Aussies in Japan Motorcycle Trip Ep 5 – Niigata to Fukashima and Nihonmatsu
Okay, so we leave this morning. It’s a Monday morning. Monday the 24th, I think it is. Leaving 23rd, 24th. Um, we know it’s a Monday because we normally lose track of what day it is, but today is Monday. And we’re leaving the Nigata Prefecture and heading over the Alps to Non Matsu. So, punched a seating route into the GPS. So, we’ll see where that takes us. Hopefully not through the snow. A nice avenue of Sakura. We think it’s Sakura. We just name it. Anything looks like it’s flaring is Sakura to us. Yeah. Wonder if that’s the same river we crossed just before or a different river. I think there’s lots. You have to Google it. But they have more than How many How many rivers are there in Japan? Well, just No, no, Google has look at the map. Oh, yeah. Cuz there’s probably all these valleys and stuff that come down off those mountains. All this melts, all this snow’s got to melt and head down to the, you know, from between us and the sea, the mountains. Yeah, it might not through where we are now. And then the ocean or into each other could converge into each other. So that was like the three stages of rice patty that we just went past. Mhm. There was a dry one, a wet one, and a full one. Oh, here we go. So, we got a full one, and then a wet one next to it. And then dry ones over the back there. Looks like he’s hinging or something. Yeah. Oh, maybe spreading the water. Tuning up. I got a soupy miss. That one’s quite full. Bit of skim made on that one. Yeah. A bit of witches brew. Witches tea. Whatever it’s called. Look at that. Jeez. Wow. The whole Oh, no. That’s not a garden. That’s a temple, is it? So, they’re mixed up in with the houses. Yeah. This telephone pole is overloaded. The front yard washing machine. Holy cow. Go see your local post office and convenience store. Okay. So, as luck would have it, we’ve just left the we left the gutter there half an hour or so ago, and there’s a valley in between to lose bounds, which I sort of iron off yesterday. Um, it looks like that’s the one we’re going through and not over where where it looks like that uh over the white stuff. Yeah, the white frozen stuff. So, we won’t be able to uh that as a challenge for us, we hope. But nevertheless, we’re still going through the elk, so might get chilly. But yeah, definitely going through the lower valley, which is good news. That’s fancy garden. Some of them have a big fancy garden. Others have just got everywhere. Yeah, but some of the gardens are just so beautiful and some of them aren’t. Couple of abandoned buildings here. Yeah, must be a bit of an issue. bikes over there. Whatever that is. I don’t understand the writing, so I don’t know something about a fish. That one. Yeah. Mazaki. Yeah. Yeah. Mazaki. Yeah. I’ve seen one of them before. Bread. Good. Bread. Good. Hey. Bread. Good. Community plaza. Shell. V Power. It’s actually says Shell. It had Community Plaza written above the door. RAV. Okay, so check out the amount of uh safety signage that the Japanese put up around roadworks. This one here’s got uh high viz pre-warning signs, witches hats or safety cones, directional arrows, traffic signal, spinning LED daisy wheels, a person waving a large green flag, and a visual display board. Yeah, quite a lot. And if you miss that, you you’re in trouble. I think our stop go signs are probably a bit friendlier. Blue bridge. Yeah. They like paint their bridges up different colors, do they? Yeah. This one’s not quite finished. Oh, it’s got some work done to it, is it? The left side’s not painted. Yeah, it’s been sanded down to some point. Yeah, I need to Oh, maybe it’s ready to go. They have a 7° line. So, we stopped for a break and found ourselves a Lawson station, the third largest convenience store chain in Japan, next to Family Mart and 7-Eleven. And like the others, the toilets were impeccably clean. Grabbed a couple of ganache and chocolate chip crepes to mch on, and they tasted every bit as good as they looked. It’s uh Yeah. So that’s Mount Atadara, which is a heap of uh volcanoes like the edge the tips of them or something. Oh, okay. Yeah. Which uh there was a name for it. Strata Strata volcanic. That’s it. I guess that would be a bit rocky up there. I don’t I don’t think it’s No. Last time it was active was 1996. Oh, okay. Put the snow chains on here. Big wave. You just did. No rhyme or reason. No, it’s just random. It could be completely ignored. A small nod. A big nod. Yeah. A big wave. Ignored. Oh, we got a cup of tea down the road here. Probably there. Yeah. All sorts of things. But there’s those wind blipers that they take down. Yeah. Wind deflectors. That’s probably what those things are in the town. Yeah. Must Yeah. Right out level. Must be a bit wild there for trucks or something. The river along the left there. School kids must be in school time home. Yeah. Oh, so the kids with the flag are maybe the the walking school bus leaders. Yeah. And they do the across the road. Yeah. Okay. And the police are out. I hope so. They are. Is it police? I can’t guess this one. Let’s wait till we see what’s written on the side. Yeah, police. It’s black and white. Yeah, someone’s in trouble cuz you’re you’re guilty until proven innocent there, too. Yeah. And every crime must be solved. So, we’re heading into central Nihon Matsu. A tidy place, I suppose. Even their power lines look fairly tidy. Well, in Japan standards. Yeah. Yeah. Still a lot of them. Both sides of the street. Yeah. But still, it’s quite tidy. Left or the right? There it is. Up on the hill. Is it? Yeah. Up on the hill. Ah, okay. Wow. Hotel routine. I didn’t know it was up there. Oh, home center. Big Bunnings. Oh, and it looks like this is it. Here we are at the hotel route in Nihon Matsu. Holy moly, it’s big. We should probably just park his call it a day. We unloaded the bikes and checked in. Set the drone up to have a bit of a look around and can still see snow in the nearby mountains. That will change tomorrow as we leave the Fukushima Prefecture and head towards Iwaki and the east coast of Japan. But first thing in the morning, we’re going to go over and check out the Dewa 8 Homemaker Center, which sort of looks like a big Bunning store. Thanks for watching and we’ll catch you in the next episode.
Plenty of roadworks, bridges and rural backlots away from tourist routes.
AloJapan.com