RtG Japan Daily Dispatch - day00 - Flipbook - Page 19
18 September to
16 October 2025
Day 9
Towadako to Akita (299km)
Although Honshu is the most densely populated
island of Japan, our route today saw us exploring
its more remote parts. Indeed, Aomori Prefecture
is one of Japan’s least-visited regions. It is
surrounded on three sides by the ocean, with the
Ou Mountains in the centre.
So, from our lakeside breakfast, we headed north and
west and followed a long, steep climb to the day’s first
Regularity from Nagamine, which comprised two narrow
tarmac sections connected by a muddy logging road, with
some great views of this vast wilderness.
Aomori is famous for its apples, producing 50 million
kilograms each year. Not just the quantity is high, the
quality is claimed to be the best in the world, thanks
to intensive hand cultivation with annual training and
pruning to ensure each tree gets the maximum amount of
sunlight to produce the very best fruit.
Wine is also produced locally but, at the mid-morning
Time Control at the Aomori Winery Hotel, we enjoyed a
tasting session of a different type. Instead of a glass of the
local red, bowls of chopped apples had been prepared for
us to compare the flavours and textures of Fuji, Kaho, and
Orin varieties.
The hotel, set in beautiful parkland, is also a golf course
and, once we’d finished our refreshments, we set off with
27 September 2025
our own set of drivers. We passed teams of local apple
pruners who took time out from their labours to stand and
watch the cavalcade as it made its way towards the 1625m
Mount Iwaki and the Sea of Japan.
An apple a day didn’t keep Dr John Llewellyn away and
he, along with Jim “Samurai” Smith, manned the final
Control at the next Regularity, the Ajigasawa Puzzle. Here
the rally enjoyed another big bite of the Dakedai Forest.
It had been a challenging morning and we’d gobbled a lot
of ground, but there was still the Bridges of Hiroto County
Regularity to deal with. Then it was an alfresco lunch at the
Time Control in the car park of the Family Mart in Fukaura
to give the crews a little breather.
The countryside changed a little in the afternoon, as
we left the forests and the mountains for a softer, more
agricultural landscape of rice paddies and meadows.
The final Regularity set out from Koikawa and raised the
rally to some impressive views over the fertile flatlands
surrounding the Hachirōgata Chosei Pond, the lowest
natural point in Japan.
An Expressway took us back to civilisation and the night
halt in the Hotel Metropolitan in Akita. A town famous for
chickens, dogs and two-tone monsters, which, according to
our local sources, are used to persuade children to behave.
No dinner had been planned for this evening allowing the
crews to forage for themselves in one of the many excellent
local restaurants.
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
www.rallytheglobe.com
