End story

The second half of the trip was to be north from Sendai and an exploration of Hokkaido.
Planning for our trips is often casual, to say  the least. We look at an atlas map, assess the terrain, avoid tourist hot spots and hope for the best. I was sure Fukushima, well to  the south, was the tsunami affected area.  So it was only when we landed in Sendai,  and noticed information about a three meter inundation of  the airport building, that we started to realise that we were approaching the epicenter of tsunami damage.
For two weeks we cycled north. It is impossible to describe how in every city, through every tiny settlement on the coast, after six years, the scenes of raw desolation.
Acres of scraped bare land, where schools, shops, village centres and communities thrived.
Huge, up to 13 meter high,  tsunami walls are being built across almost every river valley, all low lying land. New roads, a major highway straddling valleys and boring but through hill sides, trucks, cranes and unimaginable volumes of concrete coloured every day.
So while sobering and fascinating it was tough cycle touring.
We did consider re routing over some hills, to the west, but were seriously warned about bears.
We then heard that Don's mother was ill, and  soon as we could left from Sapporo for Queensland and her funeral.

I am so glad we have been to Japan, and sorry we did not complete the trip as I suspect the best was yet very to come in terms of scenery and relaxed riding.
Japan excelled as a place for easy ,wild, camping, and outstandingly friendly people.


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