And home to the best apples in the world. Also home to new
buildings as the town was totallydestroyed
at the end of WW2. There are no old buildings despite its being 30.000 years
old!! We have now crossed to the northern most tip of Honshu Island, the main
and biggest island of Japan. It is connected to Hokkaido Island by a 56 km undersea tunnel! It is surrounded by mountains
with rain every month of the year and gets more than 25 ft. of snow.
Pop.300.000, although Japan, overall, has a falling population with the birth
rate at 1.3. pr couple.
Today’s trip took us straight into the woods – birch, beech,
maples, plain trees and a native conifer – with our first stop a brief walk by a lovely
stream with waterfalls and rapids – very pretty. We climbed continuously to a crater lake –
Towada. We had a cruise on the lake followed by a traditional lunch – trays set
out with burner and bowl of rice, chicken (I piece), mushroom, spinach and
broth on top.; another bowl of sticky rice; a bowl of rice and raw salmon
slices; a dried sardine – too oily for my taste; and a bowl of miso. Oh yes,
and some chop sticks. Actually the meal was tasty apart from the sardine. Hop
mixed his in with the rice so found it a bit more palatable although I noticed
he didn’t eat much more than I did. I stupidly picked up the whole thing, after
removing its head, and took a bite! The souvenir shop was full of apple products
– apple glaceed– sweet, medium, sour – apple dried, apple with shortbread and
almonds, apples peeled dried and stuffed with glace apples….you name it…imagine
it……apple juice.
Onto the bus again
and up Mt. Hakkoda – the name of a range of dormant volcanoes. Another cable
car (ropeway – I think I’ve had enough ropeways). This cable car took 100
passengers at a time. It was operating on a skeleton crew – it’s intended and
highest volume of traffic is in the ski season. The view was of more mountains,
a few interesting plants, and a bird with a distinctive whistle that we couldn’t
find. I bet it was a speaker hidden in the undergrowth to drive us crazy, and
some pesky little biting insects which ensured we didn’t stay outside too long
or be late back for the bus!! I must say
the forest would be spectacular in the autumn – would just be a blaze of
orange, yellow and red – gorgeous – and of course, the local spruce (conifers)
get covered in hoare frost in winter beautiful.
It was a long day………..9 ½ hours. Sea day tomorrow on our way
back to Yokohama. I’ll try for some more photos when the boss has downloaded
them. XXXXXX
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