Let's cut to the chase here: the roads in Hokkaido are AWESOME! No other place in Japan has such wide, uninterrupted roads with such breathtaking scenery. The straightaways stretch on as far as the eye can see and the twisties are gently cambered with wide radii.
Just look at this road above the Soya
cape: pastures in the foreground, the
Sea of Okhotsk in the background and not even a trace of another
vehicle
or a traffic light.
This road runs right down the center
of the Sarobetsu wild flower fields. The photo really doesn't
do justice to the expanse of this place. The fields, seas of tall
grass rippling in the wind like ocean waves, extend to the horizon.
Another great road, this one bisects
the patchwork farm fields of the picturesque town of Biei.
What the...? OK most road signs in Japan
are on both Kanji and Roman letters, but
what's the third set of lettering? Actually
it's Russian. The port city of Wakkanai and
its environs are visited by Russian mariners
frequently enough to warrant street signs
in their Cyrillic lettering. In most places
in Japan, it will be assumed that a Caucasian
foreigner is American. Here it is assumed
that they are Russian.
This photo has an amazing story behind it.
Big Ben and the Stinger were rolling down
the road on the Sea of Japan coast early
one morning when the oncoming cars started
vigorously flashing their high beams at us.
Sometimes cars who don't understand motorcycle
customs do that to inform us that our headlights
are on even though its daylight (of course
we have them on purposely to make ourselves
more visible to cagers). But no, that did
not seem to be the case. Perhaps they were
trying to warn us of a speed trap? Continuing
down the road a ways, that did indeed appear
to be the case. Several motorcycles ahead
of us were being pulled over. We immediately
lowered our speed to well below the speed
limit and attempted to slip by. But to no
avail. The cops pulled us over too! Why?
After he signaled us to a halt, the cop barked
out "Kind of early, huh? You want some
breakfast and coffee?" That's right,
it was no speed trap at all, but a traffic
safety campaign targeting bikers and consisting
of free coffee, rice, and miso soup made
with locally farmed oysters. We had to hand
it to Hokkaido's finest. What a great idea!
