Hard Rain

July 24, 1983, Sunday

I left the house at 10:30am in the heavy rain. In fact, it rained heavily all day. I made my way to Hirosaki station, 50km away. I saw on the news that the heavy rain has caused a lot of damage, especially in the town of Masuda where about 50 people died and about 100 people are still missing. Those landslides caused by the rain can do a lot of damage in these towns.

My knees are still bothering me, but I should be fine for the rest of Honshu. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow for my last day of running on the main island of Japan. The Hirosaki people treated me kindly. I got to tour the city with some of the Hirosaki runners and went to see the famous Hirosaki Castle.

Some interesting information about this city: There are numerous remains of cultural assets in Hirosaki, a town centered around Hirosaki Castle. The town is also known as Little Kyoto for its historic set up and the cultural atmosphere. After the Meiji era (1868 - 1912), the town developed as an agricultural district and became Japan's largest producer of apples. Plantation of the fruit is known to have started in 1875 when seeds of western apples introduced through a foreign teacher were planted and since then research brought forth improvement in quality. The prefecture's highest peak on Mt. Iwaki-san is on the west, the mountain ranges of Hakkoda-san are on the east, mountain ranges of Dewa-san are on the south, and Iwaki-gawa River's stream runs from north to south through Tsugaru Plains.