A nice day for a drive

Saturday, 15th March 2009

When I first came to Tojo I visited the huge yama-zakura cherry tree in Chidori-beshaku along the narrow Route 12, several kilometres from Tojo town. I enjoy going for drives along old roads that take you deep into the mountains where you'd be lucky to see a passerby. Today, Naomi and I decided to go for a drive along Route 12 that winds through to Okayama Prefecture from the large cherry tree. The road, with steep falls to the left and only wide enough for one car to pass, was covered with twigs, small rocks and dead leaves. There were even sections on the road where the trickling water had frozen over. Along the way we saw an amazing sight where the temperature had dropped low enough overnight and remained at the right temperature for the water passing through the roots of the trees above to freeze into icicles right below. Once we arrived at the prefectural border we got out of the car and took a breath of fresh air as we were both feeling a little car sick! It was a rough ride. We continued on and noticed that the road was in better condition once in Okayama and were a lot wider than the Hiroshima part of Route 12.

I have posted a entry about Mt. Daisen previously but since the visibility was great, I thought I would drive us to the little cafe where I had lunch last time. The view of the snow-capped Mt. Daisen was spectacular.