Tono, Iwate

Some more interesting vehicles from my walk around the town of Tono yesterday... In conversation with our hosts and their friends, I learned that you can purchase a new 'keitoraku' - light truck - for about ¥800,000, or about C$9000 - $9500. If you want a box that dumps, like a tiny dump truck, it costs a bit more. Canadian import regulations are much less strict for vehicles older than 15 years; I wonder if it would be possible to find an older one and bring it to Canada? - it would be interesting to demonstrate that there are some alternatives to the big things that we use. Today I was riding with Tokuyoshi's friend Iwama-kun in his 'keitoraku', and it was just fine - I'm an average-sized Canadian and he's larger than I am and there was plenty of room in the cab. He said his truck gets over 20km/litre, and that some of the newer keijidosha - the cars - are hitting 30km/litre - 85 miles to the imperial gallon!

Iwama-kun's keitoraku parked in the field opposite his charcoal kiln.

A well-loaded tradesman's keitoraku.

The keijidosha come in all shapes and sizes - here's a really tall one...

A keijidosha version of the Pajero, Mitsubishi's pretty highly regarded four-wheel-drive vehicle.

A police version of the keijidosha - not that great if you have to stuff a drunk in the back seat, but perfect for going for donuts...

Wouldn't it be nice if some of these wagon versions of standard sedans were available in North America? This is the Honda Orthio.

A more deluxe version of the Corolla wagon than I showed earlier in this blog. Though no longer a current model, you see lots of Corolla wagons on the streets, most of them for business use. This is a more deluxe version for personal use, similar to the car we drive in Canada, but with 4WD. This would be ideal for us on Saltspring.

I don't know if they are still selling these, but about a decade ago several manufacturers were offering seven-passenger station wagons such as this one (from Mitsubishi?), similar to the Volvo wagons with the third-row, back-facing seat. They've likely been replaced by the small SUV's, which probably are more comfortable.

Buses are built in a variety of sizes, some of which look pretty stubby from a Canadian point of view.

This is a great geezer bike, a Yamaha 50 road bike with all the optional extras; windshield, stylish handwarmers, racy fairing, and a totally skookum rack. If you've ever ridden motorcycles in the wintertime, you aren't laughing...

This was parked outside a little restaurant in Tono; it didn't look like it was getting much use, but probably would be just fine for getting around the city. I think it was electric.

For reference, a shot of the narrow gauge track used on most lines in Japan.

It's not uncommon to see the elderly riding these three-wheeled bikes to do their shopping. Seems like a nice, safe alternative... I think old people in Japan are generally more physically active than their counterparts in other countries and this may partly explain why they have the longest lifespans in the world. I'm always impressed by the number of elderly that you see out on mountain trails - you often see these incredibly chipper old folks making their way up a steep mountain path.