One last chance for a road trip before the big move, I headed up and over to the Pacific to check out a few famous spots along the Iwate coast.  I only had one day to make the trip, and I knew it was going to be a stretch to make it, but I dragged myself out of bed, hopped in the car and headed north, trying not to think of the 11 hour drive ahead.  The first stop?  The M-shaped rock formation known as Anatoshiiso (the blue marker).

My co-pilot today would be Craig, an American working at a school near mine. To shave a couple hours off the trip we took the expressway up to Ichinoseki. You gotta pay to drive the expressway, but if time is an issue there’s no better way to drive. Unfortunately the local roads are painfully slow, especially deep in the countryside. “True” (extra lane) passing lanes are virtually non-existent, not that it would help avoid all the grandmas and grandpas attempting to drive their shitty little trucks along the windy roads.

We crawled our way east to Kesennuma, where I saw a very underwhelming fireworks show last summer. Reaching the coast, we began our journey north along the local road that winded along the water.

A couple wrong turns later, we arrived at the first of our five stops. As you can see it’s a pretty beautiful scene, and a great way to start off the morning. I’d like to come back and visit again in the summer when the water is nice and warm. Part 2 to come soon…

A nice place to do some cliff jumping, perhaps...

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