On this trip we've cycled through plenty of small villages where old men and women are tending to their gardens and rice fields and we seldom see children on their way to school. It would seem that just like in Finland many young people have chosen to move to the city, leaving their parents and grandparents to look after the old house in the countryside.
The fishing villages on the northern coast of Honshu are even a bit more quiet than their southern counterparts. Many restaurants, hotels and gas stations have closed down, their windows empty and dark and tall grass growing in the cracks of the asphalt in their parking lots. Even the ubiquitous "Pachinko & Slot" game arcades look a bit rusty and forlorn.
This is a face of Japan that Christoffer has became especially fond of. Maybe it's his happy childhood years spent on small sailing boats and at the family summer cottage in the archipelago that have left a soft spot in his heart for rusty fishing boats and windy harbors. We haven't see the loud, crazy and colorful cities Japan is known for, but we feel that we've seen a different side of the country that's much more appealing to us.
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