This time we visited Akayu Onsen in Yamagata!

 Akayu Onsen is in Yamagata Prefecture on the northwest side of Honshu.

It starts out as usual, we get up in the morning, catch a train to Tokyo, switch to the Shinkansen Bullet Train heading north and after a coupe of hours we arrive at our destination. Well, first we arrive at Akayu Station, it's another 25 minute walk to get to Akayu Onsen.

Here's Emi in front of Akayu Station checking out a tourist information sign. We were happy to see that our hotel is one of the featured spots on the signboard. 

We start our walk to the hotel. 

We are just steps away from arriving at our hotel. It's nice to see that there's a winery next door.

This is our hotel: The Akayu Onsen Tensen Hotel Hotel website

It's not very picturesque, but it turned out to be a great place to stay.

It was too early to check in so we left our suitcase with the hotel staff and set off to explore Eboshiyama Shrine and Eboshiyama Park. Across the street from our hotel is the beginning of the climb to the top of Eboshiyama (the stone stairs next to the small inn). 

After walking up many stairs we arrived at Eboshiyama Shrine. 

This stone Torii Gate was built in 1903 and stands 10.75 meters. It is among the tallest of it's kind in Japan. The pillars are especially rare because they have no joints and came from a single stones.

Need to purify yourself before entering the shrine grounds.

The shrine dogs at the entrance are quite unique, they stick their butts up in the air.

It's a bit disappointing that the is Shrine is under maintenance and is covered up with some scaffolding. 

Walking around the grounds.

This huge rock is over 3 meters tall and weighs about 10 tons. It's named the Eboshi Rock because it's shaped like Eboshi headgear worn in the Heian Period between 794 and 1185.

A view from the shrine of the surrounding area.

Now it's time to visit Eboshiyama Park!

It's easy to do, the park is next to the shrine; just cross this stone bridge and you're there.

They say that Eboshiyama Park is a wonderful place to visit and enjoy all four seasons of the year. In my opinion some seasons are probably better than others.

There are over 1000 Cherry blossom trees planted in the park and it's ranked amongst the top 100 parks in Japan for viewing Cherry blossoms. I guess we're a few months too early to give our opinion on that.  

We came up one set of stairs and now we're leaving Eboshiyama via another set of stairs. It's time to go back to the hotel and check in.

I'm checking out the lobby area while Emi gets us checked in at the front desk.

We stayed in room 305.

Time for a soak in the Onsen hot spring bath. This is the changing room. I'm the only person here.

Since I'm the only person here I'm going to sneak some pictures of the baths.

It's a hot bath so it's a bit steamy in here.

This is the outdoor bath.

Day 2: We're going to ride the local train and visit Kumano Shrine.

After breakfast we walked back to the Akayu train station.

Go through the ticket wicket...

Cross over the Shinkansen tracks...

And, our single car train is waiting for us!

Plenty of room on the train. 

One of the 6 passengers on the train (that's including us).

After traveling 2 stops on the local train line we arrive at Miyauchi station.

This young woman is the Miyauchi Station Master. She came out to greet the train. 

Our train continues on its way as we walk to the station.

The backside of Miyauchi station.

The inside of Miyauchi station.

And, the front of Miyauchi station. Miyauchi station page in Wikipedia

So, here we are in beautiful Miyauchi Miyauchi Wikipedia page

This is where the real adventure begins!

To be continued. Part two is coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots!