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Posts tagged Driving
A Trip To Wakuya Castle
Mar 21st, 2009
Friday was a national holiday in Japan, Shunbun no hi (春分の日), also known as Spring Equinox. I needed to buy some duct tape, and tools to dismantle my home gym as the packing slowly rounds into form. I figured I’d also make it out to Wakuya and check out the remains of its castle since the weather was so nice.
From the JNTO Website:
Watari Shigemune, a military commander, became the governor of Wakuya Castle (Wakuya-jo) in 1591, and for 277 years from that time the castle remained in the possession of the Sendai Clan, which governed this region. Backed by a hill and guarded at the front by the river, Wakuya Castle was a natural fortress. It had no castle tower but instead a row of buildings resembling manors. It was completely destroyed by accidental fire in 1689, then rebuilt over a period of several years. When political power shifted from the Edo Shogunate to the Meiji Government in the mid-19th century, many castles, symbols of the samurai’s political power, were destroyed, including most of the buildings of Wakuya Castle. Only the stone walls and the taikodo turret now remain. A three-storied tower-like building stands adjacent to the castle, exhibiting related materials.
The small park where the castle resides looks like it would be really nice in the spring when the cherry blossoms bloom. I will be somewhere else during Hanami however. Shiroishi or Kakunodate are on the short list this year.
Running Up The Coast, Part 3
Mar 16th, 2009
As we were leaving the Daikannon at Kamaishi, I gave Lester a call in Morioka. I think the last time we got together was back in November and I figured that since we would be in the general vicinity we’d stop by and have some dinner. After asking his girlfriend if he could come out and play with his friends, I said I’d give him a call when we arrived in Morioka. Before that though, Craig and I had to make it to our 3rd and final stop on our sightseeing tour of Iwate, Jodogahama Beach in Miyako City.
After stopping by a Lawson’s to get some quick energy we hit the road again. By this time we’d been on the road for 6 or 7 hours. I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough light to check out the beach, but there was really nothing we could do about getting their any faster. We cut through the mountains, going through 15-20 tunnels of various sizes and lengths.
Jodogahama Beach (the green marker) isn’t your typical sandy beach, rather a brief respite from the rocky cliffs that line Iwate’s coast. The park surrounding the beach looked nice; large with lots of small trails going in every direction. You can also rent boats and navigate the bay. Surely it’s a beautiful place to visit in the spring and summer.
Jodogahama Beach, Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture
Having taken our fill of photos, we set off for Morioka, and dinner. We followed the Shimohei River back into the mountains, encountering quite a bit of snow as we progressed inland. I would’ve liked to make it up to Ryusendo Cave, but we just didn’t have the time.
Finally making it into Morioka, we met up with Lester and Rie and feasted on some yakiniku. Yakiniku is probably my favourite dining experience in Japan. The only thing that would’ve made it a perfect meal was a nice tall frosty beer, but alas I was the driver.
Feeling adequately recharged for the drive home, we said farewell to Morioka and headed south back to Miyagi Prefecture, this time on the expressway. Craig helped keep me awake by talking movies, and before we knew it we were back home. The longest 600 kilometers I’ve ever driven, we were on the road for 14 hours, driving 11 of them. I slept well that night!
Running Up The Coast, Part 2
Mar 14th, 2009
Next on our epic 1-day journey through Iwate Prefecture was the Daikannon at Kamaishi City. As we left the outskirts of Ofunato City we saw a sign for Ryorigawa Dam. Why not? We veered off the main road and snaked our way through an unnamed village, possibly going the wrong way up some one way lanes, eventually ending up at the foot of the dam. Got out at the top, snapped a few pics, then we were back on the road again.
Ryorigawa Dam Resevoir
Kamaishi City (the red marker) is famous for a couple of reasons. From Britannica Encyclopedia (remember them?):
Kamaishi was a small fishing village until magnetite was discovered in the area in 1727, and Japan’s first European-style blast furnace was constructed in the city in 1857. In 1885 a government-controlled iron foundry was built using coal from Hokkaido and later using ore from China after the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Heavy damage was suffered during World War II, but mining revived after 1945, yielding magnetite ore. Iron and steel, mainly from Britain, are imported through Kamaishi’s harbour, which is also an important fishing port and part of Rikuchu-kaigan National Park.
Apparently Kamaishi is the main supplier of Japan’s pachinko balls as well. The main draw to this seaside town however is the Daikannon statue. We made our way up the spiral staircase to the top and took in the view. Legend has it that those who visit the goddess and ascend the 204 stairs to the top will be filled with a great happiness. I don’t feel terrible as I type this, so maybe it worked!
Some additional information, this time from the Japanese Buddhism Photo Dictionary:
“Originally a girl of T’ang China, who was selling fish on the market. She asked Kannon Bosatsu [Goddess of Mercy] to grant her a good husband. The wish was granted, and later the girl herself was considered an incarnation of Kannon Bosatsu. This form of Kannon (#10 out of 33) is now, in this area, considered the deity of young men looking for wives.”
We decided to skip lunch and make our way even farther north to Miyako City. Originally I had planned to go to Anatoshiiso only, but in all honesty I’m probably never going to be in this neighbourhood again. We would soldier on…
Running Up The Coast, Part 1
Mar 12th, 2009
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...
Mt. Odogamori
Mar 8th, 2009
Here’s the next installment of “The Remains of 2008″. From what I can tell I still have 7 more slideshows from last year to upload. Today finds us looking back on our aborted attempt to investigate the earthquake-damaged Mt. Kurikoma region. Like I mentioned before, we were on the top of Mt. Kurikoma just one week before the 6.9M quake rocked Tohoku. We waited 3 months before venturing back out there. Unfortunately the Miyagi side of Kurikoma, the area most heavily hit, was still closed. Consulting Tony’s trusty hiking guide we decided to hike up a (hopefully) less dangerous mountain, Odogamori-san.
Skirting around Kurikoma we saw evidence of the earthquake everywhere. Besides the blocked off roads, we saw many hills where sheets of land had just slid away. Roads were cracked and twisted, with single lane traffic in many sections. It’s all automated though; I guess it works on the Honour System or something.
Along the way we encountered absolutely nobody. Not a single car. Granted we were in rural Miyagi, but it was still pretty eerie to drive through this devastated area and not see anyone out and about.
Following Google Maps on my iPhone we broke off the pavement and started along a single lane gravel access road into the mountains. As much as I rave about the GPS on my cell phone, the only bad point is that once you’re out of cellular range you lose the map. Your path will still be plotted, and the little icon will still follow the path, but you’ll just be moving along a blank page. But I digress.
Over a sketchy bridge and through a sketchy tunnel, we finally arrived at the parking lot, which was a little space beside the rocky road for a couple of cars to park. We surveyed the map, chose our route, and filled out the logbook just in case the three of us were attacked by bears or zombies or whatever. Like my dad always said, “Safety first, wear a condom.” I’m just kidding, he never said “Safety first”.
About halfway up the very unmaintained trail becomes pretty steep, so there are a series of ropes to help you negotiate the sticky parts. Nothing really dangerous though.
The view from the top.
Kyoko, Tony, and I ate our lunches at the top and enjoyed the cool breeze that rushed up and over the mountain. We still haven’t made it back to Kurikoma, but rest assured it’s on the list for this summer.
This trip also marked the demise of my beloved Sony DSC-P73 digital camera. I used it for 5 years; it was frikking bulletproof I swear. It had been rained on and dropped more times than I can remember, but it kept on shooting great photos. No BS, I must’ve shot over 25,000 photos with this baby. It had virtually full manual control. This was probably a pretty standard feature back in it’s time, but these days full manual on a point and shoot is getting increasingly rare. For this reason only I didn’t replace my camera with another Sony, opting for the great Casio EX-V8 instead. My Sony was a really reliable camera and I was sad to see it go.
A Hidden Gem
Mar 4th, 2009
Two days ago Kyoko and I took the drive west out to Onikobe, an area near the Akita/Yamagata/Miyagi border. Probably known best for its terrible ski hill, Onikobe is also home to many hot springs (onsen). While nearby Naruko Onsen gets most of the hype, being accessible by train and a popular place to view the autumn leaves, there are some great hidden spots along northwestern Miyagi’s winding backwoods roads. On Monday we visited Hounkaku Onsen.
Although we’d been to this region before this was my first time driving there, so I punched in our destination into my iPhone, letting Google Maps plot our course for us. My company car has no navigation system, so the iPhone has been an absolute godsend in helping me not get lost driving around rural Japan. However, it definitely does NOT account for road conditions, weather, time of year, etc. I had already narrowly averted a near disaster back in January, when my phone told me to drive through the still earthquake-damaged Kurikoma region through a blizzard on a one-lane road into uninhabited rural Yamagata in the dead of night on my way up to Akita City.
This time wasn’t nearly as perilous, just a small snow-covered country road heading up into the hills. It was right near the end of the trip so I thought we’d give Google the benefit of the doubt and see if we could make it, in our little Nissan March. The snow became deeper and deeper, and about half a click up the road we came to a stop, unable to make any more forward progress up the hill. “This is why we have to drive backwards in a straight line on our driving test.” I told Kyoko, as we slowly made our way down the winding road in reverse. Strike two Google, strike two… We found a better route to take to the onsen, the turnoff being about 100 meters after our deadend.
Eventually we reached Hounkaku Onsen. I smiled to myself as we parked in the empty lot. One of the best things about having Mondays off is that you can go to most recreation places (onsens, driving ranges, game centers) and they’ll be nearly or completely empty. Kyoko and I try to go to mixed onsens (where the outdoor bath is for men and women, together) if we can. Going to non-mixed onsens, while relaxing, can be pretty boring. Sure, I could strike up a conversation with some random naked dude, but I’d much rather hang out with Kyoko or my friends.
Paying our 500 yen fee we walked through the quiet inn to get to the change rooms. Empty. I quickly showered and then headed outside (The change rooms and indoor baths are segregated). Empty. We had the whole place to ourselves.
As you can see from the photos there is a large rotenburo (open-air bath), and a natural bath complete with a waterfall. The Okami-san (hostess of the inn) warned us that the natural bath would probably be a little chilly, as it had snowed the night before. It doesn’t really start to get nice and hot until June or July. The rotenburo is temperature-controlled, and also features a small cave. It isn’t really a steam room or sauna, but an “Ashi-yu” instead (Ashi = foot or leg, Yu = bath or hot spring). One end of the rotenburo is hotter than the other so you can get warmer or cooler as you please.
Perhaps the only negative was the quality of the water itself. The scent wasn’t filled with sulphur and didn’t make your skin feel soft and slimy, meaning the water was probably low in minerals and chemicals.
The natural bath was a little cool, but nothing like surfing off the coast of Vancouver Island in summer. Kyoko snapped a few photos of me unsuccessfully trying to climb up the waterfall, then we headed back into the heated pool.
The atmosphere was amazing. The splashing of the waterfall, the occasional chirping of the birds (cicadas perhaps?), the sound of snow melting and sliding off the roof… bliss.
Learning to drive
May 20th, 2008
This month will mark the 16th anniversary of my 16th birthday. Usually I ride my bike to work, but some of the company classes we have are a good 30 minute drive away. If they need me to cover those classes, it’s either a $60 cab ride or drive myself.
When I moved to Japan back in October 2006 I brought with me an International Driving License, but it is only valid for one year. Luckily, being Canadian, it’s relatively easy to procure your own Japanese driver’s license.
The process took me 2 days, as I had to go to two different offices on opposite sides of Sendai. The first thing I had to do was get an official Japanese translation of my Canadian license, from the JAF (Japan Auto Federation). You give them your license, they type out the info in Japanese, you pay 3000 yen (~$30), and Bob’s your uncle. Took about 15 minutes, which is a nanosecond in Japanese administration.
Day 2 (yesterday) was a little more stressful and a lot longer. Kyoko and I took the shinkansen into Sendai to go to the driving center, where they administer driving tests, renewals, etc. Here’s what I needed:
- Canadian license
- Translation of license
- Passport
- Foreign Registration (Gaijin) card
- A headshot photograph, from a photo booth
- Money (~5000 Yen)
Some recommended items to bring in order to speed up and smooth over the process:
- Someone that can speak Japanese
- A book or portable media player
I had the misfortune of dealing with one very, very serious civil servant. I don’t know if he’s always like that, or if it’s because he has to deal with gaijin schmucks like me all day everyday, but he seemed pretty insistent on speaking Japanese directly to me even after I told him that I didn’t understand WTF he was saying.
Here are some of the questions I had to answer on the documents:
- How many questions are on the Canadian written driving test?
- What is the minimum passing grade for the Canadian written test?
- How much does the Canadian written & road test cost?
As I mentioned at the top of this post, I got my license sixteen years ago; how the hell was I supposed to know the answers to these questions? Then it dawned on me that there was probably no way for him to know the answers to those questions too!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that taking a driver’s course is mandatory for Japanese citizens. The cost? $3000!!! Since my license was issued in Canada, I was exempt from the road test & written test! Yay Canada! Americans must take the road test though; if you ask me it’s payback for WWII, but whatever.
In my experience, doing any official government paperwork involves filling out reams of forms coupled with long periods of waiting. After a few of those I was called into another room to do an eye test, which would be administered by Mr. Personality. I thought the eye test would be like at a doctor’s office, with letters, numbers, or even road signs. I sat down, peered into the lens, and said… “C” Mr. P then started to bark something at me in Japanese, so I looked up at him and said, “Wakarimasen” (I don’t understand). He looked at me as if I just told him I was his illegitimate son. He showed me another picture, then I figured it out: In each circle there was a notch cut out of it on either the top, bottom, left, or right side. Went through 8 of those, then a yellow/red/blue colour blindness test.
More waiting, this time in the lobby. (Here’s where you can use your book)
Cultural Note: For some reason the Japanese traffic lights are classified as Red, Yellow, and Blue (not Green), even though 98% of the traffic and crosswalk lights are green. The crosswalk message that plays through the speakers even says that the light is blue when it’s time to cross.
Next up I was called over to get my photo taken for the actual license.
More waiting.
Finally I was called over one last time to pick up my newly minted Japanese driver’s license. She told me not to speed, drink & drive, or do anything that would break the law. Who, me?!?! Smiling in photos is illegal in Japan.