#186 Day 5: Shirakawa to Fukushima

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The Road to Hokkaido Tour 2006
Day 5: Shirakawa to Fukushima
Distance: 209 kms

Last night we stayed at a hotel that Nyong Chun recommended called Toyoko Inn.
It was perfect: clean, reasonable price, fast internet connection in every room. I even got a present! It was like christmas. The only complaint I have is that the rooms are a bit small. 4 stars.

We did more sightseeing today. First we drove to Aizu. The scenery on the way was really nice.
We saw lots of rice fields, a waterfall, some daikon.
We stopped at a beautiful lake called Inawashiroko. We saw a snake. I was quite scared until I found out it was dead. I think it had been run over. Poor snake.
We had lunch at a place called Soba Dojo. It was next to this cool building. The soba was great! The kitchen had glass doors so we could see them making it.
This sign says don’t throw rubbish. Under the sign there’s a lot of rubbish. Hmm.
We saw a big statue. It was quite pretty but we didn’t think it was worth 500 yen to see it close up so we kept driving.

This is Mt Iimori in Aizu Wakamatsu. A group of young samurai part of a group called the Byakkotai killed themselves here. They were fighting in a war and when they saw their castle burning and knew that they had lost they decided to kill themselves.
Visiting this place made me feel sad.

This was their castle. Well, it’s been rebuilt because it burnt down. A woman was telling stories by the castle.

Next we went to visit a lake called Goshikinuma. To get there we drove on this road.
This lake is famous for being many different shades of blue. It was almost dark when we got there so I couldn't really tell. But it looked nice.

Then we went to Fukushima. We went through quite a few tunnels.

Then we got a flat tire. There was no place to get off the road properly and cars were whizzing past really fast so it was quite dangerous. I was on flashing light duty warning the cars to slow down.

The spare tyre was bit low on air so after the tyre change we stopped at the next service station to get some air.
I saw a car mat cleaning machine for the first time in my life and just had to try it out.

When we got to Fukushima we stopped at a tire shop to check the price of studless tyres. We’re going to need them when it starts snowing.

It was time for dinner so we found an izakaya near the hotel. It was called sunaba. I was really impressed by the friendly, helpful service and the food.