おはようございます田沢湖
Day 4. Breakfast at the Momigi-tei restaurant 樅の木亭, attached to the Tamachi Bukeyashiki Hotel. The staff at both the inn and the restaurant were very welcoming, and I enjoyed both the meals and my stay there (highly recommended should you find yourself in Kakunodate 角館), but it was time to move on to the next stop on this itnerary:
That meant boarding the Akita Shinkansen 秋田新幹線
Komachi こまち service at 08:46 for the forty six-minute ride to Akita Station 秋田駅:
With twelve minutes until until my next train I had a look around the station. Local attractions were being promoted, such as these namahage masks.
Namahage なまはげ are demon-like beings from Japanese folklore. Masks like these are worn every winter during the
Namahage Sedo Matsuri なまはげ瀬戸まつ:
The
Akita dog breed 秋田犬 not surprisingly has its origins in what is now Akita Prefecture 秋田県:
Getting ready to get on the Ōu Main Line 奥羽本線 local train heading to Ōdate Station 大館駅, where I would change to another Ōu Line local to my final destination that morning, HIrosaki 弘前:
Arriving in Hirosaki at 12:18 I immediately went off in search of lunch. Pickings were rather slim on the east side of the station, though the opposite side wasn't a beehive of activity, either. Fortunately
PePe Kitchen ぺぺキッチン was close at hand, featuring an extensive burger menu. Aomori Prefecture 青森県 (where Hirosaki is located) is known throughout Japan for its apples, so I decided to give the apple burger アップルバーガー a try. It turned out to be pretty good, and the set including a small salad and a drink was a good value at ¥1600 (around $10):
The reason I exited the quieter side of Hirosaki Station 弘前駅 is because that's where the Toyota Rent A Car トヨタレンタカー office was located. I had reserved a vehicle well in advance, and soon enough I was on my way to
Lake Towada 十和田湖. When driving in Japan I prefer to avoid the toll roads, both because I don't want to go through the trouble of having to pay, but also because on expressways you cannot see much of the towns and countryside the regular highways and roads take you through. A roughly 90-minute drive into the mountains eventually had me at the
Towada Visitor Center 十和田ビジターセンター and my first good look (I could only take brief peeks at the water while winding my way down the narrow mountain road) at what is the largest crater lake on the island of Honshū 本州. Also taking in the scenery were
Wainai Sadayuki and his wife Katsu カツ. Here Wainai-san is being recognized for his role in laying the foundation for fish farming and tourism at Towada-ko:
My rented
Yaris ヤリス, a reliable model that had safely gotten my family and me around the Cape Town, South Africa area seven years ago:
I arrived in time for the last
cruise of the lake, which departed at 16:00 on a fifty minute-long roundtrip course from the West Lake to the Middle Lake and back:
Some facts about the lake: it's the third deepest in Japan at 327 meters/1073 feet and the 12th largest overall, with visibility reaching a depth of 17 meters/56 feet. Part of the Towada-Hachimantai National Park 十和田八幡平国立公園, Towada-ko is 44 kilometers/27 miles in circumference:
Deposited back on shore after safely navigating the lake I paid a visit to the Maidens by the Lake おとめの像. These two identical bronze women were created in 1953 by poet and sculptor
Kōtarō Takamura 高村光太郎. They allegedly represent his wife, who suffered from schizophrenia before dying tragically at a young age. The figures were difficult to photograph in the waning light when facing the lake...:
...so I went around to the opposite side to get a better shot:
With the sun setting it was time to get back to my car and check in at my hotel for the evening:
When I was making preparations for this trip several months ago I couldn't decide on where to stay in Towada-ko. It came down to two choices -
Towadako Backpackers 十和田湖バックパッカーズ, a hostel close to the lake for ¥9000 ($57) a night including two meals, where I imagined myself dispensing wisdom to the young travelers to Japan (there were a couple of them on the cruise); or the more luxurious, pre-World War Two
Towada Hotel 十和田ホテル, at around ¥35,000 ($220) for the night. I ended up reserving both, then spent a month weighing the pros and cons. In the end I went for the more expensive option. For one reason I didn't want to come off as a pretentious Japan explainer to bored younger travelers. The main rationale, however, was the fact that for the rest of this trip I would be staying in more standard hotels located in cities, and so I decided to splurge for the evening (and with the weak yen it wasn't as dear as it would've been years ago when I was getting by on an English teacher's salary).
And in the end it was the right choice as I was shown to my elegant Japanese-style room:
Dinner that evening in the Restaurant Maki レストラン真木 was among one of the best meals I've ever had at a Japanese inn. You can savor the menu below while matching the dishes with the photos I took. Everything was 美味しい!
After dinner I relaxed for a bit in the lounge before heading off to the bath:
Thoroughly cleansed (few things in this world are more pleasurable than relaxing in a
furo お風呂), I retreated to my room to conclude the evening with a Namahage IPA:
The view of Lake Towada from my room the following morning:
Breakfast was as satisfying as the previous evening's meal:
The view as I returned to my room to collect my things:
Before checking out I had a look around the historic building:
Feeling relaxed after the stay at the Towada Hotel I drove back to the visitor center for another look at the water:
That morning was one of the few times on this trip I needed to don the hoodie I had packed:
From there I drove to Nenokuchi 子ノ口, gateway to the reason most visitors come to Towada-ko; the
Oirase Keiryū 奥入瀬渓流 valley walk. There is a 14 kilometer/8.7 mile-long path going all the way to the village of Yakeyama 焼山, a hike said to take three hours, but I wasn't going to go that far. Instead my plan was to leisurely amble along the path until I decided I needed to return with the car to Hirosaki and move on to my next destination:
It was a pretty walk following the water downstream and later passing a series of picturesque waterfalls:
However, after less than a half-hour I was faced with a trail closure. I knew that I would only have to walk on the somewhat busy road for a short distance before reconnecting with the path, but then I remembered something: I had a car. So I walked back to my vehicle and drove to the small parking area close to the Chūshi Ōtaki falls 銚子大滝:
The only waterfall actually located on the Oirase stream, the falls are the gorge's largest at 7 meters/23 feet high and 20 meters/66 feet wide:
From there I rejoined the walking trail...:
...passing one waterfall after another. Kudan-no-taki Falls 九段の滝:
Shiraito-no-Taki Falls 白糸の滝:
I took one family's photo at this spot, so they kindly took mine. Unrelated sidenote: later on I passed a woman who asked me in Japanese where I was from. When I mentioned the U.S. she had me narrow it down to which state (California). She then mentioned she used to live in Cypress in Southern California. Judging by her excited reaction, I think I made her day by telling her I once lived in nearby Garden Grove:
As time was starting to become a consideration I returned to the car and drove to the Ishigedo Kyuukeijo Rest Area 石ヶ戸休憩所. Although I had passed (and been passed) by a few hikers while ambling on that morning, I wasn't prepared for the crowds at Ishigedo (including a surprising number of Chinese visitors). I had to park further down the road and walk to the small rest area:
Ishigedo, meaning "stone hut", gets its name from this giant rock which has been propped up on one side by a large
Katsura tree 桂. Legend has it a demon in the form of a beautiful female thief named O-matsu お松 lived there and would steal valuables from passing travelers:
In the end I returned to the car and headed back to Nenokuchi, stopping first to admire the Kumoi-no-taki Falls 雲井の滝...:
...and later on at the Shiranuno-no-Taki Falls 白布の滝:
It was around noon when I returned to the Yaris, and not seeing any restaurants nearby, I decided to head back to Hirosaki. In the process of doing so I completed a loop around the lake, pausing at one point near a construction site (the workers were snoozing during their lunch break) to admire the view:
I also stopped to have a gander at this amazing vista looking toward Mount Iwaki 岩木山 (1625 meters/5331 feet):
It was a long series of twisting, narrow mountain roads before I eventually reached more level ground. I was still in a rural area with no visible restaurants around but I wasn't concernced as I knew from past experience (namely last year's 2½ week-long solo drive around the island of Shikoku 四国) that sooner or later I would come across a Michi-no-Eki 道の駅. And sure enough the
Nijinoko Michi-no-Eki 道の駅虹の湖 came into view.
Michi-no-Eki are roadside stations/rest stops that promote local tourism and trade, with shops selling local produce, souvenirs and snacks. This station didn't exactly dish up
haute cuisine, but the
yakisoba 焼きそば and
karaage から揚げ, along with an iced coffee, were exactly the kind of comfort food my stomach was calling for:
I was aware Japan has seen an alarming rise in sometimes
fatal bear attacks in recent years, but I didn't know I also had to watch out for badgers アナグマ. The sign is telling us to keep away because while they look cute, they also bite:
Lake Nijinoko 虹の湖, meaning "Rainbow Lake", was created by the
Aseishigawa Dam 浅瀬石川ダム:
Eventually I reached the Toyota Rent a Car shop where I dropped off the Yaris and made my way into Hirosaki Station. A quick visit to Mister Donut ミスタードーナツ for a dessert, which I saved for the 98-minute ride on the Tōhoku Shinkansen 東北新幹線 Hayabusa はやぶさ service from Shin-Aomori 新青森駅 to Sendai 仙台駅 (after I had ridden on a local Ōu Line train from Hirosaki to Shin-Aomori). Sadastic dad that I am, I would often torture my starving college student daughter back in the U.S. with photos of sweet treats like Honey Dips and Custard Creams from ミスド:
It was 17:55 when we pulled into Sendai Station. Usually when I travel I like to book my forward tickets at a
Midori-no-Madoguchi 緑の窓口 ticket office after getting off the train and before going to my hotel to check in. However, there was a long wait (more than 70 people in front of me according to the ticket I took for service) so I spent an hour walking around the station before returning and finally reserving the next train ride. After that I had a Sendai beef omelet with hashed beef sauce 仙台牛のオムハッシュドビーフ for dinner at a restaurant in the station building:
Throughout this latest journey in Japan I was constantly surprised at the number of foreign tourists I would see outside of Tōkyō 東京. Though not in the overwhelming hordes you find these days in Japan's capital (not to mention Kyōto 京都 and Ōsaka 大阪), my fellow
gaijin 外人 were still out in noticeable numbers on the streets of
Kakunodate, walking along the Oirase Gorge and staying at the same hotels as me. I've been aware of these places for years but how did they discover them and what made them want to visit?
I'll be sure to rant out about this in a later blog post, but my next entry will venture into dark tourism territory, and there for the most part I was the lone Westerner, just like in days of yore.
