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path leads to another hamlet, five ri from Numakunai, called Kutsunaki. Here we changed horses, and continued for the rest of the day down this valley, sometimes having to mount the sides to clear precipitous banks. A mountain torrent gradually widens into a river, which is that which flows into the sea at Hachinohe on the East coast. At first there are few houses and little cultivation, but both increase as the valley is descended, until it is well cultivated and fully peopled. The road is no more than a bridle path in most places, and, where not rocky, was, when I passed, deep in mud. I noticed a great many lacquer trees. We took dinner at Ichinohe, a large but poor-looking village. The road here crosses from the left to the right bank of the river by a bridge. There are some remarkably pretty cascades and rapids, and the river has the most enticing appearance for an angler. Ichinohe is 812 ri from Numakunai.
From Ichinohe the road passes over a considerable height to avoid a bend in the valley. The country is of sandstone formation. At Fukuoka, another good-sized village, the valley widens out and is well cultivated with beans, awa, some rice and wheat. Thence the road is better to Kinda-ichi, just before which the river is recrossed to the left bank by a pretty good bridge. Kinda-ichi is not much of a place, it is only one ri below Fukuoka, the latter being 134 ri from Ichinohe. The picturesque appearance of the river is increased by the sandstone cliffs, there being some very beautiful scenes.
I staid over night at Kinda-ichi and started early in the morning in a cold thick mist which filled the valley, which the road partly follows towards San-nohe, but in two places it ascends the mountains on the left bank rising to a considerable elevation. The second pass descends at the back of the town to a tributary stream, which comes down a long valley from the westward, a high cedar-covered hill lying between it and the main river. On the right bank of the latter a peaked mountain rises, a very remarkable feature, which may be seen from a long distance north, even from Nohitsze Bay.
