Sar6e 🇦🇺And just like that, the adventure is over. One last big day of touristing and then it's the business of commencing the homeward journey - shinkansen to Tokyo and then wrestling the awkward luggage onto a plane and then home.
Jōmon people lived for more than a thousand years on what is now an elevated terrace, a few kilometres from modern day Aomori, that would have been coastal in their time. Thankfully the site was saved from becoming a baseball stadium and we were able to explore the excellent recreations and museum, housing the finds from the archeological excavation.
The cycling may be over for this trip but there's still some touristing to be done. After seeing the nebuta floats in the museum, I can imagine seeing them 'in the wild' during matsuri would be awesome. Wonder if I'll ever get back to experience that...
It would be poetic to say our final leg into our ultimate destination of Aomori was one of those golden days of cycle touring - going out on a high. In fact it was a slog and we were glad it was done by the end - more of a whimper than a bang. But we got there! Close to 1,300kms, over 7,000m of climb, 10 prefectures and at least 31 tunnels.
Our last day in Akita prefecture and we finally got to meet an Akita dog!
It seems the Takanosu drum museums claim to the world's largest drum may now be a little dated. Nevertheless, a collection of drums 4m or so across is still imposing.
Hachirogata used to be the second largest lake in Japan until a massive land reclamation project to create Ogata village (1957-1964). It remains the 18th largest lake in Japan and the lowest natural point in Japan at 4m below sea level.
After a few days of lollygagging about Kakunodate, it's time to throw a leg over the bike again. We are heading westward to line us up for our final cycling leg on the Japan Sea Coast.
A stroll along the river under 100 year old cherry blossom trees would have been a relaxing way to finish our last day in Kakunodate, if it weren't for the bear warning signs.
Kakunodate
The main tourist drawcard in Kakunodate is a historical preservation area known as Bukeyashiki Dori. Bukeyashiki are samurai residences that date back to the Edo period (1603–1867). After the strenuous walk from the start of Bukeyashiki Dori all the way to... nearly the middle, we were ready for…
We had a few nights in Kakunodate so that gave us some time to explore the area. Our first day we took a drive up to Lake Tazawa, Japan's deepest lake which used to have visibility to 350m.
