Destination - Sendai City and beyond! (part 2)

Back with part 2.

It's day 3 of our Sendai adventure trip and today we've taken a long distance local bus to Akiu Onsen. After we arrived we got on another local bus to make a 13 kilometer trip to see Akiu Otaki waterfall.

We have arrived!

The waterfall is that way! Let's go!

To get to the falls we need to walk around a shrine.

Then a walk in the woods.

Another, smaller shrine.

And, then an even smaller shrine...

Moor woods...

Down some steps...

More trees...

We have arrived! This is the Akiu Otaki waterfall.

The waterfall is 55 meters high and my  camera lens wasn't wide enough to get the entire waterfall in the picture so I took 2 pictures. 

Okay, been there done that it's time to hurry back to the main road to catch the next bus back to Akiu Onsen. If we miss the bus we'll have to wait over an hour for the next one. 

Here comes Emi.

Back out by the main road and we were just in time to catch the bus!

After we arrived back at Akiu Onsen the next thing on are list of things to do is to walk the Rairaikyo Gorge nature walk.

The nature walk is scenic and not to difficult to walk. 

We were not the only people walking the trail.

The Rairaikyo Gorge is beautiful. I think this place would be the best in the autumn season when the leaves are changing color and the temperature is lower. 

Emi is having a good time!

The trail seems to go on forever.

With no end in sight and because it's close to lunch time we decided to head back to the main town.

At this point we left the trail and started walking back along the main road.

We thought that Akiu Onsen would have a lot of small Inns but what we see are mostly large hot-spring hotels.

Looking down from a bridge that crosses over the Rairaikyo Gorge we can see a heart shaped hollow in a huge stone (it's filled with water). 

Back at the center of town and we ate lunch at this restaurant attached to the Akiu Onsen visitors center. 

After lunch we had a few minutes to kill before our bus back to Sendai arrived so we walked around the visitors center. 

I killed my time taking pictures of this small scale model of the old Akiu Onsen train station.

Okay, last day of the adventure and it's time to go home. We'll be riding on this Shinkansen train.

What a surprise! We have the train car all to ourselves! Well, for a short time we did. After a few stops on the way back to Tokyo the car became full of people. 

It was a great trip and I think we'll be returning to this area in the future.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Destination - Sendai City and beyond! (part 1)

A few months ago Emi asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday in July. I was trying to be funny and I said "I want to go to Sendai and eat Gyutan (beef tongue) for lunch". Well, funny or not Emi set up a 4 day trip to Sendai where we would eat Gyutan and also explore other areas outside of Sendai for adventure and sightseeing. So, here's how the trip went!

After traveling by Shinkansen we arrived at Sendai Train Station.

And, after a quick visit to the Sendai tourist information center we went to the Dateno Gyutan Honpo main restaurant. website

This is (in my opinion) the best place in Japan to eat beef tongue.

They had two lunch specials so we ordered one each. Emi is reading information from the tourist information center while we wait for our lunch.

Lunch is served.

It's delicious!

After lunch we started walking through the extraordinarily long covered shopping street. We didn't have a plan but after awhile we decided to visit the Aoba Castle site.

Unfortunately castle sites are almost always on the highest piece of land in the city. It seems that the old feudal lords liked to be up high so they could look down on the people. Under a blazing hot Sun we walked up, and up to get to the site.  

We have finally arrived at the stone walls of the castle site. 

The walls are of the more technically advanced square cut stone type. Previous to this the stones were still round and of various sizes. 

At last we have arrived at the castle site. Now we are looking down on Sendai city just like the lords did a long time ago.

There is no castle, it was burned down long ago when the feudal system was abolished in Japan. What we do have are some statues and monuments. 

There is also a shrine.

I love the tranquility of Shinto shrines. We gave thanks to the Gods for watching over us while we climbed to the top of the castle site in the unbearable heat and humidity and prevented us from suffering a heat stroke.

Emi said there was no way we were going to walk back down to town so she found a bus stop by the shrine and it wasn't long before a bus arrived. It looks like a nice sightseeing bus. Surprisingly, the bus driver thought it was a formula 1 race car. He drove down the hill through all the hairpin turns like a maniac! I thought the bus was going to roll over many times on are way back to town. Fortunately we arrived back in town safe and sound. I guess the Gods were still watching over us.

Day 2: We're going to go to Zao Onsen!

In the morning we rode a highway express bus and then a long distance local bus to get to the Zao Onsen area in Yamagata Prefecture. After about 3 hours we arrived at the Zao Onsen Bus Terminal way up on the side of a mountain.

Then we took a ropeway to go even higher up the mountain.

The ropeway carriage was not crowded, it was only us, a family from somewhere in Europe and the operator. 

Say hello to the operator.

When we arrived at the top everything was fogged in.

Well a little thing like fog is not going to stop us... 

We're going to take a lift down to see the Dokko Swamp. 

Somebody coming up as we're going down.

We have arrived at the Dokko Swamp and suddenly all our travel seems worthwhile. This place is beautiful. 

It's scenic and peaceful. 

A sign said it was a 1.6 kilometer walk to see a beautiful waterfall. Sounds easy to me. So, off we went walking down the trail.

The walk along the trail was beautiful but it wasn't easy. In fact I started to think I'd made a mistake. Did I tell you that I just turned 70 years old? I must be nuts to be out here doing this. It started to rain.

Well, I didn't give up and I made it to the waterfall. This was a case of the journey being better than the destination. 

This stone statue was at the end of the trail. I tried to call Emi on my cell phone to let her know I was on my way back... there was no cell phone connectivity. Happy Birthday!

It all worked out. I wasn't eaten by a bear in the wilderness. I met up with Emi back at the swamp and we rode the lift back up to the ropeway station.

Riding the ropeway back down the side of the mountain.

It's our friend the operator greeting us at the bottom of the ropeway. If we hurry we can catch the next bus back to Yamagata city.

As we walked quickly to the Zao bus terminal we passed over a small stream of white sulphur hot spring onsen water. Smells great! Just like rotten eggs! 

With just minutes to spare we arrived at the bus terminal and boarded the bus. 

The view from the front window of the bus as we depart the Zao Onsen area.

Much more to come in part 2.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots!