Day 24 - Yuze Onsen to Hachimantai Mountain, Becoming Aware Of The Danger Of Bears - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan

 

 

   

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Day 24 - Yuze Onsen to Hachimantai Mountain, Becoming Aware Of The Danger Of Bears - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan 

We woke up to a cool and sunny morning.

I went to soak in the hot springs before breakfast, because I knew  that tonight we would be staying in a humble guesthouse in the mountains that has only very basic facilities.

The guesthouse does have hot springs water running through its shower, but the reviews of the place were terrible, saying that the place was dirty and the owner unfriendly.

But this Minshuku was the only accommodation within twenty mountainous kilometers from our starting point, so there really was no choice involved in its selection. 

A minshuku is usually a family-run, Japanese-style bed and breakfast, similar to a guesthouse or homestay, offering a more affordable and traditional lodging experience than a hotel. 

Guests typically sleep on futons on tatami mats, share facilities like bathrooms and hot baths, and enjoy home-style meals, providing an opportunity to experience local family life. 

These accommodations are often found in scenic or rural areas like the countryside, mountains, or seaside.

We started walking early through the rural countryside, surrounded by forested mountains.

It was so cold in the shade of the forest, that we chose to take another road which was longer, but more exposed to the sun.

The sun really warmed us up as we walked, and we stopped to strip off our warm jackets, hats, and balaclavas.  

The walk today was divided into two parts. 

The first couple of hours we walked on flat roads and rural paths between the rice fields, as we slowly approached the mountains.  

The second part of the day was all uphill climbing, as we walked  into the mountains on a narrow road.

While we were walking through the rice fields, we were looking for a bench or a place to rest and eat our lunch of fresh apples, but there was nowhere to sit.

We made our way to a shrine, but the main building was located high up the mountain, and we didn’t want to do the climb.

We passed by a cemetery that had stone steps that were dry, but it was located in the middle of the village and we saw people working in their gardens and fields, and we thought that maybe they would think that we were disrespectful of their dead, so we kept on walking.

Finally we came upon a large farmhouse.

It had on its grounds a shaded shelter which was far from the house, with stone benches.

It was clearly on their property and not on public land, but we really needed to rest, so we went there.

We took off our backpacks and sat down for tea.

We thought to ourselves that if someone comes to inquire, we would try to charm them and explain that we couldn’t find anywhere else to sit and rest.

After about fifteen minutes, a farmer did come out of the house.

He saw us but he didn’t approach us.

We were already ready to keep on walking, so we packed up and continued on.

We had passed by a heavily forested mountain range, with many signs warning of the danger of bears.

In a small village, a man came out of his house to talk with us.  

He asked where we were going and said it is a long way and a very steep climb.

Then he said that there are many aggressive bears and that only yesterday a bear came into his garden.

His eyes looked so concerned as he wished us luck and asked us to be careful.

A little later, a woman saw us walking while she was driving by in her pickup truck.

She u-turned to deliver her message, that the area is full of bears and that it is dangerous to walk, and for us to be extra careful.  

I was thinking about how their good intentions only made me feel fearful.

We had no bus or train to hop on to avoid walking through the forests.

We had to walk on, danger or not.

I asked Jules if he felt any fear or that we were in danger, and he said that he didn’t feel any fear, or imminent danger.

I felt the same.

Not all bears are aggressive and dangerous.

I told Jules about a short movie of a true story that I recently saw.  It was filmed by a man who had adopted a wild baby bear, after the cub’s mother was shot by hunters.

He raised it in his house until it was time to release it to the wild.

At first, the bear stayed in the back yard and wouldn’t go into the forest.

When it finally did, it came back to the house once a month, to be with its human family.

One day the bear came to the house with her two babies.

She showed them to the family in the same way a human being would bring his or her children to show to the grandparents.

It was so charming.

Wild animals should not be seen as imminent threats.

Jules and I have encountered many bears during our hikes through the woods in Colorado.

We usually stop to assess the situation, and if the bear is not injured, but is just eating the berries off a bush or drinking water from the stream, or fishing for trout in the river, then we just give it some space and walk around it.

After a climb up through the thick forest, we reached a beautiful plateau.

We saw houses and small villages, and we stopped at a local bus stop to drink tea and rest.

I saw a hand written map with the name of the owners of each house in the village.

The houses had named like: “Mr Tanaka’s elder son”, and “Mrs Yamaguchi the teacher.”

I thought about how charming it was to live in a community where  each person knows the generations of people who have lived there.

We had that experience when we moved part time to a small rural village in the Far North of New Zealand.

We bought and renovated two houses in that village.

Despite the fact that there were three sets of new owners to our house, it was still known by everyone as “Tom and Julia’s house” who were the people who originally built it and were since living in another part of the island.

The local bus stops were perfect for us to sit on dry benches and rest our feet for a few minutes, and we sat in one every hour and a half.  We brought our own snacks, and the fresh apples that we had bought at the orchards that we visited yesterday, because there were no shops or stores on our entire walk today.  

We did pass by a grocery store, but it was out of business.  

The only shop we saw open today was a barber shop, which was already busy when we passed it early this morning.  

The more open roads in the rural villages gave us great views of the surrounding mountains.

The narrow mountain roads offered us many views of small rapids, rivers, and tall, perfectly straight pine trees.

The last climb of the day was through a thick forest.

We arrived in our MInshuku earlier than we had told them.

The door was open and there was a small table at the front, with sets of keys and pieces of paper with the names and room numbers of the guests.

We took off our shoes and walked up to our room.

We took off our backpacks, and walked around to see where were the toilets, the shower room, the dining room and if they had a laundry machine.

The place was cold with only a few inefficient space heaters.

We found only one toilet for the entire guesthouse, not separated by men and women like it is everywhere in Japan.

It was located half way down the stairs and we made a mental note how to locate it when we wake up to pee in the middle of the night.

We cheered ourselves up, saying that it was a charming experience and a part of the whole adventure of a walking pilgrimage.

Sometimes you get to stay in luxury Ryokans, sometimes in rural Onsens and sometimes in humble guesthouses that are like staying in someone’s home.

This Minshuku had six small bedrooms upstairs, all occupied and serviced by this one toilet at the end of the hallway.  

I went downstairs to meet the couple who own the guesthouse.

They were grandparents and their kids and grandkids were in the dining room doing their homework.

They were not excited to meet foreigners in their house, but they became more relaxed when they realized that I could speak Japanese.

I asked about the laundry and was shown the laundry machine outside at the back of the house. 

It was already so cold outside at sunset time.

There was no drier, but the lady told me that if we hung the clothes in our room, they would dry by morning.

I told her that we don’t eat meat, but we would eat fish if they can’t prepare vegetarian food.

She conveyed the message to her husband who was working in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal.

He wasn’t happy to hear that, saying that he had already made the menu and that it was too late to change anything.

The lady said that we could just not eat the meat items, which was fine with me.

I conveyed the message to Jules who wasn’t very happy to hear that.

He was hungry and so was I, and we wanted to enjoy a hot dinner.

I washed our laundry and we went to the baths.

I saw that the guesthouse provided only small washcloths, and no big towels.

In Japan, it is not uncommon for people to use only a hand towel to wash their bodies in the Onsen, and then to dry their bodies with the same small hand towel.

We have done that in the past and we would have done it here, if the bathroom were warm.

But it was so drafty that there was no chance that we would be taking showers there.

Luckily I took a long bath in the Onsen this morning, and we didn’t sweat today on our walk but were mostly cold all day, so we decided to skip the shower.

We dressed up warmly in our lined fleeces and ski hats to go eat in the dining room.

There were other guests and even some construction workers in overalls, who had come only to eat and were not staying there, although they might be staying in the dusty annex building next door, belonging to the same family.

The dinner was such a pleasant surprise.

The owner had changed his mind and made some dishes especially for us.

He used local mushrooms and mountain vegetables and didn’t serve us any of the meat dishes.

His food was delicious and light.

At dinner, we had a lovely chat with the guest sitting at our table.

He was a guy from Tokyo who always goes to an Onsen out in nature, whenever he feels the need for a cure.  

He was very interested in our walk and we communicated in both Japanese and  English, which he spoke pretty well.

He told us that he has done some walking in England and that for many years he lived in India.

We talked about our journey through the mountains and about Tamagawa Onsen, which was our destination for tomorrow.

He told us that tomorrow we would be climbing our last mountain pass, and that it is a very acidic Onsen, with waters in which some people can only spend five minutes at a time.

He said that we shouldn’t rub our skin while in the hot springs, because it could create some skin irritation.

Our room was freezing, so I went downstairs and asked for a space heater.

After putting the heater on full volume, our room got warmer and our clothes would definitely be dry by tomorrow morning.

I slept well that night, and was amazed that even though we shared one toilet among 15 people, not once did I have to wait to use the toilet, it was always free.  

Actually, we found the reviewers to be mistaken.  

Our entire experience with the MInshuku was enjoyable, comfortable, and with excellent food.  

It was a good day.

We were warm and well fed.

We have done our laundry and have clean clothes for tomorrow.

We did the entire walk and did not get attacked by aggressive bears.

And tomorrow we will be arriving in the Onsen that I anticipated to visit the most on this pilgrimage.

I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.

With love and peace,

Tali

Walked 19 km. 

Total walked to date - 369 km.