Hot Spring Adventures in Fukushima

Cheers everyone!

I am happy to announce that I am writing these lines from the comfort of my home and my very own internet connection, finally... It only took me and a bunch of people with a native understanding of Japanese about a month to accomplish. I know for a fact that where I am from we have the decency to supply instruction manuals in a range of different languages, however, this is not the case in Japan. But enough of my rambling. Last time I had announced I would be going on a trip to Fukushima with my friend Isoji. Well, let me tell you about our hot spring adventures.

At first I wanted to visit Isoji in Tsukuba, but since it is quite far away from me he made the suggestion to meet up somewhere in-between. So, he would be driving to Fukushima city and pick me up at the train station. To get there I got on this bad boy here:

This is the famous Japanese "shinkansen" bullet train. The design is quite unique. The trains here are so punctual it is scary. However, a ticket for this kind of train ride is not cheap.

To celebrate our reunion Isoji took me to the west of the city, to a narrow river valley in the boonies. On our way there we were treated to the view of a mountain range that should look somewhat familiar to people who have followed this blog the last time I was in Japan.

Astute observers might recognize a volcano in this image. The cone on the left is actually Azuma-Kofuji, a volcano I had visited five years prior. This is the view from the east. The presence of this volcano has a profound effect on this narrow river valley I mentioned earlier. The heat supplied by a volcanic complex like this heats up the ground water and thus provides the essential piece to any hot spring, or "onsen" in Japanese. Narrow river valleys close to volcanoes are therefore the prime location for any hot spring town, and we were headed right for Tsuchiju Onsen. This is how it looks like:

But that isn't all, we were actually going to spend the night in a traditional Japanese inn, "ryokan" in Japanese. To say I was excited would be an understatement. The name of this particular establishment was "Yamane-ya", and it was kindly chosen for us by Isoji's daughter Yuu. It was a fantastic choice. Here is the entrance to the inn (I was also there by the way):

Before settling in for the evening we had a little sightseeing tour around the little town. There were lots of little shops and public hot foot baths. Here you can see a little subsidiary river flowing into the main river that runs through the town.

And, of course, a shrine is never far away when you are in Japan. This one was actually quite a way up from the river so I was surprised to hear that it was destroyed by flooding in the past. I swear, Japan's nature is as beautiful as it is dangerous.

After our little expedition we returned to the inn to inspect our room. These traditional inns pretty much all hire the same interior designer so this is what you can expect at any other inn as well.

There are the "tatami" floor mats, which are made of rice plants, the "shogi" paper doors, and the low table. We would spend the night in futons that would be laid out for us by the staff while we have dinner. They also provide special clothing for us. This robe-like attire is called "yukata". We are also wearing a little vest on top of it. Unfortunately I forgot how it was called.

From now on you may address us as "Isoji-dono" and "Nils-dono".

After putting on our dashing new cloths we went to take a hot bath. I was told that the water at Tsuchiju Onsen is so hot that it actually needs to be mixed with cold water. 70°C are a little hot so they cool it down to 40 something degrees. As much as I want to show you the bath itself and especially its outside area, I couldn't really take my camera with me, you know, because people are usually naked when they take a bath. To make up for that though I can share pictures of our wonderful dinner and breakfast. Please focus on the food and not my facial expressions.

I had no idea what I was eating most of the time but Isoji tried his best to explain everything to me. The food was absolutely fabulous nonetheless (except for the pickled radish, I hate radish) and I had actually trouble finishing. Before breakfast we actually went to take another hot bath. I learned that overnight they stop mixing in cold water and only put the hose back in in the morning, about the same time we went to take a bath. The water was so hot we weren't able to stay in for more than a minute. It was brutal. Anyway, with the breakfast concluded we had some more time to sightsee. We decided to drive up to Azuma-Kofuji. It was weird standing at the exact same place where I stood five years earlier.

Those little lines at the crater rim on the far side are actually people, you know, just for scale. This thing is BIG. This time of year there is actually still a lot of snow around, as you can see here (That's me in my Australian hat by the way):

In the distance on the mountain slope you can also see a vent releasing volcanic gases. It actually has a yellow ring of sulfur around it. I was very happy seeing this much snow. I can't wait to see what winter has in store for me. After the trip to Azuma I wanted to see Bandai-san again. It actually isn't that far away from there and last time we were quite unlucky with the weather so we couldn't actually see the "mountain top". This was the road on our way to Bandai:

We even saw some monkeys on the side of the road. These are Japanese macaques.

And here we can see Bandai-san as we approach it from the east. It doesn't look like something special is going on with this volcano, yet.

As you might remember from my last post in 2017, I mentioned that in 1888 Bandai's summit collapsed due to a phreatic eruption, an eruption that didn't involve magma, only steam. I had a five year old score to settle to take a picture of Bandai without clouds blocking the view. This time I was lucky.

Absolutely breathtaking, isn't it? It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to experience a mountain simply collapsing. A horrifying thought.

Afterwards Isoji drove me back to the train station and we parted ways again. I had a wonderful time. Next time I will definitely visit him in Tsukuba.

At this point about a month has passed since my arrival in Japan and I have settled most of the paperwork. My apartment also feels like an actual home now and I am working hard studying Japanese and making friends. I am spending time with other foreign students and even some Japanese students. I also joined the ski circle at the university. I really hope my Japanese will soon be good enough to hold conversations.

I have also finally started my research project and it has greatly improved my mood after all the tedious Japanese bureaucracy. I really wonder how Japan gets anything done in this kind of system. Anyway, it feels great to finally do what I came here to do in the first place.

This will be it for the time being. I wonder what I will be able to tell you next time.

Cheerio,

Nils

Impressions

A happy constitutional memorial day!

At least that is what's being celebrated today in Japan. You can see a lot a flags and a bunch of places are closed, including the university. That doesn't keep me away though since this is the only place where I can get internet at the moment. Yes, you heard right. I hope you can accept my apology for not posting anything earlier now...

Apart from the technical difficulties of not having internet at home, I was quite busy with other stuff. New long time arrivals in Japan are required to go to the town hall and register their address, go to the bank and open an account, and get a stamp seal that is used to officially sign paperwork. On top of that I am still in the process of furnishing my new place and getting all utilities in order. Deadlines for scholarship applications are also coming up. On top of that everything is in Japanese. Having to translate every document takes a long time even though my advisor and the other students are helping me where they can. To be honest, I wouldn't have been able to do most of the stuff without them. Believe me when I say that 10 hour work days are currently the norm.

But enough of my struggles. I believe you are interested in seeing some impressions of my new life. Good thing I was able to get a bit of exploring done on the weekend. You see, the name of the city I live in is "Yamagata" which means "surrounded by mountains". Indeed, it doesn't matter in which direction you look there will be mountains. Here is a picture of the upstream direction of the river close to my home.

Downstream you can even see mountains with snowy peaks in the distance.

And of course, being in Japan, a temple is never far away. This is the Yamagata prefecture "Gokoku" shrine. Impeccable condition as expected. Not many people though. Probably because of the pandemic and the rather poor weather. I certainly took this opportunity to thank the gods for finally being able to come to Japan.

From there I made my way to the site of Yamagata Castle, or "Ka-jō" as it is called in Japanese. I was told it was one of the largest flat land castles in Japan, and having walked around its entry castle wall I can attest to that claim. A few cherry trees still bloomed so I was pretty lucky to witness the last moments of the annual season.

Not much of the castle remains except for the large moat, parts of the stone wall, the earthen ramparts surrounding the castle, and some ruins. A few places have been restored but I'd say it is less than 10 percent. In the old days there were two inner rings and an entire castle town. Today there is a big park, some museums and a stadium. Because of all the trees on the wall it has become the best place to see cherry blossoms. Here is the reconstructed bridge across the moat of the second ring.

This is the reconstructed inner gate of the eastern main entrance.

Here I am standing on the eastern bridge across the outer moat. The high speed train, called "Shinkansen" in Japanese, drives right by the castle. This is a famous spot for photographers. There were about five of them ready to take a picture of the next train when I was there.

This is a statue of Mogami Yoshiaki. The Mogami clan was in charge of the province during the era of warring states, "Sengoku Jidai", and afterwards during the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was the one who oversaw the construction of the initial layout of the castle. It was later added on by other descendants of his clan.

I then paid a visit to the "temple town" of Yamagata. Here you will find a lot of temples in all shapes and sizes, each having their own small cemetery. The largest is "Senshoji" temple. Its roof is just massive. I am afraid the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

I have to say though that Japanese cemeteries are very beautiful. As much as I don't like taking pictures of graves I hope that I will be forgiven for my intrusion. If my final resting place looks like this I reckon I could forgive an awestruck foreigner for wanting to share.

What most of the temples have in common are stone lanterns in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I particular like the ones that are just made up out of two large natural boulders with the hand crafted lantern in the middle. I can't really put my finger on what it is I like about them. If I had to guess it would be their simplicity.

Anyway, this is it for now. On Thursday I will meet my old friend Isoji from my last visit to Japan. We will meet halfway in Fukushima (no, not the radiated part) and enjoy our reunion with a local sightseeing tour and a stay at a traditional Japanese inn, "ryokan" in Japanese. I am very much looking forward to it and I am sure I will have more to report afterwards. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Nils