If you've got a green overdose from this page, just try going to Tohoku - you'll be in environmentally-correct shock. From the olive-colored forests to the fluorescent rice paddies, Tohoku seems to have been made by little green men from outer space to make them feel at home. Fortunately, the green is broken up by lovely blue lakes and some of the nicest mountain roads in the country. On this trip, we depart from Akita on the western coast, cycle east to the center of the island and then head straight north - past the lakes (Tazawa and Towada), up the lovely Oirase river valley and finally to Osorezan, the "mountain of dread" where female mediums still contact the spirits of the dead as they did in Japan's prehistoric past.