Tohoku

Summer Vacation. Due to yet another unforeseen driving limitation, I knew that I wouldn't have access to my car for the month of August. Again. Anyway, as soon as classes ended on July 21st I took off like a rocket... for the bbq one minute away. I mean, seriously, you didn't think I'd leave during summer vacation without a bbq did you? Anyway, the day after the bbqs and tennis, I took off for Tohoku, the region of Northern Honshu (the big, long island) consisting of the following six prefectures: Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata. Before I was done with this driving trip, I would have gone through 14 prefectures, but that story comes later.

The theoretical purpose of my trip was to climb as many mountains as possible, but due to weather limitations I ended up climbing only two. In the end, I was totally captivated by the cliffs, port towns with their hideously ugly harbors but charming boats and buildings, and ocean air. I drove over 3500 kilometers on small seaside roads, ate at many a convenience store, made new friends, and had a blast.

The rough outline of my trip is as follows:

• July 23 - Drove through Yamanashi, Saitama, Gunma, and Fukushima prefectures on my way to Mt. Bandai in Fukushima. really cloudy weather convinced me to push on to Miyagi prefecture. Camped on the side of a road.
• July 24 - Visited Matsushima, a small town with hundreds of small, pine-tree covered islands that ranks as one of the top 3 most beautiful places in Japan (it's not), and Kinkanzan, a small island you can only get to by ferry. Spent the night in Hiraizumi at a temple hostel.
• July 25 - Woke up early for a zazen meditation session, visited Hiraizumi's temples and gardens, then took a boat ride at Genbeikei gorge. Drove to my most gorgeous campsite (unofficial) at a cliff-side park.
• July 26 - Hitting all of the cliff-side stopping points and cute port-towns, drove up the coast of Iwate toward Aomori. Picked up Joanna, a Brazilian I met at the hostel in Hiraizumi. Took off together for shimakita-hanto, the North-Eastern tip of Honshu. Stopped by Mt. Osore, "land of the dead" (ha). Camped on a baseball field.
• July 27 - Finished the drive around shimakita-hanto, stopping for the northern most colony of monkeys in the world, more cliffs, and swimming in the North Pacific Ocean (freezing!). Dropped Joanna off then stayed at a real campground just outside of Aomori City.
• July 28 - Climbed Mt. Hakkoda then drove through the Oirase Valley, went swimming in Lake Towada (freezing!), and stayed at an official campground on the lake.
• July 29 - Weather was cloudy again, so I visited the old samurai town of Kakunodate. Visited the nicest museum yet in Japan in a samurai house, then had a relaxing drive into Akita Prefecture. Stayed at Hotel Hawaii and had my most expensive meal in Japan (not worth it!).
• July 30 - Abandoning my plan to climb Mt. Chokkai, I took a grueling 12 hour drive from Akita to Ishikawa prefecture (out of Tohoku) in search of sunlight. Camped near Mt. Haku.
• July 31 - Climbed Mt. Haku, one day late in terms of clouds. Drove to Hida-Takayama in Gifu prefecture and stayed in a cheap business hotel.
• August 1st - Visited and ate in Takayama, then stopped by Hida-Furukawa before driving back home.

And that's it! More text on the individual days. My camera died on July 30th, so you don't get to see pictures of the beaches on the west coast of Japan. Suffice to say, I'm glad I'm from Hawaii. Anyway, another successful, exhausting, solo-driving trip. Enjoy the 164 pictures.