Japan. Onsen Explorer. Day 6

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Onsen Explorer. Day 6 6th June.

Apologies. We were at Henashi yesterday not the Hirosaki Grand hotel.
The start today was back up the hill onto the main road to follow the coast northwards alongside rocky outcrops and between many more rice fields. The weather was overcast for part of the day with some sun and cooler at 19 degrees, opposed to the mid 20’s of previous days. Lunch was at a supermarket in a small fishing town before we went to see a famous dog called Waseo. Apparently, it was found abandoned in the supermarket car park and a local shopkeeper took it in and it is now famous all over Japan. It is a breed of Japanese fighting dog which is put into competitions where gambling takes place. Say no more.
We were promised a big hill as we headed eastward towards Aomori but it turned out to be much easier than we thought, especially since we had a pleasant tail wind. This route took us through the largest apple growing region in Japan, which stretched for mile after mile. Along the way we saw women up in the trees standing on the branches doing the pruning and a couple of men taking the easy way in mobile ’cherry pickers’. The last part of the route was on a very smooth and pleasant disused railway track before we rode into the town of Hirosaki to the hotel. Since Ken is taking our bikes on a ferry to Hokkaido tomorrow we put our bags in the van and kept back our cycling gear to put on after our train journey in the morning. Several of us went around the Hirosaki Castle which was originally built in 1611 but was burnt down after being struck by lightning 16 years later. In 2013 an earthquake disturbed the wall which acted as a foundation so in 2015 the whole castle was jacked up and moved 70 metres plus turned around into its present location. Amazing.
The evening meal was taken at ’la Porto’ French restaurant and we had paella and pizzas for a change.
Hokkaido here we come.

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