A Beautiful Hot Springs Town in the DRIPPING Rain // A Night in GINZAN ONSEN, JAPAN

A Beautiful Hot Springs Town in the DRIPPING Rain // A Night in GINZAN ONSEN, JAPAN

It’s been a fun four days eating and tripping through various less known places in North Eastern Japan. And for the finale we’ve chosen somewhere a little more well known: the picturesque hot springs town of Ginzan Onsen. After all, no trip to Japan is complete without a relaxing night in a Japanese Ryokan.

But back in the present – we were just heading for our hotel breakfast after a night spent in Ichinoseki City. Actually not half bad, not as good as I was led to believe but this is a decent variety of stuff. This is mum’s favourite stuff: almond tofu thing.

Okay back on the road, we are going to see a supposedly relatively famous temple at the historic city of Hiraizumi today. Transportation is a little bit difficult to arrange so we’ll be trying to take a taxi there. Okay here we are, this is the historic town of Hiraizumi.

We are visiting the most prominent temple here called Chusonji. It’s going to be a little bit of a walk up this slope to the main temple compound. But yeah, it’s a nice and pleasant place. The temple complex sits atop a small hill and so it was a short hike up through peaceful woods.

Nice little walkway lined with these very tall cedar trees. Little overlook here, it’s a cloudy day. So this temple is called Chusonji. Apparently it was established in 850, so a pretty old temple. It apparently came to prominence when the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan moved

Their base to Hiraizumi, which is this town. I don’t really know much about the Fujiwara clan but that’s the history apparently. Around the turn of the 12th century, this land saw a brief respite from the bitter wars of the era. For nearly a hundred years, Hiraizumi prospered

And Chusonji temple developed into a massive complex. a beacon of peace and rest for the countless spirits of war dead. Sadly, bloody war soon returned. The Fujiwara were eventually wiped out and much of the complex became eventually lost to fires

So it’s not just a temple, it’s like an entire complex with a whole bunch of buildings. I think the write-up says that only two of the buildings are from the initial era. So this is the Konjiki-do.

The interior is made out of solid gold and the gold was harvested from the gorge we were at yesterday, the one at the boat ride. That’s what the guy told us anyway. So we’re gonna go take a look. Unfortunately filming was not allowed but housed inside the building was the Konjiki-do.

The Golden Hall. An impressive structure covered in gleaming gold evocative of the vision of the Buddhist Pure Land that the Fujiwara sought to create. Okay it was kind of cool. There was like a solid gold little pavilion with a bunch of very intricately carved Buddhas in it. Apparently dating back to the 1100s.

So quite an old structure. Okay here we go again, looking for the right bus stop. Despite careful planning, things still went wrong. So I think we probably missed the bus because it’s been a while and the bus didn’t arrive so we’ve resorted to calling a taxi again.

This by the way is the golden hall, it’s a photo of it in case you want to look at it. So we had a nice taxi ride chatting with the driver. We are now back at the station. I am going to hit the toilets. Heated toilet seats, good invention.

And so we went hurtling through the misty countryside, leaving the prefecture of Iwate behind. So we have arrived at Fukushima station. We are only transiting here, we have about 40 minutes so we’re going to get some lunch.

So there is a standing soba restaurant here at the station and we are having a little bit of the soba here. It’s pretty cold. It’s a good weather to have soba. Right so we are on the train now to Oishida station.

This is the “Tsubasa”, I think it’s an older model of the shinkansen. Slightly smaller, looks a little bit more retro. We also took the chance to dig into our convenience store bento, which as I always say, have no business tasting this good.

Right here we are, this is Oishida station and I think everybody that’s here is pretty much going to Ginzan Onsen, we are waiting for our Ryokan to come and fetch us. The people will come in with the Ryokan’s name on the card and that’s how you recognize that’s your ride.

Not the best weather we are having here, but at least we’re not outdoors right now. Here we are at this is Ginzan Onsen, the weather isn’t great and the bus only takes us to the “mouth” (entrance) of the street and we gotta walk into the hotel ourselves,

That’s what we are doing now with our bag. Ok this is it, this is our Ryokan, we are going to check in now. “Here are the onsen” Alright, so this is the room. It’s quite nice. It’s way bigger than the last room.

It’s also more expensive. The staff members have been very very nice so far as expected of a Japanese Ryokan. The town is incredible, even without the snow. It was nearly dinner time and it was still really coming down outside. But we had to go out and look.

That was something. I mean, the weather isn’t ideal and it’s pretty crowded but that was still pretty breathtaking. So that was a pre-dinner walk. After dinner we’ll probably go out again and hopefully it’ll be a little quieter and hopefully a little less rainy.

So these Ryokans they often have these little candy, I don’t know, pastry, snacks thing that they put in the room sometimes because they sell it but yeah, it’s complimentary. It’s completely black inside. It’s like a “tau sar” kind of flavour. Yeah, it tastes like red bean paste.

Right here we’ve got some mochi sort of thing as well. We got this from Ichinoseki Station earlier. Okay, I’m here for a pre-dinner dip. There’s absolutely no one here so just a quick look around the changing room for the hot springs.

There’s really nothing quite like a hot springs bath after the cold rain. So this is pretty nice. Got a lot of the expected stuff. River fish. Unexpectedly we get horse sashimi here which is nice Some soba, not sure what that one is yet. Kanpai! This is sake.

Actually not too bad. I’m not a sake connoisseur but this is alright. Customary to the Ryokan experience is a nice traditional Kaiseki meal prepared by the Ryokan’s kitchen. So unfortunately I’m not sure what this is but it doesn’t taste very good. I’ve been

Having little bits of it. Some beef here which was pretty good. Chawanmushi and the Nimono. Okay, post dinner we’re coming out again for a walk. Unfortunately while the crowd has dissipated it is still raining rather heavily. We’ll make the best of it.

So this area is actually a foot bath in nicer weather so you can actually sit on the block here and put your feet into the water which you can’t quite see. But yeah this is why it’s steaming over here because there’s hot spring water here.

So that was our evening walk in the rain. It is incredibly beautiful. I think the rain does enhance the mood a little bit. It’s really nice except that it’s really hard to get around and the skirts of my yukata are soaked through but..

This is beautiful. It is insanely beautiful. Look at that, it is otherworldly. So this is the front area of the Ryokan we’re staying at. It’s got a nice little rather eccentric look. I quite like it. Back in the warmth. I am standing in front of the heater

So that I can dry the skirts of my yukata. Meanwhile they’ve come in and laid out the futon. Much better quality futons today, very nice. Time for bed. Good morning. This is just water. It’s nice after a bath.

It’s a fine morning. It’s a shame that the temperatures are not low enough for this to turn into snow but we’ve got a nice wet town. The rain has mostly let up. It’s kind of a drizzle now. Everything is wet.

We’ve got a pretty nice breakfast going on. Some tofu that goes with this miso based paste. Some nice pickles. There’s an onsen egg, a very interesting looking onsen egg. Fish. We’ve got some sweet black beans. Miso soup. So I think there is a waterfall hereabouts that we didn’t manage to look at yesterday.

This way, towards the end of the town. We’re going to go take a peek. Take a gander! The waterfall was spectacular. Thunderous. – And we no doubt owe that to the rain. That was pretty impressive, that was a waterfall. Probably enhanced by the rain yesterday but yeah that was a torrent.

Not sure where this leads if anywhere. I’m gonna find out. Well, time to do a little exploring I guess. Oh, apparently that’s the extent of it. It looks like you used to be able to go inside. It’s closed now. That’s a shame. Probably an old mine.

And so, our eventful visit to Ginzan Onsen comes to its end. And with it, our whirlwind tour around northeast Japan. So we’re heading back to the station now, they are sending us off and we have a mountain of luggage in here. It’s been a pleasure pouring heart and soul into producing this series

And I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed making it. Thank you very much for watching. “Journey North East Japan” is finished, but is this the end of the adventure? Well as it turns out, my parents and brother would spend one more day and night in Tokyo city.

So join us for one more bonus episode in the metropolis as we check out the sights and sounds the bustling capital has to offer. As always, subscribe if you haven’t because the adventure continues one more time.

Here’s the FINALE of Journey North East Japan! We start a cloudy morning in Iwate, where we visit the sprawling historic Chusonji Temple in the town of Hiraizumi. After which we take the long journey to Yamagata coming off at the ethereal hot springs town of Ginzan Onsen in the midst of freezing rainfall. We checked in and explored the town, and with the rain continuing all night, marveled at the brightly lit buildings in the falling water. In the morning, we also got a chance to stroll the picturesque town in daylight, before leaving for Tokyo.

Next up is a bonus episode in the Japanese capital! Subscribe to be notified!

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