(1) At the
crossroad levelTsukiyono Authorities did a beautiful job in restoring Kamimoku to its original (even improved) conditions.
Tsuyiyono's Yakuba (Mayor Office) made a beautiful job in restoring Kamimoku's roads to their original, even improved conditions, within a few days.
Heavy rains transformed Kamimoku's landscape overnight on 2-3 September 2000
The Kan-Etsu highway was stopped between Tsukiyono IC and Yuzawa IC during most of the 2-3 September week-end, due to landslides following heavy rains on the previous Friday.
The Road 61 was also stopped as houses had been washed out by the water floading, including sake store "Toya" in Kamimoku, belonging to a relative of Apple Farm's Suzukis.
The only way to reach the lodges was to take Road 291 from Jomo Kogen station, and cross the bridge which brings directly to the entrance of the old road, before the Seven-Eleven.
At the lodge level, only one house had been badly hit by the river, but the road was transformed at several locations by landslides:
(1) At the
crossroad level
(2) Near Jack and Eiji's houses
(3) Down the hill
(4) The bridge at the end of the road was also washed out by the rain.
C'est la vie
Heavy rains in early fall are quite common in the region. In 1999, the Minakaim area had itself been severely hit. These heavy precipitations tend to be quite localized.
One good advice, if there are indications of heavy rain in the Kamimoku and Tsukiyono's area and traffic stoppage when you enter the Kan-Etsu highway, it is better to delay your departure and wait until things are back to normal.
At least, frogs enjoy days of heavy rain !
(We do not mean
the French residents)
