Hokkaido’s fields are famous for growing things you rarely see in other parts of Japan: corn, for instance. Cornfields with a typical old Japanese house in the background seems odd to this American.

Soon the scenery changed and I was heading up into low mountains. My destination on this day was Yubari, famous as a mining district but now a rather depressed and depopulated area due to the closing of the last mine a few years ago. It’s still a lovely area, though, so I was glad it was on my route.