Driving through Tohoku in 5 days?

Is 5 days enough?

i'll be arriving in Koriyama on Sept 3rd and getting a rental car for 5 and half days. my goal is to aimlessly drive up & down both coasts and fit in (climbing the steps of Mt. Hagurosan & Yamadera temple, Jodogahama beach, Ozersan & Matsushima Bay)

i figure 5 days is enough but i'm keeping the rental for another day incase of bad weather or if i spend too much time somewhere along the way.

Aside from the Sea of Japan Coastal route & Bandai Azumi Skyline, are there any other scenic roads that must be experienced in the region?

thanks

5 days... you are massively underestimating the time - you will be spending most of your time in the car particularly if you want to see scenic routes. Road are often quite narrow with little scope for overtaking. On mountain roads - in many places you will struggle to go more than 50km / hour in a car. We took a motor biking holiday up the Sanriku Coast several years ago and two days to go from Matsushima to Kuji was seriously rushed.

I would rethink your time frame, rethink your area or be content to spend a lot of time of expressways. (The expressway on the Japan Sea side is only one car in each direction and can be painfully slow.)


Is there are reason for Koriyama being your starting point? Sendai would make more sense. Yamadera is probably more easily done by train - if you like walking / nature get off at the station before and walk.

The Japan Sea Coast is great driving. The coast on the Pacific side in someways is more beautiful - despite the tsunami damage - but the road doesn't run directly along the coast and you need to stop and get out of the car to look at places. Kita yamazaki cliff? is impresive (between Miyako and Kuji) but the coastline is dotted with natural beauty that the tsunami hasn't taken away.

I haven't been to Osorezan but I've only heard good things about it.

Highlights of Tohoku for me that I have been to include:

- Towada ko,
- Japan Sea Coast - Fukaura is not a bad place to stop & has an interesting temple.
- Shirakami sanchi - the road between Hirosaki and the coast that goes through Shirakami would definitely be on my list (I've never been there at the right time of the year).
- Sakata on the Japan Sea Coast (I haven't been to Tobishima near there but would like to next time I'm in the area)
- Chokkai san, Gassan. (I haven't been to Haguro san)
- Jodogahama, Kitayamazaki falls and lots of places on the Pacific side I don't remember the names of.
- Goshogake / Tamagawa / Hachimantai - beautiful nature, volcanic activity.
- Zao san, for a caldera mountain.
- Hachirogata - not because it's beautiful, but because it seems like such a terrible waste to have filled in a lake to make land for rice that isn't being grown much anymore.

If you are on country roads, and want to go to quite off the beaten places like Tehaizaka or Tahoin a GPS will be a big help


http://ponkanchan.blogspot.jp/2011/05/road-much-less-travelled-tehaiza...

Bandai is on your list, I understand Koriyama, my apologies. For a trip that includes Bandai,
Matsushima, Jodogahama, Osorezan, Japan Sea side, Dewa Sanzan, Yamadera, Koriyama. I would say 10 days at the least. 50km/hour is also realistic for the Japan Sea Coast.


You can get some sense from here that the Sanriku coast has a lot of inlets don' think of it as a straight line - some of the very scenic parts are on peninsulas that jut out from the main highway. You can get some sense in the pictures below that you need to get out the the car and walk to the coast. Jodogahama for example you'd park probably 700m from the beach in front of the rock formation. Multiply that by numerous scenic spots and you can see why it takes longer than you might expect if you are used to roads in Aus or the US.
You are probably well aware of it, but there is a mountain range that runs through the length of the centre of Honshu - as such Yamadera is more logically put with Dewa Sanzan than with Matsushima.
http://ponkanchan.blogspot.jp/2011/03/sanriku-coast-part-2.html

Thanks for the info.

I picked koriyama as starting point since I didn't want to be on the train for more than 3 hours after the 15hr flight to narita.

I knew that 50km would be top speed for one lane coastal route but My thinking was , because it's September and that I'll be driving Tuesday-Friday, that there be less congestion.

I once made the mistake of being on a coastal road during tourist season in the USA and I was lucky to be doing 5km/hr.

You can get an train first stop Sendai from Tokyo station (2 hours) which would be not much time difference from the train to Koriyama - which is an all stops train.

The Hayabusa goes Sendai-Morioka- Hachinohe - Aomori.

I'd consider going straight to Morioka, going from there to the coast - Miyako, Jodogahama, Kita Yamazaki, Osorezan, back via the Japan Sea to Morioka.

There is a recent trip report of that nature by public transport on the Thorntree.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2210895

A

PS on that - the express trains that stop Sendai, Morioka are booked seats only, so book at Narita. The JR East pass would be a good investment.