Japan celebrates a national holiday called “Umi no hi” aka Marine Day. Marine day became a national holiday in 1996, and because Marine Day is a national holiday, Andrew got a long weekend break from work!! This year Marine Day fell on July 23rd, which is prime time for an epic road trip. We decided to take the road less traveled (by foreign tourists, at least) and explore Japan’s Tohoku Region.
Day 1: Utsunomiya –> Sendai
To kill some kilometers early, we left Utsunomiya on Thursday evening after Andrew finished work for the day. The drive to Sendai via expressway takes about 3 hours. We rolled into town around 8:30pm and checked into a regular business hotel. Since we planned to leave early, we didn’t bother booking a nicer hotel close to the hustle and bustle of the station. We DID bother with some beef tongue. This is not my first (or probably my last) time mentioning Sendai’s beef tongue on this blog. Listen, I know beef tongue can sound intimidating to an American. Just, PLEASE, give it a shot. You don’t have to take my word for it. Sendai is FAMOUS for beef tongue. It wouldn’t be famous if it wasn’t good, right?
Day 2: Sendai –> Genbikei Gorge –> Hiraizumi –> Oshu –> Rikuzentakata –> Otsuchi
It’s not a road trip if you don’t spend a lot of time driving, right? This day 2 course requires about 4 hours of total drive time. BUT, the stops along the way offer a lot of opportunities to rest and stretch your legs.
OK! After stopping at a conbini and a gas station, we left Sendai around 8:30am. The drive to Genbikei Gorge is nothing special. I will note, there are two scenic areas relatively close together in this area: Genbikei Gorge and Geibikei Gorge. I chose Genbikei Gorge for our stop because it seemed like it is less popular and therefore, hopefully less crowded. When we got to Genbikei the sky was clear blue, and the sun was out. The views here are stunning and there is a short walking course if you want to stretch your legs. The real “kitsch” of this location is the zip line snack setup. At the main viewpoint there is a pavilion where you can order snacks and drinks via zip line basket. Write your order, then someone across the water pulls the basket back, prepares the order, and then ZOOM, sends it back down.
Not far from Genbikei Gorge is Hiraizumi, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hiraizumi is a group of 5 well-preserved, very old Buddhist Temples. We decided to stop at Takkoku no Iwaya. This is NOT technically one of the registered World Heritage sites. According to the Hiraizumi website, they are working on adding it and a few other sites to the list. Takkoku no Iwaya is a temple built into the side of a cliff, believed to be founded in 801. Yeah, over 1200 years ago. When we visited, there was a service/ceremony taking place inside the temple. It was a little overwhelming to be standing in such a culturally important, ancient place during a live ceremony. I’m not generally a temple/history person, but I highly recommend this experience at least once.
After visiting the temple, we stopped at a nearby restaurant to try one of Iwate Prefecture’s famous dishes, Wanko Soba. This dish is meant to be all-you-can-eat. You’re served small bowls of soba with dipping soup, and as you finish your soba the bowls are quickly replenished until you give up and can eat no more. Andrew and I aren’t really “all-you-can-eat” people, like, I guess we’re pretty weak. We ate less than 20 bowls each (60-100 bowls is not out of the ordinary for this style of soba).
Stuffed with soba, we moved on to the next location: Oshu. I wanted to stop in Oshu for one reason, and one reason only: Nambu Tekki. If you’re like me, and you don’t know Japanese, Nambu Tekki describes the traditional Japanese method (dating back to the 17th C) of making cast iron cookware. For 5 generations, OIGEN foundry has manufactured cast iron kettles and pans in northeastern Japan. The workshop, nestled into a small industrial/farming area, is stunning. If you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. If you can’t make the trip, they do have an online shop.
Cast iron loaded into the trunk, we hit the road again. On our first trip to Sendai, a few weeks before this road trip, Andrew really wanted to make it out to the Sanriku Coast to bear witness to the damage done in the 2011 disaster. We didn’t make it during that trip, so we took special care to add it to this itinerary. On the coast, at Rikuzentakata, we stopped to visit the Tsunami Memorial Museum, opened in September 2019. The museum is small, but free to enter and offers excellent English translations.
Outside the museum stands the Miracle Pine. This pine tree, once part of a forest of 70,000 trees, is the only tree left standing after the powerful tsunami in 2011. This sight, combined with the museum, and the drive along the coast, which is still deep in recovery mode from the disaster almost 10 years later, is extremely powerful.
Our day ended in Otsuchi at an Airbnb. Connected to the family’s home, the BnB space had a dining room, shared bath areas on the first floor, and western-style toilets on the second floor. The best part of the BnB was the view. Our room had large windows on two sides overlooking the beach. Dinner and breakfast were provided in the cost of accommodation, so there was no need to worry about finding restaurants nearby. Which was good, because Otsuchi is a pretty sleepy little town.
Day 3: Otsuchi –> Jodogahama Beach –> Ryusendo Cave –> Unosu Cliff –> Hachinohe
Our BnB host prepared breakfast bright & early for us at 7:30am. After breakfast, we drove about an hour north to Jodogahama Beach. This is a well-known swimming beach with boat tours of the coast. The rocky coastline here is beautiful. We spent about an hour exploring the pebbly beach and searching for fish in the ultra-clear water.
Our next stop, a short drive inland, was Ryusendo Cave. Andrew has a cave fetish. There, I said it. He loves caves. Ryusendo Cave is one of “The Three Great Limestone Caves” in Japan. We have a running bit that everything in Japan is “one of three greats” – for example, Matsushima is one of Japan’s “Three Great Views.” It is usually a struggle to figure out what the other two could possibly be, and which of the three is #1. That’s just how it goes here, I guess. Anyway, Ryusendo is impressive. If you like caves, this is a good cave.
From Ryusendo Cave, we drove back out to the coast to Unosu Cliff. Unosu Cliff is “famous” for its cliffside viewpoint where you can see the cliffs stretch out into the shape of a traditional Japanese fan. Unfortunately, when we arrived the visibility was quite poor and the view was mostly fog. Prior to our trip, I watched a YouTube video that claimed the hike down to the beach from the cliff is worthwhile. It definitely is. The trail is only 1km long, but the descent is 800m, so it is, uh, steep. If you like switchbacks and spiderwebs, this is the hike for you.
The real reward is the beach below, and the caves that can be explored during low tide. There are several man-made cave tunnels along the beach. Andrew brought his flashlight so we were able to explore four of the caves before the tide started to come back in. This may be both Andrew and my favorite stop on this trip. Because of the poor visibility and generally crap weather, we had the entire beach to ourselves.
The final leg of the day was north to Hachinohe, a coastal city in Aomori prefecture. For me, the main goal of this entire road trip was to make it to Hachinohe by Saturday night in order to attend the Sunday morning market – Japan’s #1 largest morning market. To my knowledge, Hachinohe is not known for much more than that. Since we planned to be up early for the morning market, it made sense to stay in a convenient (cheap) business hotel. For dinner, we walked to Hachinohe’s yatai street, an area with many open-air food stalls popular for drinking parties. Our Japanese is pretty rudimentary, and most of the menus we saw were hand-written in vertical kanji (which Google Translate has a hard time with). So, we asked the server for her “osusume” (essential Japanese: osusume = recommendation) and enjoyed some giant sea snails and raw horse for dinner. After dinner, we relaxed at the hotel with some conbini beverages.
Day 4: Hachinohe –> Sendai –> Utsunomiya
Hachinohe’s morning market runs every Sunday, March-December from sun-up (around 4am) to about 9am. We woke up around 6:30am. I was committed to the morning market, but not 4am committed. More than 300 vendors line the 800-meter-long market. In a normal, non-Corona time, this market is very busy. Because of Covid, and also probably because it was raining, the market was only mildly crowded when we visited. We sampled Chinese-style pork bing and fried soup dumplings, as well as Japanese croquettes. In addition to prepared foods, you can also buy fruit, vegetables, pickles, juice, hand-made crafts, and much more. By 8:30am, a lot of the vendors sold out, packed up, or started packing. It is best to arrive as early as you can.
Day 4 was a Sunday for us. So, we needed to head home to Utsunomiya. From Hachinohe it is about 6 hours driving on the expressway, so the early start gave us the benefit of hopefully arriving home early enough to take care of chores like unpacking and laundry. We broke up the drive with a stop for lunch near Sendai’s massive Daikannon statue. The statue isn’t old or particularly beautiful. But, if you need a break while driving, it is a suitably strange roadside attraction.
