Onogawa Onsen (part 2) return to the river!

 I had to return to the Hotaru river. There's an ND (neutral density) filter feature built into my camera that lets me shoot at slower shutter speeds; that when combined with using a tripod to hold the camera steady makes the water flow of the river look nice!

I have arrived back at the river. And, I am alone. Emi decided to stay at the hotel and spend some quality time soaking in the hot spring bath.

These river pictures are in the order that I took them. 

I also decided that it would be fun to shoot them in black & white instead of color. 

The tripod that I'm using is a small tabletop type. I bought it used for less than $10.00.

A tabletop tripod is great for traveling but because it's so small I have to sit on the ground to use it.

I've worked my way along the river and now I'm finally at the waterfall. 

I climbed down the riverbank to get a lower viewpoint of the waterfall.

I carefully crossed over big rocks and loose stones to get this picture. 

I was being extra careful not to get my shoes wet. After this shot I had to climb back up the riverbank. I'm glad that there wasn't any people around to watch me climbing up the bank, it was not a pretty sight. In my mind I'm still an agile young athletic man. In reality I was a clumsy old guy that must have looked ridiculous as I fumbled my way up the steep bank.   

I stopped to take a couple more shots of this, ah, whatever one calls this structure in the river.

I know that to some people this is too small to call a river. People might call it a stream,  a brook, or maybe a creek. However, this is Japan and here in Japan we call it a river.

I switched the camera back to color for this last look back at the Hotaru River before I went back to the village. 

Back wandering around the Onogawa village on my way to the hotel.

One of the public bath houses.

This is the center of the village and that's our hotel on the right side of the picture. The hotel is much bigger than it looks from the front. There are 4 floors, and it looks like it has been added onto several times over the years. Our room was on the 4th floor of the newest part of the hotel.

Last day: Time to go home.

The hotel shuttle bus took us back to the Yonezawa JR train station. It's a dark overcast day here.

This is a pretty nice train station considering that it's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Waiting on the platform for our 11:38am train. We'll be riding in lucky car number 13!

Here comes our train. Of course it's right on time!

One last shot of the inside of car number 13 and then it's time to turn off the camera and enjoy the train ride home!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Yes, it's time for bonus shots!