Day 28 — Tazawa to Yokote - Tom and Marilee Retire to the Road

September 30, 2025

Day 28 — Tazawa to Yokote

I think we were lights out at 7:30 in our big Japanese style room at the Tazawa resort. It had been a tiring few days. For Japan, the room itself was colossal — we did score a sweet deal. It appeared the rest of the guests were all Chinese bus tourists and we were probably the only ones there under our own steam, and certainly the only westerners.

Another great buffet. Salmon chunks, bread pudding, many mysterious other things…

We were looking forward to an easier ride than the past few days. Fairly flat, not huge mileage, and the weather was nice. The first bit took us around Lake Tazawa, which was glorious in the morning sun.

After a half lap of Lake Tazawa, we cut inland, but confusingly there was no crushing climb this time. just an easy ride through forest and field until we connected with the secondary highway taking us to our mid-day destination: Kakunodate.

Well I think that maybe, you’re going to be the one with savings, cuz after all, you’re my….

Kakunodate was once the seat of the Samurai in Akita province, and there remains a street of well preserved samurai and merchant residences, and is known as “the little Kyoto of Tohoku (Northern Honshu)”. Given that so many of Japan’s historical sites have been destroyed by fire, war, more fire, another war, and are mostly empty fields with plaques, or concrete reconstructions, we were really looking forward to well preserved historical sites from such a captivating period of history. Kakunodate did not disappoint.

We were fortunate enough to enter the historical portion of Kakunodate from its north end, and were able to coast down Samurai street, observing the old houses, now museums and gift shops, under towering trees on both sides. We found a spot to ditch the bikes and set off to explore.

Our first stop was a shop where they had been making pickles and fermented products for several hundred years. We sampled a bit of their dashi broth, which had a depth of umami flavour like nothing else we’ve ever had. It was ¥1800 yen a half litre, but man it would kick your soups into high gear.

From there we found the Aoyagi residence, which was a large samurai residence preserved as a museum. It was comprised of a number of buildings in beautifully landscaped grounds. It provided full access to the buildings and grounds, and had excellent exhibits of samurai armour and many other aspects of samurai life. You could even wield — in a plexiglass box — a samurai sword and spear.

The home, with formal and less formal reception rooms

Does it get any more awesome than authentic samurai armour?

It’s the facial hair that strikes terror into opponents

Though the first museum would have been worth the trip, the second one we wandered into was even more remarkable. We paid our entrance fee and the gentleman who took the fee escorted us into the residence and began the tour by explaining he was a direct descendant of the original owners, and still lived in the residence with his mother — and he pointed to an older woman giving a tour in Japanese. His ancestors were samurai/accountants — wars are run on financial liquidity after all.

Tour guide, resident, and descendant of the Ishiguro samurai

Tortoise designs in the woodwork are meant to connote prosperty and longevity. The firepit that used to be in that room would project the images into adjoining rooms

It was hard to leave such a fascinating and beautiful place, but we still had miles to go and a few errands to run. There was, of course, time for ice cream.

Our accommodation that night was at a campground between a golf course and an onsen at an old folks home. We realized we hadn’t camped since Hokkaido — Honshu seems to have fewer campgrounds, and more affordable hotels available. Plus it seems to rain every third day, which seemed to be in the cards for the next day…

First campsite in Honshu! It’s been a while.

The Garmin chopped this into two rides for some reason. At some point on this map, this became our longest bike tour yet.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,400 km (869 miles)

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