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
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