Part 1 left off after I had just checked the weather and it was not looking good...at all. We had decided to scrap our camping plans and reluctantly head home.
I was disappointed and pouting, but not ready to give up, I decided to look up the weather elsewhere and see if there were any other campgrounds between us and home. I found the crappy weather seemed to be isolated to the coast AND found a campground in the mountains less than an hour away. Camping was back on!
We ended up at Ajigasawa Camping Park on the north/northwest side of Mt Iwaki. Keenan and Ninoosh managed to secure a campsite, grill (no open fires allowed) and firewood from the office. Luckily the office had a phone translation service otherwise we would have been calling a Japanese friend to help us communicate. We picked a site away from any other people and got to work setting stuff up. Everything worked out perfectly, we even got our tents up before dark (barely). It sprinkled slightly while we sat around the fire, but not enough to cause any problems.
GPS coordinates: 40.704299, 140.270234 (gray marker on map)
http://ajicamp.web.fc2.com/
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| First priority... |
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| View of our campsite as I took a morning stroll. |
As we packed up the clouds rolled in and it started to rain a little bit. Our next planned activity was to drive up the switchback road of Mt. Iwaki...you may remember that Keenan and I had attempted the same thing a few weeks ago but the peak was in the clouds...same story today (we drove by and it's the light yellow marker on the map). Instead we decided to stop in Hirosaki and visit the castle and try "the best burgers around." On our way from the campsite around the mountain we encountered a triathlon...we got stopped for a bit but then ended up driving right along with the bikers through some curvy hilly roads...yikes...passing them on the narrow roads was a "bit" nerve wracking, thanks to Keenan's awesome driving, everyone survived!
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| The area around Hirosaki has many apple orchards. When the apples start to grow, little bags are placed over each one for protection. |
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| Farmer's market we stopped at and got some fresh veggies. GPS coordinates: 40.616508, 140.395689 (white marker on map). |
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| Outer moat at Hirosaki Castle with lily pads. |
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| Inner moat covered by lily pads. |
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| The Herg's. |
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| Pepe Kitchen supposedly has the best burgers around...Hirosaki is about a 1 1/2-2 hours drive from Misawa. We had to wait for a table so we parked in spot J, pretty much on the sidewalk, and waited until they came outside for us. Good thing we had a couple beers left over... |
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| Cheeseburger. I don't remember all the toppings that come standard but it was a bunch of stuff and their special sauces. Delicious! |
Bellies full we headed home...but wait! We noticed the rice art was still going on so we made a stop to check that out too. Poor Bean had just fallen asleep, but she was a trooper and stuck it out for one last adventure. They plant different varieties of rice to make the art, I'm amazed at the detail.
GPS coordinates: 40.633941, 140.577396 (lavender on the map)
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| View from the observation tower. |
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| From ground level. |
Below is the map of our weekend! What a great trip with our still-new friends! I think we'll keep them if they'll have us ;)
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| The total trip was about 415 km (260 mi) and Google maps estimates the drive time as around 9 hours 45 minutes. Have no idea how close to that it really was, we spent a lot of time in the car, but frequent stops broke it up. (The letters mean nothing) |
Up next: 5 Festivals in 8 Days - Hachinohe Sansha Taisai
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