Day 26 - Tamagawa Onsen to Tazawako Lake - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Day 26 - Tamagawa Onsen to Tazawako Lake - Hot Springs Walking Tour Of Northern Japan 

I cannot describe how sad I was to leave Tamagawa Onsen.

We chatted with a man who sat next to us during mealtime, and he asked us how long we would be staying in Tamagawa.

We said that we were leaving today, and I felt a pang of jealousy when he said that he was staying for two weeks.

He said that he comes here three times per year.

He comes once in the winter, when everything is quiet and covered in snow, the second time is during Golden Week in Japan, and the third time is in August, when the rest of Japan is just too hot.

Later, he showed us, in the corridor of the hotel, several beautiful photographs hanging there that he had taken during the different seasons, capturing the amazing landscapes of Tamagawa in a most artistic and magical way.

We complimented him on his beautiful photos, which were enlarged and framed, looking very professional and beautiful.

The distance between Tamagawa Onsen and our next onsen hotel, near Tazawako Lake, is too long to walk in one day.

We originally planned on walking it over two days, and even booked the Tazawako hotel for two nights, in order to cover the distance.

There is a bus leaving Tamagawa Onsen and going to Tazawako Station, but it does not run frequently.  

It leaves at 9:30 and 10:00 in the morning, and then there is no bus until 2:00 in the afternoon.

The bus after that is at 4:00 pm, which would be too late for us because it would arrive in the dark, and we would still have to walk to our hotel.

It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to rely on this bus in order to break up the distance into two days of walking.

Now, in retrospect, it would have been better to stay in Tamagawa Onsen for an extra day, walk down to the scenic dam and take the 2 pm bus back to Tamagawa, and then the next day take the bus to the dam, and then walk to Tazawako.

But I didn’t think of it when I made the plans, and I didn’t know how the bus schedule looked in this season.

It would be too late now to change our hotel reservations, that were already paid and non-refundable.

Tomorrow the weather forecast called for cold temperatures and rain, so we decided to alter our original plans.  

We decided to walk today from the observation deck of the dam,  to our Tazawako lake hotel.

We thought to cover the rest of the distance not by returning to the mountains, but by walking tomorrow to the lake instead.

We are staying on the Tazawako plateau, a few kilometers east of the lake.

The bus dropped us off at the dam, and we began our walk along the narrow car road.

We had about 19 km to walk, mostly downhill through a forest with some ponds and lakes.

The car road was narrow and winding, and we counted six tunnels ranging in length from about 150 meters to over a kilometer.

We had excellent views of the lakes, rivers and mountains along the way, and that made the walk very enjoyable.

We are already at Day 26 of our pilgrimage, just three days until the end of this walk, and we both agreed that this was one of the most enjoyable pilgrimages we have done in Japan.

Unlike other pilgrimages that we have walked in Japan, there were not many days when we had to walk by new and used car dealerships and decaying, urban, grey landscapes.

It has been a month of seaside walks and forested mountains, small rural villages and lots of nature.

We were not attacked by any bears, and we had a really great time walking.

The quality of the Onsens we visited was surprisingly good, and the food we have eaten was lovely.

The accommodations we’ve had were varied and wonderful, ranging from humble guesthouses to fancy inns and healing Onsen hotels.

We stopped along the way to drink water from a spring that came directly out of the rocks.

There were free plastic bottles for people to fill so they could take home this pure spring water.

A sign said that the spring water comes from a mysterious source that has not been identified.

The water tasted sweet and refreshing.

The water, being so very clear, was used by Satakeko, the lord of Akita, to make tea as he journeyed through the area.

It is said that he named it "tea-making clear water" because he made a delicious tea with this water and it relieved and refreshed his throat.

 He said that it was a blessing from nature, and it became a famous spring water since then that has been protected by the local community.

We chatted with a sweet old lady who came over from her house across the street to chat with us.

She told us that cyclists often stopped here to fill their water bottles.

She was worried about us walking through bear territory.

We told her that we were almost finished with our walk, and that we had walked all over the Tohoku region and didn’t see a single bear.

She asked if we liked Akita better than here in the mountains.

I told her that we didn’t like Akita better, that we loved the beautiful, quiet mountains, with their autumn colors and the songs of birds and bubbling waters.

She was happy with my answer.

We arrived in a village that had a small store that was open.  

It was mostly empty of produce, but it did sell some local honey.

The friendly woman who ran the store had some persimmon honey, and she let us try it before we bought a small bottle.  

It was golden in color and very delicious.

We also tasted her acacia honey, which was delicious too, but it is less rare than persimmon honey.

We also bought two mini apple pies, and we sat outside to drink tea and eat the pies.

We arrived at our destination, a good looking Onsen hotel, which was packed for the weekend with Japanese, Chinese and even two European tourists. 

The hot springs are what is called a “Simple hot spring,” meaning that there is nothing unique about them.

All hot springs are good for muscle pain, joint pain, neuralgia, frozen shoulders, bruises, sprains, coldness, fatigue recovery and health promotion.

It was a nice Onsen with an indoor and an outdoor bath, but I was missing Tamagawa Onsen where we stayed last night.

With love and peace,

Tali

Walked today - 19 km.  

Total walked to date - 405 km.