八戸 0.5

Tommorrow is the start of my brief vacation. As I had mentioned in the past, my limited time and budget prevented me from going to Hokkaido as I had wanted. In addition, the ferry costs to and from Sado Island, a spot in Japan known for its good driving roads, ended up disqualifying the Niigata area. However, I did not want to travel further south, as the heat and traffic in the Kanto region would not be that great. So I did some research, and I've determined my holiday destination: Hachinohe.

(That's the name of the city in kanji in the title, BTW.)

Hachinohe is a city located on the southeastern tip of Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost prefecture on the Honshuu (main) island. It has about 231,000 people, and the average high is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Not a bad place to get away to.

I will be taking the trip with Tackawanna. Last weekend, I replaced the only fuel-related issue that is hard to access without jacks that could theoretically fail (fuel filter), and yesterday, the local Super Autobacs did a quick safety inspection and found no immediate issues. The only issue I have is that none of my suitcases fit in the car, and I am still on a budget, so I'll have to use my regular backpack as an anvil my suitcase.

The trip is going to go down as follows, by day:

1. Drive from Aizuwakamatsu to Miyako, Iwate Prefecture. I'll be taking the Tohoku Expressway and connecting to the Sanriku Expressway.
2. Drive from Miyako to Hachinohe via National Route 45, a coastal road.
3. Spend an extra day in Hachinohe doing tourist shit.
4. Drive from Hachinohe directly back to Aizuwakamatsu via the Hachinohe and Tohoku Expressways, and hope to FSM that the typhoon scheduled in the area for Monday pushes out farther east into the ocean and/or weakens.

As you would guess, day four is going to be the most travel intensive day: seven hours of driving total, with plenty of break time. The last time I drove that far for that long was over two years ago, when I had to drive to Maryland to appear in court. The first day will also involve some long driving times, but not necessarily as fast-paced.

So, regarding this blog. I'm going to try to give each day its own blog post. I may not be able to post everyday, however, but I'll try to stay consistent. I also purchased a larger memory card for the dashcam, allowing me to collect video for longer without having to stop and pull off the data to prevent it from being overwritten. I'll make a few videos for TwT 10 when I get back to Aizu.

Back to packing!

-wp

P.S. There was supposed to be a dashcam video in TwT 9, but there wasn't. That's been fixed now.

Fuel Filters and Fireworks Festivals

After a long day, a well-deserved view.

Yesterday was a very long day for me. Although I slept in, I went through a lot of energy that day. It started in the morning, with Tackawanna.

A few days ago, I linked a video to my Facebook wall showing the insides of an original (as in, since the car was first sold) fuel filter. To save you the time of watching it, it was pitch black and disgusting. The fuel filter is the filter in between your gas tank and engine that prevents any dirt, rust, and/or other particulates from getting to your fuel injectors. Without the filter, your injectors get clogged up, and you'll have to keep going into your engine bay to clean them out. The thing is, even fuel filters need to get replaced. A clogged fuel filter increases the wear on other parts of the vehicle, like the fuel pump, which need to work harder to get the same amount of fuel. I'm fairly certain that Andou-san did not touch the fuel filter when Tackawanna was still in Kanagawa, so before I take my road trip to Hachinohe next weekend, I decided to swap the fuel filter myself.

The part itself was around $55. Pricey, but it was a genuine Mazda part. I had to order it at the local Super Autobacs, and it came the next day. I was able to borrow a pair of jack stands from Saito-san from Straight Arrow Motors (for free, BTW), but I had to go to a local hardware store to pick up my own jack for $40. Regardless, I was still saving money doing the swap myself. I found a shady spot on the edge of campus and got to work.

I am now definitely certain that Tackawanna spent most of her life in the southern area of Japan. There was so little rust underneath her. (That will probably change after two Aizu winters, but still.) I was able to get off the screws and the bolt attaching the old fuel filter to the car with some effort. I also had a close call when a few drops of gasoline got near my eye. It was a good thing that I had that large water bottle nearby to flush out my eye.

The installation process was much faster, and I was able to install the new pump, prime the fuel system, and test the engine running all under 15 minutes. (Take that, Mom!) However, the swap definitely wore me out. I was underneath the car, constantly bumping into mechanical parts, having to take constant breaks because I was getting winded. I have no upper body strength at all. After my road trip, I'll be adding in workout times to my schedule.

After installing a new shift knob and shift decal in Tackawanna, I took a well-deserved shower and had some leftover tacos for lunch. While there, I checked the various routes to Iwaki. That night, there was going to be a fireworks festival down by the aquarium. 20,000 fireworks were going to be launched, twice the amount of the fireworks launched at the festival in Kitakata that I missed last week. But by the time I had lunch, it was mid-afternoon. Even worse, in order to save money on tolls, the plan was to take the side roads to Iwaki, which would take an hour longer than going by expressway. So after I ate, I took a few minutes to get ready, and then set off.

But first, I had to stop by the ATM to get some money for said tolls, and then I had to stop at Straight Arrow Motors to drop off the jacks. I got to the garage at around 1530 hrs. Saito-san tried offering me to come inside, relax, and have a drink, but I was running late at this point and had to go. I felt kind of bad having to reject the offer in the haste that I was in, because if it were not for that man, Tackawanna would still be sitting in the parking lot with an improperly assembled fuel pump. He's been a real help and a great guy. Still, there was definitely going to be traffic, so I got back on the road and made my way towards Iwaki.

The trip took three and a half hours. I ended up taking National Route 294 to Fukushima Prefecture Route 6 to National Route 49, all at the discontent of Apple Maps, which kept suggesting even after I was south of Lake Inawashiro to turn around and go back towards the Ban-etsu Expressway. As I was getting towards Iwaki, I caved and let Apple Maps command me onto the expressway, where after $5, I was able to cut around the city center and towards the coastline. I turned onto the road blocking off thru traffic just as they were launching the test fireworks.

I was able to find an open parking space nearby, and made my way towards the port, where there was an area where people could watch the fireworks for free. A lot of people were out that night. People were walking down the street, dressed in yukatas. Vendors were set up along the street and in the main area, selling everything from shaved ice to cow tongue. A girl who'd dyed her hair two different colors was standing through the sunroof of a slammed Toyota Crown on her phone trying to locate her friends while the driver was trying to find parking. A man carrying his daughter on his shoulders did a double take when he saw me and openly wondered to his friends if I was taller than the two of them combined. Truly, this was a festival.

The fireworks display followed a structure given by the local radio station, which had speakers outside for the attendees. Each display was numbered, and it went all the way up to around 35. The announcer would announce the number, and then a synth beat would play as she read off the names of all of the sponsors of that particular display. Then she would announce the theme of that particular display, and then it would happen. Some displays only had one firework. Other displays had tons.

About halfway through the event, they stopped to have a break for all of the "love birds" out there. One guy taped a prerecorded message asking his girl to marry him. The whole crowd went "aww." Not sure if she said yes, or was even able to get a word out with a face, I'd assumed, redder than the sun. This particular display had heart-shaped fireworks.

The ending was pretty nice. Everyone did a major countdown, and then a five-minute long display with a classic J-POP song in the background happened. It wasn't as jarring as an American fireworks finish back home, but it was still a stunning display. That video is also on my Facebook wall.

The ride back home on the expressway took $30 and two and a half hours, mainly due to the traffic from all of the people leaving. The expressways here in Japan, though less crowded, have a "speed limit" of about 50 miles an hour. However, no one in their right mind pays attention to those limit signs, not even the NEXCO patrol car. There are also, with the exception of at the insides and immediate exits of tunnels, no lights. And the expressway is in the middle of the country, too, so it's just you and the road. Pretty tranquil stuff.

The upshot is that now, Tackawanna is much more responsive to throttle input. I probably got an additional 10% of power back from changing that filter. And even that night, I was still feeling proud of myself. It was my first major service change by myself, without entirely relying on an auto mechanic. (That is, if you don't count the jack stand rental.) I had watched multiple videos and read multiple instructions in the days leading up to the swap. I spent about three hours doing the whole job, with about two of them getting ready and trying to take out the old part. They say that the Miata/Roadster is an easy car to work on. I can see now what they were getting at.

This week, I'm writing a paper to be published in a journal with an outgoing PhD candidate. I also have to present my thesis progress, and present my [Japanese translated] poster at an open house event. Then, it's off to Hachinohe. Here's to another busy week.

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 9: Mishima

I had an earlier start than usual today. The maintenance staff at the University were performing maintenance on the water system today, so I had to get up earlier in order to take a shower. While I was ready early, I decided to get on my way towards my route for today.

I traveled to Mishima, a small town part of the larger Oonuma District, whose area is larger than Aizuwakamatsu but also whose population is one-tenth of Aizuwakamatsu's. Districts in Japan are becoming more popular in the rural areas. As these populations shrink and technology improves, it gets harder and harder to justify these smaller towns running their own business. Therefore, they team up with other smaller towns in the area to make a district.

Here's the route that I took. In order to get to the starting point (Fukushima Prefecture Route 32), I had to take National Route 401. I did not film my time on Route 401, but I should have, because as I went further south, the road became quite scenic, and representative of how roads in rural Japan truly are. Unfortunately, I was playing music in the car at the time, so to avoid getting DMCA'd, I can't post the footage. Maybe in the future I'll do the whole route as a dashcam.

If you're one of the four people who read my TwT posts, you'll have probably picked up on two things. The first is that I've recently been editing my videos to reduce some of the glare, shake, and background noice. The second is that the general post theme that the roads maintained by the prefecture can be tight, tiny, and esoteric, while the roads maintained by the national government are straighter, smoother, and less surprising. However, the aforementioned road types swapped their characteristics today. Route 401 was very narrow when passing through Aizumisato. I mean narrow as in my car was over the "center line" without deliberate action. Later on, after a nice, long tunnel to get the standing heat out of Tackawanna, it turned into a seasonal (that part actually surprised me), six mile-long road with so many curves. On the flipside, the southern portion of Route 32 actually had lane markers on the side and the edges. Apparently, it serves as an artery for plenty of smaller hamlets in the area, and there was even a construction area where they were still working on a wider bridge.

But Route 59 brought back those oddball rural road characteristics. I actually missed the turn onto it because it was inconspicuously hiding behind a corner shop. As soon as I turned onto it, however, I was met with a driveway-width road with a massive freaking hairpin curve at the start. There was also moss growing in the center of the road between the usual tire contact points. What's more, only half of the road had guard rails. That meant that nothing was stopping you from that 200 foot drop into the creek below in certain places. It was actually a bit terrifying.

In any event, it looks like I may not be able to do much travelling for summer vacation at all. My scope has been significantly shortened to a four-day sprint to Hachinohe and back via National Route 45 and the expressways. Even that will cost some significant money, although I will have the cash on hand to do it. I will need to decide tomorrow if I am actually going to go through with it.

That's all I have for now. Time for bed.

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 8: Bandai Gold Line and Lake Hibara

Yesterday I decided to take a trip up north of Inawashiro to the Bandai region of Fukushima. This was my general route. I took the Bandai Gold Line up over Mt. Bandai to Fukushima Prefecture Route 459, and then went around the perimiter of Lake Hibara, one of five lakes in that region. The lakes were actually formed in 1887 when a volcanic eruption from Mt. Bandai changed the surrounding landscape.

It was a lot cooler yesterday than usual, even in Aizuwakamatsu. That made the whole trip more comfortable, because the sun was not beating down as hard as it normally does. A lot of people were out enjoying the weather, too. In fact, it was nice enough that a local Ferrari group was taking a nice tour on the roads. I saw a couple of 308s and 458s in the convoy. (The video is on my Facebook page for those interested.)

Towards the end of the latter dashcam video, I made a wrong turn; instead of going west coming off of Fukushima Prefecture Route 64, I ended up going east, back towards where the Bandai Gold Line deposited me. Thankfully, I didn't go too far before realizing my mistake, so I turned around and went back the right way towards Kitakata. Speak of the devil, apparently Kitakata had some sort of festival yesterday. I had heard about it on the news two nights ago, but forgot all about it. Oh well. There will be others in the region.

I stopped at a rest area on the way back, and looking back, maybe I should have kept going. That's because I scraped underneath Tackawanna's front bumper against the concrete curb as I was pulling into a parking space. You see, her wheelbase is not as short as a kei car, but it's shorter than most other passenger cars. Therefore, I have the ability to pull farther into a space, but I overestimated how far I could go before that portion of Tackawanna hit the curb.

The good news is that you can't see any damage if you were standing, or even kneeling in front of Tackawanna. The bad news is that I could feel some scrape marks underneath her front bumper. With winter coming, and a few tiny, but still visible "problem" areas in the paint, I don't feel too comfortable with the bumper's exposure. Then again, I have been planning to have Tackawanna repainted at some point, because her last paint job (and you could tell that an amateur did it) is not of the best quality and fading quite quickly.

But there's a problem with that, too. I can do one of two things:

1. shell out $1000+ (money I don't have on hand, by the way) for a professional paint job from a local body shop that will do the paint job, and do it right.
2. do the job myself for about a third of the above figure, but have to worry about finding/setting up an environment to do the work in, do multiple coats [and all that fucking sanding] over the span of a few days, and rent a car in the meantime so I can still get around.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

No trip today due to all-day club activities. And in terms of summer vacation, I'm trying to see what there is to do in Niigata, which is much closer than Hokkaido. I'll see where I get with those plans.

-wp

Weekend Lab Trips

Now that the week is starting to wind down, I can catch up on the blog.

This past weekend was an extended one because this past Monday was a Japanese national holiday. Therefore, it was the best weekend for some labs to have their lab get-togethers. I was invited to the one held by my lab, and then a second one held by another professor on campus. I ended up attending both, and it was a heckin' good time.

Sunday was the trip with my lab. We traveled in a convoy from Aizuwakamatsu to a farm/park hybrid in Koriyama for a picnic. The attendees were some of the grad students and their families, another professor, my advisor, Prof. Tei, his wife, another professor at the university, and one of his college-aged relatives from the states.

Prof. Tei is the guy on the right.

The trip almost didn't happen due to the weather. It was my job to check the weather, but Apple's Weather app, which runs off the weather channel, kept thinking that it was continuously raining or very close to it. I therefore had to observe some of the domestic-based websites, which assured me, even the early morning of the trip, that even though there were some clouds and some drizzle, the weather would be clear enough for us to enjoy the day.

And then, at the meeting time and location, it rained. Stupid fucking weather websites.

But we weren't going to let the rain stop us. We decided to try going to the farm in the hopes that the weather would clear up. And, as a thankful surprise, it did.

Lots of open space

There were a lot of families at this park, and there were plenty of kids as well. We set up camp next to a blocked-off area by a stream and ate lunch. As a prerequisite for eating, we had to share a story with the others. I ended up sharing the story of that time in high school when someone fell out of the back of my Explorer during Halloween. Prof. Tei shared a really good story about the time that he got so wasted that he couldn't fulfill his duties as a translator while chaperoning a foreign businessman. Laughs were had by all.

JDM t-shirt

At some point during lunch, I spilled some Coke on my sock. A few minutes later, a bee decided to make itself comfortable on said sock. I managed to kill it and throw it away, and we soon found out why the bee was present. In that blocked-off area that we were sitting next to was a tree. This tree had a rather visible nest in it. If I didn't properly kill that bee and let it fly back to the nest, I'd probably be too sore to type this right now.

Koi on steroids

One of the features of this farm was a series of tandem-style bicycles that groups could rent. It's different from a standard tandem bicycle in that the riders are seated next to each other, and the others can also ride on the bike as well. I went twice; once as a passenger, and again as the driver. I had more fun as the passenger, because as I had found out, I have no core or leg strength at all. This especially was problematic when I tried to pedal us up the hill. I ended up having to get out and push the bike up the hill while the other guy pedaled. I need to get to the gym this summer.

JDM tandem bicycle

The next day, Monday, was the trip with Prof. Cohen, another American who is a professor at the university and taught one of my classes last semester. The group was much smaller, as this was a second outing that he was conducting and some of the people who went with him on Sunday could not go on Monday. It was myself, Prof. Cohen, two German research students, and a Japanese student. This time, we all went together.

We first went to Lake Inawashiro for a swim and a Frisbee toss. Again, my lack of bodily strength proved challenging when I tried to go swimming out past where the shoreline dropped off. I would swim out, realize that I could not go out any further, and then flail myself back towards the shoreline. Still, it was nice soaking in the lake. The water temperature, while cold at first, eventually felt nice. It's a shame that my boating license back in the states can't transfer to Japan, because seeing all those jet skis out on the water made me envious.

>that guy on the far right that thinks he's the shit

After the swim was a trip to the touristy area of Inawashiro, where we had lunch at a "German" beer hall. (One of the German students lamented the quality of the German sausages that was being served.) We also stopped across the street at the museum dedicated to Hideyo Noguchi, a bacteriologist known for his contributions to fighting syphilis. A humorous point in the exhibit was an animated caricature of Noguchi at his desk. There was one loop where he used English terms, and when he said "Just do it!", I started cracking up. (This is to blame.)

This portion of the exhibit had a Western retro comic book theme.

On the way there, Prof. Cohen told me that he had a gold driver's license, where if you have no offenses on your driving record for about seven years, you get a gold bar on your license, and that lets you get cheaper insurance and the like. On the way back, he got busted by a speed trap for going 71 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, and had to pay about $150 on the spot. Needless to say, that was a bit awkward. But if he doesn't do anything else after a year or so, he can get his gold endorsement back. I hope he does.

This weekend was pretty fun, but now I have to start focusing on preparing for my presentation next month for my research plans. This is an important step towards finishing my degree, so I'll be doing a lot more work in the lab trying to get ready. In addition, my last TA class was today. I'm being recommended by the head professor to come back and TA the class again next year, but in the meantime, I'm hunting for an internship. I have a possible lead with a local laboratory; I'll see how that goes.

Bonus pic: caught me off guard

-wp

(Credit to Prof. Cohen and Prof. Dogun Tei for the nice[r] pictures.)

Travels with Tackawanna 7: Nunobiki Plateau Wind Farm

>tfw Germany, for some reason

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. To put it into perspective, the sun was coming up just as I had finally exhausted myself. I've had a bad habit of staying up late recently, so to help maintain a steady sleep cycle, I'm "disconnecting" after midnight from now on. Therefore, I'll need to make this post, and make it quick.

Today, I decided to go see the local wind farm. In Koriyama, the next city over from Aizuwakamatsu, there is the Nunobiki Plateau Wind Farm. Situated in the mountains overlooking Lake Inawashiro, it has 33 turbines, each of which could power just over a thousand homes. It also has an observation area, Akatsu no Katsura, where you could overlook the turbines and see the many sunflowers that the city plants. Therefore, I hopped in Tackawanna, now with a set of new speakers in both of the headrests, and we set off.

I took two wrong turns today. The first was not turning onto the road that connects National Route 294 and the power station. Google Maps showed that a local Lions sign reminding drivers to buckle up was the marker for the road. As it turned out, I missed that marker, and had to take some side roads to get to the right road.

The second was taking the first right instead of the second. I ended up taking a mountain road that landed me in Tashiro, a southeastern area of Aizuwakamatsu. I therefore had to go back the way I came. (I caught that part on the dashcam, but Google Maps does not see the connection between the road from Tashiro and the road that I had originally turned off of, so I can't show you the route that I took.)

The road to get to the observation area had quite a few twists and turns. It felt like a good location for a hill-climbing rally stage, especially with the rather high grade required to get up the mountain. Going down the mountain was much easier; I was in second the whole way down, and barely even bothered with the actual brake.

In addition to the observation area, you also had the opportunity to actually drive through the farm on the service roads. That's what I ended up doing first. When I first came in, a cloud was rolling low on the mountain, so you could barely see the tops of the propellers. However, as I was heading back towards the road, the sun came out and shone brightly for a brief moment. It was pretty nice.

How they designed the sunflower "maze." The left shape is a smiley face. The right shape is the city seal.

I arrived at the northern portion of the observation area. A few families were there, and a few more showed up along the way. I went over to see the sunflower field, but apparently, I was way too early. The sunflowers, although being planted over three weeks ago, were still in the sprouting stage. I'd have to wait another month or so for the sunflowers to finish growing. Bummer.

After a brief lunch from a nearby food stand (300 yen for a glass-bottle Coke, what the fuck?), I drove over to the southern portion of the observation area, where there was an observation tower that you could go to the top of to get the best view. The base of the hill it was on had gravel stairs...and that was it. Everything else was dirt and rocks. As a lazy American, the climb got me out of breath rather quickly. However, when I got to the top of the hill, and then the top of the tower, the view was worth it. I could see all the way to the lake, and I could also see all 33 turbines. They even had a "map" along the perimiter, taken almost ten years prior, of what the view looked like and where all the local cities and towns were positioned.

That's a lightning rod on top of the tower.

I took quite a few photos, and I don't want to link them all onto this page, so here is a link to a Google Photos album with all the images.

This is a three-day weekend due to the holiday, and I'll be out socializing for the rest of it. Tomorrow I'll be going with my lab to a farm in Koriyama, and that night I may be going to a car club meetup at a restaurant in Aizuwakamatsu. Then on Monday, I'm going to another lab's event at Lake Inawashiro. I'll be sure to talk about both days when they've happened.

-wp

Travels with Tackawanna 6: Kitakata

Today's plan was to travel the entirety of Fukushima Prefecture Route 383. (Map) This route is located in Kitakata, a town north of Aizuwakamatsu. In order to get there, I had to follow National Route 121 all the way up to the turn onto the road, which is partially shared with Fukushima Prefecture Route 335, and then wind my way through some back neighborhoods until I hit that glorious mountain road. According to dashcams from years before, a certain section of the road was blocked off to passenger cars. However, I figured that this year, things would be different, and I would be able to pass through and travel the whole length of the road without issue.

According to both Google and Apple Maps, Route 121 splits into two pieces once you get north of the Ban-etsu Expressway. The eastern portion is the traditional route, which has all of the businesses and stoplights splattered on it. The western portion, however, is an expressway known as the Aizujukankitadoro (会津縦貫北道路) that took over 20 years to plan and build, and whose portion connecting Aizuwakamatsu and Kitakata just opened last year. It was a good 10 or so minutes on that road. I managed to get Tackwanna up to 60 MPH (pretty fast for the roads around here), and with the top down on a moderately warm summer day, I was living life to the fullest. This is what you buy a convertible for. I had good cruising music on, and there was little traffic. The only caveat, however, was that it was a single-lane expressway. There were two lanes at one point, but only for about half an hour, and still single file. Still, I'm glad that I was able to travel it. It saved quite a bit of time on my travels up there.

After originally missing the turn onto Route 383, I managed to get onto the right road and work my way around the rows of rice paddies to get to the objective road. I put the car into third gear and made my way up the mountains. The sightseeing areas were vacant, and there were very few people around. I pressed on.

The road started getting narrower. I entered a hamlet area, which contained a few houses, one of which was vacant and dilapidated. In Japan, as the birthrate shrinks and people move to Tokyo, the countryside ends up getting less populated and greyer at the same time. People die, and their kids, if they have any, don't want to move into the house. But paying taxes on vacant land is more expensive than paying for taxes on land with a structure on it. So the house sits, and falls apart. I pressed on.

A man parked in the middle of the road moved his station wagon out of the way for me. The road started getting rougher. At this point, it seemed like the town no longer wanted to take care of the road, because few people lived in this portion of the town, so some patches of the road were slathered with gravel. I pressed on.

I entered another hamlet, this time with more dilapidated houses. I don't think that there was a single person under 60 living in this part of town. At this point, the road decided to stop being paved, and turned into a single-lane dirt road. No gravel, and grass growing in between the tire tracks. I pressed on.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day, who also owns a Miata. He suggested that I lower the suspension on my car. I can say now for certain that if I had actually attempted that road with a lower suspension, I would still be up there right now. It was very bumpy. A sign on a tree said to watch out for bears. I pressed on.

Finally, the road had had enough. I reached an area with a waterfall, and it was there on the other side of the concrete overpass that it decided to put up the signs. I had hit a dead end. I couldn't press on anymore, and there was no cellphone service in the mountain, so I had to turn around. But first...

Thwarted by a piece of string and some wooden signs.

I headed back down the road. As I entered the second hamlet again, I noticed an older woman who was not there before working along the side of the road by her house. I could tell even from a distance that it took at least five seconds for her to process exactly what was going on. Wait 'til the girls hear about this, she probably thought to herself. A foreigner, driving a convertible, going up and down that dead end dirt road right next to our house. What are the chances?

[muffled enka playing in the distance]

When I got to a safe place to stop with cell service, I checked my maps to make sure that I was taking the correct route. As it turned out, I wasn't. This was the actual route that I had taken. With a readjusted plan, I just needed to retrace my steps and turn onto the right road. Only when I went to turn onto that new road, I saw construction signs at the front, one of which basically stating that the road was not a thruway and that sections of it were closed off to the public due to construction. So much for that plan.

I went back to Apple Maps and kept looking. Fukushima Prefecture Route 459, a main road, had enough twists and terms to be an acceptible alternative. So I planned a new route and set off. As it had turned out, Route 459 didn't appear to have those characteristics, especially towards the start of it, where the road width and quality felt like that of the roads that I had just previously travelled. Over time, though, the roads started getting better in terms of quality.

Kitakata was a pretty chill place. As it turns out, if I had stayed behind on Route 335, I would've had some sick roads to travel. Oh well. Another time, perhaps. But I took the Jukan on the way back, and this time, I caught it on video. Another good cruise to end the day.

So, that's it for the weekend. Back to the grind.

-wp