A glance into the past

One thing I was most excited about, whilst planning my travels, was the idea of visiting Ginzan Onsen. My main objective for this trip was to visit places off the beaten track and I remember feeling giddy and extremely lucky to have stumbled across this small village, in my search for unique destinations to visit.

Ginzan Onsen is a hot spring village located in Obanazawa, Yamagata prefecture and was made famous as the setting of the television drama, Oshin. The spring was first discovered by a group of miners searching for silver, hence the name Ginzan, meaning silver mountain.

I got up early and caught the train to Oishida, a half hour ride from Yamagata. I remember being entranced by the passing landscape, as we fled by field after field of white- occassionally broken by the odd house and the scatter of crows; and the mountains in the distance, snow capped and barely moving. As I got off the train it started to rain, but it didn't dampen my spirits in the slightest. The bus that ran between Ginzan Onsen and the train station ran at irregular intervals, but as scheduled, it was sitting there quietly waiting for me- the first and only passenger.

The secluded village is nestled amongst the rolling hills of Obanazawa, and for the whole forty minute journey, the road leading towards it showed no indication that there might be such a magical little place hidden in the midst. Even upon arriving at the bus terminus, I was still slightly dubious as to whether I'd reached my anticipated destination. It wasn't a bad sight though, there was a small river, some fairly regular houses and some atmospheric hills in the background. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting... and it was raining fairly heavily by this point.


Nevertheless, it was the meander in the distance, and the faint, but distinct, smell of sulphur in the air that reassured me.

Two, three hundred metres down the road, with stolen umbrella in hand, I found what I was looking for:

Past the first footbridge and the first thing I see is the public footbath.
Tinged yellow by the sulphur and steaming hot- the water is pumped
directly from the source to the surface.

...and as i continue down along the river, the time warp begins. Here are the highlights:

As I reach the end of the street, I realise that the path towards the mine is closed due to heavy snow.The path on the far right, in the photo below, leads to the mine, where the metal barrier is.
Time to turn back.

The covered area to the right are the only public onsens available in Ginzan. However, almost every other building in the village is a Ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse) and they all have their own onsens for guests.

If you're wondering what I was listening to, it was the Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke soundtracks. It set the mood perfectly.

All in all, it took me less than half an hour to walk through the whole village- including the time I took to take photos. But, even with the adverse weather, the feeling of being there (and being the only tourist in sight) was so comfortable that I loitered around for nearly two hours, walking up and down the street in a trance. Perhaps it was the time of day, or the time of year, but the stillness of my surroundings further exaggerated the sensation of being locked in time- a feeling exuded in abundance by the architecture and layout.

The visual icing to the whole experience was the detail scattered across the ground. Every few steps or so, there would be coloured, patterned tiles embedded amongst the pebbles, giving the grey a dash of colour and deepening the nostalgic atmosphere.


So, after two hours of walking around in circles, what better way to soothe tired feet?

As I was trudging around in the blisteringly hot water, grinning to myself like a little child, I had a few people laugh and point at me. It must have been even funnier when I was holding my stolen umbrella. One old man said to me: "sabishi desu ne" (Lonely, aren't you). But no. I wasn't.

Warm and happy from my foot soak, it was time to return to modern day... but I had one more nostalgic suprise waiting for me, which I didn't experience on the way here:

Natsukashi desu ne!

On the road again... (just can't wait to get on the road again)

Tsugi wa, Yamagata!

The views from the train towards Yamagata were amazing and even though the shinkansen was going pretty fast, the mountain ranges in the distance completely blew me away.

I arrived in Yamagata just after midday. So, with map in hand and a bus schedule from the hotel, i headed over to Zao Mountains to see the famous Juhyos. These snow monsters did not disappoint, and my only regret was that I couldn't stay to see them being lit-up in the evening. The last bus back to Yamagata left at five, so I only had a couple of hours to absorb the sites. I took as many photos as I could (which, for me, was somewhere in the hundreds... though not all of them came out as well as I'd hoped) but it was just too cold to stay outside for long.

Here are some of the highlights:

Nikko Day 2 - part 3

After Chuzenji Lake, it was starting to get dark so I rushed to Narabi-jizo, just outside of the National Park.

The area has rows and rows of Jizo 地藏 statues. According to wikipedia:

"Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents. Since the 1980s, the tendency developed in which he was worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses. In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.

Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld (the act is derived from the tradition of building stupas as an act of merit-making). The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children's clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō's features are also commonly made more babylike in order to resemble the children he protects."

Sorry about the wall-of-text, I just thought I'd put it in context!


Behind the rows of Jizos (up the stairs behind the jizo in the foreground) is Bake-jizo, the so-called scariest place in Nikko, which is in fact a Monk graveyard. It was pretty spooky, but not enough to stop me from using some of the graves as tripods, lol. Nighttime in that graveyard would be a different story though...


To finish the day, I returned to the onsen for a soak and had an awesome vegetarian dinner prepared for me by a monk that lived/worked at the hostel I was staying in. It was definitely a great day! Tomorrow, Yamagata!

Nikko Day 2 - part 2

Sooooo.... From the temples, I got the bus to Chuzenji Lake. It took about 40mins and we travelled up one of the curviest roads I've ever been on. Literally hair-pin turns every 50 metres - the yellow road surrounding Kegon Falls in the pic below.


Chuzenji Lake was awesome, but very cold and extremely windy. It's a good thing I put on a pair of leggings under my trousers. It was also the first snow I'd seen so far on my trip.

Next stop was Kegon Falls, where I witnessed my first bit of hentai Japanese male behaviour...

It was very windy on one of the viewing platforms and I was by myself until a couple showed up - the girl wearing a pleated mini skirt and the guy dressed in almost school uniform attire. As I turned to face them, their backs were turned towards me and the girl's skirt was being blown upwards by the wind without her realising. The guy then reaches round, cameraphone in hand and starts taking sneak photos of his girlfriends underwear, admiring them too whilst she's still staring at the waterfall! When he realised I was watching him do it I gave him a dispicable look and shook my head, hahaha. I almost wanted to tell the girl but there would have been too much of a language barrier: "um... ano... boyfriendo wa hentai desu...?"

Anyway, I hope she dumps him when she accidentally stumbles across the photos.
Here's Kegon Falls:

Nikko Day 2 - part 1

So, on my first night at the hostel I had Japanese curry for dinner and spent a good hour soaking in an outdoor onsen just around the corner. It was wonderfully relaxing bathing outdoors and to top it off I had a beer afterwards, with a nice Panamanian guy from San Fransisco that I'd met at the hostel.

I snuck in with a camera and took a photo of the place, kekeke, though the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

The following morning's breakfast was toast and coffee and then I set off to explore Nikko properly. I spent 2000yen on a bus pass which would take me to Chuzenji Lake in the mountains and all the major tourist sites in the area. The following pictures are from the Futarasan and Toshogu Shrines and the Rinnoji Temple. The shrine are is also famous as the home of the monkey carvings in "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" poses (which I failed to take a good photo of).

Oh no! You can see up my noes and all of my 5 chins!

People bowing as a priest chants scripture

Behold! Three different types of Japanese lantern! Wah, sugoi!!

The coolest old-man ever, sat at the exit to the temples with a cat on his knee, blowing on a bird whistle.