It's been a busy few weeks for me. Tackawanna is currently in the shop for repairs (will make a post about that later), so I've basically been here at the university. My research has been coming along well, and I've recently come across a few theses directly related to my research, which will be good for helping to finalize my research plans. Socially, I participated with the university's wind ensemble at a "day service" facility two weeks ago, and we have another concert planned for July.
Tomorrow, I will be taking a train (booooooooo!) to Nagoya, a city between Tokyo and Kyoto. The region that Nagoya is in is like Michigan; lots of major automotive companies are there. That's especially fitting, because I'm going to a conference on automotive technology. There, I can learn more about what the industry has [or hasn't] been doing to address automotive security. I'll be travelling there on Tuesday, attending the conference on Wednesday, and returning to Aizu on Thursday.
I'll try to do some posting while I'm there, so 楽しみに! In the meantime, here's some "Engrish" to hold you over. This one was from about a month ago on a dresser at the local recycle shop.
Today was a scorching 32 degrees Celcius (~90 degrees Fahrenheit) in Aizuwakamatsu. But even with the heat, it was definitely top-down weather. By now, putting on sunscreen has become a ritual for me, and it's been keeping the tan from getting any worse.
This time, I travelled the enterity (or at least what was accessible by car) of Fukushima Prefecture Route 325. The starting point for the route was right at the corner where the Japan Post branch is located, where I need to stop at anyways so that I could go to the ATM. I followed the route all the way down to where some overturned signs prevented me going further. As the route map shows, the road keeps going even after the turn onto the road with the tunnel, but it was mostly overgrown and not maintained by the city or the prefecture.
If you've seen the dashcam footage from the first TWT post, you'll probably recognize a certain portion of the road. Route 325 was part of the road that I took to get to Route 374. However, instead of turning left onto Route 374, I kept going, deep into the heart of the Higashiyama section of Aizuwakamatsu. A lot of onsen hotels are nestled in between the mountain valleys here.
Man, what a road. Not only was it beautiful, it was also risky. You did not want to speed on this one, because the corners were that tight and narrow. There were quite a few portions where the road was reduced to one car width. It was a good thing that there were plenty of spaces allotted to pull over in the case of running into another car, and even better that I didn't have to use them. And even though this mountain road seemingly runs to nowhere, there were plenty of work zones, and one of them even had a construction crew on duty. It takes a lot of effort to keep these roads open.
The road that I turned onto had a relatively long tunnel. It was here that I dropped it down into second and put my foot down to hear the exhaust note. Needless to say, it put a large smile on my face. The road itself technically continued to Route 294, which I had already travelled on my first adventure, so I decided to go back the way I came and make that left turn. To save time and prevent reduncancy, I did not record my return trip. Along the way, you may notice a brown and white temple situated along a cliff on a mountain. I was not aware that that existed, and I was interested in seeing it, so I'll save that trip for another post, and I'll post pictures here, too.
As for Tackawanna herself, I've done some more research and have determined that it is not the starter the could be the problem, but the fuel pump. That would explain the whole "only sputters to life on a cold engine and starts fine otherwise" issue that I've been having. The issue was especially pronounced as the fuel reading in my tank reached half-full. There probably isn't enough voltage going across the pump, and the fuel pump in there now is probably original to the car. Therefore, I've ordered a Walbro fuel pump from the states, and when it comes, I'll install it myself. It isn't like my Blazer's fuel pump where a mechanic had to get under the car. The fuel tank is right behind the seats, under the trim, and the swap requires no splicing. Even with the shipping, I'm still paying less than half the price of when I purchased my new car battery. I'll be doing the fuel pump swap myself to save even more money.
I'd like to close this post by saying that the dashcam scenery that you saw today is one of many sceneries that Japan has to offer. This road was especially home to many different climbing trails and scenic overlooks. If you are an outdoors person, and you have the finances available, I suggest you come to Japan, and especially come to Aizuwakamatsu, and see the scenery for yourself. It's pretty damn awesome. I've been here for almost three months already, and I'm still floored by the beauty here. Even if you don't want to go to Tokyo, and you don't have a car, there are a lot of places to explore, especially like what I saw today.
Because of Tackawanna's issue, I'm not going to go out on an adventure tomorrow. Hopefully the part will come this week or early next week.
I made plans to go south of Aizuwakamatsu on National Route 118, and then head west on Fukushima Prefecture Route 329, up north on Fukushima Prefecture Route 131, and then go up Fukushima Prefecture Routes 23 and 72. (Here's the route in question, by the way.) However, I got confused over the route numbers and missed the turn to Route 329, instead going further south on National Route 121. By the time I had realized my mistake, I had to pull over at the nearest Seven-Eleven and check the maps. (Here's the route for that.)
So this is what I've done. I've divided up the dash cam into two parts. The first part is the route that I took from outside central Aizuwakamatsu to the Seven-Eleven in Minamiaizu. The second part is the actual mountain roads that I took. (I had to edit out a quick two-minute stop of me taking a photo of the car.) Here's part one:
And here's part two:
As it turns out, driving in the evening is pretty nice. Less sun beating down on me, and way more breeze. You'll notice that it's a bit darker during the time I was filming compared to how dark it would be back home. Apparently that's a daylight savings time thing, which Japan does not recognize.
During my drive yesterday, I managed to get some sun on my scalp, which had been recently been liberated by a haircut earlier that morning. In order to prevent any more from getting on, I've researched a way to get sunblock on my hair without getting my hair all sticky. I mixed a teaspoon of sunblock into half a cup of water and rubbed it into my scalp. (I did not dry off my hair; I just let it sit and evaporate.) It didn't make the sunburn worse, so I guess that it works. I'll probably test it for real next weekend.
I finally have a nice picture of Tackawanna. Here she is at a scenic parking lot right next to the reservoir for Ouchi Dam.
Headlights go up for this photo
Still can't get over my love this car. It's a blast to drive, especially around here.
Now that classes for the first quarter are over, I have to catch up on my TAing, and then it's mainly research project work for the rest of the quarter. This week I'll also have to get the ETC card reader installed so that I won't have to pay for cash when using the toll roads. Then, next weekend I'll be going on another adventure. Maybe I'll go north this time...
Today Tackawanna and I headed out on another adventure. The goal today was to tackle Fukushima Prefecture Routes 53, 59, and 32, and then finish by going up National Route 252 to National Route 49 to head back to Aizuwakamatsu. However, I missed a critical turn for my route, so instead of turning back onto Route 59, I stayed on Route 53 instead, and wound up being injected into the heart of Yanaizu. The below video is the dashcam for this route, and here is the rough path that I followed. Unfortunately, comments on the video itself are disabled and will be for future videos, because apparently, posting anything with the word Fukushima in it, but not giving any mention to DA NOOKS, will give you hate comments. It's a shame that I had to learn that from experience.
I usually don't fully plan my routes. I do some Googling, pick some road numbers, and then go. If I need a reference, I wait until a light or a stop sign to check my phone and find out where I am. Actual planning may have helped me here. But in my defense, once you get out into real mountain road territory, there are very few signs around to tell you where you are, or where you're going. For much of the route, it was straight up road. No street lights, few lane dividers, overgrowth everywhere. This, however, may be a surprise to you if you caught the first few minutes of the video.
Back in the states, there were two types of roads: national routes (think Route 1 or 66), and then state roads (in Connecticut, I'm thinking Route 154 or 166). You can probably determine the comparison with Japanese roads. What is strikingly different, however, are the layouts of the roads themselves. And I'm not just talking about the whole "wrong side of the road" aspect. In Fukushima Prefecture, if not for every prefecture in Japan, the zoning laws encourage building as close to the road as possible to save space. This is especially obvious as I turned onto Route 53. The road was a [relatively] wide two-lane road for about a mile, and then there was a residential zone with a route sign above it. The route sign basically said that going straight on that road will mean that you are still on Route 53. Surely, this baffled me.
I was now in the middle of a residental zone, with a road that could fit a car and a third if you tried. After not one, but two close calls involving blind corners, I ended up having just putting the car in second and staying slower than 20 MPH until I was well away from that neighborhood. If you've been on a country road back in the states, and your road passes through the heart of a rural residential zone, you have probably benefitted from a wider, straighter road. That is absolutely not the case here in Japan. When you are driving through a neighborhood, you are driving through the neighborhood.
Before I was to turn onto Route 53, the road narrowed to one driveway-wide lane. A few farm houses were situated right before the junction. Unfortunately, because of their seclusion, this allowed the farmers to just congregate on the road if they ever needed to and not worry about passing cars. Which is exactly what they were doing when I pulled into their realm. One of their friends (?) was parked in the middle of the road in his black Toyota station wagon, and had to leave as soon as I pulled up to the area. The farmer gave a friendly hello. His wife said nothing.
At one point, when turning into Yanaizu's center, I wound up having to stop at what seemed like every manual transmission driver's worst nightmare: a sudden "hump" up onto the main road, with the corner of the curb right at the point where if you are not immediately moving forward after releasing the brakes, you are moving backwards. Therefore, I ended up overcompensating on the throttle when trying to move from a stop. Because Tackawanna has no traction control, I ended up spinning quite a bit, but it was entirely controllable.
The center of Yanaizu was like the earlier neighborhood that I first went through; everything was right next to everything and up against the road. Shops were so close to the road that I could see what they were selling towards the back from my car. Again, space is a premium here in Japan. Still, it was nice getting to drive through Yanaizu, and there were some nice shops around. I'll definitely have to go back someday.
Because the ride was relatively short today, I may do another one tomorrow. I'll have to be careful, however; if I start up Tackawanna for the first time in the morning, I get a rather rough start. I have to crank for about four seconds, and then she'll spur herself to life. But when she gets up to a higher temperature, she'll start up without issue. I checked with the others in the Miata forum that I'm a part of, and they are suggesting, much to my fears, that it's the starter motor on its way out. I'll need to find a starter, which is actually way cheaper compared to a car battery, and then install it myself. The installation is simple, but I don't have any jack stands or a jack, and one of the front wheels has to come off to get to the starter. I've been thinking on asking the local dealer that couldn't help me earlier if I could work in his shop. It would give me a local connection not related to the University, and if there was something that I really needed done to Tackawanna, I'll have someone to turn to that I can trust.
Speak of the devil, I spotted the Ford Excursion that either he or one of his employees owns on my way to the route today.
Probably worth $40k in this section of the world
It's the gas engine, but seeing one of those things here, especially when lifted, put a smile on my face. Plenty of love for USDM here.
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.
I transferred Tackawanna over to my name yesterday. The car is now officially mine. Huzzah.
I had to go to the District Land Transport Office in Fukushima City to get it done. Fukushima City is the capital of Fukushima prefecture. (No surprise there, right?) It was an hour's trip away via the expressway, or an hour and a half via the mountain roads. To save time and money, I'd leave in the morning, missing my other Japanese class for the week, travel there on the expressway, get the plates, and return to Aizuwakamatsu by mid-afternoon before my next class.
Andou-san, the dealer from Kanagawa, would be unable to help me with the transfer due to distance. The foreign personnel advisor that I usually ask for help felt uncomfortable with the process and the distance to the DLTO, so she passed as well. A local Toyota stealership dealership offered to do the transfer for me, but only if I gave them about $250 and two weeks to do it, no loaner included. I wanted to get it done myself to save money, and there were plenty of tutorials online explaining how to do it. My friend and colleague, Victor, a master's student from Belarus, tried to get me in contact with two people who supposedly lived in the area that helped him out with his transfer and could do the same for me. When neither of them could do it, he offered to come with me instead. He was pretty helpful about it.
We were supposed to leave early yesterday so that we would be the first in line at the DLTO. We ended up having to take a detour, because I had lost my inkan certificate (for proof of stamp) and juuminhyou (proof of residence). I therefore had to stop at city hall and get replacements for both. What a wonderful start to the day. Thankfully, that was the worst of it. The rest went relatively smoothly.
The DTLO also has the roadworthiness testing facility on site. Plenty of cars were there lining up for the inspection process. Most of the people at the DLTO were dealers and mechanics, and some of them were even bringing cars by the truckful. We parked, pulled off the old plates, and went inside to the information counter. The person behind the information counter was friendly, and while he was hesitant to use English at first, he eventually tried communicating in some English, and wrote down my living address in kanji for us. The overall wait was also much shorter than we had anticipated; we spent more time figuring out the forms than we did waiting for the plate.
The only thing that was wrong, however, was the license plate itself. I wanted to get a customized license plate (and by customized, I mean the four large numbers on the plate, which is all you can do. Here's an example of what it looks like customized), and I had heard from the advice given that they would make the plates same day if they needed to make them. As it turned out, I needed to call the DTLO a week prior to my visit to reserve it. Total bummer. However, if I really want the plates, I can probably do it in the future. Besides, between the forms, registration, and tolls, I still paid one-fifth of the original price that Toyota wanted. Even if I went to register again, I'd still be saving money.
We saw plenty of cars waiting in the parking lot. One of them, which actually pulled in behind us, was a late-70s Pontiac Firebird. The temporary plates on the car stated that the car was being stored in Aizubange, which is a town just north of Aizuwakamatsu. The dealer/owner also let us take a look at, and some pictures of, the car, which was in pretty good condition given its age. That car would probably go for around $40k market in Japan. (The Japanese are as crazy for USDM as Americans are for JDM.)
Chevy C10 Blazer
Pontiac Firebird in the last stage of inspection
The red line across the plate indicates temporary registration
>yfw automatic
How this thing manages to pass emissions here, I have no clue
Pre-Fiat Abarth sports coupe (1960s-era)
Third-gen Chevy Van
Unfortunately, between our conversations and the music in the background, I don't have any good dashcam footage. However, I will be filming plenty of it, especially this summer when there are so many mountain roads to travel on. As a matter of fact, I plan on taking some time to tackle the local roads tomorrow. My first target is the one that I've been meaning to see since before I got here: Route 374. It's going to be an interesting trip to say the least, and I'll try my darndest to get some good footage.
(I did not forget about this post; I've been busy with school lately.)
Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area on the planet. Over 38 million people live within the 23 wards. Even as the overall population of Japan shrinks, Tokyo's population continues to grow. Space is a premium in the city, and everything is built right next to each other. In theory, this means that traffic in the city is going to be god awful.
My route to get home took me through Tokyo. I would have to take the Tomei Expressway to the Shuto Expressway, one of the ring roads (or beltways, if you want to call it that) that go around the city. After that, I would have to connect onto the Tohoku Expressway, which I could then take straight up to the Ban-etsu Expressway to get back to Aizuwakamatsu. The estimated trip time was about four hours. Without traffic.
Speak of the devil, how was the traffic? This was a Sunday evening, predictably when traffic should be the "worst", as people travelling outside the city for the weekend should be on their way back. I've driven in Manhattan twice before when I was still in the states, and the roads there were not scary to me. Tokyo, however, would be an entirely different beast.
And, now that I've found out, a tame one, too.
While I was still above ground
Well, I guess it's not a "real" Tokyo driving experience as I never left the highway. But with the exception of two relatively small stop and go sections, and one reduced speed section, it was smooth sailing throughout. It did feel a bit disorienting travelling on a highway right in between apartment buildings. Tokyo lacks the grid system that New York is both blessed and plagued with.
Got to drive behind this Ferrari for a few miles. Would you believe they kept the speed limit the whole time?
A key highlight from the trip was the connector from the C2 to the Tohoku Expressway. I ended up making four turns on a curve with a grade ranging anywhere from 2-4%. The video below is from my dashcam, which I installed before I left the dealer.
I stopped at two rest stops. The first was in Saitama to get some nourishment. While I was there, I saw some interesting cars, most noticeably the old Buick (?) with Fukushima plates, and an orange Dodge Challenger with a Hemi. (Yes, you can get them here, provided that you import them yourself. The guy must have had crazy money to do so.)
USDM is to Japan as JDM is to the US
The other was later on to prevent myself from falling asleep at the wheel. (I should point out that tired driving is treated like drunk driving here, and drunk driving is definitely no game.) While I was out of the car getting a bottle of water from the vending machine, I reflected on the drive so far. The Roadster had what felt like a newer clutch that was yet not a hassle to operate in stop-and-go. I only stalled once, at the toll both heading onto the C2, but never again afterwards. And while my back was feeling sore, it was probably from all the work I was doing to the seat and not the seat iself.
All in all, after about 7000 yen in tolls and four and a half hours of actual driving, I made it back to Aizuwakamatsu with Tackawanna, my daily driver for the next two years. This is the car that I want to drive, and it's the one that I plan to take back to the states with me after I finish my degree. I still have to transfer the car into my name, but once I do that, the car is officially mine. I will post a review about the car itself after about a month of ownership.
