The Korekawa site lies on the southern edge of Hachinohe, a port city on the Pacific coast of Aomori prefecture in northern Honshu, and it is one of seventeen locations in the UNESCO listing of the Jōmon prehistoric sites of northern Japan. The Jōmon were hunter-gatherers who lived in these islands for over ten thousand years, making some of the oldest pottery in the world and developing a remarkably settled, sophisticated way of life without farming. At Korekawa, waterlogged layers preserved things that usually vanish: wooden bowls, combs, bows and baskets, many of them coated in red lacquer, showing a level of craft that surprises everyone who sees them.
The Korekawa Jōmon Museum, next to the site, displays these finds, and it also houses one of Japan's national treasures: the Gasshō Dogū, a clay figure from about 3,500 years ago, sitting with knees drawn up and hands pressed together as if in prayer. It came from the nearby Kazahari site. Standing in front of it, you feel an odd kinship across the millennia.
Hachinohe itself is a working fishing port, one of the biggest in Japan, and its morning markets are legendary. Tatehana wharf hosts a huge Sunday market at dawn, where locals and visitors eat grilled fish, noodles and sweets among hundreds of stalls. The local dish is senbei-jiru, a soup in which special wheat crackers are broken into a broth with vegetables and meat or fish; it sounds odd and tastes excellent. Squid and mackerel are local pride.
For riders, Hachinohe is a gateway to some fine coastal roads. Head south along the Sanriku coast, with its rias, cliffs and fishing villages slowly rebuilt after the 2011 tsunami, or north towards the Shimokita peninsula and Lake Towada inland, a caldera lake with the beautiful Oirase gorge running out of it. The roads are well surfaced and traffic is light outside the city, but autumn brings heavy rain and winters are cold with snow, especially inland. Fuel and services are easy in a city of nearly a quarter of a million people. Be aware that Japanese petrol stations often close in the evening in rural areas, so fill up in town.