When you think of Japan, you most likely think of houses cramped next to each other and people everywhere… well that is much true for the Tokyo area but there is a big contrast once you see the north… lush green everywhere, rivers flowing through near pristine forest and no civilization not left nor right from your train window… it is so much difference but you are just some 300km or so away from the an area where people pay 1000 USD for a 10 square meter studio… it is hard to believe that this is so close but yet so different… for my part, I have to say this was the most impressing on Japan, the enormous contrasts this country has to offer… unless you know what is coming next, there is no way you can guess… out of Morioka, which was my base for all me northern exploration, I visited Kakunodate a village which has conserved several original Samurai and merchant houses from the Edo period… when you see this places you get somewhat a feel for how life was during the “cast” system… not really a cast system, but there were four distinctive different social classes… and lets say, to be a Samurai was definitely not the worst…