mikoshi parade. They also have floats and even people dressed up in those deer spirit outfits dancing. It looks like quite the party.

Arriving in Ueno, we stopped at Ichiran before the Friday night crows really got going for some ramen.

I mean, it's not curry but it's really good.

We got to experience a Friday night in the tourist part of Asakusa when we went to the store. It was pretty awful. While we know we are tourists and we know we are kind of snobby about the whole Japan experience, the utter lack of self-awareness that many of the foreign tourists have is pretty sad. Japan is suffering from it's own popularity and a weak yen right now. There are more tourists in Japan this month that there ever have been in the country. We saw none of that up north, away from the typical tourist spots. I was very clearly the only white guy in a 50 mile radius. I think we saw exactly 3 non-Japanese people after leaving Nikko until we got to Sendai, then none until Hanamaki. While I'm not thrilled at being a spectacle, it was far more preferable that dodging loud, clueless foreigners somehow unable to successfully check out at Don Quixote, a discount everything shop that sadly also is duty-free, which draws a certain kind of crowd. 

That said, it's great that this many people want to experience Japan. Being a weekend will be kind of a zoo, so we're going to try and avoid anything tourist-y for a few days. We had a great time in Tohoku, but it is nice to be back in Asakusa.

Sensouji

Last Stop in Hanamaki

 Our last day of riding was a pretty easy one, relatively speaking. 33 miles, mostly downhill, overcast and 65. There was really only one road that went through the valley, so it was either be on and off a busy highway or climb over a mountain so we opted for the former. For the most part there were decent shoulders and sidewalks with only a few times we needed to ride "in traffic" as it were.

A section of the ride was on the Tono-Towa Cycling Road

The mascots are a Kappa and a Cucumber...

Turns out that Tono is a big Kappa town. In fact, you can purchase fishing permits for Kappa in Tono. The best bait for a Kappa is cucumber, hence the mascots. To be clear, Kappa are fictional water creatures.

The remote area between Tono and Hanamaki at least had a train line, the Kamaishi line that runs between Hanamaki and Kamaishi towns

It's not a very big line...

Sometimes the cycling paths are a little...rustic

The path goes into the grass, right by them

Maps wanted us to turn here

But all in all, the ride was smooth. When we got into town, we came across this

They were staring at a 7-11

Long story short, Kenji Miyazawa, a rather interesting guy from Hanamaki, was the author of some very famous children's novels, including Night on the Galactic Railway and The Life of Budori Gusuko, whose anime adaptation these guys came from. Why they are in front of a 7-11 I still do not know.

With a little time before check in, we decided to check out Hanamaki Castle. After Tono Castle, we made sure to see a picture of...something before we climbed up the hill. Reassured, we did indeed climb up a hill and were rewarded with...

A fake Nihonmaru

Looks great, right? It's all a prop. The back is empty, the walls are held up by boards. The castle grounds, behind the gate here, are more grass-covered ruins. Ah well...Back down the hill and up again brought us to our hotel, The Grand Ciel Hanamaki where our luggage was shipped. We checked in, then rode our bikes for the last time this trip to get the dinner of Sumi's choice.

Yes, this was her choice

Back at the hotel, we took apart the bikes and pared down our gear to just what we needed for our last few days in Tokyo, packed up the bikes in their cases, packed up the rest in our large duffle bags, and hit the end of a very successful cycling trip. Almost no rain, lots of different towns, some great scenery. Tomorrow we spend the day on trains getting back to Tokyo.

Rained in at Ofunato and through the mountains to Tono

 Turns out Japanese weather forecasting is way more accurate that back home. It rained on and off all day Tuesday, then really came down Tuesday night, so our day off in Ofunato was timed perfectly. I had a grant proposal and some other work to get done, so I did that and laundry while Sumi...pretty much slept all day. She did drag me out into the rain to walk a mile to catch a Japan-only Pokémon, though.

This was pretty much Tuesday

 
Today we got up had a non-fish breakfast

To be clear, those are "Mini Hash Browns" and "Breakfast Sausage" not tater tots and hot dogs

And had a day of perfect weather for biking, Overcast, 60's, a little windy but nothing too bad. This is good because we also had almost 1 mile to climb across two mountains to get to Tono.

This road was covered with branches and rocks and we were the only people on it

The second climb we did was on a road that clearly hadn't been used by anyone in a long time. It was still in reasonable shape, but large branches and rocks were strewn across it, and most of the signs were worn away from age. We were a bit worried it would just end or something (we've had that happen before) but it made it across to the other side where there was significantly more usage and traffic.

All in all, a great ride, though we were happy to roll into Tono at about 3:00. We couldn't check in until 4:00, so we figured we would go see Nabekura castle. The park area that it was in housed a temple and a museum/library, though we didn't stop at the museum.

The entrance to the temple

Of course there are stairs

And statues

And a temple!

The temple was well below the castle grounds, so we had to climb up a bunch of smaller stairs and paths to make it to the top of the bluff where the castle was.

An overlook just below where the castle was

The castle....

So, yeah, the castle ruins are...hiding there in an overgrown field. Had we gone to the museum we probably would have known that. But hey, if we knew that we wouldn't have climbed up 1000 feet through a bear-infested forest on already tired legs. Oh, did I mention there were bears in the area?

The little yellow sign warns you of bears in the vicinity

This is the second time we've been to a Japanese park with nice benches and open areas to hang out with signs warning you of dangerous creatures living IN THE PARK. Well, we once again didn't get eaten by a bear, so yay?

With that little adventure behind us, we headed to our hotel, stopping at several convenience stores to get the proper brand of ice cream treat and food for the night, We are looking forward to a real meal in Hanamaki tomorrow.

The place we are staying at tonight is up in the foothills of yet another mountain in a pretty nice part of town. It's a minshuku, so it's more of a owner-operated kind of place rather than a big hotel and much more traditional Japanese.

Kuranoya

Another wonderful, spacious room

It looks like the rain will hold off for one more day, allowing us to get to Hanamaki, where the shinkansen station is located. We'll pack up the bikes after tomorrows ride and get ready to head back to Tokyo!

Ofunato before the rain

Hamanasu Kaiyoukan also provides breakfast for their guests, which had me a bit worried, but we read about the buffet breakfast being delicious, so we figured it would be a normal buffet-style breakfast with undercooked eggs, hot dogs, fish, rice, and more fish with some bread and juice.

They really go all out for their guests, and I was already feeling bad about last night. Luckily they have a buffet in addition to this. They also brought EVEN MORE raw fish after this photo was taken. I sampled everything but the large hunks of fish and the raw egg. The salad, noodles, and pickled vegetables were good, as was the tofu in the lower left corner. The bread in the center was soaked in miso and fish broth, much to my disappointment. Thankfully they had a big vat of rice at the buffet, so I was set.

It was cloudy and windy when we left the hotel and made our way through the city of Kessennuma. Maps kept trying to get us on the bus road, because it really did look good on paper. We ended up choosing our own route through most of the day because of this. At the north end of the city was the harbor

Sumi likes boats

There were a lot of boats to like

There was also a rather rare sight in Japan.

See the church above the harbor?

This is another church just 100 yards behind where the last picture was taken

Christianity does not have a lot of followers in Japan. The Shogunate outlawing it and killing many of the Japanese converts is probably one of the reasons why. Also, Japan's Shinto and Buddhist background doesn't really jive with a monotheistic religion. That said, up here in Tohoku, Masamune Date was one of the few daimyo that didn't discourage missionaries from teaching until the Shogun demanded that he outlaw the religion. Even after that, he mostly just made them keep quiet. That is really the only explanation I can think of as to why a small northern Japanese town of less than 60,000 can have two Christian churches in it.

Anyway, leaving Kessennuma brought us back to mountains and rivers and steep climbs. On one of these climbs, we stopped to get some water and saw a little building.

Kessennnuma City Shishiori Gold Mine Museum

So, there be some old gold mines up in these here mountains. The museum is free and small, showing the history of the mining in the region and a replica of a "monster nugget" found there. Yep, that's what passes for excitement in these here parts.

Lots of old pictures of the Shishiori mine from the late 1800's through the early 1900's. The mines were worked in year round, so miners brought their families to live with them in company-provided housing.

Every child's dream home...

It was a nice stop on our climb up. As we left the building, I saw a poster for gold from the region, which is sometimes referred to as Michinoku. In the early Nara period (710-794), the area that is now Miyagi and Iwate prefectures was the northern edge of the empire. The borderlands up here were referred to as "The End of the Road" (道奥) by the rest of the empire. It is also a taiko song composed shortly after the tsunami. So seeing this poster, all I could think of is a bad compilation CD of Michinoku disco...

Am I the only one? Probably.

So, back on the road...

we had one more stop before our hotel.

It's...um....it's...it's a...a tree?

Out of context this sounds like one of the sillier things to memorialize. There is a single pine tree that wasn't washed away during the tsunami. So they built an enormous memorial compound around it.

This building is massive

Now for the context. This entire open area that the memorial is built on used to be a very famous pine forest of roughly 70,000 trees (Matsubashi) dating back hundreds of years. Imagine a famous national park just being wiped away in a matter of minutes. That's what the memorial is for, and the last tree standing is a symbol of the forest. 

A few remaining stumps

Three quick notes: First, the tree is actually dead now. All the sea water killed the roots. It's now held up by a carbon fiber rod inside the trunk. Second they have replanted thousands of trees to eventually regrow the forest. Third, they have four Honda robot lawn movers mowing the large open field. It makes the whole compound look very futuristic.

Finally we cycled around the coast to get to our not-nearly-as-scenic business hotel Route In. We'll be sheltering in place tomorrow as rain moves in for a day, then we'll be on the road for two more days. There is a big typhoon blowing up from the south expecting to hit Tokyo on Friday, so we'll be stopping in Hanamaki, just 25 miles from completing the entire length of Japan. Anyone thinking we should just suck it up and finish in the rain has never been in a typhoon before. It'll give us an excuse to come back to the region.

A Stop on the Coast in Kessennuma

We packed up and left...not early this morning. We had 40 miles to go to reach our next spot, Hamanasu Kaiyoukan, a hotel on the shores of the Pacific Ocean that was completely rebuilt after the tsunami destroyed the old building. 

Once we got out of the Ichinomaki metro area, the landscape reverted to the peaceful rice paddies and mountains of Touhoku. The was practically no wind, it was 75 and sunny, just a perfect day for biking. 

Along the Miyagi Cycling Route

The entire stretch from Ichinomaki to Kessennuma (and beyond) is part of the new Miyagi Cycling Route that was introduced during the rebuilding after the tsunami. Route 45, the only road that goes through the river valley in this region, now has...well...it has little blue lines telling you it's the cycling route. Sometimes it has a wider shoulder and some blue arrows to indicate to cars that bikes should be there. Today being Sunday and off-season, there was not much traffic on the road at all, so even with us having to ride on the main road for most of the day, it wasn't bad.

Speaking of roads. This region of Touhoku DOESN'T HAVE TRAINS! Like, there's no train station for miles, just buses. There are some wonderful new roads, straight and clean, well-paved that are for buses only. Maps kept trying to get us to break the law and ride down these forbidden roads, unaware that it was restricted. We did not try to ride them for many reasons, but chief among them was the tunnels and bridges were exactly wide enough for a single bus. If any bus did happen to run into us on their own private road, there's no escape.

That said, of course, we did not see a single bus use the special bus road the entire day. We did see plenty on the regular roads though.

The entire stretch we were on today was hit by the tsunami. All along the highway there are signs indication "Post Tsunami Inundation Section". Tsunami Inundation is, for those of you not up on your tsunami terms, the distance from the coast that a tsunami reaches.

At about noon we were looking for somewhere to get some drinks and sit in the shade when, as if on cue, we came across the Minamisanriku Sun Sun Shopping Village.

The octopus is the town mascot. 

After the tsunami, a lot of the village businesses were being run out of temporary shelters. In 2017 the permanent shops were finished, an all wood, solar powered open air marketplace. They had a large covered area with tables for dining, including sinks to wash up and public garbage cans (VERY rare in Japan). Every single restaurant in the village serves fish and seafood and nothing else. Being on the coast it was not surprising, but I was kinda hoping to find....anything. There was a Mini Stop in the village as well, so we have convenience store snacks (apple juice, bananas, etc) and of course

There were 5 or 6 places serving different types of ice cream

Back on the road, we made a stop at a Family Mart to pick up some provisions just in case. Just in case what, you ask? Well, the place we're staying tonight includes dinner and breakfast (there was no option for just a room). These places usually do not make anything I can eat, and you don't ask them to make something special for just you. That's not how Japan works. So, we'll go to dinner tonight and I'll try and eat anything I can, and I'll likely have another banana and some nuts for dinner.

Speaking of the hotel, it's pretty great.

Back of the hotel leading to the large public beach

Our room. Check out the view!

And we were in for a bit of a shock when we were checking out the room. Opening the bathroom door, we were greeted by トイレーちゃん.

The lighted bowl does go out after a moment. It does this every time it senses motion near it.

Before I get to the non-CoCo Curry food, I wanted to share a few "very Japanese" things we spotted on the way.

They got everyone together...

Tanuki Crossing. And yes, there were tanuki in the area.

So, about dinner. This may have been the best meal we've ever been served in Japan, and I could eat practically none of it. Have you ever had a 12 course meal? We sat down and they had the dinner menu on the table. It wasn't a choice of dishes, it was the list of what was being served tonight.

The first plate had a variety of appetizers, such as shark fin jelly, shark heart, sesame tofu, some vinegary vegetable, and mackerel. It was followed by a big old plate of sashimi and things went steadily downhill for me. When they kept bringing more and more food out, I started feeling really bad. I didn't want all of this to go to waste, but there was no way I was going to be able to eat it. I told the very nice waitress that I wasn't feeling well and was not going to be able to eat any more food so they would stop bringing me platters of fish.

Completely unironically I was quite proud of Sumi. She is not an adventurous eater and I wasn't there to share in the misery if it was not good, but she tried everything and gave it all a glowing review. So, my apologies to Chef Koichi Ito for not being able to enjoy his well-prepared food. Below is for those of you who love to eat vicariously. The tempura was eaten too fast for a picture.

Conger Pike Eel with Vinegar

Appetizers

Sanriku Seafood Platter

Swordfish and seasonal vegetables

Steamed Conger Eel

Herb-encrusted Swordfish

Braised Shark Fin

Wagyu Beef

Yuba Mitsuba

Crab and Scallop Rice Pot

Eggplant Ice Cream with Sake

Nothing but good things to say about the hotel and their staff. Next time any of you find yourselves in rural northern Touhoku, treat yourselves and stay here. As for us, it looks like the rain is holding off for at least another day, so tomorrow we'll meet up with our luggage in Ofunato and figure out if we're gonna keep biking or head back to Tokyo.