Day 11: From Tsugizakura to Fushiogami and the Yunomine Onsen

Day 11: From Tsugizakura to Fushiogami and the Yunomine Onsen

Pictorial Pop Quiz: What is this (below pic)

Weather: Perfect! Cool all day, from low to mid 60s

Pre-breakfast of day old room temp vending machine coffee (one black, one with cream and sugar, mixed, served in small tea cups) and a fluffy jelly doughnut (without the sugar on it), $4. Breakfast is the full complement of Japanese items, not very good, and then we board the inn’s shuttle for 5 or 6 kilometers to start the trail a little after 8:30.

It was all uphill and downhill from there, ending at an onsen in Yunomine a little after 6pm.

In other words: A LONG DAY!

Mileage today: THB made it north of 12 miles (7 hours of walking), Much up and much down, something like 700 meters of ascent. 

First 1/2 kilometer marker

Call of the wild conch shell

671 meters high

In code

Translated

Mountain water; THB the only one to refill water here (others watching closely to see if ill effects)

The bag lunch today was three rice balls, two small sausages (think the size of those mini-carrots), some nori, a bottle of tea and some snacks shared by Jamie and Kyoko and several members of the tour.

The Japanese guy on left hiked at about our same pace through lunch

THB was right: the stamp book is perfectly tailored to collecting the stamps because it IS the book for collecting stamps. A Japanese hiker is also collecting stamps, in the same book! However, she pointed out THB was putting the stamps on the wrong page; DUH! THB can’t read Japanese and there aren’t numbers on the little stamp boxes. No matter, we’re both happy hikers:

 

"That is number 11 in the book" (or 5 in THB's book)

More hiking, including through a farming village, visiting shrines, and collecting stamps. After the visit to the last shrine

Scene of a large landslide, now repaired

Best munchies on the trip

The fox

Pictorial Pop Quiz Answer: Commercial Bee Hive:

Local tea, you could find it being sold in help yourself stands

Where we end up in several more days

More up-close shots of this giant torii coming

Shots from the Hongu Taisha shrine (THB wishes we had been here a half hour earlier...a theme of the trip so far)

Three legged crow is a big local symbol (and on THBs tengui designed by Kyoko)

And, the crow delivers mail, too!

Up close at dusk

Almost full moon on the rise (THB is rarely up for going outside after dinner to look at the stars)

The Yunomine Onsen picks up our intrepid group, leaving just enough time to get to our rooms, change into a yukata (ie, bathrobe), hobble downstairs to the baths (the slight smell of sulfur goes away quickly), hobble back upstairs to change (THB has stopped wearing his yukata to meals, as has DB and at least one other tour member), hobble back downstairs to dinner.

THB was too tired to hobble up and back again to get the camera he forgot in the room. The meal is terrific!!! Really good!!! It includes: chilled plum wine aperitif, raw beef you cooked yourself  very quickly in boiling onsen water then raked through a great ponzu/lemon meringue/green onion concoction (shabu shabu); sashimi of terrific toro, sea bream and yellowtail; taro bisque soup; grilled small whole fish with salt; slightly grilled beef; tofu; miscellani appetizers; almond custard and rice for dessert, beer and sake.

A few words about our group: 4 couples and two singles. We’ve had a chance to talk to everyone, and all are easy to converse with and congenial (of course, some more lively than others). THB feels very fortunate as all are considerate of the different paces of the members (its only Jamie the guide who can’t seem to figure out the day so that we’re not rushed as we’re getting closer and closer to the inns). A few like to be in the front, a few in the middle and a few in the back. THB roams between the middle and the back. Dinners are lively, much humor, and the pre-dinner drinks session last night (when we got in early enough to have a pre- dinner drinks session) was very loose and entertaining.

The only non-retiree is a doctor from S. Africa, maybe early 40s, with kids and husband back home, who seems not to mind at all hanging out with a bunch of 60 year olds. Of course, by the end of the day, we’re all so exhausted, age isn’t the biggest factor, it’s who can still stand up without assistance after sitting down to a meal.

 

The last 1/2K signpost of the day

Phew!!! THB can stand up this morning, not that he has to do much more than sit up to blog...thanks to LB for formatting help from 7500 miles away