Travels with Tackawanna 1: Route 374 and Lake Inawashiro

Earlier today, Tackawanna and I went out on our first adventure. I took Fukushima Prefecture Route 374 to National Route 294, then to Fukushima Prefecture Route 9 via a short hop on Fukushima Prefecture Route 6. That route took me along the eastern coastline of Route 374, which then deposited me on National Route 49, which I then took all the way back to Aizuwakamatsu. Here is the full route that I took.

Route 374 is a 9.4 mile long road of hairpins galore. There were 21 of them, most of them occurring before reaching the summit area. I spent the entire hill climb in second gear, as it was the only gear that I really needed. I was able to get up to third, but then had to rely on staying in neutral with the clutch depressed for half of the descent. In the meantime, I kept my speed down and pumped the brakes on the straights to help keep them cool.

"Wind farm" up in the mountains

Route 294 certainly didn't feel like a national route. There are areas when it transforms into narrower roads surrounded entirely by rural neignborhoods. Other areas, it's straight farmland for miles and miles. In a way, it felt very much like driving New Hampshire. Only on narrower roads. And on the wrong side of the road.

The village would come and go in about a kilometer

The scenery on Route 9, which mostly ran right along Lake Inawashiro, was absolutely gorgeous. It was especially cool right next to Lake Inawashiro. The temperature was still the same (mid-high 70s), but the humidity was gone, and there was a nice breeze. There were some rest areas for people to get out, but I didn't stop this time. Next time, though, I'll stop, because the scenery was that fantastic.

The dashcam does this shot no justice

Route 49 had a lot of travellers today. Some of them were taking their recreational vehicles and "rock climbers." I actually saw a Caterham pass me on the way back to Aizuwakamatsu. Maybe you'll find it in the dashcam video.

Yes, I said dashcam video. The whole trip from the University to the supermarket was just under two hours, and I've put the whole thing up on Youtube for anyone interested. That's a lot longer than most people would probably care for, so if you want to see certain highlights from the trip, just click on the text along the upper portion of the video (i.e. above the red play button) to launch it in Youtube. From there, click on the times in the description to jump straight to the relevant section.

I have too much to do tomorrow, so there will be no trip then. But there may be one next week, after I pick up some sunblock that actually works instead of that spray-on shit.

-wp