A slightly later departure after trying in the light of day to repair/bodge Rachel’s tent pole joiner that had broken overnight. (It limped on for the next couple of weeks until she was able to pick up the replacement that her sister had sent from the UK to her brother near Tokyo.) An unusually cool morning was welcome as we had a nice forested climb to warm us up for half an hour. Over the high point, we soon joined a larger road down to Oirase – where we hoped there were some resupply options. Pleasingly, we soon came across crews upgrading the road – which continued to interest me with differences from home.
The road became so smooth, for a glorious long descent through fairly open beech forest. Absolutely blissful riding, this was some of what I’d been hoping for/expecting in touring Japan.
At Tsutunuma we found a small hotel and onsen complex – situated near a series of volcanic ponds in more beautiful beech and chestnut forest. Unfortunately we didn’t find any food, but there was of course a drink vending machine. A calpis, no doubt, helped a nice forest walk around the ponds – which were bemusingly translated as swamps. Whatever they were, clear and still in the forest they were for a backdrop to a tranquil stroll.
We didn’t find much at Oirase town itself, so turned up the Oirase gorge towards Lake Tokado. The road was put in for tourism purposes, as there are plenty of picturesque water falls, cliffs and rocks in the beautiful forest. It wasn’t long before we found a good cafe, with views of a small water bottling plant, next to the information centre with a remarkably good moss display.
An idea of how many waterfalls there were to see.
While quite a busy road, in traffic volume – with plenty of buses, being in Japan it was all rather sedate and pleasant riding. Being on bikes made it easy to pause or stop to look at various things and wander a bit. Cue, a lot of waterfalls…
(Rachel’s photo.)
(also Rachel’s photo)
Eventually we popped out at Lake Towada, fifteen kilometres took us a languid three hours, to find another fading tourist town (abandoned large hotels again etc.) – but still with some signs of life and new development. On the edge of the main town, a short walk to the ornate Towada shrine before returning lakeside.
Continuing around the lake a short distance, we found a large campground with absolutely no one there – but the water was still turned on, so that was enough to keep us there for the night. We even managed a rare camp fire, it helping to distract from the meagre meal we’d scraped together from the nearby new roadside station – possibly the only disappointing meal we had in Japan. Not bad for three months touring, and didn’t dampen the beautiful day’s riding we’d had.
