On the road rails again! The Shinkansen Bullet Train rails that is. This time we're heading north to Onogawa Onsen in Yamagata Prefecture. As usual we got up early, packed, took a local train from Yokosuka to Tokyo, transferred to the Shinkansen and rode that to Yonezawa JR train station in Yamagata and then we were met by a hotel shuttle bus that took us to our hotel in Onogawa Onsen.
The hotel that we stayed at was excellent.
Our hotel website: https://www.syomian-yamakawa.com/
This is Emi standing in front of the hotel on our second day in the morning. It had just stopped raining and we were about to go explore the surrounding village.
https://www.hojunoyu.com/index.html
And, we arrive at the Kinoene Daikokutne Buddhist Temple
https://onogawa-daikokuten.jp/
Just past the temple and now we're in search of the spectacular view of the village. Emi is enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods.
And, then there's me... Mr. Showtime!
This is the view we were looking for.
After enjoying the view we went back down the hill and visited the Otaru Riverside Green Park.
It's a nice park. Emi read that there's a ramen shop nearby that will deliver to the park. We decided to find that ramen shop later and have lunch there.
We have come to a fork in the road . On the right-side is the entrance to the village, we're taking the left-side that is the bypass road around the village.
We are such adventurers, we like to explore everything, even the boring stuff. We did pass by a ski slope on the left side of the road where the previous Emperor of Japan had gone skiing many years ago.
The bypass took us to the far end of the village where we found this roadside map. I wanted to see more of the river so we headed in that direction.
This is a foot bath attached to the Kajikaso Ryokan Inn. The Kajikaso Ryokan is a 4-star Inn and is supposed to be the nicest and most expensive place to stay in Onogawa Onsen Village.
Following the river on our way to Onogawamachi Hotaru Park. 
Hotaru is Japanese for 'firefly' or some people call them 'lightning bug'.
We have returned to the river! The sunshine was glaring so I decided to shoot this picture in black & white. I decided that I'd return here later in the day when the light was better and take more pictures of this man-made waterfall.
The Firefly festival was held June 18 (Sat.) to July 17 (Sun.), 2022. I guess we've arrived a little late for the party.
There are two natural hot-springs in the park.
We walked around.
Took a closer look.
It must be pretty amazing here when it's all set up for the festival.
We went inside to eat, it's much nicer on such a cold day than the park. We both ordered ramen and when it was delivered to our table we were so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it. Anyway, it looked good and tasted great!
After lunch we walked toward the town (not a very far walk) and we passed by another public bath house.
Here we are in the center of the village in front the biggest catch-all gift shop in town. See the small yellow baskets on the left bottom side of the picture?
There is also some hot stick food being sold here.
A been there done that photo opportunity across the street from the gift shop.
This is the last picture from "part one" of our Onogawa Onsen adventure:
Onogawa onsen is famous as a firefly village, and is home to three types of fireflies: Genji firefly, Heike firefly, and Hime firefly. How about that!
But, today it is what it is; a nice quiet place to visit. Emi's hungry so it's time to move on.
Time for lunch! This is the ramen restaurant that will deliver to the Riverside Park.
Those are baskets of eggs that were boiled in hot onsen hot-spring water.
Our hotel is the black building on the far left side of the picture. The red building on the right side of the hotel is a liquor store! Talk about convenient!
Part 2 of this adventure is coming soon!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mike
Bonus shots!
