Japan, day 15: Kusatsu

Now this is where the fun starts again! 

For the rest of the trip, we switched over to driving. In the morning, Alex picked up our second rental car and we headed to Kusatsu, famous for its hot springs (onsen). Along the way, we stopped at two waterfalls and a lava field, incredibly beautiful. Then we checked into our next ryokan (where we had a private onsen right in our suite) and walked over to the central square, where the famous Kusatsu Onsen is located. (It's about 800 m walk, because our ryokan was not in the central area.) The Kusatsu Onsen is a very impressive structure, water comes out of the ground extremely hot (and with a strong smell of sulfur) and then cools off in a series of wooden troughs that end with a waterfall! I took photos of it from all sides, then in the evening Alex drove me there again so I could take more photos.

This is the car.

The first waterfall, Ryugaeshi Falls. It is not very popular, which is nice - we were practically alone there.

Second waterfall, Shiraito Waterfall, is much more popular - there are buses of tourists all around. But it is very beautiful and unusual - curtain of water falling into a semicircular basin, which leads to a series of cascades.

 

From there, we were planning to go straight to Kusatsu, but waiting for a light at an intersection saw a sign: "Mt. Asama Magma Stone Park, 4 km". 

Just 4 km? Let's go! (This is the beauty of traveling by car.)

And so very soon we arrived at the lava field left after the eruption of Mount Asama volcano. It is also called Onioshidashi Volcanic Park, for no apparent reason - Japanese seem to like to call the same place by at least two different names. 

The place is extremely beautiful, especially on a sunny day in the Fall, with all the foliage! We walked around for about an hour, then drove on to Kusatsu.

The central square in Kusatsu - where the onsen is - and the area around it are jam-packed with people, and it is absolutely impossible to park there. After several unsuccessful attempts, we decided to drive to our ryokan (which was a little less than 1 km away) and ask them if we could leave the car there, even though it was too early to check in. At which point the owner, a very nice woman, said that we could of course leave the car, but that she would check us in right now!

This time, we had a two-level suite, with a living area and private onsen on the first floor, and bedroom with (kind of a) balcony upstairs.

It was located in a separate annex, so getting from it to the main ryokan involved some footwear manipulations, but by then we were quite familiar with the routine and not fazed by it at all.

Then we walked back to the central town square, to Yubatake. There are two words, related but meaning different things: Yubatake is "hot water field" and Yutaki is "hot water waterfall". Here they both are: the photos start with the "field" (where the hot spring emerges from the ground), then show the cooling wooden conduits, and end with the "waterfall" at the opposite end (actually, two waterfalls).

We had dinner at our ryokan...

... then went back to the central onsen to see it lighted up at night. We didn't feel like walking almost 1 km in the cold and dark, so Alex drove and stayed in the car, while I took a few photos. 

> Day 16

Japan, day 16: from Kusatsu to Five Lakes

In the morning, we walked to the Kusatsu Onsen again, but using a different route (to see a five-story pagoda). Early in the morning is a perfect time to go there, we had it practically to ourselves. 

We used a foot bath, which we also had to ourselves - foot baths are very popular in Japan, we saw them in other places too, but this is the first one we tried. Very nice! 

Then we checked out of our ryokan and started driving to our next destination, a hotel on the shore of one of the Five Lakes. It was raining, so the rest of the photos are: lunch at a roadside restaurant (amazing Wagyu beef!), our Japanese-style room in the hotel, with a view of the lake, and dinner at the hotel. 

Five Lakes region is famous for its views of Mount Fuji, and this was the reason we came here. Spoiler: this will be the main topic of the next post.

> Day 17

Japan, day 17: Fuji-san

I've got to say, we were very lucky with the weather. We had just a couple of rainy days (in more than two weeks), and nice weather when it really counted. Such as our last full day in Japan, when we really needed it to be clear and sunny, for Mount Fuji to be visible. And that's what we got! 

We started by walking to the ropeway station from our hotel and taking the ropeway up...

... and there it was!!!!!! Unbelievable... 

This view is from the top station of the ropeway, but there are also several observation platforms, each one providing a slightly different view..

Apparently Mt. Kachi Kachi (Click-Clack Mountain), where the ropeway is located, is somehow connected to a fairy tale involving an old man, an old woman - his wife, a racoon (the villain), and a rabbit (the main positive hero). We got the short version on the way up, and I found it pretty gruesome, but if you are interested, you can find more information here. The bottom line, the rabbit is the good guy, and so there is a Usagi Shrine near the top station of the ropeway, with two rabbits. The one on the left, standing upright, is Fujimi rabbit. Visitors rub its legs in the belief that doing so will heal their legs and help with walking/hiking. The one on the right, curled up with its face covered, is Yumemi rabbit. Stroking this statue is thought to bestow wisdom upon the visitor.

After going to all the possible observation platforms (and me touching the foot of the standing rabbit), we took the ropeway back down and drove to Oshino hakkai, a small village with several ponds and views of Mount Fuji. It turned out to be a very crowded touristy place. 

We had lunch there, and then I had coffee at a different place, on a tatami with a view of Mount Fuji through the window. 

Then we drove to Sora no iro, an observation platform on a mountain slope across from Mount Fuji. The views from there were absolutely breathtaking! It was very peaceful and uncrowded, too, probably because to get there, one has to drive 4 km along a very narrow winding road (which Alex did successfully but I would never dare). 

Finally, we returned to an observation point right on our lake. Here is a photo with the bridge that we see from our hotel window... 

... and a short video spanning all the way from our hotel on the left to Mount Fuji on the right. 

Overall, I took possibly several hundred photos of Mount Fuji, but exercised restraint here and posted just a few of the best ones.

> Day 18

Japan, day 18: last day

That was the day of our departure, but the flight back being at almost 7 pm, we managed to fit a few more sights. 

First, yet another view of Mount Fuji - this one from Hirano beach on Lake Yamanaka.

These rather ugly (in my opinion) swan-geese are representative of the Five Lakes region because we saw them on "our" lake, Lake Kawaguchi, as well. And speaking of our lake, as Alex and I were walking back and forth by the lake shore (first, to and from the ropeway, then - to the souvenir store), we saw the same bird in more or less the same stretch: it would land briefly on a branch or a fence post, then fly away before I had a chance to take a picture. Was driving me crazy. So early in the morning of the last day, since I was awake anyway, I went out alone with my camera and - sure enough! Here it is.

I am still not quite sure what it is. Might be a female Daurian Redstart...

Getting back to our last day itinerary, we drove closer to Narita airport (which is located 70 km away from Tokyo) and visited Naritasan Shinsho-ji, a 10th-century Buddhist temple with a colorful three-story pagoda.

Next to the temple, there is a tourist street, Naritasan Omotesando - both sides of the street are full of pedestrians, traditional shops, either souvenirs or food... I planned to have lunch at an Unagi place there. (Unagi is eel in Japanese. I like this word, it is easy to pronounce and to remember.)

However, Alex got lost, and while I was searching for him, the time window allotted for lunch was gone... We drove to the airport and had our unagi there before the flight.

We left Japan on a 6:50 pm flight to Boston, where we landed at 5:50 pm that same day, spending about 12 hours inside the plane but somehow gaining an hour in the process... good thing Temma was there at Logan to meet us and take us home.