Hotel Ruiz Morioka

... where the mountains reflect off of it just like a mirror but it was very grey looking while we were there and a bit disappointing, especially after seeing my roommates photos from a different visit that have a amazing optical illusion to them.  There were some cute Akita dogs at one of the gift shops at the lake and they looked so sad and lonely, I wanted to take one home sooo bad!  Then we went and ...

... infrequent in this part of the country--down to Tsuruoka to climbs some stairs at a sacred mountain tomorrow. Same old, same old. Incidentally, though the trains are rare, the journey down the northwest of Honshu is really beautiful with huge tracts of rectangular rice paddies, the vast ocean--technically it faces Russian but you can't see land--and lots of mountains behind everything. It's like a very badly played game of hide and go seek. Tomorrow: Haguro-san and Naruko Onsen -mike

... lac, que la surface de Tazawa-Ko ne gele jamais, meme en hiver ! Nous avons passe 2 belles journees a nous promener autour du lac avec le beau temps et a profiter des Onsen, sources chaudes naturelles. Notre auberge avait d'ailleurs son propre Onsen. La culture du bain, O-Furoba, est tres presente au Japon. Meme s'ils n'ont pas leur Onsen prive, ils remplissent une petite baignoire ...

... tous en costumes ! Tres interessants ! Dans une maison de Samurai on a eu la chance de tomber sur un mariage ou les maries revetaient des costumes traditionnels. On n'a pas manque de faire des photos dans tous les sens ! Gros bemol de ce village, la foule de Japonais et en consequence les centaines de boutiques de souvenirs dans tous les recoins... Heureusement il y avait quelques petites collines aux alentours qui nous ont permis de nous echaper quelques temps.

I stopped off here on the way to Hokkaido to break up the journey. It was actually a bit of a let down as I seemed to arrive on a holiday and there was nothing open and I couldnt find the temples and museums I was looking for! There were some nice ice sculptures though and I had a good hike up a very steep hill. It is very mountainous here and quite beautiful.

... the sauce is served lukewarm, also when you finish they crack an egg in your bowl and heat it up as egg soup after! 20/11/08 Morioka is a lot colder now, even though it was only about a week since we were last here! Had my second onsen experience, again, great way to wake up in the morning in a big warm tub! Checked some emails on the computer in a freezing cold room, it was almost warmer outside with the snow. Got a local train to Hiraizumi, and from there we ...

... inn) as the map in lonely planet was missing a bridge, and I almost walked into someones back garden! We were welcomed into the inn, dumped our bags, slipped into some slippers, and given green tea and Japanese sweets (more like biscuits) whilst settling our bill. It was a lovely house, your image of a traditional Japanese house; paper sliding doors, tatami mats etc. We then headed out towards Morioka's temple and shrine are ...

... suis partie faire le tour de la ville a la recherhce d'un starbuck cofee. entre temps je suis arriver par hasard au ruines de l'ancien chateau de morioka. la ville a transformer les fondations en un mega parc. Avec l'eclairage et les feuilles de toutes les couleurs, c'etait beau, mais encore une fois, les photos ne sont pas terrible. J'ai finalement trouver le starbuck coffee de morioka, je suis venu dejeuner ici pour profiter du wifi gratuit.

apres 4 heures de train, je suis arriver vers 14:00 a hakunodate, un village entoure de montagne qui contient un quartier de samourai. Dans ce quartier, il y a des anciennes maisons de samourais, ce sont plus des anciens domaines que des maisons. sur chaque site, il y a plusieur batiment, le tout derriere une palissade de bois. c`etait ben beau, mais comme la ...

... inflexible Japanese rules, so we found another that said it would be a minimum of 480 yen for anything up to an hour. So what we did was just use for 5 minutes, then told the staff that the computer did not work and they then said we didnt have to pay anything. There is a way around most inflexible rules. Before boarding our train we wanted to grab a bite to eat, there was a food court luckily beneath the station. We found a Kaiten Zushi for a few fishy ...