Nikko Iroha-Zakka

The say in the tourist brochure, "If you haven't experienced Nikko, then you haven't experienced Japan"

Well, they may be right! This is the mother of all Mountain Touge! Iroha-zakka pass is a single direction road, 2 lanes up-hill and a single lane down-hill. All up there is 46 or so corners that are named after the Japanese characters of the language. Hairpin after hairpin, turn after turn lead down the mountain amongst picturesque scenery. But you dont really get time to witness it as you concentrate on the road, especially at any real speed.

I took my Fd on one of its' last trips in Japan. It received a hell of a caning on a withering set of tires. To be honest, it is quite difficult to drive here and the sheer number of hairpin corners does your head in. It definitly has more corners in succession in such a tight space that any road I have ever been on. It is almost mandatory that you power oversteer the hairpins just to make life easier for yourself.

A true experience that has to be put on the agenda of any visit to Japan. There is a lot more to do in Nikko as the Temples and scenery are among the best. At different times of year you can see the monkeys in the hot springs and there's always the monkey shrine, majestic mountain lakes and great hiking.

Downhill its simply like this.

If you follow Initial-D, then this is the Third Stage Movie MR2 Battle Stage. This web site http://gallery.tsukaeru.jp/ has great shots of all the Japanese touge featured in Initial-D taken by a die-hard fan who travelled the country. When you zoom in on this map (Yahoo Map) your jaw will drop.

Russ