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#日本の交通を研究する会 #日本縦断
My hobby is to look at railroad lines and road networks on Google Maps. I was looking at that and it occurred to me one day. “Oh, if we use the expressway, we could travel all the way across Japan in about 10 turns.” So I’ll see if it really does. This is Cape Sata
This is the southernmost cape in Japan except for the southwestern islands where there is no road access. Now I will head north, following a route I have spent half a day selecting that involves as few left or right turns as possible, the northernmost point on the mainland.
Since there is no road between Honshu and Hokkaido, I considered the ferry on Tsugaru Strait as a New Seikan Tunnel. Also, on the way, we keep using the highway from Kagoshima to Aomori, about 2200 km, but during this time, we are not associated with turns, except for some odd junctions.
But that is not too interesting. So, I chose a route that does not take the rampway at the junction as much as possible, which would be equivalent to a turn on the freeway. I could have started this project right away, but I had come all the way from Kyoto for two days.
I’m going to walk 800m(0.5 miles) from here to the real southernmost point. Is it acceptable to do such a terrible thing to a driver who has driven 1,000 kilometers(620miles)? The season is the extreme point of summer. My heart is in the harsh winter,
Despite the cries of the cicadas that have reached their climax. To cover up my mood, I bought a certificate of arrival and some kind of juice I don’t understand at the tourist information center. It was a juice that tasted of the tropics and tears, where it got mixed up from.
Feeling satisfied, I decided to crack the whip on the car row the 3,000 kilometers(2000 miles) across the archipelago to faraway Cape Souya. This is the longest run since I bought this car. And for me, who has no intention of driving abroad at the moment,
This is probably the longest road trip of my life. The adventure begins. I forgot to set the car navigation system… also want to adjust the cockpit, and cockfit. Current time is 1:00 p.m. If I wanted to, I could probably get out of Kyushu by the end of the day.
But I haven’t checked the dark performance of the DJI Osmo yet, so I’ll head to the hotel around sunset. I would like to be in Fukuoka prefecture by about 6:30. Cape Sata is the only place on the mainland with a latitudinal line running 31 degrees north.
Even though it is not tropical, the trees by the side of the road are covered with vines or something, and even those who are not familiar with plants can feel a hint of the tropics. I’m sure someone in the know could tell you what evergreens are,
But my choices in high school were physics and chemistry. I drove down the mountain road for about 10 minutes to the village of Otomari at the foot of the cape. First left turn here. This is the village where the nearest bus stop to Cape Sata used to be.
It was a 90-minute walk to the cape. However, a nearby hotel recently became inoperable due to a shortage of staff. Perhaps due to this, the bus stop, which was surely there, has disappeared. The nearest bus stop now is the SATA stop here in the city of SATA.
The name is enough to make a dumb-faced tourist who hasn’t done his homework and is crying at the sight of the blocked off boardwalk think it’s a bus stop near the cape. When you get off at the bus stop with a swagger and ask your phone where the cape is,
You get the hopeless answer that it’s a four-hour walk. It’s a setting that says, “Don’t come here if you can’t even drive a car. I refuel at the southernmost gas station on the mainland, in this town.
180 yen/L(700 yen/gallon), I see the car guzzling it down, and the great man disappeared from my wallet. I feel like covering my eyes. I am driving on the local way laid out along the eastern shore of Kagoshima Bay for a while.
The bay is also called Kinko Bay. As you can see from the name “brocade river” it was originally the name given to a river that flows into Kagoshima Bay. It has since expanded in scope and has now become a word for the entire bay.
This is an unfamiliar first road, so I don’t gain speed unnecessarily, make way for locals who have caught up with me. Sometimes there are bullet K-trucks that fly by at an unbelievable rate. I think the exemption in this area, where buses only come once a day, is directly related to death.
Or perhaps there is no license left to stop anymore. Less than an hour after departure, it is already before 2:00 p.m., a good time for a meal, so let me have lunch at the roadside station, Nejime. The beach in front of the station is a view spot
With the southern tip of the Satsuma Peninsula floating in the hazy air across Kinko Bay. Thanks to the conspicuous Mt. Kaimondake, you can feel the depth of the land even if you are 10 km or 20 km away. At a restaurant, I order a fried shrimp set meal.
I didn’t expect so much because of the cheap price of 1000 yen, but the actual dish was heaped with vegetables, and two large prawns were generously served. Let me get a two-shot of just the Mt.Kaimondake in the back to get an Instagrammable-shot. #Mt.Kaimon #Nejime #myworldinonepicture #igersphotography #
The round post at the entrance of the restaurant is unusually yellow in color. This is a happy yellow post. It seems to say that if you see it, you will get good luck. I’m depressed because I can’t see the southernmost monolith, so leave me alone. After lunch siesta is over, so I’m leaving.
It is good to meekly follow the sleepiness after the meal. Caffeine is only a stopgap measure. You will only end up paying for it later. Nejime town just ahead is the center of Minamiosumi-town A road that looks like a T-crossroads appears on the way, and the count is +1.
However, since the center line is connected, this is a straight road. This is just a sharp curve that appears on the path. The count is still 1. The navigation system tells me to turn right at the intersection ahead and drive through the mountains to the city center of Kanoya.
I ignore this one. Because it counts. Every time I come to an intersection, the navigator very brazenly tells me to turn right. However, after ignoring it for a while, I gave up and rescheduled the route to the one I wanted.
After a kilometer or so, the intersection appears again and I swerve to the right. This is an uncontested right turn. The count is now 2. Incidentally, if you turn left at that intersection, you will find a port where ferries depart for the Satsuma Peninsula on the other side of the bay.
From March to October, bus tours are also available to visit famous scenic spots in Minami-Osumi, such as Cape Sata. This is the only realistic way to get to Cape Sata without a car. With only 6 round trips per day for local buses, the region does not have a very good road network.
The nearest highway interchange is still more than 30 km(18miles) away. With one right turn on the way, about 40 minutes after leaving the roadside station, I finally reach a place that could be called a city. Kanoya City. Population is 100,000.
It is the largest city in the Osumi Peninsula and the largest city without railroad in Japan. When it is a town of 100,000 population, the suburban roadside is also very crowded. Fast food, major chain restaurants, electronics stores, car dealerships, and streets filled with cars that must have come from all over the peninsula.
This is a view typical of a medium-sized city. But if you observe carefully, you will never get bored because there are some local chain stores mixed in. The one on the right is SuperKid which is Kumamoto capital discount store. If you see a sign of this in Geogesser, let’s GUESS Kumamoto.
Passing through such a roadside shopping street in Kanoya, I reach Kasanohara Interchange. Here I make fifth left turn and enter the highway network. The next turn is in Aomori. 2200 km(1400mi) to the Aomori Interchange, stepping over 22 prefectural borders and continuing on the highway. I spoke as if this road were a highway.
But if you look at the GSI map, you will notice that it is actually just a local road. The official entry to the expressway is at the Kanoya-Kushira junction, 6 kilometers away. Here we join the E78 expressway coming from Miyazaki. Rampway count +1.
E78 Expressway (a.k.a. East Kyushu Expressway), as the name suggests, is a highway that runs along the east coast of Kyushu. Compared to the west coast, the east coast is more mountainous and much less populated, so almost the entire route is made up of two simple lanes.
However, unlike a typical two-lane highway, the median is made of a sturdy concrete wall. With this, we can rest assured that trucks and acrobatic elderly Prius drivers will not run into us. The speed limit is also 80 km/h(50MPH), which is comparable to a typical highway. And thankfully, it is free of charge.
You are also free to get off on the way and stop at a convenience store or supermarket. After pouring off the water I took from lunch, buying some Pocali Sweat, and getting ready, I head north on the highway again, heading for Kirishima City, the innermost part of Kinko Bay.
Surrounded by abundant nature, the sky is not clear, but there are thin silky autumn clouds in the distance. I was running in such a good mood that I wanted to sing one of my songs. But then an unscrupulous person appears who joins in with a poorly written chorus.
The next step is to collect road tolls as well, as they are not satisfied with just the taxes they have extracted from us. If this is all, well, I can agree that we have been treated too favorably so far, but what is unforgivable is that the separation zone will be a poor one
With just rubber poles sticking up, and the speed limit will be 2 km/h. This is no different than just a expooressway in the countryside. It costs money and the service gets worse, is it our country’s social security? What soothed my mood to complain was Mt.Sakurajima, which appeared ahead of me.
The silhouette of Sakurajima floats in Kinko Bay, and the smoke billowing from the top of the island looks like a warship sailing on the sea. The silhouette looks as if it is the guardian god of Kagoshima. In fact, she is loved by the citizens of Kagoshima for scattering lava all over the area,
Covering laundry and cars in ash. Second rampway at Kajiki Junction in Kirishima City. Now we are on the main road of Kyushu: the E3 expressway. From here on, it is two lanes all the way to Aomori. We don’t need to worry about cars that are catching up to us
Or cars that think that being slow is supremely safe driving. Putting more pressure on the gas pedal, I merge onto the main lane. The sound of power gushing from the engine under the hood can be heard. At the same time,
I begin to wonder if this 30-year-old car will be able to complete its 3,000-kilometer journey in one piece. But there will be no need to worry about that. After all, this is a Japanese car. These are not like those weak European cars that have high performance and elitism,
But break easily and demand expensive repair costs. I have never felt any strange noise or discomfort. Warning lights also come on from time to time to show their vigorous. The distance traveled in Kagoshima prefecture was 175 km(100miles). Departing from Cape Sata, it takes 4 hours and 40 minutes to enter Miyazaki Prefecture.
Country sign is Phoenix tree and Aoshima Island. Miyazaki only snatches the edge of the prefecture, so it is only 10 km to the neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture. The tunnel that straddles the prefectural border is the Kakuto Tunnel. This is the last difficult section of the mainland highway that runs from Aomori to Kagoshima.
The construction company struggled for four years, penetrated in 1993 and opened in 1995. With a length of 6255M(20500ft.), it is the third longest tunnel in this video. The second will appear shortly. Hitoyoshi Interchange, just after entering Kumamoto Prefecture, is an interchange to watch out for.
The distance from Hitoyoshi to the next interchange at Yatsushiro is 38 km, the longest distance between interchanges in Japan. If you accidentally miss the interchange, you will be forced to make an additional round trip of about 80 km(50mi). If you confess your stupidity at the toll booth in Yatsushiro,
You can get back to Hitoyoshi without extra charge. But the extra gasoline burned becomes CO2, which feeds the forests of Kuma, making them fatter and fatter. We are already being pestered with environmental taxes, and it is not good for the earth if we spoil nature any further.
As you can see from the fact that there is no IC for 38 km, this section of road is built in a deep mountain valley. Of the countless tunnels, large and small, that puncture the mountains, the longest is the Higo Tunnel. Named after Kumamoto’s former name, this tunnel is 6320M(20700ft) long,
The longest road tunnel in Kyushu and even one of the top 10 in Japan. It has been more than 30 minutes since we passed through Hitoyoshi Interchange. Finally passing through Yatsushiro Interchange, we are now on the Kumamoto Plain.
This area of Yatsushiro is the origin of rush grass, the raw material for Tatami mats. 90% of Japanese rush grass is produced here. Most recently, most tatami mats are made in China, since the self-sufficiency rate of rush grass has dropped from 70% to 20% during the 20th century.
Tatami mats made in Yatsushiro are high-class products. The road is laid out along the foot of the mountain, taking care of the rush fields. It was around 7:00 p.m. when we reached the Kumamoto Interchange in Kumamoto City. Even though it is summer, the sun has set.
I regret that I should have taken today’s lodging in Kumamoto. But I was a loose thinker in Cape Sata, and I took a lodging in Amagi, southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture. I still have to run for an hour. Leaving the main line at Tosu Junction, we head for the hotel in Amagi.
The distance traveled on the first day is 358 km. Considering the fact that we started in the afternoon and the first time was down the road, it’s not so bad. Tomorrow will be another long road trip. It’s only 10:00 p.m. or so, but let’s go to bed early. Friend: Let’s play mahjong.
Tomorrow morning I want to get through the Fukuoka City section, which is likely to be crowded before the rush starts. I am very happy to accept your offer, but I have decided to decline. I’ll do it. Back on the main line at 9:00 AM, when the rush is over.
Aiming for the Honshu island. I hope to reach Nagoya or thereabouts today, as my physical strength is limited to driving 800 km a day. Fukuoka is the fourth largest city in Japan after Tokyo, Osaka, and many others.
The road has also turned into three lanes and tries to process the highest traffic volume in Kyushu, but it seems to be congested during rush hours. Even at this hour, there is still enough traffic to fill all three lanes. Fukuoka is the closest city in Japan to the Eurasian continent,
And has long prospered from its relationship with the continent. It began in the 6th century, when Japan had a strong influence on the Korean peninsula. It was the front line of national defense when Japan was beaten to a pulp at the Battle of Baekgang in 663
And when the Mongols invaded at the end of the 13th century. At other times, it served as a government office to administer Kyushu, far from the capital, and as a base for diplomacy with China and Korea. Nowadays, those functions have largely been taken to Tokyo.
But Kyushu’s function as a hub city is still alive and well. The number of foreigners is also the same as it was then. Walking in Hakata, Korean language can be heard from all directions. The English-speaking people with whom I have recently become involved say that
The name is popular because it sounds very elegant. They also mention Fukuyama and Fukushima as other good place names. Fukui Airport has the glory of being ranked number one in the British media. Second-to-last parking area in Kyushu, Kishi, replacing a camera that has become too hot.
I have to avoid missing the scene of entering the mainland ahead. As we pass through the mountains behind Moji, the last city in Kyushu, the view of the main tower of Kanmon Bridge welcoming us with open arms appears in front of us.
I do not even look at the turnoff to the Mekari Parking Area as I dive into her bosom. 10:40 AM. I entered the Kanmon Straits into the world’s 7th largest island: Honshu. The area is 230,000 square kilometers(89,000 square miles). However, the distance to be traveled within the island is 1,800 KM(1100 miles),
As the land responsible for creating the image of Japan as a long and narrow country. In hindsight, if I had stopped at the parking area earlier, I would have been able to capture footage of our upcoming entry to Honshu Island.
But all I could think of at this point was to keep going. Instead, I’ll put up a picture I took when I went to Shimonoseki a long time ago. The puffer fish was delicious. Industry in Yamaguchi Prefecture is concentrated on the southern coast.
However, the Expressway throws its role as the main road in the area to a branch line branching off from the Shimonoseki Junction. The main Expressway pulls off into Mine, deep in the mountains where there is nothing but karst.
Beyond the lime mines of Mine, the road enters Yamaguchi City, which lives up to its name as Japan’s most dreary prefectural capital. This is a city that is purely a political city, which is unusual among Japanese prefectural capitals, which tend to also serve as regional economic centers.
This area seems to be similar to the U.S. At Yamaguchi Junction,in Yamaguchi City, the two main road that support the Chugoku region (western part of Honshu): the E2A expressway and the E2 expressway diverge. Here I go straight and choose the E2A freeway.
If you choose the E2 expressway, you have to take an extra rampway here and in Kobe. In the old plan, this E2A expressway was to serve as the spine expressway for the Chugoku region. The plan was to extend only branch lines to the more populated coastal cities.
However, after a 10-year delay, a higher-standard E2 expressway was eventually opened, branching off from Kobe and Yamaguchi and passing through the major cities on the south coast, such as Hiroshima and Okayama. Losing all but access demand to the medium-sized cities on the north coast and small villages in the mountains,
the E2A expressway is instantly pulled down from the main line and is now the great local expressway. The 100KM from this Yamaguchi Interchange to the North-Hiroshima Junction where the Hiroshima Expressway branches off is particularly deserted, with only about 3,000 vehicles per day.
On average, this means that only about one car passes every 30 seconds both lane the road combined. In fact, no other cars have been seen on the camera or in the rearview mirror since a while ago. I pass a truck every 10 minutes or so.
This is the situation at the parking area where I happened to stop to use the restroom. There are only 3 trucks and 3 passenger cars. E2A is a road that just keeps going and going in the mountains of western Honshu.
Mountains no matter how far you drive, trees you don’t understand even if you narrow your field of view, tunnels rarely, and country signs This is Shimane Prefecture. This figure, which looks like a variant of Mr.2, is a heron dance at a shrine in Tsuwano.
The weather is normal. And there are no other cars, bicycles, or old men driving the wrong way to bring tension to driving. I get fed up with this kind of scenery after 30 minutes of driving. But the road public corporation at that time could see through that kind of thing.
To make the drive more exciting, they lowered the road standards and added a lot of sharp corners and sharp grades. Thanks to this, the speed limit is kept to 80 km/h(50MPH) on almost all of the 540 km(330mi) long route. Not much progress for an empty space.
Shimane also only snatches the edge for a moment, as does Miyazaki. Back in Yamaguchi Prefecture again, I pass through a long tunnel and enter Hatsukaichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture. You can’t imagine from this mountainous landscape, but Itsukushima Island is actually located in this city.
Oops, this photo is from a visit to see the precious Otorii gate, which is undergoing its first renovation in 70 years. This one is more appropriate for the video.
The plan is to continue on E2A all the way to Suita, Osaka, but I run into a little unexpected bump at North-Hiroshima Junction. I’m supposed to be on the main line, but before I know it, I’m on a rampway.
Looking at the map later, it seems that the E2A on the Osaka side of this junction is directly connected to the E74 (Hiroshima Expressway), while the E2A on the Yamaguchi side is treated as if it were a branch line, perhaps in consideration of the traffic volu
At a parking area where I stopped, I hurriedly counted the number of ramps I was about to pass. Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any other road ahead that is being treated in such a miserable and pathetic, tear-inducing way, except for the road near the Aomori border.
There is no laughing matter that the E2 freeway had fewer rampways. Let’s stop and have lunch while I am at it. The name of the parking area we stopped at is Nanatsukahara. Around this point, we start to run parallel to the Geibi Line, Japan’s worst loss-making line,
Which requires an investment of 25,000 yen to earn 100 yen. It was undoubtedly this E2A that turned the Geibi Line, where countless trains spread stench and smoke, into such a deserted route.
However, the E2A has now degenerated to the stage of arguing with the Geibi Line as to which is the more unexplored area. Unprofitable local railroad lines are surrounded by gloomy topics such as “discussions about the future”, just as there are no good economic stories in local cities.
But in this respect, the Geibi Line is different. The Geibi Line used Japan’s worst stigma to appeal to sociopaths and misanthropes throughout Japan. The Geibi Line appealed to localtrain fans. As a result, ridership, which bottomed out in 2016, skyrocketed and doubled by 2022. Doubled, to 20 people per day.
Still the quietest line in Japan. The line is in danger of even seeing cherry blossoms next year. Please buy a ticket and ride via Geibi Line this winter. That way you may be able to prolong your life a little. In the meantime, I entered Okayama Prefecture.
The road runs across the mountains in the northern part of Okayama Prefecture. E2A Expressway gradually regains its status as a trunk highway as it joins the Okayama Expressway, which leads to Okayama, the central city of the Chugoku region along with Hiroshima. Traffic volume is 12,000 vehicles per day.
Not a bad number considering that the expressway near Tokyo has about 100,000 vehicles. In fact, you see, it is very busy, isn’t it? I will take a 30 minute break after 2 hours of driving from Nanatsukahara.
This is the Ibogawa Parking Area in Hyogo. I have already entered Japan’s second largest metropolitan area: Kinki. The sun is setting, so I reserve a lodging for the day. Today’s lodging is Rest Inn Taga. This is a hotel in a parking area, which is very rare in Japan.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to Nagoya, but it was about 70 km(45mi) before, so I give it a good score. According to last night’s schedule, I couldn’t get to Nagoya, but I should have had enough time to get to Gifu or so, but where did our schedule go wrong?
Osaka is approaching to about 80 km to go, and every time I pass an interchange or junction, more and more cars are coming through. Around me, I can now see cars of various personalities overtaking and being overtaken. It feels like I’ve been back in the city for a long time.
I no longer feel as if I have bought up the whole world, as I did about 3 hours ago. But it is good to not be discouraged. If only there were no traffic jams. If only traffic jams didn’t happen. As Kobe is approaching, the highway e-pass is telling me something disturbing.
‘There’s been an accident on the road ahead. I guess the information is mixed up, usually they also talk about how long it takes to get out of a traffic jam, but today they only tell me where the traffic jam originated and how long it is.
Blurting out why they don’t tell me everything, I decide to go to Akamatsu parking area to gather information and do some errands just in case. It’s horrible. According to the board, it takes 180 minutes to get through the traffic and out to Suita Junction.
On a road that normally takes less than 30 minutes, right? I’ve booked a place to stay, and I have plans for tomorrow and beyond. Out of necessity I decided to complete the E2A Expressway, give up the route to minimize the number of turns,
And head for Takatsuki on the E1A expressway, a circuitous route. It has been 5 years since the E1A was completed. I had heard rumors that E2A helped greatly in easing traffic congestion, but no day has made me appreciate it more than today.
E1A is about 50 years further into the future than E2A. Even in the same highway classification, there is as much disparity between the two as between a beautifully maintained main road and an unimproved rural village road. The speed limit here is 100 km/h(62MPH)
This is still a very slow part of the world. But this is because the stiffs in the authorities, who don’t understand the economics of speed, don’t sit up very well, and it is envisioned that in the future the speed will be raised to 120 km/h(75MPH).
Well, if they raise the speed to 120 km/h on this two-lane road, we will continue to see trucks going 78 km/h passing trucks going 79 km/h, so it may not make much sense. I decided to follow behind the appropriate truck to conserve my energy.
At 6:35, from Takatsuki junction northeast of Osaka, we join the E1 expressway as planned. The five rampways so far are two in Kagoshima, one in Hiroshima-North, one in Kobe, and one in Takatsuki. However, the original plan was to go through Kobe and Takatsuki, and only one time in Suita,
So let’s assume that I have gone through Suita as planned here, and say that I have gone through the rampway four times. Ahead of me, I saw the Shinkansen bullet train, a partner that supported Japan when it was still a developing country, passing by. This year is his 60th anniversary.
If she is a person, about to retire in 5 years. It’s about time for a new system to replace the Shinkansen. When will the superconducting linear motor cars be completed? Passing under such a Shinkansen overpass, we enter Kyoto. The meaning of the place name is “capital city”.
Currently, for the purpose of decentralizing the capital, some functions, specifically, all ministries except the Ministry of Culture, the Diet, the Supreme Court, and the Imperial Palace, have been moved to the new capital: Tokyo, which was built to the east.
Passing through the East-Kyoto Interchange without difficulty, which usually seems to be congested. After crossing Mt. Osaka and entering Shiga Prefecture, the refueling light comes on, so let’s refuel at the Kusatsu Parking Area ahead.
However, this Kusatsu parking area in the direction of Tokyo seemed to be divided into two areas, and the gas station was located at the far end. Not knowing this, I looked only at the first area, saw that there was no gas station, made the unbelievable assumption
That the icon on the road information board that said there was a gas station was a mistake, and passed the second area with alacrity. It is very serious.
It is said that the mileage from the time the refueling light comes on to the time the car runs out of gas is approximately 50 km. The distance from the Kyoto border where the lamp was noticed to the parking area where the next gas station is located is about 70 KM.
Normally, I would have put all the blame for my blunder on the person in charge of the public corporation who built that structure, and would have passed through the toll booth while spitting out theabusive language. But this car was manufactured in the 1990s, when Japan was monopolizing the wealth of Asia.
Unlike today’s miserly hybrid cars, which only think about how to use gasoline cheaply, this car has a lot of equipment that will probably only be used once every 10 years or so. One of them is a system that allows you to see the remaining fuel in liters.
Today was the first time I had to rely on this system, which I would never have to use unless I missed a stand. I’ve never heard of this system before. There are 8 liters(2.3gallons) of fuel left. If it is high speed, it can run 100KM(62mi).
I turned off the air conditioner compressor just to be safe and drove as slow as possible to reach today’s destination: Taga Parking Area. 4 liters(1.1gallons) of fuel left. This is the amount of remaining fuel that I would never be able to target without this system.
At 8:30 the next morning, we stayed at a hotel in the PA, so naturally we left the car in the PA. Leaving a car in a drive-in like this all night long is usually an insane thing to do.
I was a little worried that the car might be misled by a righteous masturbator who was feeling good on his own in a policing activity that no one asked him to do, but fortunately nothing happened. I complete my refueling and set my sights on Tokyo.
I step on the accelerator and jump out of the acceleration lane, unfortunately it was restricted to one lane due to construction. While refueling, I was shuddering. I have to fill up the almost skunked tank. The brother, who has a luxury car that doesn’t match what you earns, would understand this feeling.
The owner, who had lost his appetite when he saw the credit card statement and ate only a piece of bread for breakfast, looked on grudgingly as the car gulped down 210 yen/L (800yen/gallon) of premium gasoline. I hear the nozzle spring pop, and now it’s judgement time!
The car only refueled 50 liters. There should be 70L in the tank of this car. That means this car had 20 liters to spare and was screaming at me that it was about to run out of gasoline. With 20 liters, I can drive 200 kilometers(120miles) with room to spare.
It was definitely a woman who designed this fuel gauge. She must have inadvertently put her mother’s concern for her son, who left for the city, more than necessary, into the design of the sensor. After a 20-minute drive, we entered Gifu Prefecture, and from here we are in Nagoya’s sphere of influence.
Usually a Nagoya car chasing after bullets appears to boost the economy, but it doesn’t come today. Oh yeah, that reminds me, this month is the month of intensified crackdowns.
In Nagoya area, the speed is usually written in “mile”, a unit of measurement of the 19th century, to match the 19th century level of moral standards. However, since today was Nagoya’s awareness month, they had reverted to the same metric system as on the mainland. That’s why everyone is so quiet.
The Shinkansen that crossed over in Kyoto passes overhead again, and soon we will enter Aichi Prefecture. The E1 Highway and the Shinkansen run parallel to each other, so they often intersect each other.
They usually cross each other and then part without much trouble, but in this section, they run side by side for a long time, which is unusual. This is because they wanted to simplify construction and river management by combining the Kiso River bridges they will be crossing in one place.
There is an anecdote that in 1965, when the Shinkansen had just opened, a Porsche passed the Shinkansen on this straight. The Porsche 911, introduced in 1964, had top speed of 210 KM/h(130MPH). And the Shinkansen bullet train, also completed in 1964, has a maximum speed of 210KM/h.
It was a dream match of automobiles versus the Shinkansen, a newly completed means of high-speed transportation that, in Japan at the time, could have been used to sell 911s. However, the demo driver was peeved by the head office.
Eventually, the story did not come to the surface until seven years after the incident. It’s just a rumor, true or not, but there seems to be a story about this in the May 2009 issue of the car magazine Le Volant.
I don’t have the energy to head all the way to the Library of Congress just to check it out. All the highways in central Nagoya are thrown to Nagoya Urban Expressway, and the archipelago traversing line goes around the suburbs.
Here is Komaki Junction. Here, the nickname of the road switches from Meishin (Nagoya-Kobe Highway) to Tomei (Tokyo-Nagoya Highway). It looks like we have 340KM(210mi) to go to Tokyo. However, since the two roads are effectively operated as one road, the numbering and kilometer posts are integrated.
The E1 Highway is the main road of the Tokaido, the megalopolis where nearly all of Japan’s industry is concentrated. The cities, towns, and villages along the highway are lined with large corporations and small and medium-sized factories that are not well-known, but have special technology.
First, there is Toyota City. Needless to say, it is the headquarters of Toyota. The city of Koromo, which originally subsisted financially on sericulture, has now become a corporate castle town of large manufacturers whose sheer sturdiness has endeared them to citizens, VIPs, corporations, and even radicals from all over the world.
The day Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban, I think they must have held their head in hands when they saw the sight of the Runkel in the middle of the circle of rejoicing constituents. Crossing the prefectural border into Shizuoka Prefecture.
The first town is Hamamatsu City. From here on, it is the city of Suzuki and Yamaha. Also, it is the city where Soichiro Honda built his first motorcycle. This city, which is the mecca for three of the four major Japanese- motorcycle manufacturers, is the Jerusalem of motorcycles, as people call it.
You should visit this place at least once, unless you are a pervert riding a Kawasaki. If you are not interested in motorcycles, it is the eels of Lake Hamana. Now that we have driven as far as we can, let’s have some eels at Hamanako parking area.
But if you think about it, it is still before 11:00. I realize that it is too early for lunch and I don’t have that much of an appetite. In a bad mood, I decided to continue eastward, spraying Hamamatsu with 30-year-old car’s exhaust gas in a fit of anger.
Passing through the plains of Hamamatsu, I enter the tea plantations of the Makinohara Plateau. Shizuoka Prefecture, with its mild climate throughout the year, is famous for its tea leaves. Shizuoka Prefecture is home to about 40% of Japan’s tea plantations. It is almost double the second place Kagoshima.
Shizuoka, however, has been clumsy and has suffered the humiliation of being overtaken by the backward Kagoshima in tea production value, which has held the top spot for 50 years since around 2019. There are many reasons for this, but the most important is topography.
Kagoshima’s tea fields were generally flat, making it easy to apply mechanical power, but Shizuoka’s fields were located in a mountainous terrain, so it was not so easy to improve efficiency. This is a good example of why Japanese agriculture tends to be pushed aside by foreign countries.
While I were talking about this, I crossed the Oigawa River before we knew it. In the Edo period (1603-1867), it was forbidden to build bridges over the river because it was used as a defenss for Tokyo (former:Edo), and big men used to carry passengers across the river on their shoulders.
After losing their jobs in the modern era, they went to the Makinohara Plateau to cultivate tea plantations. This is the pioneer period of tea in Makinohara. After passing through Shizuoka City, the prefectural capital, and over the Satta Pass, I enter the foot of some famous mountain.
Mt.Fuji? That is a mountain in Yamanashi Prefecture. “↓Mt. Fuji in here” You can’t see it from Shizuoka. “↓Mt. Fuji in here” At Gotemba Junction, the E1 highway joins the E1A highway that has been running parallelly all the way from Kyoto.
The road goes from two lanes to three lanes to try to process the cars, but it is not enough at all because the traffic volume triples. It is overflowing with cars. I stop at Ashigara parking area just before passing through Shizuoka Prefecture, and have lunch here. The specialty of this area is…
Only rice. After leaving Ashigara, it takes about 3 minutes to reach the border of Kanagawa prefecture. Compared to the previous country signs, this one is very plain and you might miss it. I entered the Kanto area.
I thought that the names of the two largest metropolitan areas in Japan are Cunto and Kinky, which is pretty crazy. We cannot excuse being called a HENTAI nation. The Kanto region, also known as Tokyo, is a huge city with one third of Japan’s population.
And, it is the largest city in the world. The number of cars is increasing, and my hands grasping steeringwheel are getting nervous. I don’t want to have an accident on such a pleasant day. Even more so in Kanagawa Prefecture. Because the crime rate is low.
A sunken road crosses the Sagamihara Plateau and enters Tokyo’s ball: Yokohama City. Here I take a short restroom break and a preliminary look at the East Capital Expressway that we will be driving on. Unlike the Osaka urban expressways in Himeji and Osaka,
Where genius chimpanzees roam around and the average distance between cars is two car lengths, I am sure that the Capital Expressway has only ladies and gentlemen who have been taught the manners of metro However, the volume of cars is still overwhelming.
Most importantly, I have never run the road, so I have no idea what the road is like. So, by drilling into my brains where I should change lanes and at which junctions I should move to the rampway, I improve my judgment while driving and reduce the probability of accidents.
Thus I passed through the sternly towering white Tokyo Toll Gate. The fare from Amagi Interchange, where I stayed two days ago, was 16,110 yen. Since I was in the expressway from 0:00 to 4:00 last night, of course the midnight discount is applied. It would have cost 23,440 yen under normal circumstances.
It is more expensive than going from Tokyo to Amagi by Shinkansen. The Tokyo Toll Gate seems to be the starting point of the E1 Expressway, but the real starting point is… 7 kilometers further away from the Toll Gate, just before the Metropolitan Expressway Toll Gate.
With the passing of this zero kilometer post, I leave the trans-archipelago highway once and for all. Now, the Capital Expressway, which we plunged into for the first time… I didn’t have to be so nervous because of the traffic jam.
I drove along the Expressway Route 3 for a little while, and at the junction just before Shibuya, famous for the scramble crossing, I got off the Central Loop Line, which is buried underground. Tokyo’s moral standards, inherited from Kyoto, are very high.
I was able to merge easily even though the road was full of cars. This is different from the Osaka Urban Expressway which will not let you merge properly unless you can use three different Haki. This tunnel is the Yamate Tunnel total length is 18,000M(59,000ft).
It is the longest road tunnel in Japan and the second longest tunnel in the world after the Lardahl Tunnel in Norway. However, unlike most tunnels, there are countless junctions and such along the way,
So many people seem to use it like I do now, entering from the middle , instead of driving the entire 18,000M. The roads over here were also congested, so it took me almost 30 minutes to drive 20 kilometers.
At Kohoku junction, I take the road for Saitama, turn the rudder to the north, and get rid of Tokyo as soon as possible. Once again, I have made Tokyo a transit point. I think I should look around Tokyo as well.
However, I can’t think of many places I enjoy going around alone. Ueno’s museums and canal tours, pilgrimages to temples and shrines such as Meiji Shrine and Sensoji Temple, the Rainbow Bridge, academic tours of Tokyo’s famous and obscure universities, going to the highest observatory in Japan for looking the fools,
Watching the riches who could buy a car but couldn’t buy dignity and innocently blows the gas pedal in Daikoku PA, eating rent-season sushi in Ginza and Toyosu, and if the timing is right, joining at a shouting contest in front of the Diet Building…
There is a surprising amount of things to look around. Continuing northward, we turn onto the E4 highway from the Capital Expressway at Kawaguchi Junction. This is the 0 km post of the longest highway in Japan
For men with normal nerves to travel across Japan, they would move from Ebina Junction,50 km southwest of Tokyo, to the C4 Circular Highway, and then to the E4 Highway, avoiding the center of Tokyo. However, that does not make it possible to complete the E4 highway.
That’s why I went all the way into central Tokyo. The number of rampways you have to run is the same no matter which way you use. We get permission to enter the E4 highway at the Urawa Tollgate and head for the northernmost city in Honshu: Aomori. Total length: 680KM(420mi)
If you drive at a yawning speed of 100 km/h on such a long highway, your age will change by the time you finish! The bureaucrats at the Kasumigaseki bureaucracy have had to buckle under the weight of this serious problem,
And in 2020 they have finally eased the speed limit to 120 km/h on some sections. This is the moment when Japan’s road conditions, which had been at the level of the least developed countries, finally caught up with the rest of the world.
As soon as the 120km/h section started, I stepped on the accelerator and dove into the world I was seeing for the first time. At first there is a little resistance. And scary. But man’s greatest weapon is his ability to adapt.
In an instant, my visual processing adapted to 120 kilometers per hour and I could run without difficulty. I look around, and surprisingly few cars are willing to drive at 120 km/h. I pass cars one after another. Few cars passed me.
This car is a variant of the legendary car that went 100MPH when I thought it was going 100 KM/h. Even so, the cruise control is limited to 100 km/h. I watch the meter to make sure I don’t accidentally go over the limit. The relaxed limit section is 50 km(31mi) at most.
It takes less than 30 minutes. You can hardly see the difference in the video, but it feels so slow that I think I’m annoying the cars behind me even though I’m running at the full limit.
About 100 km from Tokyo, we pass through Utsunomiya, the largest town in the northern Kanto region. Utsunomiya is often ridiculed as rural or outside of Japan, but in fact it is one of the 10th largest cities in Japan when considered as a metropolitan area.
On the other hand, there is only one city on the E4 highway that is comparable in size to such a large city. The rest are just a few sparse medium-sized cities lying around. Demand for the road is sharply reduced, narrowing it down to the familiar two lanes.
And there will be a literal dark cloud hanging over me. The brightness and memory correction make the screen look brighter, but in reality it must have been much darker, so dark that one would have thought the doomsday trumpet had been sounded. Sure enough, the hunch is right on target.
Soon I was plunged into a guerrilla downpour, the likes of which I had never experienced before, as if a dike had been broken in heaven. Looking ahead, the windshield frantically waving wipers to shake off the violent raindrops,
And the steering wheel repeatedly conveys the sensation of the virgin tires I wholesale for this trip flopping on the hydroplane for the first time. A glance in the side mirror reveals a hard splash of the rear tire.
The camera’s microphone doesn’t notice, but the sound of a frightening number of water droplets bouncing above my head is terrifying. I don’t want to slip and make an unexpected U-turn and plunge down the cliff again. I made the decision to slow down a bit in gear as well.
I apologize for the hassle of overtaking in the rear of the car. But obviously it’s better than something like the opposite lane where a tragedy would have occurred. Except later on Twitter, it was not an accident where the car was blown to pieces of wood.
By the time I made it through the rain and reached Yabuki-town, Fukushima Prefecture, where I would be staying today, I was out of breath. The distance traveled today is 670KM, but half of the fatigue is due to the heavy rain in northern Tochigi prefecture.
When I looked at the weather news later, it was pointing to a number I had never seen before, like 40 MM of rainfall per hour. The more tired you are, the deeper you sleep. Last night I fell asleep about 10:00 , and today we leave at 7:30. It is just rush hour.
But there won’t be enough cars to cause a traffic jam in northern Japan. Today we will complete the E4 highway and head to Aomori. After that, we will cross over to Hokkaido by a ferry, but there is no need to rush ahead unnecessarily.
Let’s leave the ferry for tomorrow and do a little sightseeing in Aomori. Where did last night’s weather go? The sky is filled with calm clouds, as if asking us to let bygones be bygones. The asphalt is completely dry and I can feel the tires gripping the ground.
Staring into the distance, the view appears a bit blurred, if this is what you call morning mist. The Tohoku region, which occupies the northern tip of Honshu, is a vast area of 67,000 square kilometers(26,000square miles), roughly the same size as the island of Ceylon.
On the other hand, the population is only 8.3 million, far less than the population of central Tokyo (9.8 million), which is not even 1% of the area of Tohoku. It is also an area with a rapidly declining population.
Just before COVID-19, I had uploaded a video of me driving around the Tohoku region. I remember I said something about the population of Tohoku being a bit smaller than that of Tokyo.
I was curious and looked up the population at that time, and it seems that the population of Tohoku was 8.7 million and Tokyo was 9.2 million. This means that in just four years, 4% of the population has indeed disappeared.
Since the 20th century, the Tōhoku region, which had lagged behind in industrial development, was the region that supplied labor to Tokyo. In the past, rural areas like Tohoku tended to have higher birth rates, which helped the population grow.
Today, however, the birth rate tends to be higher in the south and lower toward the north. Therefore, the population of Tohoku is now drastically declining after only a few years of absence, due to the outflow of population to Tokyo and the low number of newborns.
About an hour after leaving the hotel, the car crosses the border into Miyagi Prefecture. It is approximately 38 degrees north latitude. The first city is Shiraishi, a sightseeing base of Mt.Zao. If it is this time of the year, the snow monsters is better to see.
Luckily, the emerald cockroach-wasp colored bullet train appeared at the right moment of the multi-level crossing. When I see a Shinkansen of that color, I feel like I’ve come all the way to the north. The train seems to be stopping at Shiraishi Zao station ahead.
By the way, where is Mt. Zao? It is probably in those clouds on the left. E4 highway is laid at the foot of the Ou Mountains, so when I look to the west,
Famous mountains such as Mount Adatara, Mount Zao and Mount Iwate appear one after another, but this time they all failed. I didn’t even feel like seeing the mountains at the parking area on the way, so I went straight into Sendai City.
Sendai is the only primate city in Tohoku with a population of over 1 million in a region where cities with a population of about 300,000 are scattered evenly from north to south.
In the 16th century, Date Masamune, a one-eyed samurai, opened up an empty wilderness and developed it into the largest castle town in northern Japan. Even after the Samurai era ended, the city became a pillar of modernization in the Tohoku region by housing government agencies and universities,
And has remained a hub city in the Tohoku region to this day. “Center Point of E4 highway” 16th century, wilderness, chief city, government Picking up on these key points, it seems similar to Tokyo, which was opened in the marshlands by the same samurai, Tokugawa Ieyasu, in a similar era.
Sendai and Tokyo were twin sisters. Passing through such a mini Tokyo, I take a break at Chojabaru parking area after driving for 2 hours from the hotel. There is also a hotel at this parking area, and I had thought that I could make it here until around noon yesterday,
But it was a good decision not to be greedy considering the torrential rain. Driving another 2 hours with that stamina will definitely crash somewhere. We drive through the foothills of the Kurikoma Plateau in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture and enter Iwate Prefecture.
The country sign is a pheasant known as the out-of-strength member of Momotaro’s ogre extermination party. Dogs and monkeys seem to be able to fight there even against ogres.
But a bird that can’t fly properly and is fiddling with the ground with its beak can at best make a lot of pathetic noises and become the target of the ogre’s gun squad. Iwate Prefecture is a mountainous area, with three-quarters of its land area covered by forests.
On the other hand, however, the flat land is concentrated in the Kitakami Basin, which stretches from north to south over the prefecture’s land area, and roads penetrate the basin, resulting in gentle curves throughout the prefecture.
In view of the low traffic volume, a 120 km/h speed limit relaxation section is also provided here. Rather, this is the first relaxed section here in Japan.
Although it is two lanes, there are fewer cars to take care of instead, and it feels rather easier to drive than the 120 km section in Saitama. Although construction sometimes forces us to slow down, in a little more than 15 minutes I am through a 30-kilometer section of high-speed traffic.
Due to the small distance, unfortunately, the effect of the speed increase is only a few minutes or so. However, if this were applied to about 600 km of the 680 km of the Northeast Road,
The time required to complete the entire route would be compressed from the current 7 hours to about 6 hours. What would you be able to do if you had an extra hour, in my case… Twitter, YouTube, or watch one of the Grand Tours on Amazonprime.
Seriously, I think we should be more relaxed in our restrictions because cars are much more capable and safer than they were 60 years ago when we decided on the current restrictions. Even more so since our country is long and narrow and the distances to be traveled are longer.
Another two-hour drive. This time I will take a break at Iwateyama parking area. As the name suggests, it is located at the foot of Mt. Iwate, and according to the map, I can see the mountain body spreading the hem of its dress spaciously. However… Every famous mountain along the archipelago is wiped out.
I have not seen any mountains since Mt.Sakurajima. The only mountain left is Mount Iwaki in Aomori. After passing Mt. Iwate, the Kitakami Basin ends and the scenery changes to mountains all around. The line deteriorates and the speed limit becomes 80KM/hr.
Departing from PA, the car will pass the 40°N monument in about 10 minutes. Famous cities at the same latitude include Beijing and New York Madrid. I have the impression that the climate is very different between Beijing and Madrid, even though they are at the same latitude.
Continental high pressure and warm currents are great. A few more minutes from there is the Ashiro Junction. Here, as at the North Hiroshima Junction on the E2A highway, the main line is on a rampway. This is the first rampway for 600 km since Kohoku Junction in Tokyo.
By the way, going straight ahead is Hachinohe. The railroad goes through Hachinohe, Aomori’s second largest city on the Pacific Ocean side. On the other hand, the roadway goes through Hirosaki on the Japan Sea side, over the Ou Mountains, in order to connect Tokyo-Aomori in the shortest possible time.
Mountain weather is a woman’s heart. The sky was blue until a few moments ago, but then it starts to rain. Remembering yesterday’s guerrilla rain, my foot on the gas pedal involuntarily stumbles. Northeast end of Akita Prefecture: At Kosaka junction, the road joins the road from the west coast.
From here onward, this is the road used for the start of the Tohoku driving series: to cape Oma-zaki, the northernmost cape in Honshu. This road is a prequel to my channel. After passing through a long tunnel at the border between prefectures, we finally enter Aomori Prefecture.
Three whole days after leaving Cape Sata, I looked at the country sign with deep emotion and saw only a row of inorganic letters with no particulars. Going down the pass and out into the Tsugaru plain. I stop at a parking area here for a break.
This is Tsugaru service area. A service area is like a luxury version of a parking area. However, this is a SA that has nothing to offer as a bare-bones, cold, poor place that is not ashamed to call itself the loneliest SA in Japan.
I went to the restroom and looked at Mt. Iwaki, which was the same as 5 years ago. A passage from “Tsugaru” was posted nearby. This is a masterpiece of the monster Osamu Dazai, born of the winter of Tsugaru, a dreary, colorless winter with no sunny days and snow.
On the SNS, there are often comments denigrating him, saying he is a bum and that he sacrificed his personality to acquire his literary talent. But these are probably exaggerations resulting from the stories passed down through word of mouth. Decent newspaper articles and websites have only described episodes
Such as complaining to imply a bit of killing, writing a 4meters letter for the Literary Award Committee, and neglecting a friend who was offered as a hostage in exchange for lodging. Even the double suicide he did many times, only once did he inadvertently let only the woman die.
The time finally comes when the mountains surrounding Aomori are crossed. E4 highway exit, swerving and driving down the rampway, passing through the toll booth in Aomori, throwing the toll over 10,000 yen, and completing the 680KM(420mi) of E4 highway. At the end of the road, the famous congrature sign is erected.
This is the second time in four years that I have seen this sign, but after completing the E4 properly from the 0 km post, I feel the weight of the words of exertion is different.
We are now heading to the ferry terminal via the lower road for the first time in 2200 KM. But a trap is prepared here. The sign says the ferry port is on the left, but if you go that way, you have to make one extra turn.
The navigator whispers that it’s not that way, but victory is only ahead if you ignore the advice of others. We leave the Aomori interchange and turn left for the first time in three days. And this is the first and last turn in Honshu. In fact, this road leads straight to the port.
After hours of driving on the highway, my eyes have become so accustomed to the road that 40 km/h seems like a speed I can achieve on foot. 2:00 PM. 2257KM(1400mi) from Cape Sata. Finally reaching Aomori Port Ferry Terminal.
I talk as if I have reached the goal, but there are still nearly 1,000 km(620mi) to go, including the sea segment. The distance is comparable to Kyoto to Kagoshima. To get into the spirit of things, book a boat.
After a brief pause, I turn back along the road I just traveled and return to the Sannai-Maruyama ruins. The ruins have now become so famous that there is not a single Japanese person who does not know about them.
When the ground was dug up to make a baseball field, literally millions of relics were found, and it was found that the remains could disprove the theories of the time, and the decision was made to preserve them.
Based on the excavated artifacts, it is estimated that this settlement flourished for about 1,700 years, starting about 5,900 years ago. Where have the people and technology of the settlement gone since 4200 years ago, when the village was destroyed?
Late Jomon Period: Around 2,500 years ago, Japan experienced a period of great population decline, and in addition, the imperial court merged Tohoku region in the 9th century, so it is natural to assume that the lineage and culture of the inhabitants at that time were reset.
But looking at the flourishing Aomori cityscape, I feel proud that those dugout pillars have progressed so much over the past 5,000 years. On the other hand, this is a creature that has made no progress in 5,000 years. They seem to have gained some wisdom in response to changes in human lifestyles,
But nothing has changed in their basic ecology, which is to eat up what people collect and drop their feces in freshly washed cars. 7:30 a.m. on the fifth day. After completing the formalities, I arrived at the boarding yard of the Seikan Ferry.
In the distance, we could see the Tsugaru Kaikyo ferry just leaving ahead of us. The ship over there is 8,800 tons, while the Seikan ferry I am about to board is 2,000 tons, and the bigger one is 3,000 tons. It is very small.
I can assure you that you will not get lost on board. At 8:10 a.m., the ship departs on time. From the bottom of the ship comes the dull sound of heavy oil exploding in the belly. Speaking of boat trip, this is the sound.
No voyage would be complete without the sound that shivers the body and the curiosity of the unknown land! This is the first time for me to land in Hokkaido by car, so I have high expectations for this trip.
The boat is in port, bow pointed toward Hakodate, and after adjustments are made, the fins are turned and the boat slowly accelerates. The smaller hull makes for a lighter farewell than the Tsugaru Kaikyo Ferry. The port of Hakodate is 113 kilometers(70miles) away.
Even if there really was a New Seikan Tunnel, it would take nearly 2 hours. The ship travels this journey slowly at about 30 km/h, arriving in Hakodate 4 hours later at 0:10 pm.
I learned from comments on Nico Nico Video that a ferry is a place where you can’t get a signal for a long period of time, and that seems to keep customers away. But that digital detox is what makes a boat trip so much fun.
The radio waves and smartphones are a vicious combination that pretend to bring us freedom of entertainment, but like marionettes, they control what we do, what we say, and even, our hobby, our thaught, our sexual preference.
But at sea, that thread of evil without reality that stretches from the base station is broken. Let us resign our slavery to the airwaves for a while and enjoy the freedom that we should have. However, since the ship runs along the Tsugaru Peninsula for a while, the signal is surprisingly strong,
And I was able to use my phone for almost two hours after leaving the port. When the signal went dead this time, I took the book I had brought out of my bag and lay down on the carpet. Hyakken Uchida, “The Stupid Train”
A travelogue of Japanese railroads in the period soon after the end of World War II. When I finished reading the Tokaido section and moved on to the next chapter, this is what I found. “I do not want to go to Hokkaido. because there might be mines in the Tsugaru Strait.”
Gently closing the book, I go out on deck and look around to see if anything suspicious is approaching. I look to starboard and see that the vessel is just beyond the northern tip of Honshu. Isn’t it about time for the ferry from Hakodate to arrive at Oma?
That’s what I thought, and when I zoomed in, they were really there. I am surprised how well I remembered it. To reduce the distance of the ocean section, we could have headed to Oma.
But then the number of turns would be a bit too much this time, so this time it’s the Aomori route. The fact that that cape is right next to us means that we are on the high seas. The outside of the ship is outside of Japan.
If we take the 12 nautical mile rule, it is possible to say that this is also Japanese territorial waters. But then, if a U.S. Navy ship carrying nuclear weapons were to pass through, it would violate the three non-nuclear principles of “Do not bring in”.
So, they decided to make it outside of Japan, so as not to displease the U.S. and also to fulfill the principle of “no nuclear weapons”. As you can see, today’s wave pattern is calm.
The sickness pills I took don’t help much, and the ship rounds Mt. Hakodate and enters the harbor on time. The workers gave the go-ahead, and with my heartbeat rising to a high pitch, I stepped on the pedals and strode out into the other side of the virtual Seikan Tunnel.
The only mainland not connected by road, the only continent that cannot be reached on its own: Hokkaido. I am ecstatic to leave my virginity of the northern land, but the navigation system is forcing me to make a left turn.
I’m in a good mood now, I’ll at least listen to you for a minute. With that in mind, I made a left turn at the light one stoplight ahead of me. When I get to the national road as guided, I have to make one extra right turn.
It is now around noon, and we need to get hungry and procure materials before getting on the highway and departing Hakodate. First, a drug store in the northern part of Japan: Tsuruha Drug Store. I can assure you that I have never not been taken care of on my trips to northern Japan.
I haven’t stopped by yet, so I’ll buy some water as a greeting. Lunch is next. Since I hadn’t eaten any of the specialties on this trip, I go to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Hakodate.
I eat 8 plates of seared salmon, sea urchin, otoro, squid that was probably alive until this morning, etc. When I pay the bill, almost 4000 yen has been wiped out. That’s right. This sushi restaurant was different from the usual Sushiro. It’s an extravagance not worthy of lunch.
Well, Hakodate is on the decline right now, so let’s be satisfied that we could support the economy. Follow the ring road around Hakodate city and turn left when you see an elevated road ahead.
This is the 8th time. Merge onto the main line and after a short while you will continue on the E5 highway. This is also one of the longitudinal lines following the E4, and when completed,
It will be the longest expressway in Japan with a total length of 681 km(420.5mi), which is a rather insignificant figure. However, there are sections, mainly in the northern part of the country, that are still under investigation rather than under construction, so it is unclear when it will be completed.
I’m hoping it will at least be done before I get my license back. While we are talking about this, a section under construction appears immediately. This is the town of Nanae in the northern part of the Hakodate Plain, famous for the hidden night view of the Hakodate, Mt.Shirotai.
From here, the car pulls off onto the local road and takes on the Onuma-Onuma Pass. The road will be completed next year. Currently, construction is underway on a large 7-km tunnel that will go through the bottom of the swamp. Once completed, there will be one less left turn.
In the middle of the pass, the vital lake surface of Junsai Swamp can be seen on the left. Wearing sensual wooden robes, they dazzle the driver like a striptease, but be sure to look ahead and drive properly.
After shaking off temptation and safely exiting the pass, at the intersection, the sign says E5, turn left. However, this IC can only be reached after two turns, so the highway is forsaken until the IC where only one turn is required.
It is a little early, but we take a break at a drive-in in Mori-town on the way. I want to go to restroom, but the main purpose is this. Unusually, there are no clouds and I can see well. It seems to welcome me.
Mt.Komagatake in Hokkaido, named after the former local government of this area, also called Oshima-Fuji. A double-headed freestanding peak that looks like Mt. Fuji beaten to a pulp until it changes shape. The shape of the mountain changes depending on the direction you look.
Now looking from the northwest of the mountain, the two peaks are clearly visible. Looking up from a train on the railroad to the west, the eastern peak is hidden and a beautiful conical shape emerges like Fuji.
This lookout is very well done, and if you take a picture from the middle of the room, Mt.Komagatake is beautifully displayed in the frame. The triangular shape of the upper edge, rather than just a straight line, also accentuates the expanse of Komagatake’s base. I stopped for 20 minutes.
I’m going to hurry ahead. Today’s lodging is in Asahikawa. From here onward, I will continue to drive along the coast of Uchiura Bay for a while.
Staring out across the vast ocean, on a clear day like today, one can see the land of Date and Muroran on the other side of the shore. If we go straight ahead, it will be a little more than 50KM. But the deep and round bay tells me to drive 140KM(87mi).
I go straight for 20 KM from the drive-in and find an interchange that I can get into with only one left turn. This road, as I mentioned earlier, is the archipelago longitudinal line. However, there is no road leading to Honshu even if it goes to Hakodate,
And most of the goods and cars that want to cross to Honshu cross the sea from Tomakomai, so the traffic in this area is very light. Hence, it is a permanent temporary two-lane road.
I’m getting a little tired and sleepy, so I take a break at Shizukari, the deepest point of Uchiura Bay. Looking at the map, there are no settlements within a 4 km radius, even though it is not a mountainous area.
This is one of the rarest areas in Japan in terms of human presence. I have just passed through Yakumo, which has excellent facilities, and the only facilities are a toilet and a few vending machines. I wanted to fill my growling stomach as well.
Let’s ask them to hold out until the Mt.Usu parking area, which is about 60 km away. It has been about 2 hours since we saw Mt.Komagatake. We finally go around the bay and reach Mt. Usu. Two tourist buses, probably a school club expedition, are parked in the parking lot.
Come to think of it, this was the parking area I stopped at on our school excursion? Looking down on the city of Date from the 150-meter-high observatory(500ft), the memories of my junior high school days, which were still better many years ago, came back vividly through nostalgia correction.
Usu, 730 meters above sea level, is a small mountain, and its shape is not so neat. However, it is widely known as a very important geological sample because it erupts at a high frequency, about every 30 years, and changes the shape of the mountain significantly, for example, ShowaShinzan mountain.
The previous eruption was in 2000 of the millennium. Since it has been 24 years this year, will it erupt soon? Soon after passing Mt. Usu, we enter the city of Muroran, famous for its steel industry.
Compared to the 1970s when Japan was the factory of the world, the blast furnace flame has gone down a lot now, but they still had a world share in BEV battery manufacturing machinery.
Logistics also seem to intensify from this area, and from here on, there are two lanes all the way to Asahikawa. From the Tomakomai-Higashi Interchange, trucks from Tomakomai Port, Hokkaido’s sea gateway,
And from the Chitose Interchange, rental cars from New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido’s air gateway, merge onto the road toward Sapporo, Hokkaido’s capital. Before entering the city, we take a break at a parking area we found at random.
This is a place name peculiar to Hokkaido, which must have been written in Ainu with kanji characters. The reading is “What’s” This is the name of the first parking area that visitors to Japan who rented a car at the airport and headed for Sapporo meet. This is a very rough welcome.
The E5 highway eventually connects Hakodate to Wakkanai, the northernmost city of Hokkaido. Sapporo is just a transit point. And yet, as a central city, it has a strong claim. At the Tollgate on the main line, they demand that you pay them once you get to this point.
The fare from Ochibe Interchange, where about 60 km north of Hakodate, is 6,000 yen. 6000 yen? I just drove a little bit through southern Hokkaido. The scenery was so unchanged that my senses seem to be completely off kilter, but in fact, I drove 250 kilometers on the highway.
This is about half the distance of Tokyo-Osaka. After a while, Sapporo junction. Again, Sapporo acts like a capital city.. To continue, I have to run the rampway here. The zero kilometer post is also set here instead of Hakodate for some reason.
Kilometerposts on E5 are set starting from Sapporo, how many kilometers to the south and how many kilometers to the north. Passing through the tall gate that appears again, we are heading for Asahikawa. We are almost to the goal for the 5th day. 130km to go.
I just rested a while ago, but I’m going to stop at a parking area for a while. It’s getting dark, so I thought I’d test the dark performance of my new DJI Osmo. How does it compare? For simple brightness, DJI has the edge. But I think the noise is getting worse instead.
By the way, if it’s daytime, it’s a one-sided game for GOpro. DJI is as it is with the naked eye, and GOpro is vivid in color, but the heat tolerance is too different.
I have been running the GOpro for an hour yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and it has never had a thermal runaway. At 8:00 p.m., I get out at the Asahikawa-Takasu interchange. I had overheard that the demand from tourists visiting Japan has caused the lodging in Hokkaido to skyrocket.
But the source is Twitter. Even a hotel one minute walk from the station was a reasonable price, like 5,000 yen. I want to eat ramen since I came to Asahikawa. It is still before 9:00 p.m., but the downtown area in front of the station is already preparing to close up store.
Why is this such a low birth rate? I can’t find a very good option. Use McDonald’s theory in this situation. That’s the one where you present the worst option, and everyone is desperate to find a candidate. I’m just going to get a convenience store bento now, right?
There are some nutrients that you can only get from convenience store lunches. I agree. I agree. I think it’s good. Bento, good. Finally, I find a ramen shop which is open till midnight and have dinner there. Then comes the last day.
Today is the last day of the drive, which lasted about a week. I return to the main line in the mood of a climber departuring the final camp of 8000M peak. The only city north of Asahikawa with a population over 30,000 is Wakkanai, anymore. Lanes are reduced to one lane.
Proceed for 10 minutes and reach Pippu junction. In usual case, we continue straight ahead to Wakkanai. But this is a drive to reduce the number of turns. If you take that route, local roads turn here and there, highways are incomplete, and you are forced to make turns at countless interchanges.
So I take E39 highway to the Sea of Okhotsk coast. From here on, it is a free highway, as it tends to be in the countryside. This is the first time since the E78 I took from Kanoya. I feel that I am getting closer to the end of the country.
The population of the municipalities along the road is about 20,000, even the largest ones. Traffic volume is, well, dismal. It is also below E2A in Chugoku region. I do not know how many kilometers are between the car in front of me and the car in front of me.
I look in my rearview mirror and no cars are catching up to me. I get off the highway at once because I have to urinate. According to the guide, there is a restroom here, but the atmosphere of the building is inorganic, more like a road maintenance facility than a drive-in.
I finished my business, worried that I would be yelled at to leave. This is Kamikawa town, 30km east of Asahikawa. This is the base for Sounkyo valley sightseeing. The name of waterfall in Sounkyo valley is a little unusual. They are called Meteor Falls and Galaxy Falls, respectively.
Sense of naming is on the same level as that of Americans. The car will now tackle the Kitami Pass. The only thing that fits the word “challenge,” however, is a railroad running on rails laid 100 years ago.
On a highway that was just completed 20 years ago, it’s just a bit too many tunnels and it’s just a bit depressing. Leaving the highway at the Ukishima IC in the middle of the pass. We say goodbye to the highway that has been running for 2800 km since Kasanohara IC.
When I thought I was going to merge down the ramp, a pause appeared unexpectedly. It seems that they did not even build a merging lane because the facility is so simple. So, the limit point that can be reached in 10 turns from the southernmost point of the mainland is
The Ukishima interchange on the E39 highway, 2,862 km(1778mi) away. However, as I said at the beginning of this article, this verification is “about” 10 times. I will continue the verification until about 4 more times, because it still falls into the category of “about”.
At the 11th turn, we connect to the local road to Monbetsu. A distance sign appears and says 40 km to the next town of Takinoue. Incidentally, there is no group of houses that could be called a human settlement between there and the next town. Only a very sparse row of farmhouses.
Recently, there are daily reports of real Pooh sightings or damage. Pooh in the 100 Acre Woods is a lovable stuffed bear with a honey obsession. But in reality, Pooh the Forest Pooh is a timid creature with a bold habit and a high level of aggression.
You all probably know this because you’ve probably encountered something like this at least once, whether in real life or online. This is a very unruly and poo character. They are irredeemable bastards who have brave or no wisdom, who come down to human settlements, meet people as a matter of course,
And then shudder, but are weirdly brave, so they don’t run away and attack you while going crazy. I descend the cold, rainy mountain pass, praying to stay still in the forest, for God’s sake. In the end, my worries end up being overshadowed.
I made it down to the Takinoue town without encountering even a deer, let alone a bear. The time is now 10:30 a.m. It has been two hours since our departure, so we take a break at a fancy dome-roofed drive-in.
According to the tourist information board, the specialty of this town is the moss phlox. But the best time to see them is in May. Instead, I go see what the former train station has become. I drove for 5 minutes. This is the preserved station building of Kitami Takinoue station.
This station used to be a temporary terminus of the Shokotsu line. According to the plan, the line was to continue to Asahikawa, following the same route I had just drove. However, the project was frozen during the era of mass railroad extinction in the 80’s following the motorization of the 70’s,
And the existing line from the coast of Okhotsk was also discontinued in 1985. When I visited the station building, which didn’t seem to even realize it was dead, I saw a farewell sign, which was probably left hanging from that day, as well as fare and timetable tables.
The fares to Tokyo and Osaka are also displayed, which shows the atmosphere of the era when airplanes were not common and the railroads were the dominant force. After admiring the railroad mausoleum for a while, the swirling rain catches up with me. As I was being driven away, I departed Takinoue.
After escaping the rain again, the car took off onto a straight road. I have wasted a lot of time driving on highways all the way to Hokkaido, seeing only similar scenery to that of Honshu, even though I had landed in Hokkaido. Finally, I’m driving on a road that is typical of Hokkaido.
What catches the eye is a road that is as straight as possible through the countryside that has been cultivated in the modern era. It is laid out straight for kilometers, with the occasional gentle curve, and then it is straight again, kilometer by kilometer.
I now understand why everyone wants to post driving videos of themselves driving in Hokkaido on the Internet. This is certainly… It feels good to blow straight through. Driving with all four windows open like a half convertible car, I can clearly feel the cold summer wind
Of the northern lands shaking my spinal cord and the ecstapee of my brain seeping throughout my body. This is the twelfth left turn in Shokotsu, a suburb of Monbetsu. Here I take the Okhotsk Sea coastal road.
Monbetsu may be a modest place in summer, but in winter it becomes a major scenic spot for drift ice. The tourism ambassador is my colleague, Yukari Yuzuki, who has two insect bites on her chest. Her nickname is Okhotsk Yukari. She is also called “Oho-yuka” in short.
Couldn’t there have been a better abbreviation? The remaining distance to Cape Soya is now 180 km, finally below 200 KM. If the roads were overflowing with cars, as in the Kanto and Kinki regions, the numbers would still be hopeless.
But in the Okhotsk coast, one of the most sparsely populated areas in the country, the numbers are not enough to make you feel comfortable, but enough to feel inadequate. The cool sea breeze from the ocean, the pleasant stench from the ranch that sticks in your nostrils,
And the sky that seems unusually expansive due to its unobstructed view. I’d like to be on a road like this for another 3,000 kilometers anyway. Well, if you want to make that happen, you have to bring your car to the US or Australia.
These roads are such a contrast to the city roads that they attract travelers from all over the country at these times of the year. When stopping at a roadside station and looking at the parking lot, cars with Kyushu license plates as well as Kanto and Kinki license plates can be seen.
However, Strangely enough, I don’t see any cars with license plates from central Tokyo, such as Yokohama and Shinagawa. They are always poor to look good and have no money to travel. In Fureppu town, one of Japan’s most outstanding chunibyoｰsyndrome-like place name ,
I pass the 3,000-kilometer kilometer post of the route with the fewest number of turns. Twenty kilometers from there, we take a lunch break at a roadside station in Esashi town. I eat curry at a special place with a cold sea view across the lawn, and make the last spurt.
Less than 100KM to go to the goal, Cape Soya. Running about 20 KM, we pass the monolith of 45 degrees north latitude. As a Japanese, this latitude gives the impression of the far far north. But if you think about it, it is only halfway between the equator and the North Pole.
The equator is a line 4000 km south of the mainland and even 3000 KM south of Okinawa. That monolith means that the same distance as such a distant place continues all the way to north.
Every time I pass this point, I will be filled with a sense of elation at having come so far, but also with a sense of helplessness that you still have a long way to go. We have driven 120 kilometers in a straight line from Monbetsu to here.
We will make our 13th right turn in the town of Hamatombetsu. However, I will go through here and take a rest at a roadside station. If I continue on our way to the goal, I will arrive at Cape Soya in about an hour. But it is still past 3 o’clock.
It would be a bit of a waste to come all the way here and not stop anywhere, so I’m going off route for a bit. This is Sarufutsu village.
This is a village on the outskirts of the country, yet it is known as a rich village with an annual income higher than Tokyo thanks to scallop fishing. However, it is currently in trouble with China over the scallop embargo.
At an intersection south of such a town of Sarufutsu, I turn right to a certain road. The name of the road is the Esanuca line. There are no facilities such as guardrails or signs, and moreover, it is surrounded by pastures. The road just melts into the world in a straight line.
This is a place that many riders and travelers dream of riding someday, as it is a spectacular landscape with a view of the horizon that is extremely rare in Japan.
As luck would have it, there is not a single cloud today, and the air is so clear that there are probably no more than 10 days in a year. Actually, at the roadside station, I was wondering if I should continue straight to the finish line, but I was right.
The only stingy thing I can say about this road is that it ends up being a mere 16 kilometers. Leaving Sarbutsu, the car finally enters the last town: Wakkanai.
It is hard to see, but the country sign depicts the gate of ice, Rosa rugosa, and the full view of Rishiri Fuji, which is never seen from Rishiri Island. It is also widely known that no buses bound for Cape Soya come to the rotary in front of Minami Wakkanai Station.
Now that we are in Wakkanai, let’s review a little of the journey so far. First, the number of turns. 5 times in Kagoshima prefecture, 1 time off Aomori IC, 3 times near Hakodate, 4 times in Okhotsk area, total 13 times.
The number of rampways you passed through was twice in Kagoshima, once unexpectedly in the middle of E2A, once tentatively in Suita, and then nothing for about 500 km from there, twice on the Capital Expressway, once before Hachinohe, and twice in Hokkaido, in Sapporo and Asahikawa. 9 times in total.
And what I don’t want to think about is the expressway fee. Including the expressway fee to Amagi, where we stayed the first day, the total is 49,050 yen. And if you add the 15,000 yen for the Seikan Ferry, which is considered the New Seikan Tunnel, the total is 64,050 yen
Considering about one bathtubful of gasoline sprinkled… This is lightly over the purchase price of this car. My head is starting to hurt, so let’s see the Soya Hills at sunset. This view, which is not typical of the Japanese archipelago where the land is young and the terrain is rugged,
Is called a periglacial terrain, which would remind the old Peking mans of Windows XP. This is a terrain that was originally steep, but has become rounded and smooth as rocks are destroyed by the freezing and thawing phenomenon of moisture in the soil.
Furthermore, a series of wildfires at the end of the 19th century burned the entire forest, completing this otherworldly landscape. Running down the hills and through the village of Cape Soya, we arrive at Cape Soya,
The northernmost point on the mainland, at 4:45, 3117 km(1937mi), 5 days and 3 hours and 45 minutes from Cape Sata. So, it turns out that it is possible to run through Japan in at least 13 turns. The video title was protected because it falls into the category of about 10 turns.
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31 Comments
教養と毒舌がすごく良い🙆🙆🙆
初見だけどめっちゃおもろく
チャンネル登録しました
第二アオカントンネル
だいにあおかんとんねる
久しぶりに故郷と釣りに行っていた道を見ることができました。ありがとうございます。チャンネル登録、高評価しました。
やべー、楽しそう
南から北まで道路がしっかり整備されてるのもすごいし、事故無く走り抜けるのもすごい
へー、名古屋付近の高速は
マイル表記なんだー
ｲｲｺﾄｼｯﾀﾅｰ
わたしも、こんな旅をしてみたい
ちょっと待って、最近法律が変わるから、パーキングエリアのホテルとか営業できなくなるんじゃねーの？
編集もトークもセンス良すぎてすごいし、そもそもこの区間を往復してるのがすごい。
11:22
田中角栄宅から云々
日本縦断お疲れ様でした！
帰りはどうやって帰ったんだろ〜
上からになって申し訳ないけど、
この人の語彙力と動画の構成力はとんでもない。
きっとどんな環境でも成功する天才。 36:01
企画力と実行力がすごすぎ
感動しました！
39:50
ここの雲好き
知らないチャンネルだったけど、タイトルに惹かれてなんとなく見始めたら小気味よい解説が楽しくなり、企画の趣旨を忘れて最後まで聞き入ってしまった。文章を書くことを生業としている方なのかなあ。
旭川市より緯度が北にある10万人都市の北見市は無視してますね
結局山陽道行っても変わらなかったという……
文豪
目立ってないかもだけどこの長さで全編英語字幕ついてるのまじですごい
スーパーキッド、覚えます
うろ覚えですけど、新潟に向けて繋がるトンネルが10Kmあってめちゃくちゃ長いんでしたっけかね
田中角栄の「３回曲がったら着く」説も検証お願いします！(新潟生まれ東京人)
本を一冊読んだような満足感
0:32 第二「ｱｵｶﾝ」トンネル
すごーい面白いし勉強にもなる、、、
車に疎すぎてハイオク車であることに途中で気付いた
てっきりGooglemapとかでシュミレーションするだけかと思った。いやガチでやるんかい
三内丸山ってそんな有名だったんか…