Today we gorge! Oirase Gorge, a famous and extremely scenic location about 90 minutes outside of Aomori city.
By this point in the trip, I am beginning to wonder if truly the best route is the way that google is taking us (I am too lazy to google what is up with this). I generally don’t use google for driving directions in other countries because it is on crack (it once told us to turn down a pedestrian walkway in Europe). I use it in Japan because it has good transit directions. Google takes us down a ton of what seem like side streets almost constantly, but we usually get there in the time it says so – eh.
Notably, Google maps doesn’t pretend to speak Japanese at all (unlike when we are in europe and it randomly gains a french accent). It reads our hot spring town turn as “ass uh mushy on santa” because it has NO idea what to do with “asamushi onsen sta.”
Anyway, we’re off to the nearby gorge today. As we are leaving poorly-caked Santa behind, I mandate that the people who get car sick (two of them) sit in the front because of the wiggly road ahead of us. I was not wrong. The switchbacks were super aggro.
It’s really pretty driving to Oirase gorge. We’re a few weeks ahead of peak fall leaves. The trees are barely kissed by autumn. I really don’t want to fight off the domestic tourist hordes then – this place is gorgeous as it is.
I have reset my diuretic to be in the morning, so I’m back on a normal med schedule. This also means that I really really have to pee like 1 hour into the drive. We visit super nice rest stop and nature center.
Everywhere sells apple things. EVERYWHERE. I got a flying squirrel shirt because of course I did. The rest stop’s apple soda also delighted with big ol chunks of apples.
There are copious amounts of “beware of bears” signs as the bears are I guess getting bullish? If this was a novel, the signs would surely be foreshadowing. At any rate, I have a decoy as I have been taking care to secretly slather rhett’s mom in unagi sauce when she’s not looking.
After the rest stop, we’re very obviously at the gorge. The road is somewhat treacherous only because of the amount of people hiking on it. Parts of the path are closed and you have to weave around hairpin turns, watch out for buses, and not hit pedestrians.
Past Me bookmarked the best waterfalls on google maps (wow past me, great job!). The walk between them along the flat gorge bottom is easygoing. It smells like fall forest – the absolute best. And if there are bears, they’d have a hard time hearing us over the constant roar of waterfalls or the rapids in the river. The trees are just starting to turn – in a few weeks, this place will be a total zoo (with or without bears). It’s perfect the way it is now.
The falls don’t disappoint (for Japan – not for Iceland).
After the falls, we stopped for a local dish, Kiritanpo. It’s pounded rice on a stick that’s roasted and covered in sauce. It’s not quite as chewy as mochi. I of course get the cheese kiritanpo. Delicious!
We travel around Lake Towada to reach the shrine. I am trying SO hard to not make everyone go to every shrine ever, but this one looks legitimately very cool when I flip through it on google.
The shrine at Lake Towada greets you with towering cedar trees. It also greets you with a beware of bears sign because beware the bears (if you are not bewaring them at this point, this is your own fault).
The path up is dark and tranquil, with some sunlight filtering through the tall trees. I wonder how old the trees are. It’s a very lovely walk up. You feel so small. It’s easy to feel sacred energy here.
I make sure to get a goshuin from this shrine. Because this one is not so busy, you can watch the calligrapher calligraphy your seal. I get another shit fortune that I make sure to tie (what is with my luck this trip??).
Towada Shrine is famous for its blind fortune tellers who ascend the mountain once a year, and then descend to the sacred lake on a very very secure looking ladder. As an idiot tourist, you are not allowed to go down the ladder, either for safety or for religious reasons (or both, I guess). It’s a steep and uneven staircase climb towards the top that gives you a pretty good view over the lake.
We went over to the lake path to see the statue of two maidens, which was carved by a famous sculptor (Kotaro Takamura) and is rumored to be of his wife. It’s a peaceful little beachfront sculpture and is one of The Things of this lil town on the lake. Rhett’s free to take up sculpting at any time so he can leave his homage to me on the beach by our house, too.
Our drive back was two hours of twisty turny roads and strange pathing from google. Home sweet mushy ass santa.
It’s our final dinner at Yacchan and I wonder if this lady knows we are repeat customers not out of necessity (I mean, kind of), but also because her Japanese home cookin’ is real freakin’ good.
And goodbye Kuku, I love you.
