In 1887, a farmer digging in the fields near Kamegaoka, in the Tsugaru region of northern Honshu, found a strange clay figure: a stocky body covered with patterns and a face dominated by huge eyes like snow goggles. The shakōki-dogū, the goggle-eyed figurine, became one of the most famous objects of the Jōmon culture, the hunter-gatherers who lived in Japan for more than ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. Kamegaoka was a burial and settlement site of the final Jōmon period, about three thousand years ago, and it has yielded lacquerware, pottery and figurines of remarkable sophistication. It is part of the Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
The site itself is a quiet field on a low terrace, with a small monument and a statue of the figurine. More striking is the railway station of Kizukuri, in the nearby town of Tsugaru, whose façade is a giant replica of the goggle-eyed figure, with eyes that light up when trains arrive. It is one of the oddest buildings in Japan, and locals are rather fond of it.
The Tsugaru plain is a broad, fertile landscape of rice fields and apple orchards, framed by the perfect volcanic cone of Mount Iwaki, the local Fuji. Aomori prefecture produces more apples than any other in Japan, and in autumn the orchards are heavy with red fruit. To the west, the Shichiri-Nagahama coast runs along the Sea of Japan, with dunes and pine forests, and Lake Jūsan, a brackish lagoon nearby, is famous for its clams.
The riding is relaxed. The roads across the plain are straight and flat, with little traffic, and the coast road along the Sea of Japan is pleasant, with sea views and fresh wind. For more challenge, the Iwaki Skyline, a toll road climbing the flank of Mount Iwaki in dozens of hairpins, is a classic, open in the warmer months, with spectacular views from the top. Further south, the Shirakami mountains, with their ancient beech forests, offer wild, winding roads.
Goshogawara and the town of Tsugaru have fuel, convenience stores and restaurants. Winters here are long and very snowy; the riding season runs from spring to autumn. Try the local soba, or a bowl of scallops from Mutsu Bay.