Japan Central Alps
by Ninja Tours

On the road

Landed at Haneda Terminal 3 behind schedule. We came in on the minibus booked through Booking.com, US$66.96, door to door to the Asakusa View Hotel. Rushcorp, over at Minami-Senju, is about ten minutes away by taxi.

Worth stopping for

• Senso-ji and Nakamise-doriinfo — five minutes' walk from most Asakusa hotels, and best after dark when the day crowds have gone.
• Kappabashi kitchenware streetinfo — a few hundred metres of chef's knives, cast iron and lacquerware, if we want something to ship home.
• Hoppy-doriinfo — a lane of open-fronted izakaya behind Senso-ji, and the easiest first-night dinner in Asakusa.

On the road

Pickup at Rushcorp, then north out of the city on Route 4 — over the Arakawa, west along the river, and out through Itabashi on surface roads rather than straight onto an expressway. A quiet first hour by Tokyo standards, which is the whole point on a morning when all three of us are still learning to keep left. Out into Gunma as far as Takasaki, then over Mount Haruna on prefectural Route 28. The climb from the Takasaki side narrows at Matsunozawa Pass — no room for anything large — then opens out at Lake Haruna, a caldera lake at 1,084 m (3,556 ft) with Haruna-Fuji standing over it, and runs down the far side two lanes wide with climbing lanes to Higashi-Agatsuma. From there west up the Agatsuma valley on R145 through Nakanojo, where a narrow road climbs the last few kilometres to Hinatami at the top of Shima Onsen, inside Joshin'etsu-kogen National Park. 179 km (111 mi) and about four hours in the saddle — and not the gentle first day it looks on paper, because Haruna is a real mountain road and it lands in the afternoon of the day we pick the bikes up.

Running order

Six hours for 179 km sounds generous. About four and a half of it is riding — the first 50 km are Tokyo traffic and the last 60 are mountain road — which leaves roughly ninety minutes of stopping on a day with jet lag, unfamiliar bikes and the wrong side of the road. That is two stops, not four.

Worth stopping for

• Takasaki, the daruma towninfo — 122 km (76 mi) in. Shorinzan Daruma-ji started making them here in the 18th century as winter work for local farmers, and Takasaki still turns out most of Japan’s daruma. The round base is weighted, so a knocked-over daruma rights itself: 七転び八起き (nana-korobi ya-oki), fall down seven times, get up eight. The temple is 3 km (1.9 mi) off the line.

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• Mount Harunainfo — the reason Route 28 is on this route at all. A tight climb out of Takasaki, pinched at Matsunozawa Pass, then hairpins up to the caldera rim.
• Lake Harunainfo — 145 km (90 mi) in, the caldera lake at 1,084 m (3,556 ft), with Haruna-Fuji standing 1,390 m (4,562 ft) over the far shore. The obvious place to stop before the run down to Agatsuma.
• The Shima potholesinfo — 168 km (104 mi) in. 四万の甌穴群 (Shima no ōketsugun). Eight shafts bored straight down into the riverbed rock, not by the water but by pebbles caught in a standing eddy and turning in the same spot for centuries. The smallest is 20 cm across; the largest is over 3 m wide and 3.2 m deep. A Gunma natural monument since 1971. Right on R353 about ten kilometres short of the ryokan, free, with a car park and a two-minute walk down to the decks — and the same blue water as the lakes, held in rock cylinders.
• Shima Blueinfo — Okushima Lake and Shima Lake hold an unusually vivid blue from suspended minerals. Best in flat morning light.
• Sekizenkaninfo — the 1691 inn with the red bridge, five minutes down the valley from Tsuruya. Widely cited as an inspiration for the bathhouse in Spirited Away, though Ghibli has never confirmed any single model. The oldest surviving wooden onsen building in Japan either way.
• Hinatami Yakushidoinfo — a 1598 temple hall built over the spring, one of the oldest surviving onsen structures in Japan and an Important Cultural Property. A few minutes' walk from the inn.

On the road

Back down the Shima valley to Nakanojo, then west through Kusatsu and up onto the Shiga-Kusatsu Kogen Route. R292 crosses the range at Shibu Pass, 2,172 m (7,126 ft) — the highest point of any national road in Japan — with Kusatsu-Shirane steaming beside it. Down the far side to Jigokudani and Shibu Onsen, then north through Iiyama, across the Chikuma into Niigata, and on through Tsunan and Tokamachi to the Uonuma plain and Sanjo. 242 km (150 mi) and about five and a half hours in the saddle: the longest day of the trip, and the best road on it.

Running order

The longest day of the trip and the one with no slack in it. 242 km, about five and a half hours riding, and Snow Peak stops taking check-ins at 16:30 — so the stops stay short. Coffee and a sandwich at a 7-Eleven rather than a sit-down lunch.

Worth stopping for

• The Yubatake, Kusatsuinfo — 43 km (27 mi) in. 湯畑 (yubatake) reads “hot water field,” and it is a cooling plant in the middle of the street. Four thousand litres a minute arrive at 55 °C, too hot to bathe in. Kusatsu will not thin its water with cold — at pH 2.1 the strength is the whole point — so instead the flow is spread across seven open wooden troughs and cooled by air alone before it drops to the pool and runs on to the bathhouses. The sulphur that settles in the troughs is scraped out, dried and sold as yunohana (湯の花, “hot water flower” — the mineral crust the spring leaves behind, packaged as a bath additive so you can make onsen water at home). The granite surround was going to be rectangular until Okamoto Taro — the artist behind the Tower of the Sun at Expo ’70 — was asked to design it in 1975 and made it a gourd instead, so that an organic outline would play against the straight lines of the troughs inside. He laid out the promenade that circles it too, and his name is cut into the stone. Parking: Kusatsu Parking is ¥100 per 30 minutes and about 40 spaces; the larger Yubatake Kanko Parking has a motorcycle area but charges a flat two-hour minimum. Both are about five minutes’ walk, so a ten-minute look costs nearer twenty-five door to door.
• Shibu Passinfo — 71 km (44 mi) in, the highest point of any national road in Japan, 2,172 m (7,126 ft) on R292, marked by a stone and a signboard, and usually a row of bikes parked in front of both. The wording matters: this is the highest national road. Japan’s highest paved road is the Norikura Skyline at 2,702 m (8,865 ft), but it has been closed to private vehicles since 2003 — buses, taxis and bicycles only — so 2,172 m is as high as we can ride.
• Jigokudani Monkey Parkinfo — 82 km (51 mi) in, wild macaques at a hot-spring pool in the valley below Shiga Kōgen. Admission ¥800 (about US$5) each. Park free at Kanbayashi and walk the 2 km (1.2 mi) Yumichi trail, about 30 minutes, or pay ¥500 (about US$3) at the Jigokudani lot for a 15-minute walk up a narrow logging road.

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• Shibu Onseninfo — nine public baths along a stone lane, five minutes from the monkey park and the traditional pairing with it.
• The Uonuma rice fieldsinfo — harvested and gold in October, and the source of the rice we will be eating all week.
• Tsubame-Sanjoinfo — Japan’s metalworking capital. Knife and tool workshops open to visitors, and the reason Snow Peak is headquartered here. Ship anything we buy rather than carrying it on the bike.

Dinner

Eight courses, French and Japanese fusion.

Two of those courses came off ground we had ridden across that afternoon. 八色椎茸 Yairo shiitake are a Minamiuonuma brand, grown on the Uonuma plain we crossed between Tokamachi and Sanjo — raised on oak chips, rice bran from the local Koshihikari and oyster shell for minerals, and capped thick enough that the growers’ slogan, 厚いにも、ほどがある (atsui ni mo, hodo ga aru), is a joke on the phrase for “there are limits”: thick beyond reason. 佐渡牛 Sado beef comes from the island off the coast north of here, from a herd small enough that it rarely leaves the prefecture.

The tea is worth ordering next time. 冨士美園 Fujimien is a Meiji-era house in Murakami, at the mouth of the Arakawa — the river we followed inland the next morning. Murakami is the northern limit of commercial tea growing in Japan: long winters and thin sun, so the leaf builds flavour and aroma without much astringency. Fujimien still wraps it in ranji, the export labels from the years when Murakami tea was shipped to America and Russia. The third option, 焚き火 (takibi), means “bonfire” — which from a company that sells campfires for a living is about right.

On the road

North across the Niigata plain to Shibata, then R113 east up the Arakawa valley — the old Yonezawa highway, a river road nearly the whole way — over the prefectural border at Oguni and through Nan'yo to Kaminoyama.

Running order

181 km and about four hours riding — the first day of the trip with real slack in it. Snow Peak checks out at 11:00, Koyo takes check-ins until 17:00 and dinner is from 18:30, so nothing is pushing.

Worth stopping for

• Michi-no-eki Sekikawa and the Arakawa gorgeinfo — 96 km (60 mi) in, the prettiest stretch of R113, and where we stopped for lunch. The full name is 道の駅関川「桂の関」 (Michi-no-eki Sekikawa) — Katsura-no-seki, the Edo-period barrier station that stood on this road to Yonezawa and gave the village its name: 関川 (Sekikawa), “barrier river.” Three things share the site — the day-use onsen ゆ〜む (Yūmu), a produce market, and 物産館ちぐら (Bussankan Chigura), the shop and foot-bath hall that opened in 2021. Both of the odd names on the signs are local. 猫ちぐら neko-chigura are the woven-straw cat baskets Sekikawa is known for, still made by hand and demonstrated in the tourist office next door; もん蛇 mon-ja, the ramen shop, is named for the village serpent.

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• Oguniinfo — 117 km (73 mi) in, beech forest either side of the road, which should be turning at this altitude in early October.
• Kaminoyama Castleinfo — 181 km (112 mi) in, the castle and the samurai residences below it; free foot baths are dotted through the town. The keep is honest about what it is: three tiers, four storeys, put up in 1982 as a museum with an observation floor on top, because there was nothing left to restore. In 1692 the shogunate had the original — Tsukioka Castle — taken down completely, stone walls and trees included, after its lord was moved on. Nothing of it stands.

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Dinner

Nine courses, each named for a Yamagata place or season rather than for what is in it. The card is headed 山形の山・川・森・海・田んぼから (Yamagata no yama, kawa, mori, umi, tanbo kara) — “from Yamagata’s mountains, rivers, forests, sea and rice fields” — signed by the head chef, Hoshikawa Naoki, with a line down the edge warning that courses change with whatever the kitchen can buy that week.

Two of those names are real places. 春雨庵 (Harusame-an) Shun’uan stands a few minutes from the inn. Takuan Sōhō (1573–1645) was a Rinzai abbot who fell foul of the shogunate in the Purple Robe affair of 1627, when Edo moved to void the purple-robe ranks the imperial court had granted Zen temples and he protested. In 1629 he was banished here to Kaminoyama, where he was given a hermitage named Shun’uan, “spring-rain hut.” He was pardoned in 1632 and ended up a favourite of the shogun Iemitsu. Whether the pickle on the plate is actually his invention is unsettled — the rival account has takuan as a worn-down takuwae-zuke, “keeping pickle.” The hut standing today is a 1953 rebuild, free to walk into.

And 開運 explains the paper collar round the pie. The inn is 古窯, “old kiln”; the kiln is real and on the property, and the collar carries a photograph of it. So the stew arrives as a kiln you break open for luck.

On the road

Fantastic ride today. North past Yamagata city to Sagae, then R112 west over the Gassan range — the road threads between Gassan and Yudono-san, and the tunnels and snowsheds along it are there for a reason. Down onto the Shonai plain at Tsuruoka and Sakata, then R7 up the coast to Fukura, where the Chokai Blue Line turns inland and climbs to about 1,100 m (3,600 ft) on the flank of Mt. Chokai before dropping back to the sea at Kisakata. 206 km (128 mi), and the best of it is in the last fifty.

Running order

206 km and about four and a half hours riding. Koyo checks out at 10:00 and Ichie takes check-ins from 15:00 to 17:00. Leaving at 09:00 rather than at check-out matters because the Blue Line sits at the very end of the day: the early start puts an hour between anything that goes wrong in the morning and the one road we came for, and leaves that hour spare on the mountain if it doesn’t.

Worth stopping for

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• 月の女神 (Tsuki no Megami) at Asahi Gassan Lakeinfo — on R112 partway over the range, at the lookout on the north bank above 月山ダム (Gassan damu). The dam is a 123 m (404 ft) concrete gravity wall thrown across the Bonji river, and the lake behind it is あさひ月山湖 (Asahi Gassan-ko). Standing on the plaza is 月の女神 (Tsuki no Megami), the Moon Goddess — gilded, arms open, balanced in the horns of a crescent moon. Katō Yutaka of Tsuruoka made her in 2001 and she is treated locally as the dam’s guardian. Free, and about thirty seconds off the road.

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• 食堂 月山軒 (Shokudō Gassan-ken)info — where lunch actually happened, instead of waiting for Tsuruoka. A roadside 食堂 on R112 at Shimonagawa, a few kilometres down from the dam and sitting beside the old playing field of the closed Asahi village primary school. Run by an elderly couple, with signed photographs on the wall from whenever the television came. Open 09:00 to 20:00 straight through, closed Mondays, which on a mountain road is unusually generous — and 10/8 is a Thursday. Rated 4.0 from nearly 300 reviews, almost all of them about the handmade flat noodles and the offal. We had the beef-tendon set (牛すじ煮込み定食, gyūsuji nikomi teishoku), the vegetable stir-fry (野菜炒め, yasai itame) and gyoza. Very good for the money: sets land around ¥950, with ¥100 off for a small portion and ¥100 more for a large. If anyone comes back, the thing the reviews all point at is the motsu miso ramen.

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• Sakatainfo — 136 km (85 mi) in, the Sankyo rice warehouses with their row of zelkova trees, and the Homma Museum garden.
• The Chokai Blue Lineinfo — starts 155 km (96 mi) in: prefectural route 210, 39 km (24 mi) from Fukura up to about 1,100 m (3,600 ft) at Ohira and back down to Kisakata, sea to summit to sea. The gates shut at night from around 24 October and the road closes for winter in early November, so 8 October is comfortably clear of both — but the dates move each year.

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• Kisakatainfo — 194 km (121 mi) in. 九十九島 (Kujūkushima), the ninety-nine islands, and the strangest landscape on the route. About 2,500 years ago a flank of Mount Chokai collapsed and ran out to the sea as a debris avalanche; water filled the hollows between the rubble mounds and left a shallow lagoon studded with wooded islets. It became one of the most admired views in the north — Basho came in 1689 and set it against Matsushima, the one cheerful and this one melancholy. Then on 10 July 1804 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck directly beneath it. Three to five hundred people died, a one-metre tsunami flooded three hundred houses here and in Sakata, and the seabed was lifted clear of the water. The lagoon drained. Farmers turned the new ground into rice fields and left the islands standing, so what we ride past is a flat plain of paddy with the old islets marooned in it as tree-covered mounds, Chokai filling the sky behind. A National Natural Monument since 1934. The mirror reflections people photograph come in May and June when the fields are flooded; on 8 October it will be cut stubble.

Dinner

王道会席 Ōdō kaiseki, the house’s “classic” course — eleven dishes, read right to left down a card brushed with the date.

由利牛 Yuri beef and “Nikaho beef” are the same animal. Nikaho was put together in 2005 out of three towns of 由利郡 (Yuri-gun), the old Yuri district, so the brand on the menu and the town it was served in carry the same name — and the whelks and squid in the openers came out of the water we had been looking down on all afternoon from the Chōkai Blue Line.

The food was the surprise. The waiter told us the chef came up through sushi in Tokyo, which accounts for the two dishes everyone remembered — the 平目 (hirame), handled the way a counter would handle it, and the sukiyaki. The building looks tired and the business looks like it is struggling; the kitchen does not. That pairing is common out here, where a good chef can keep working long after the fabric of the place has lost to depopulation and the cost of holding a coastal property through Akita winters. The kitchen is the last thing to go.

On the road

Inland from Kisakata across the Akita rice plain to Daisen, then north to Kakunodate — the samurai quarter, black wooden fences and weeping cherries along them. On past Lake Tazawa, the deepest lake in Japan, and over Sengan Pass on R46 into Iwate, finishing under Mt. Iwate at Shizukuishi. 156 km (97 mi) and the shortest riding day of the trip — the Chokai Blue Line is behind us, ridden yesterday afternoon.

Running order

The shortest riding day of the trip, inland by R107 through Higashiyuri and Daisen rather than straight across the plain. Ichie checks out at 10:00, Mori-no-kaze takes check-ins until 17:00, and dinner is not until 19:30. Nothing about this day is tight, which after yesterday’s Blue Line finish is the point.

Worth stopping for

• Shuku Kasen Park (宿河川公園)info — a riverside park on R107 at Higashiyuri, early in the day. Parking, and 日吉神社 Hiyoshi-jinja beside it. Its season is late April, when carp streamers are strung over the Ishizawa river under the cherries; the park’s own colour usually comes in early November, so 9 October is early for it.
• doppio coffee factoryinfo — at Ōmagari in Daisen, on the way through. Roasts on the premises and plots the beans on a chart by body and acidity. 08:00–18:00, seven days. Rated 4.3 from 86 reviews.

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• Kakunodateinfo — the best-preserved samurai district in the north, dark wooden walls and weeping cherries. Twenty minutes' walk end to end.
• 武家屋敷 (bukeyashiki) 石黒家 (Ishiguro-ke)info — the oldest of the surviving houses in the quarter: the gate carries a date of 1809 and the thatched house went up with it. The Ishiguro served the Satake north branch as accounts officials on a stipend of about 150 koku. It is the only house on the street where the family still lives in the main building, and the thirteenth-generation head showed us round himself. ¥500.

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• Lake Tazawainfo — the deepest lake in Japan at 423 m (1,388 ft), and a startling cobalt blue. The route takes in both shores: the gilded Tatsuko statue and 浮木神社 (Ukigi-jinja) on the west, and the Kunimasu museum round on the east.

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• Lake Tazawa Kunimasu Museum (クニマス未来館)info — on the east shore at Tazawako-kata. The 国鱒 kunimasu was a black kokanee found nowhere but this lake. In 1940 the acidic Tama river was diverted in for hydro power, the lake turned, and the fish was declared extinct — then turned up alive in 2010 in Lake Saiko under Mount Fuji, descended from eggs sent there in 1935. ¥300, 09:00–16:00, closed Tuesdays; free English audio guide.
• Sengan Passinfo — the R46 crossing into Iwate, 1.3 km (0.8 mi) off the line. Tunnels and long sweepers rather than hairpins.

Dinner

The Autumn Creative menu, by executive chef Koichi Fujiwara (藤原宏一). Nine courses from 19:30, in a private room, すずらん (Suzuran).

The autumn markers run through it: 松茸 (matsutake) in the teapot, 栗 (kuri) chestnut in the rice and again in the dessert, 菊花 (kikka) chrysanthemum on the sesame tofu. アケビ (akebi) is a Tōhoku autumn fruit with a bitter purple rind, which is why it arrives stuffed with meat and miso and grilled rather than served as fruit. 朴葉味噌 (hōba-miso) is a Hida method — the leaf serves as the pan and seasons the beef as it scorches.

Breakfast

Eleven items, most of them named for where they came from.

The card explains two of them. 久慈琥珀サーモン (Kuji kohaku sāmon) is farmed at Kuji on the Iwate coast and fed on the skins and seeds of 山ぶどう (yamabudō) wild grapes, a Kuji speciality, which is where the amber flesh colour comes from. 岩泉ヨーグルト (Iwaizumi yōguruto) is made at Iwaizumi inland, and is known for a thick, almost chewy set. The soy and miso come from 宮田醤油店 (Miyata Shōyuten) in Shizukuishi, the next town. Signed by the executive chef, 藤原宏一 (Fujiwara Kōichi).

Golf day

We teed off at 09:00 and it turned out to be a six-hour round, with a forty-minute “mandatory” lunch in the middle 🙂. The course was beautiful and all the staff were very friendly.

Worth stopping for

• Mt. Iwateinfo — fills the skyline from most of the course; mid-October should have the surrounding forest in full colour.
• Hachimantai Aspite Lineinfo — an hour north, and a superb afternoon out-and-back if we finish early.
• Koiwai Farminfo — twenty minutes east, for the tree-lined approach and the soft-serve.

Dinner

御献立 (o-kondate), the second night’s card — eleven courses, again signed by Koichi Fujiwara (藤原宏一).

芋の子 (imonoko) is the taro that gives Tōhoku its autumn 芋煮会 (imonikai), the riverbank hotpot parties held through October; here it comes as a single pot in a soy broth. カスベ (kasube) is the northern word for skate — a northern Honshu and Hokkaido fish rarely seen on menus further south.

Breakfast

Last morning at Mori-no-kaze, and the third day under its roof — which is how the talk got round to the saying that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. Offered at the table as a Swedish thing; it is in fact Latin. Post tres saepe dies vilescit piscis et hospes — after three days both fish and guest lose their worth. Benjamin Franklin has the blunt version, in Poor Richard for 1736: “Fish and visitors stink in 3 days.” A good laugh over the rice, and then we packed.

On the road

South out of Shizukuishi down the west side of the Ou range — not the R4 corridor through Morioka but the quieter line through Nishiwaga and the Yokote basin, forest and reservoirs most of the way. Into Miyagi past Onikobe, and the last stretch drops through the Naruko Gorge, which in mid-October is one of the best foliage runs in Tohoku. 175 km (108 mi): a transit day with a very good ending.

Running order

175 km and about three and three quarter hours riding. Naruko Hotel stops taking check-ins at 16:00, an hour earlier than most of the trip; a 09:00 start puts us in by mid-afternoon with the gorge, the last three kilometres of the day, done on the way.

Worth stopping for

• Nishiwagainfo — 51 km (32 mi) in and 1.9 km (1.2 mi) off the line. Reservoir country, almost no traffic, and the snowiest inhabited place in Honshu in winter.
• みるくぼーやショップ (Miruku Bōya Shop)info — the shop of 湯田牛乳公社 (Yuda Gyūnyū Kōsha), the Yuda dairy, at Kotsunagizawa in Nishiwaga. Milk, yoghurt and soft cream from the one herd; みるくぼーや (Miruku Bōya), the milk boy, is the house mascot and is painted over the building inside and out. Rated 4.0 from 210 reviews. Tel 0197-82-2005.

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• The Yokote basininfo — 73 km (45 mi) in, 1.9 km (1.2 mi) off. Rice plain ringed by mountains; Yokote yakisoba is the local lunch if the timing lands.
• KWANS COFFEE ROASTERYinfo — at 上境 (Kamizakai), about 4 km north of Yokote station, so it comes up before the town centre. Roasts on site; the espresso tonic and the pudding are what reviewers go back for. 11:00–19:00, closed Tuesdays. Rated 4.3 from 70 reviews. Tel 0182-23-7358.
• CAFE Perleinfo — at 材木町 (Zaimokuchō) in Yuzawa, the café of the Yuzawa Grand Hotel, with its own door onto the street. More pâtisserie than coffee shop, and the crêpes are enormous — takeaway crêpes from a hotel kitchen being an unusual thing to find. 11:00–18:00, closed Tuesdays. Rated 4.3 from 19 reviews. Tel 0183-72-3030.

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• 小安峡大噴湯 (Oyasukyō Daifuntō)info — on R398 at Minase in Yuzawa. The 皆瀬川 (Minase-gawa) has cut a V-shaped gorge some 60 m deep and 3 km long out of the flank of 栗駒山 (Kurikoma-yama). Steam and water at 98°C blow out of a fissure in the cliff at the bottom, around ten tonnes an hour, and the walkway runs through it. Ten minutes down a stepped path from either car park — the southern one is the steeper. Free, open at all hours. Rated 4.4 from 850 reviews. Colour peaks here in late October.

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• Naruko Gorgeinfo — 172 km (107 mi) in, the Ofukazawa bridge viewpoint is the classic shot. Naruko town is also the home of kokeshi dolls, with workshops open to visitors.

On the road

West out of Naruko on R47, then south down the Mogami valley through Murayama into the Yamagata basin at Higashine. From there east on R48, up the 乱川 (Midare-gawa) past the 関山大滝 (Sekiyama Ōtaki) falls and over the Sekiyama pass into Miyagi, then south through the hills behind Sendai to Kawasaki. From there back west over the Zao Echo Line and down to Kaminoyama. A long way round, and most of it on two-lane river roads. 川崎町 (Kawasaki-machi) is a town of eight thousand in the Miyagi hills, no relation to the motorcycle company — that one is named after its founder, 川崎正蔵 (Kawasaki Shōzō), who opened a shipyard at Tsukiji in 1878.

Running order

Skipping the gorge at Akiu and the climb to the Okama puts the day back on a 09:00 start with room to spare. 山ベーグル (Yama Bagel) opens at 10:00; Hashimotoya closes check-in at 16:00. Those two set the shape of the day.

Worth stopping for

• 山ベーグル (Yama Bagel)info — at 中央東 (Chūō-higashi) in Higashine. A bakery that does nothing but bagels, around ¥200–300 each and heavier than they look; green curry and chilli con carne are among the fillings. Cash only. 10:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays. Rated 4.2 from 306 reviews. Tel 0237-56-3370.

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• 関山大滝 (Sekiyama Ōtaki)info — a waterfall on R48 at Sekiyama in Higashine, right beside the road with its own car park. About 10 m high and 15 m across, on the 乱川 (Midare-gawa), a tributary of the 最上川 (Mogami-gawa). Colour here runs mid-October into early November.

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• The Zao Echo Line and the Okama craterinfo — the crossing of the Zao range at the end of the day, ridden through rather than stopped at. The Okama crater lake sits on the shoulder above it, up a separate toll spur, the 蔵王ハイライン (Zaō Highline). The Echo Line closes at night from early November and for winter shortly after.

Dinner

Ten-course dinner by chef 奥山 (Okuyama).

Four of the named ingredients are Yamagata’s own rather than Japanese generally. 雪若丸 (Yukiwakamaru) is one of the prefecture’s two flagship rice brands, bred as a firmer-grained counterpart to つや姫 (Tsuyahime). あけがらし (akegarashi) is a fermented mustard-and-miso condiment from 長井 (Nagai), made the same way since the Edo period. だだちゃ豆 (dadacha-mame) is the 庄内 (Shōnai) edamame grown around 鶴岡 (Tsuruoka) — a short season and markedly sweeter than ordinary edamame. 米沢牛 (Yonezawa-gyū) is the prefecture’s wagyū, from the basin in the south.

On the road

South from Kaminoyama through the Yonezawa basin, then over 白布峠 (Shirabu-tōge) on the 西吾妻スカイバレー (Nishi-Azuma Sky Valley) and down to 桧原湖 (Hibara-ko) on the Fukushima side. East along the 磐梯吾妻レークライン (Bandai-Azuma Lake Line) past 秋元湖 (Akimoto-ko) and the 中津川渓谷 (Nakatsugawa) gorge, then round the south side of 磐梯山 (Bandai-san) and west to 東山温泉 (Higashiyama Onsen) at Aizuwakamatsu. Two-lane mountain road almost the whole way.

Running order

Worth stopping for

• 西吾妻スカイバレー (Nishi-Azuma Sky Valley)info — 17.8 km from 白布温泉 (Shirabu Onsen) above Yonezawa over 白布峠 to 早稲沢 (Wasezawa) on the north shore of 桧原湖. Toll-free. Shut for winter from mid-November to late April, so mid-October is near the end of its season.
• The Bandai-Azuma Lake Lineinfo — the road that strings together 桧原湖 (Hibara-ko), 小野川湖 (Onogawa-ko) and 秋元湖 (Akimoto-ko) on the Ura-Bandai side. The higher 磐梯吾妻スカイライン (Skyline) is a separate road and is not on this route.
• 秋元湖展望台 (Akimoto-ko observation deck)info — at 桧原 (Hibara) in Kitashiobara, a hundred metres down a narrow unpaved path from a small pull-in on the Lake Line. The lake goes mirror-flat early and that is what people come for. Free, open at all hours. Rated 4.2. Bear warnings are posted along the path.
• 中津川渓谷レストハウス (Nakatsugawa Keikoku Rest House)info — at 若宮 (Wakamiya) in Inawashiro, halfway along the Lake Line. Ramen, curry and soft serve, ordered from a ticket machine. The trail down into the gorge starts here and they hand out a map of it. Large car park, with motorcycle spaces in front of the shop. 09:00–16:00, seven days. Rated 3.5 from 478 reviews. Tel 0242-64-2817. Reviewers warn about monkeys on the road at the Lake Line entrance.
• ネコママウンテン (Nekoma Mountain)info — at 更科 (Sarashina) in Bandai, the south side of the ski area Hoshino Resorts made by joining the old Alts Bandai to Nekoma, which sits on the back of 磐梯山. The south face looks down over Lake Inawashiro. Rated 3.9 from 1,626 reviews. Tel 0242-74-5000.
• Lake Inawashiroinfo — the fourth largest in Japan, with Mt. Bandai reflected in it on a still morning.

Dinner

Ten-course dinner, from 18:30.

On the road

South-east out of Aizu to the west shore of Lake Inawashiro, then south through Konan and Tenei on a line that keeps off the trunk roads. Over the Shirakawa plateau at 800 m, with Nasu-dake ahead, then down into Nasu — the Yumoto onsen village under the mountain. West from there through the Shiobara gorge and over the pass to Kawaji, then up the dead-end valley to Yunishigawa, where the road stops. 188 km (117 mi). That was the line; the weather had other ideas.

Running order

Rained out. The plan was 08:30 away and at Kamenoi by 15:00 with two coffee stops and the suspension bridge at Nasu Yumoto in between; what happened instead was lunch at a service area and a straight run to the hotel — which still put us in at 15:00, the hour we had planned for.

Worth stopping for

• Starbucks, TSUTAYA Bookstore Aizuinfo — 門田町大字黒岩, 3 km west of Konjakutei, open 08:00 to 23:00. Inside the bookshop, and you can take anything off the shelves to the table while you drink.
• NASU SHOZO CAFEinfo — 高久乙, 10:00 to 16:30. Roasts its own, and unusually for Japan offers a light roast as well as the dark; scones come with clotted cream and raspberry jam. The house now runs several shops in Nasu, Kuroiso and Shirakawa off the one roastery. Large car park, and busy enough that it sometimes fills.
• Foot Printsinfo — 900 m from SHOZO, 12:00 to 18:00, shut Tuesdays and Fridays. Four seats, jazz on vinyl, a wood stove, and the owner brews every cup himself. The quieter of the two, and the one still open if the day runs late.
• The stone torii at Konan — a moss-covered gate on the verge of the prefectural road, with no building near it. The shrine it serves, 隠津島神社 (Okitsushima-jinja), is 2 km further on; it is listed in the tenth-century Engishiki and locally called お杉様 (Osugi-sama), after the pair of ancient cedars behind its gate.
• つつじ吊橋, Nasu Yumoto — a narrow footbridge over the gorge with the Nasu range behind it, named for the azaleas on the slopes around. It moves underfoot in any wind. Free car park five minutes below.
• Yunishigawa villageinfo — founded by Heike refugees hiding after Dan-no-ura. Households here still avoid carp streamers and crowing roosters, on the grounds that either might have given the fugitives away.

On the road

South from Yunishigawa down the Kinugawa valley, then through Imaichi and Utsunomiya and on into Tokyo. Straight to Rushcorp for the handover, which leaves the afternoon for checking in and getting across town to dinner without hurrying. It ends in city traffic, so still worth a margin.

Running order

A straight run south with the handover done early. The 19:00 table is the one fixed point; everything before it has slack in it.