(The following entry is from my paper diary, hence the quotation marks. Comments may follow at the end. These are written after the completion of the trip.)
Day 15: Friday, July 30, 2010. Kosaka to Lake Tazawa.
"I ate my breakfast of natto (3 packs) and 4 packs of oatmeal with raisins and left at 5:30 in the rain. After an hour - good time - I reached the fork where the main road, 282, continued to Morioka and mine continued, 341, to Tazawako.
In the rain. I found a bus shelter - rather spacious - and took a break out of the rain. I eventually dismounted and spent a lot of time pushing the bike in the rain. The intensity varied. Once it even stopped, only to return in sheets. There was a small, open-sided shelter at what seemed to be a summit so I took a rest. After a short rest I set out downhill - I noticed again that districts pretty much follow the summit of passes. However, a little more than a kilometer on I realized I wasn't wearing my glasses so I turned around and with a burst of energy cycled back to the shelter where I found my glasses on a ledge where I had placed them.
I continued generally downward and passed the Shintamagawa onsen village area. I noticed that the condition of the road surface had considerably worsened. Oh, I forgot something. Before the summit I found a convenience store - 'Camel' - and a 'free' onsen across the road. I asked the girl inside the convenience store if one could enter the onsen - actually two shallow wooden boxes about 1 1/2 m wide and 3 m long each - but she said they were for your feet only. As they were also covered by a canvas tent, in the event of another cold hard rain I would feel no hesitation to immerse myself completely. None of the few passing cars took notice anyway.
...back to the story... It was downhill. Controlling my speed was important. I tried not to exceed 25 kph. Eventually I came down to an area several kms above the reservoir above Lake Tazawa. There a road worker was detouring traffic. I followed a truck and, after a kilometer or so, found the road narrowing until it appeared not to have had traffic for a long time.
I turned around and went back to where I noticed a side road coming down from the blocked road. I asked another road worker about the road condition between there and Tazawako, but he didn't seem to want to give me a clear answer - unless he thought I wanted to go uphill! As I saw traffic approach from the Tazawa side, I proceeded that way. The rain was not too heavy and I passed the reservoir and followed a river into Tazawako. I found the youth hostel though it appeared closed. However, the building next door - marked as a minshuku - also had the JYH mark as well so I checked in for 1 night with dinner.
Found 3 foreigners staying there: an American girl missing her 4 upper front teeth - she was cleaning her dentures she said - who had spent several days in the mountains during the storm. The others were an American guy who had taken an English teaching job in Niigata and his German woman friend.
I had a Japanese roommate that evening. Unfortunately, my iphone kept turning on and playing music several times that night.
Total distance: 104 km"
February 7, 2010. The open-sided shelter where I left my glasses was about 8.5 south of the "Foot Hot Spring". I determined the location from Google satellite photos.
A more detailed time line:
5:30 a.m., left Kosaka hotel
6:50, arrived at junction of Rte. 282 (to Morioka) and Rte. 341 (to Lake Tazawa)
9:15, ar. at "Camel" conven. store on Rte. 341 near Tokoromubanchi (トコロ無番地）
12:20 p.m., arrived in Shibukurozawa hot spring area on Rte. 341 (渋黒沢）
3:40, arrived at Tazawa Youth Hostel
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