RtG Japan Daily Dispatch - day00 - Flipbook - Page 18
Day 8: Hakodate to Towadako, 26 September 2025
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Ales and Jana Koci, 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi
Richard Clark and Jonathan Round, 1940 Ford V8
After 1½ hours of bracing sea air and dodging the handlines of the bluefin tuna fleet, we disembarked in Oma and
made our way to the MTC in the car park of the nearest
Lawson convenience store.
There was just about time for a quick snack from the
chiller cabinet before we struck out to the Shimokita
Peninsula and the Furusai River Regularity. This opened
the Honshu campaign with a fabulous, twisty, piece of road
along the river. The road rose to 355m on mostly billiard
ball smooth, tarmac before falling gently to a Time Control
in the Oku-Yagen Onsen, where Fred Gallagher stopped the
clock on the morning’s activities before we enjoyed lunch.
Sadly, there was no time to enjoy the hot springs, as we had
a date with the second Regularity of the day, the Monkey
Puzzle, taking us to the foot of Mount Osore, a barren
volcano regarded as one of the most sacred places in Japan.
Respectfully, with one eye on the road and another
looking out for stray simians, we rolled past Yokohama
(not the big one), along the coastline of Mutsu Bay and
into a Passage Control in the Family Mart in Tohoku. With
everyone on the right track we headed to the last Regularity
from Minamitenmadate.
This was truly an epic section, a long gravel climb to 750m
through a semi-tropical jungle, which delivered the crews
to Gill and John Cotton’s final timing point. The descent
took us through an ‘enchanted forest’, past the Kumoi-notaki waterfall towards the Oirase keiryū Gorge and on to
the night halt, the Towada Prince Hotel, on the shores of
Towada-Ko, the largest crater lake in Honshu.
Dinner was a French-inspired, Japanese banquet which,
considering the excellent food we’ve enjoyed so far,
surpassed all expectations.
Manuel and Irene Dubs, 1940 Ford Coupe
www.rallytheglobe.com
