Destination - Iwate Prefecture! (part 2)

 The show must go on - day 3: Bus stops are our friend. 

Yes, bus stops are our friend, unfortunately not many buses stop at them. Today's plan is to visit the Takamura Kotaro Memorial museum. The problem is that there is no bus stop near that location. So, we get off at this stop and we'll walk 4 kilometers to the museum. Of what fun!

Well, there is an upside to this situation, the country side is beautiful. The walk goes by quickly because we're surrounded by golden fields of rice and the sky is full of wonderful clouds.

We're on the right track, the sign says it's only 1.5 kilometers to go!

The walk would probably be even quicker if I didn't keep stopping to take pictures.

We are not alone.

We are in the middle of nowhere and suddenly we arrive at the sports center where parents are watching their children play soccer. 

It's not far now! We're only a few minutes away!

So, here's what happened. We arrived at the museum and the first thing we asked the staff was where is the nearest bus stop to take us to Hanamaki city; where we plan to eat lunch. The staff kindly informed us that the nearest bus stop was the same one where we started. We will need to walk 4 kilometers back to where we started. After a quick check of the bus schedule on line and we will only have about 40 minutes to goof around the museum and then we'll need to return to the bus stop. Time is critical, if we miss the bus to Hanamaki city it'll be 2 more hours before the next one. And, lastly, there is no photography in the museum so I have no pictures to share. Sorry!

Information about Kotaro Takamura

On the road again! Heading back to the bus stop.

The clouds were so beautiful I decided to switch my camera to monochrome (black & white) for a little change.

I should probably use monochrome more often, I think this is nice.

Fortunately for us the weather is perfect.

Passing by a farmer cropping rice by hand.

I wanted to do a comparison of black & white versus color. First this scene in B&W.

Then switch the camera back to color and take the same picture. 

I tend to like the B&W picture a little bit better.

We made it back to the bus stop on time and after a nice bus ride out of the countryside and into the city of Hanamaki we arrived here. The bus driver told us this was the closest stop to the Maruakan building where we planned to have lunch. This place is like a ghost town, almost nobody on the streets.

The Marukan building is in the center of the picture, the restaurant is on the 5th floor. It's the top floor with all the windows. The town may be empty but the restaurant was packed! It was an excellent dining experience. Some information here

Day 4: The last day! Free time in the morning.

After breakfast we packed our bags and decided to visit the small gallery attached to the Oosawa Inn before checking out.

The gallery is the original Inn and it's on the other side of the stream. We have to cross this bridge to get there.

Looking through the trees one can see a riverside hot bath.

Walking around the gallery.

The gallery has many rooms, each room has many items from the old days.

At the entrance to this room is a kind of fisheye device that they recommend people to take a picture through it. So, we did.

On the way back over the bridge to the main Inn I took this picture of one of the outdoor riverside hot springs. Photography of a bath is frowned upon, but there were no people in comprising situations so I did it! 

This is an old photograph of the same bath. It was on display in the gallery.

One last picture of our Inn before we get on the free shuttle bus to the Shinkansen station.

Shin Hanamaki Shinkansen station. 

And, here comes our train! Time to go home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots from Yokosuka!

Destination - Iwate Prefecture! (part 1)

It was time to do some more exploring in Iwate prefecture. We left Yokosuka at 05:26am on a local train and headed to Tokyo. After a couple of train transfers we arrived at Tokyo station and caught the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) for Iwate; in particular Shin-Hanamaki station. We arrived at Shin-Hanamaki station and then proceeded to Hanamaki station by local bus where we transferred to another local bus that took us to the first location to explore on this 4 day adventure, "Dai-Onsen" (the time was 11:36am).    

The bus dropped us off here at the only bus stop in town. The bus stop is on the left, on the right is a public toilet. When one is in the middle of nowhere, having a public toilet next to the bus stop is a wonderful combination and so civilized!

This is where we went for a soak in a hot spring and lunch. A lot of the small town hot spring hotels (which I will refer to as an Onsen from now on) quit offering daytime service because of COVID19. We were fortunate to find this place was back in the daytime service.

After a long soak in the bath and a delicious lunch we set out to explore the rest of the Dai-Onsen town. Since most of these towns were established before cars were invented the roads are narrow and twisting. 

The place with the lanterns in the entranceway is a famous 3 story, wood  construction, Onsen. 

On both sides of the road flowers are blooming everywhere. 

Not all is well in paradise. For every house or Onsen hotel occupied or in business there is an equal amount that are in disrepair, abandoned and out of business.  

This large hotel across the street from the bus stop is out of business and wasting away; so sad. 

A quick check of google maps showed us that there was a nice waterfall in the woods a few kilometers down the road so we decided to walk there and check it out. We passed more abandoned buildings along the way.

We found the trail to the waterfall and we also found warnings for bears. Every 50 meters or so along the trail were these stations with a bell. Ringing the bell is supposed to scare the bears away. WTF! I was thinking to myself, "what kind of self-respecting bear is afraid a ringing bell"? I was also thinking "what the hell are we doing here"? I guess I fear my wife more than a bear because she said we're going to visit the waterfall and I said "yes dear".

So, here we go.

After crossing a bridge over a stream...

…we got our first glimpse of the waterfall.

Not exactly Niagara Falls, but it was nice. 

This gives one a better perspective of how big the waterfall is.  A young boy and his mother, I guess they're not afraid of bears too.

Back on the main road and fortunately for us it was a short walk to the nearest bus stop.

After about a 20 minute wait we were picked up by the local bus; we were the only passengers.

The bus took us back to Hanamaki train station. This statue dedicated to "Peace" is near the front of the station. 

And, here comes the free shuttle bus that will take us to our Onsen for the night. Our onsen hotel is in an area where there are several onsens, this bus stops at all of them. Hanamaki train station is on the right-side of the bus.

We have arrived! The area we are staying is Namari-Onsen and this is the entrance to the Fuji-San-Onsen Toji style Inn. More info here!

The Fujisan Inn is famous for it's deep hot bath. Great Info here! That is the reason we stayed here.

Photography of the hot baths is prohibited. This is a picture of the riverside of the hotel I took in the morning after we checked-out. 

Day 2: It's a long walk to our next Onsen hotel. The local bus schedule didn't meet our needs; in other words there ain't no buses running until after lunch and that's too late in the day for us. We decided to walk the 5 kilometers to our next destination.  It was a pleasant walk in the middle of nowhere. 

Along the way we stopped at an unusual museum setup in an old school house. It was a big two story school and the museum was filled with old items of nostalgia; like this old Commodore computer. I have to say that the museum was fascinating and we spent over an hour there. 

Some info on the museum here

Well, the walk is over and we have arrived at Oosawa-Onsen-Inn. We will spend the next two nights here!

Part 2 is coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots, not from Iwate!