{"id":875,"date":"2026-09-22T11:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/?p=875"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:14:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:14:03","slug":"silver-week-2026-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/2026\/09\/22\/silver-week-2026-day-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Week 2026 \u2013 Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Hirosaki to Aomori<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Weather:<\/strong> cloudy in the morning, then sunny.\u00a0 Low of 19C or so, high of 25C.
Distance:<\/strong> 280km<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\n
PiwigoPress shortcode attribute "id" is invalid: id 'size=me' is not a positive number
\n\n\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<< Previous Day<\/a> | Next Day >><\/a> | Photo Album<\/a> | Video<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Today was a day of epic roads and several unexpected side quests..<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Woke up before my alarm at 6am, then slowly got ready. Surprisingly my motorbike gear was mostly dry despite having been kept in a locker overnight. I programmed the first part of the route into my phone and headed off, only then remembering that I had wanted to take a look at Hirosaki Castle. My route actually went past the castle grounds, so I did a complete loop. Unfortunately there’s no spot from which one can see the castle from the road. I stopped at one of the gates and went to take a look on foot, but the grounds are quite large and to get close to the castle you need to buy a ticket – for which it was much too early.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>
\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>
\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\r\n

So I jumped back on the bike and kept going, grabbing petrol and then doing my loop of Mt Iwaki. The circle-road around the mountain is actually a fair way out, and the southern and eastern sections offer some nice views onto the mountain whereas the northern and western sections are more in forests. On the recommendation of somebody I took the road up to the 8th station, being naughty and skipping the queue that had formed at the toll booth. It’s 1200yen to drive up. I had also tweaked things a bit so that my bike hit exactly 40,000km at the top!<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>
\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\r\n

Here starts the first of my side-quests. My plan was just to drive up, take a look at the view, then keep going. Instead I saw a chairlift going up to 9th station, so I did that. And from there the walk to the summit was supposed to be only 40 minutes, so I did that! In all my motorbike gear… Unfortunately by the time I got to the top it was pretty cloudy and while bits and pieces of the view poked through I never could get a full picture. Still cool to have done it! I skipped back down the mountain, jumped on the bike, and headed up towards Cape Tappi, my original plan for the day!<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>
\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>
\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\r\n

Enroute was a my next side-quest – a sign to an Inari shrine, which I followed on the spur of the moment. Turns out it’s a pretty huge shrine, with a “walk of a thousand tori gates”. While I didn’t count them, there were a LOT and they were set into a very nicely landscaped garden. My next stop was just on the side of the road near the ocean as I was getting a bit tired – the climb up the mountain, then the stairs at the shrine, and a bit of lack of sleep and long days were taking their toll. Unfortunately I didn’t find a coffee, so I made do with a coke and a grilled squid. Squid seem to be very popular in this area!<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\r\n

Unexpectedly route 339 going up to Cape Tappi turned out to be open after all! This was one of the most epic roads I’ve ridden on, fast sweeping corners and stunning coastal scenery as it sweeps over the cliffs along the ocean. Cape Tappi, on the other hand, was very underwhelming, so I’m glad I had done a lot of other things earlier in the day instead of spending a lot of time there as I had originally planned. The lighthouse is quite small and not open to the public and there didn’t seem to be much else on the cape.<\/p>\r\n

So after a quick ice-cream and a look around I kept going towards Aomori. Unlike the epic road on the west coast, the east coast road is narrow and almost entirely goes through suburbia with limited overtaking opportunities and a lot of slow traffic. An exercise in patience for sure, although it has a few nice views as well. Overall a road to forget.. once into Aomori my route took me over the bay bridge and soon I was at my hotel, just a standard business hotel with the downside for bikers that they not only change bike for parking, but also require them to park in an overflow carpark 2 blocks away..<\/p>\r\n

\"\"\/<\/a>\n\n <\/div><\/div>\r\n

A nice hot shower later and I went to find some Aomori cuisine – Miso Curry Milk Ramen. Sounds weird, but it was delicious! Now time to update the blog and head to bed.. it’s been another long day!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\n
PiwigoPress shortcode attribute "id" is invalid: id 'size=sq' is not a positive number
\n\n\r\n

More blurb…<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hirosaki to Aomori Weather: cloudy in the morning, then sunny.\u00a0 Low of 19C or so, high of 25C.Distance: 280km << Previous Day | Next Day >> | Photo Album | Video Today was a day of epic roads and several unexpected side quests.. Woke up before my alarm at 6am, then slowly got ready. Surprisingly my motorbike gear was mostly dry despite having been kept in a locker overnight. I programmed the first part of the route into my phone and headed off, only then remembering that I had wanted to take a look at Hirosaki Castle. My route actually went past the castle grounds, so I did a complete loop. Unfortunately there’s no spot from which one can see the castle from the road. I stopped at one of the gates and went to take a look on foot, but the grounds are quite large and to get close to the castle you need to buy a ticket – for which it was much too early. So I jumped back on the bike and kept going, grabbing petrol and then doing my loop of Mt Iwaki. The circle-road around the mountain is actually a fair way out, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,93,41,22],"tags":[96,23],"class_list":["post-875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-japan","category-motorbike","category-travel","tag-japan","tag-travel-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":885,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions\/885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micha.name\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}