7.1 JAPAN.

Two hours time difference with Vladivostok, but about the same distance from Greenwich : it was dark at 6 instead of 8 in the evening . We stopped at 17:00 to make camp on a deserted beach near Daiei and got stuck as soon as we drove from the vegetation on to the sand. For the colleagues : d50 of about 400µ in a steep curve and semi rounded grain = not very surprising.

Yep, 400µ!

With the central and the aft lock : only vertical progress. Tires deflated to 1,20 bar and a little digging helped us out in sec's.
Remark : last time I checked the tire pressure was in the snow in Susuman on the Kolyma with – 3°C. The temperature in Daiei was +27°C. The 30°C difference made the pressure rise with about 0,5 bar. This is not an excuse but a fact.

6 in the morning on the deserted beach near Daiei.

The time difference with Vladivostok did not change our habits. In the morning we were on our feet at 6 instead of 8 and started to make camp around 18 instead of 20. No ferry-lag.

Traffic in Japan is at about 50 km/h. The advantage : the scenery in the mountains is surprising and there is a lot to see.

Sakaiminato port (A) - Daiei (B) - Kyotamba (C) - Makino (D) -
Eihei-Ji Monastery (E) - Izumi (F) - Shirakawago Historical Villages (G) -
(Taira) Gokayama Historical Village (H) - In the mountains on the 471 (I).

We thought that it was better to go to the north while the weather was still splendid and drove up the number 9 towards Kyoto. With the prolonged weekend : Kyoto was hell. Everybody possessing a set of wheels was on the road towards the lake Biwako and therefore we decided that we would do Kyoto on our way back from the north.

Just somewhere along the 9 towards Kyoto.

We camped at the Biwako lake for 5600 Yen plus 200 Yen each for a 3 minutes hot shower ! 6.000 Yen for one night on a camping : this was my first and my last (Barry White?).

Camping at Biwako, the biggest Japanese sweet water lake.

Around 17:00/18:00 the shops are closing. Immediately after the villages/small towns become ghost towns. Not a soul in the streets. In Izumi we prepared our dinner on the deserted central square with a hungry cat as sole companion. Only here and there a small light behind a door or a window. In the morning at 6, speakers in the centre announce a new day with sometimes a little song. The wake up call for the whole town ? This is repeated at noon and in the evening at 18:00. Or is it a Buddha thing ?

With the long weekend, everybody was on the move.

Also the lady with the 1200 Sportster.

H.D.'s

Eiheiji Monastery: established in 1244 by the great Zen master Dogen, founder of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism. About 150 priests and disciples are residing in the monastery. We met two of them while they were jogging around the Eiheiji lake, formed by the dam. Next day we saw both again in the monastery performing various duties.

One monk was practising the art (it looked more like a dance) of bringing a book to the priest during the ceremony.

Parts of the monastery are rebuilt in the 18^th and 19^th century. Today these constructions look like new. Maintenance. Not in the Mongolian dictionary?

Part of the vast Eihei-ji Monastery.

Monk.

A typhoon was riding the east coast and it was pouring non stop for about 24 hours. The temperature dropped from 27°C to 17°C.

Up the scenic 156 for the historic villages of Shirakawago and Gokayama, www.gokayama.jp/english

These villages were founded in the remote mountains by the surviving members of the Taira clan, butchered by the Minamoto clan in 1185. The different villages have about the same gasshö-zukuri architecture, but there are small differences in for example : the angle of the roof or the way the top of the roof has been finished. The people survived by cultivating the silk worm that seems to go hand in hand with the fabrication of gunpowder. They produced also paper and today you can attend workshops, … very Zen.

Roof construction.

We camped off the road near a building in the centre of Taira and next morning we were invited in for tea, by the teachers of the nursery school. The kids made for us some small origami euh … pieces/items ... Sweet.

Down the narrow 471 to Takayama. Very scenic and sometimes scary. We backed up several times to let the locals go by and slept in a very small mountain village next to the enormous town hall with possibilities to BBQ in the park, walk along a small man made river or sit on a small hill with a pergola. The village was dead now, but probably during the summer, a lot of activities were on-going

Road 471.

Nice huh?  On the bottom of the valley a town.

Matsumoto (B) - Nikko (D) - Aizuwakamatsu (F) - Matsushima (H) -
Camping at the coast on 26/10, experiencing an earthquake and a tsunami (I).

Matsumoto : castle from the Ogasawara clan in the 14^th and 15^th century and saved from demolition by two men living in Matsumoto in the 19^th century. One bought the castle back from the government that had planned to build apartment blocks on the spot. Now Matsumoto is one of four castles designated National Treasure.  

1543, introduction of European fire arms.
"The Last Samurai" with Cruise: utter bull?

Nikko : the glories of the Edo period (1600 – 1868) with the wooden Imperial Villa (106 rooms and 450 m of visitors corridors) where the emperor Hirohito spent WWII and in between giant cedars the shrines and temples of Tosho-gu.

Kegon Falls: probably there or just loud speakers?

Imperial Villa.  During WWII, emperor Hirohito lived in the villa.

Empress with the kids.

We stopped at a supermarket in Imaichi and bought sushi, crab, salad and white Japanese wine for dinner. Life can be a bitch. For the Frenchies : also the Japanese white wine is delicious.

Tosho-gu.

Japan is one civilized country! Public toilets are not only clean, but the seats are heated and the bowl equipped with a spray system. You can also adjust the pressure of the spray system ! With the pressure on max and a little wiggle-waggle you obtain the maximum result.  ^_^   Hai!

Warp speed Mr. Zulu!

This is the commander of the Klingon battle cruiser!
Surrender or we will start firing
our drums of stained butt paper!

Sir! Our drum is only half full!
Fire anyway, you worm!
(Third day on the "Lena River Cruise", the drum was full!).

Aizuwakamatsu : Tsuruga castle from the Aizu clan. The castle fell during the Boshin Civil War (1868) after one month of fierce battles. 

Newly wed and flanked by samurai.

Reconstructed castle (concrete!) with exhibitions about the
traditional live during the Edo period.
Please, no pictures from the displayed war lord helmets.

On our next stop on one of the info-parking's just north of Kitakata (no, I'm not making this up), we went to the hot water baths. For the equivalent of 3 € p.p., we showered, shampooed, soaked our old bones in the hot water pool until we were « cooked lobster » coloured and went to the sauna. All completely naked, but men and women separated … bummer.

From Aizuwakamatsu we drove over the scenic 121 and the busy 13 & 48, on the 100 km perimeter with Fukushima N° 1, north, towards Matsushima. Matsushima was too crowded to our taste and also due to the drivelling weather we left the charming place after a picture of the bay and a visit to the Zen monastery 828 A.D.

Zen monastery 828 A.D.

Bridge over the Pacific. Cliché.

700 years old tree.

We left the busy 45 for the 398, running close to the Pacific. Looking in the night for a camp place was deceiving and we met a lot of « construction camps », … we thought. We found a quite place after seeing 9 deer on the road and an animal that looked like a small deer. Next day it became apparent that these « construction camps » were temporary housing for the families that had lost their homes in the Tsunami of 11/03/2011. In fact we were driving in Tsunami disaster area along the coast and a lot of works were on-going. Roads had been deviated to allow the construction of a new road or because the coastline had been altered. We saw a the steel skeleton from a warehouse standing in the sea. In several places rail way flyovers had disappeared leaving tunnels as gaping wounds in the mountain flanks. Small fjords in the rocky coast had been levelled by earthwork machinery with street patterns still visible, but no houses. We saw dozens of earth work machines and pontoons with big cranes for the reconstruction of the sea defences and small fishing harbours. Concrete breakwaters, quay walls and tetrapods with no waterline marks or barnacles. New houses. New tarmac. New soil (adjacent hills are excavated).

Before: road.
Now : sea.

Inland de-watering sluices.

Damaged fly-over.

Demolition of damaged fly-over.

Apparently we were hit by an earthquake on Saturday 26/10 – 02:10 in the morning with a magnitude of 7,1 and 40 minutes later by a tsunami of 0,50 m. Is that the reason why we saw the wild life on the road ? Did the animals sensed it? Christine got frightened in the night by the high pitched squealing of a … bird (?) and woke me up because an animal was walking on our roof at around 3 in the morning.  A cat had moved from the nearby village at the sea to our higher camping ground ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/world/asia/earthquake-and-much-smaller-tsunami-in-japan.html?_r=0

Old tree under treatment after the Tsunami of March 2011.

The Japanese wouldn't be Japanese if they did not announce the start and end of each area influenced by the Tsunami along the coast. Driving in Japan is easy without GPS. Each road has a number and these numbers are indicated on the road signs and along the road. Driving through a city or looking for a castle in a city is easy. Every point of interest, no matter how insignificant, is indicated.  Also the Tsunami disaster areas.

Matsushima, ... but museum closed.

On special request of Christine.
Notice the design ladybird.