Yamanaka Onsen

Monday 30th October (Day 11)

Another day out and about.  We got up nice and early as we were going to spend the day in Yamanaka Onsen.

Yamanaka Onsen is a well known hot spring town nestled in the mountains in the city of Kaga.  The Daishoji River runs through it and it’s a very popular holiday spot for the Japanese to come and relieve their aches and pains in the hot springs.

To get there, it would take a walk to the station, a trip on the Thunderbird train (are you all humming the tune to the Thunderbirds now😂😂?) and a 30 minute trip on a local bus.

We eventually got there and it’s such a pretty place. Very oldly worldly and traditional.  Just the way we liked it.  It was also very quiet , the weather was perfect and we never saw another foreign tourist all day ….. perfect!

We walked through the town because what we really wanted to do was walk through the Gorge (we like a gorge). It was beautiful….. we were able to get right down by the river and walk along the path.

I was just starting to get a bit thirsty, when though the trees we saw some red umbrellas ….. it was only a little cafe…. Yippee…. I got an iced matcha with mochi sweets and Scott got a coffee.  We got two cups of green tea as well…. I had both of them. We had them while looking out at the river …. Pretty much a perfect day …..

Off we went again and the next stop was Basho’s but. Basho was a famous Haiku poet who spent much of his time sitting in his hut watching the river and thinking up his poems.  I could do that - except that time has moved on and now in front of his hut is a public toilet ….  Not quite the inspiration of old!!!

We walked for miles and miles …. Well about 2km…. We walked the white path.

By now it’s getting quite late and we’ve got a long way to get back to Kanazawa… so back on the bus and the Thunderbird…… ended up getting home quite late so it was a chill out and some food.

Until tomorrow xxx