Thursday 23 August 2012

Obon - the way up - from Tokyo to Onikobe

We joined the mad Obon rush out of Tokyo on the busiest day of the mass exodus.  Usually the thought of joining the throngs is more than either of our patience can put up with.   After experiencing the throngs this year,  I can see why we usually take our summer holidays later... It took almost 9 hours to reach Onikoube - our destination for day 1,  less than 400km from Tokyo.   It's a bit clearer here  - https://maps.google.com.au/?ie=UTF8&hl=en 
From Tokyo to the north of Tochigi is three laned dual carraige way.
The traffic crawled, there was some relief at being on a bike and being able to go through the traffic.
Plenty slow enough to be taking pictures.
Massive line ups to enter rest areas
Yama yuri - mountain lilies in Onikobe
Onikobe
Onikobe is a ski resort - it was expensive, but the food was great,
and more importantly they actually had space available when I booked
two days prior to going...
North of Onikobe
Going through a tunnel on the road between Miyagi and Akita....
Many many tunnels.

2 comments:

Rurousha said...

Welcome home! Isn't our concrete swamp Tokyo a lovely place to return to? ;)

I'm happy that I can now enjoy your trip reports and photos.

First comment on first post: BIKES ROCK!

Cecilia said...

Thanks!
Back to the hot nights that are not ideal for sleeping... The days were hot in Akita, but the nights were so good for sleeping.
Bikes do rock - Hiro's neighbour's son spent 22 hours in a car to get back to Odate from Tokyo...
Will try and get more up tomorrow. I have some mid point ones done, but still quite a few gaps - it will be more pictures than considered observation though. ;)