Towadako

Our final full day on Honshu (the main island of Japan) started with a short drive from the hotel to Tazawako for a few photo ops. From there, we’d drive North to see Towadako and the Oirase Gorge, finally ending up at a more traditional hotel in Orise for the night. Here’s what it roughly looked like.

We left our hotel around 10am and drove around the lake in search of a bronze statue of Tatsuko. The myth surrounding Tatsuko is that her search for eternal beauty drove her away from her home, despite numerous warnings to not seek it. She was eventually turned into a dragon with eternal life (TECHNICALLY WHAT YOU WANTED, LADY). Anyhow, the dragon apparently resides in the lake, which causes it to never freeze, even in the chilly Akita winters.

We found the statue (conveniently mobbed by 3 bus-loads of tourists), took some photos, and got out of there as it started to rain. Heading back, we turned down the road our GPS instructed us to turn down and I almost immediately regretted being annoyed at the road into the hotel the night before. We have prepared a short video, if you’re interested. That’s a two-way road, by the way, and our car had trouble getting traction a various points due to the wet ground. Fortunately, the road opened up onto rice fields after a bit and we felt more at ease. Seri wanted to stop at one point along Hosen Lake to check out its dam, but the weather was pretty bad at that point so we didn’t stay long.

A lot more driving and eventually we came up on the Hakka Touge Observatory, on the south side of the lake. If it weren’t raining, I’m sure it would have looked great, but the rain really cut the viewing distance and made it tough to get a good look at the lake.

Once we got to Towadako, we stopped for a quick lunch at a nearby restaurant. There were really loud tourists having lunch and it made it hard to relax, but they left halfway through our meal so we had some time to enjoy it. One interesting aspect of the restaurant was that the bathroom was oddly built. You open the door, and immediately see two urinals to your right. When Seri went in, she thought she’d accidentally entered the men’s room, but beyond the urinals are two unisex stalls. I can’t recall ever having the experience of having a woman walk by me into a stall while I use the urinal, but things are different now.

After lunch, the plan was to drive up the road to the Oirase Gorge. Unfortunately, they close it to passenger cars until 3pm, so only buses and tour groups can get up. We only had to wait about 15 minutes until then, but it was still an annoying wait. The road itself was equally as annoying, as it was swarming with tourists with little regard for the trails alongside the road, preferring instead to walk on the road as they pleased.

We finally made it to the Ishigedo rest area and parked, then walked with Einstein down the lake a bit to a popular photo spot. I stayed along the trail with Einstein while Seri took photos, then we headed back up the trail towards our car, fighting mud, bugs, and overgrown tree limbs along the way. If I’m honest, if it weren’t for the beautiful streaming water, I’d question my choices in life that led me to that point. But we persevered, took more photos, and escorted Einstein (I carried him most of the way on the trail – I didn’t want his feet in that muck) back to the rest area.

Fortunately, most of the tour groups were gone when we left, so the drive out was a lot easier. We made it to our hotel, the Oirase Green Hotel, a little before dinner time. This gave us a chance to relax in the room with Einstein before dinner in the hotel’s dining room.

The dinner was set up similarly to those at the Hoshino KAI resort in Nikko, where we just had to show up at a specific time and the food was ready for us. While I enjoyed the food at Sounds Good’s restaurant (Italian, a rare break from the traditional Japanese meals at the other hotels), there’s something nice to about wandering down to the dining room and having your food already (or nearly) there.

This hotel was the first where we had to make our own futons (seen folded up in the above image). It can be annoying to literally make your bed every night, especially if you’re exhausted, but it wasn’t too bad. Einstein seemed comfortable, at least.

Tomorrow would be our final day on Honshu, mostly filled with errands and travel downtime before our arrival in Hokkaido at Hakodate!