Day 12, Iwakuni, 10/11
 Getting
up it appeared to become a lucky day once again. The sun was
shing from a clear blue sky. Of course we were eagerly to
see a Shin Meiwa flying boat, but we made nevertheless some
photo stops on our trip to the harbour. Especially the quarter
around the youth hostel and along the river was very scenic
and we still had some time because after our first visit we
did not have to spend time looking for a good spot.
Only some minutes after we have arrived we saw a Shin Meiwa
taking off!!  We
wondered, because the other Japanese spotters, that have been
with us on the same spot for some time, have left. And soon
we found out why: the Shin Meiwa was climbing quite steep
and turned right above our heads, so that were were only able
to take photos against the sun. That was the reason why they
have changed their position. Travelling such a long way and
seeing the fly-by of what might be the start for a very long
mission was very annoying for us, additionally to the fact
that someone might have warned us before and - as we found
out at the end of the day - this was only fly-by with a retracted
landing gear.
Shin Meiwa at Iwakuni
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  Of
course we changed our position as well and still got some
nice Shin Meiwa photos, even with focal lenghts of around
500mm. Also a US Marines C-130 was nicely banking into the
sun, as did a JMSDF YS-11 and a P-3Orion. There was also some
activity of the based AV-8B Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets, but
they were very small in the viewfinder, though they did use
the same nice photogenic departure route. We wondered a bit
because at this spot, far from the base, we got controlled
3 times by the civil police…
US Marines
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JMSDF Aircraft
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  As
this was quite boring, we go tour shots with perfect light
and there was no more suspicious acitivity on the airfield
we decided to leave at around 2pm. Once again we passed Hiroshima
and around 50km from the city we had a look at its airport,
that was build on top of a smoothed mountain. We were able
to photograph a ANA B777-300 and a JAL A300 from the visitors
deck in the evening light and used the internet terminals
to send some eMails home, which was a big relief after the
long time without access since Fukuoka.
Hiroshima Airport
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 Then
we continued our looooong drive to Akeno. In retrospective
this was by far the longest and most exhausting drive on our
trip, but we had to be at Akeno in the morning, because only
then the light was good for photography there. To get there
as fast as possible we chose to take the direct way from Osaka
via some main roads to Akeno. Driving during the night was
allright as there were not to many lorries and other cars
on the road. However, it already became dark, xxx nearly crashed
our car while changing the lane after one of the many toll
gates and we realized that a stop and some refreshments were
necessary.
 And
if that would not have been enough we got into a police control,
nearly at midnight and after driving more than 550km since
Iwakuni. They just wanted to see our driving licenses, which
were, together with the official translation by the German
embassy, in our suitcases in the back of the car. They made
us stop along the road and when we handed the translations
together with our old driving licences over the amazement
among the policemen was huge. Soon several officeres surrounded
us and decided that our driving licences were not valid. They
therefore stopped us and prohibited the further use of our
car. To move around they  gave
us the possibility to use busses our trains. Of course it
was not funny enough for us anymore from that moment on and
we even thought about aborting our trip at that time if this
should be true. The translation was useless without a 'valid'
license, they repeated continously. We therefore saw no other
possibility to call the emergency hotline at the German consulate
in Osaka and described what wasgoing one. Nearly half an hour,
which seemed to as as many hours, has passed at that time
and the policemen decided that it was not save to have us
standing along the road and they wanted to bring us to the
policestation - Matsuzaka Police Station - the second one
during our trip to Japan. As we were not allowed to drive
any car anymore we were driven by an officer. After around
a quarter of an hour at the police station, we were given
our passports and licences back and told "It's okay"…
We had a puzzled look at each other, did not  totally
realize what was going on, but quickly decided that it might
be the best option to f**k off as fast as possible. However
we did not miss to take a photo of the police station…
After the Hiroshima Matsuzaka became therefore another place
that we did not want to see again, anytime!
So it was nearly 1am and we did not have a hotel yet, but
we found one easily as our demands were nearly non-existant
at that moment. Therefore we checked in shortly past 1am and
set our alarm clocks to 7am. We did not speak a lot that night…
-> Akeno
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