For many Japanese, Tōhoku is a lost world, part of the country that has remained unchanged in the minds of the Tokyo elite. There is no Hello Kitty theme park here. No international airport or shopping mall frenzy. There are no dazzling neon-lit Nintendo arcades, Godzilla-sized towers or robot-run hotels. No tourists, even. Here is old-fashioned Japan, pure and simple, and that's exactly why I came: to travel slow, to not watch the clock.
