In which Sid and Doris find that the Izu peninsula is not like the Gower Peninsula.
The day starts early at the Fuji Speedway and the odd alignment of the loudspeaker system means that Sid and Doris are treated to every word of every announcement three timetimetimes.
S and D will usually make sure to see industrial archeology. Just off route are the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces, and so alas we are not going to see them. Under the Tokugawa shogunate Japan was worried it was falling behind in iron clad battleships. Part of the answer was to support new iron works like this from 1853, while the coast was fortified against invasion. The works has been a national monument since 1922 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here is the picture we didn’t take but saw on a board later.
The route takes to Skyline Parkways (cf journey with the JGG across America) and the haiku contest continues.
Strapped into my seat
I am driven quickly past
Autumn loveliness
These are tourist roads with few junctions and are a pleasant way of making progress as they are truck free. We come down to coffee on the coast at Numazu Nishiurakisho. Sid goes to take this picture and a woman comes rushing towards him, That’s my car! And she’s right to be pleased. An Alpine 110 in perhaps the best colours standing out in a roadscape of dull.
Not to be beaten for cute, here’s Teal at the waterside control.
The cafe owner had kept memorabilia of MY Stella Polaris, built in Norway in 1927 and eventually based on this bay as a restaurant ship in 1969.
At our next stop a 1971 Datsun Skyline, two litre straight six, an early version of the legendary range. And the owner makes Sid look under the bonnet (or perhaps Sid might have hinted that he’d like to look).
Sometimes we are the cars on the road, two open Bentleys in the rain.
We stop for the night at Shimoda, in a Prince Hotel with a sea view. A walk out to a convenience store scores beer and many strange snacks (see Doris on the topic).
There ought to be many opportunities to see Mount Fuji. In this case it was in cloud, so Sid models the shape. Though he is not as big as Mount Fuji he is much closer to the camera.
We are now driving through tea-growing country where, as you would expect every leaf is carefully air-cooled by electric fans set between the rows of bushes.
There is a scheduled stop to be taught how to brew green tea (water is poured from pot to cup to vase to pitcher to cup and timed as well) and then you have a drink that tastes like boiled pea shoots and have to go yum yum. It is easy to get dehydrated in a hot old car so we go yum yum several times even though each subsequent cup tastes even more like boiled pea shoots. Or as Sid says, tea weed.
Japan is mountainous and to keep the mountains from falling on the road there is much engineering, seen here not falling on David and Jo in their Chrysler 75.
On a smaller scale of engineering, a Mini based Pet Shop Milk van. do they sell dog milk?
We are now going through Hamamatsu. Doris says it is not in the guide book. No, says Sid, and nor would Wolverhampton. We stop for petrol, where Sid is reminded to earth his hand on the red Static Grounding pad before using the pump.
The stop is at the Grand Mercure Lake Hamana Resort and Spa which is carefully set up to cater for large coach groups. A better route to evening happiness is the Sweeps’ Tailgate Party, to which all have brought many bottles.
Soon we will be on our way via Toyota city to Nara and the tourist trail… But tonight the car park is the place to be.