Tohoku & Hokkaido

Our first trip into bear country in Japan left us stunned by the area’s beauty, humbled by the wilderness and enamored by the people and the infrastructure built with the people in mind.

There is so much to see for this section of our trip that I decided to keep this post just about the Tohoku region. Our time in Hokkaido will be shared in “Part 2”!

Tohoku

We flew into Haneda airport and stayed the night at a hotel across the street from the airport. It felt upscale and modern, and had a sento for guests which we really looked forward to after the flight.

They welcomed us with the appropriate decor for October.

All we had to do to find groceries and meals was cross this bridge. The weather was breezy and a little chilly but not bad for Midwesterners accustomed to Hawai’i warmth.

We passed a pretty, cozy-looking temple with an old tree outside.

No matter where we went on this trip, every single location was decked out for the holiday!

I don’t know why, but I love getting these coffee drinks from grocery stores in Japan. They always hit the spot!

I always try to buy local potato chips when ever since I had some amazing locally-made chips one year in Kyushu.

The manhole covers in Japan are always so gorgeous, and I find so many different designs every time we go.

We didn’t have much time to do much else except find something to eat, settle into the hotel room, enjoy the sento and go to bed. The hotel offered the standard teabags and hot coffee in the lobby, along with the standard hygiene products like Q-tips, toothbrushes and basic face products.

Some hotels have a limit on how many “free” drinks you can take per day, but this hotel did not have a limit.

The subway ride to the domestic airport was easy to figure out and they had English printed on many of the signs as well.

Our plan was to take a domestic flight (for the first time for us, in Japan!) to the Tohoku region.

I learned something new – a few things. First, the way we submitted our luggage to the airline/flight was new. It was all automated, no human contact. We pressed some buttons, placed our luggage into a recepticle, and the machine ate the luggage and we didn’t see it again until we landed. It was quick and simple, really impressive.

Second, apparently some fleets in Japan partnered with different companies to have some themed planes. This one happened to be a Pokemon-themed one, the flight attendant welcomed all the passengers with a stuffie and one of them also gave me a cup of Pokemon-themed candy and couple of postcards from the airline. So nice!!

Each side of the plane had a different Pokemon theme.

The airport in Odate was small but very clean and very adorable. They had paw prints leading people past information and towards the exit.

I always pick up local guides/maps from places we go and use them to scrapbook later. They always have adorable picture of the paces we might visit, a map to understand the geography of the area better (somehow it’s easier than looking at Google Maps, maybe because I’m old) and sometimes they have information about the place we are visiting that helps me learn about the area.

The hotel had Akita Inu decorations that were decked out for Halloween as well, of course.

This is a cafe that lets you visit with some Akita Inu, just like a cat cafe. At the time, we decided not to go because we have 3 big dogs at home and it didn’t make sense for us to pay to have dog time in that moment. However, we later came to regret not going because the more time we spent getting to know Odate and the Akita Inu they hold dear, the more we became fans of Akita Inu as well.

Our hotel was compact as usual for Japanese hotels, but it had enough space for our suitcases and we don’t usually spend much time at the hotel. My favorite part of our room was how big the bed was.

The view was nice, too, I liked being able to see the city and surrounding mountains.

For dinner, I grabbed a tantanmen, soft-boiled egg and strawberry milk from the Lawson’s across the street from our hotel. Lawson’s was the major chain in Northern Japan it seems, we rarely saw 7-Eleven’s and Family Marts were less frequently seen than Lawson’s as well. It’s such a prevalent convenience store that I got a Lawson’s T-Shirt because stores sold their own merch!

Our after-dinner walk took us around the neighborhood as the sun set. We found a murder of crows downtown, and a persimmon tree full of fruit in someone’s backyard, leaning over their wall.

I would be amiss if I didn’t show you the manhole covers the city offered!

The hotel we stayed in offered onsen as well, so we went home and used the pajamas that the hotel left on the bed to get down to the onsen in proper for form. So far, every hotel seems to offer pajamas to guests, even the ones that don’t have onsen/sento.

This hotel offered a free breakfast, which we enjoyed. Hubby likes to eat natto, and I just enjoy watching him. I tried an assortment of items, including some buttered toast, and was happy about the free coffee refills. The salad was delicious, and it was new for me to have that for breakfast. This really makes me think Japanese people eat healthier overall, because I don’t think you would find salad at any American breakfast buffet. I was excited about the soft-boiled egg, but was shocked when it completely fell apart and was runny, almost raw. I think it was intended to be more like the British soft-boiled, which is very runny and you are supposed to just take the top off and dip your toast in it.

After breakfast, we explored Odate some more. We visited the museum/preservation society for the Akita Inu:

The museum was amazing. It really helped us understand the history behind the breed, how it was tied to the community/region, what role it played with the people and how meaningful it was. What a wonderful dog! Of course, we were happy to see the hat and watch that belonged to Hatchiko. The city/town itself had many mementos dedicated to the breed as well, like statues and figures scattered throughout that caught you by surprise.

I loved the museum so much, I ended up buying a t-shirt and sweater from them as well. Other than that, we just enjoyed the onsen at the hotel and relaxed. The next day was a very long adventure:

We tried to catch a bus, missed the first one, and I think we grabbed lunch/coffee while we waited for the next one. We bussed it out to the train station and took a train out to the countryside.

The countryside was beautiful and the weather was great.

It was a long hike that made us wish we had bikes, but it was very pleasant. We passed some “haikyo” houses along the way. We really felt like we were out in the deep countryside.

Our destination was this wind cave that people used for vegetable storage. There were many signs both outside and inside warning about the bears in the area. One thing that was a constant during our trip was the bear warnings. When speaking with locals, they would warn us. Watching the news, the reporters always had another cautionary tale to share about another bear attack.

The wind cave was nice and cool after a long hike!

They were so concerned about the risk of bear attacks that they even had a sign describing recent attacks inside the cave.

Walking around the property surrounding the facility, there are other caves along the path that do not allow entry. We got so worried about bears in this very rural area that we made noise as we walked around the path, which was essentially in the middle of the woods.

We debated hiking up to an onsen that was very reachable by car and was a bit of a hike, but ended up deciding that by foot we wouldn’t make it in time. So, we decided to go to a different onsen and set off to walk back the way we came, to the train station again.

There were wild chestnuts along the way!

I loved seeing details on the older local houses that we passed along the way. This one had some lovely, dainty maple leaves etched into the glass.

Along the way to the other onsen we picked, we passed a roadside waterfall, found some wild hops growing, a praying mantis and a tuck with cars piled on top of each other. I really wondered about the cars… were they being thrown away? Certainly not how usable cars would be transported. Interesting.

When we got to the onsen, we were SO happy!!! It was such a relief to arrive after hiking for so long. It was a large building, an onsen hotel. The lobby was so cute and had local snacks and food as well as lots of Akita Inu plushies and souvenirs. They ALSO had the BEST Akita Inu t-shirts that had a lot of cute themes – some of them playing off of Starbucks (“Akitabucks”) and Adidas (“Akitadas”). I got several shirts from them, they were better than many of the souvenir shops in Odate.

When I got up to the women’s section of the onsen, I was really excited to find that I was the only one there! I took advantage of this rare opportunity to document what it’s like at onsen like this one. It was a very typical experience in the changing area. You enter and find a place to put your shoes, and must continue in your socks or bare feet from there. In large facilities like this one, there are always lockers with keys on a bracelet that you can use to store your belongings. There are bins to place your clothes, and some sinks with stools and hair dryers to clean up after your bath.

The showers with stools and a mirror were very typical. There is a shelf to place any extra shower items to the front and left in this picture, and it also has bowls that you can use to fill with water to help wash yourself up at the shower stations.

The water at this onsen was muddy/murky looking because of the minerals it had.

The L-shaped bath here faced a large window that looked out at the forest beyond the facility. The water was hot and felt great on the skin. There was some sediment from the minerals at the bottom of the bath, which is very common with onsen that have a lot of minerals like this one. There was also an outside bath that I could get to on the left, but I didn’t get pictures because after I spent some time in this bath some people started to arrive.

This was the last picture I was able to take here before people started to arrive.

The small statue in the corner here is where the onsen water was filling the bath from. To the right, around the corner past the yellow crates in the picture, was a section that contained ice-cold water that I could pour over myself using the bowls provided. I love it when sento or onsen have these, because it’s so nice to have that if you start to feel overheated in the bath.

This onsen experience was so nice and I’m sure staying at this onsen hotel would be a great experience.

After we got back to town, we were VERY ready to eat of course, and we had a very satisfying meal ordering many plates of sushi from a place that had a conveyor belt service. I drank a highball as well.

We said good-bye to a very comfortable hotel and lovely view. Ahui ho, Odate!

We walked our suitcases to the train station because it was so close. The scenery even along the walk was so picturesque:

Got to say good-bye to the station master!

Hubby’s Japanese skills came in handy when buying train tickets in the more rural areas.

I noticed that we were northern enough that the stations had snow-blowers stashed away for the Winter.

On the train ride, we noticed many apple orchards along the way and the train station was decked out with lots of apple-themed items. Tables made from apple tree wood, with real apples hidden underneath the benches, and apple drink vending machines.

As we walked into the city, this pedestrian bridge really stood out with its apple orchard theme.

We walked to a vegan restaurant that my hubby had in mind.

The further north we went, the more Fall colors we saw!

I love walking honestly, because you see so much of daily life in that area. Here, many of the houses had these devices standing outside their home. If I remember correctly, it’s set up that way because of how cold it gets in the winter. One family home had a Christmas tree decorated with Halloween ornaments. We also passed a school that advertised with some characters on their windows.

The restaurant was so cute and the food was delicious!

Part of it was also set up as a shop. They sold little items made by local artists, and they had a little bakery/deli section as well as a section dedicated to sundry goods. Snacks, tea, non-perishable food and sauces. I ended up getting a bag of apple leaf tea, which is something I’d never heard of before.

The dessert was so good, and the coffee smooth.

…and then on to our next stop – Mutsu!!!

We stayed at an older hotel in Mutsu first, and picked up the rental car that we needed for the rest of our stay in Tohoku. I remember the bed at the hotel being very firm, but it was still nice and offered all the basic amenities that hotels in Japan usually offer (hygiene items in the lobby, sheet masks, etc).

These are a couple of the items the front desk/lobby provided free of charge for guests – what they call “service” in Japan.

We also ended up visiting an onsen the next block over from the hotel, but honestly it was so dystopian and I was convinced it was haunted. Last time we checked, it had finally closed down. That was an adventure. There was dust everywhere, the rug felt very old and dirty, the lockers were all rusty and filled with old, long-forgotten belongings, and there was algae growing on the tiles. The water was so hot, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t appropriate for human use.

The next morning, bright and early, hubby went to get the rental car and then we went to a local grocery store called “Universe” and grabbed some road snacks:

Dango is my absolute favorite! And caffeine helps.

Here’s a great map to give you an idea of where we did all our exploring in Tohoku!

We pulled over for a moment to check out a local onsen/Ryokan in the middle of the countryside. I loved their posters about CPR and calling for emergency services!

As we continued driving, hubby made a pit stop at a trail that he saw was supposed to lead to a wild onsen. We tried to find it, unsuccessfully, but saw a lot of gorgeous Fall scenery along the way!

Next stop was a famous location along the Tohoku region coast:

There is a trailhead at the top of a cliff that you park at. From there, you take a path/boardwalk down a steep cliff to the beach. You will pass a local shrine as you enter the beach area.

This was one of those places where it’s hard to capture the scale of things with just a camera. Definitely warrants a visit if you’re in the area – very different rock formations from what I’ve seen elsewhere.

Around the corner, a peaceful beach. Unfortunately, just outside the frame of this photo is washed-up garbage from the ocean. Please don’t litter!

After the lovely hiking we did, we drove up along the coast to Oma, a coastal fishing town.

Oma was a cute fishing town. Pictured here is a souvenir shops, and the precious “best tuna in Japan” that I had the privilege to eat. Trophy pictures of the past featured on the walls. I tried lean, semi-fatty, and fatty tuna. Of course paired with a highball!

We stopped by an absolutely dreamy onsen on the way back to our hotel that sat along the coast in another small village. The water there was cloudy/blue, and they had both inside and outside pools. The outside pool was straight out of a dream, with a ledge facing outwards towards the ocean. I could see the city lights twinkling in the distance along the coast and the stars above us, feel the breeze as I soaked. The local aunties and grandmas tried to talk to me, I felt so welcomed.

The next day, hubby drove me to a lighthouse at another corner of the peninsula:

There, we saw a man in a wetsuit gathering seaweed.

Next, we headed up the mountain. We made a pit stop at a fresh water site:

Our main destination for the day was Osorezan – a very special place for those of the Buddhist religion, and a hotspot for onsen (especially if you like the sulfuric kind).

The park was LARGE. You could wander all day here.

You can see the sulfur in the water trickling around the buildings on the property.

Dotted along the paths and landscape were pockets of volcanic steam, streams of hot spring bubbling up from the surface.

View from one of the small Buddhist structures looking out towards the lake/mountains.

The lake was very acidic and known for its sulfur content. It was bubbling as well.

Despite having plenty of visitors present, the place was peaceful and it was still possible to enjoy it at your own pace without running into too many people. We made a bit of small talk with some locals and visitors, but for the most part just enjoyed our time. Hubby made a friend in the onsen as well, a local who drove out to enjoy his precious weekend off.

Next, hubby went to explore another trail to search for a wild onsen and left me at this wonderful onsen that overlooks a river and faces the forest:

It was probably one of the top 5 best onsen I’ve experienced out of all our trips. So relaxing, open-air, with a view of the river… You could hear it and feel the breeze as you watch the water flowing, the leaves blowing in the wind and soaking in the heat of the hot spring.

What a wonderful way to wrap up our time in Tohoku! The owners were so cute – a couple that let us stay until the very end, as they closed up shop for the night. They joked that we could take the bear.