Tohoku Japan 日本東北

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The next day we went to Ginzan 銀山溫泉. Before that we had a morning time to go to Yamagata Castle in Kajo Park 霞城公園.

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This castle had suffered a lot of damage in the past, most are rebuilt but some remains. We thought that all sakura were gone but a few can still be seen.

Sometimes a single sakura tree is quite nice.

The forth picture shows the old beam used in the rather new gate.

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The way to go Ginzan Onsen was by train to Oishida station 大石田. Then you can take the bus or request the hotel to pick you up (if you would stay in a hotel). We arrived about an hour earlier so we went to have a walk in the city. We followed the city government's suggestion to visit their cultural museum. On the way to the museum we saw sakura falling.

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The museum has not many things to see but it is the blessed place. It had never been damaged by earthquake and now it is the assembly point for people during earthquake. The museum is an old building with traditional decoration.

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From Oishida train station to Ginzan Onsen, it took about half an hour. Almost every hotel therein offers shuttle bus for their guest. We arrived Ginzan at about 2:30pm.

Ginzan Onsen is a well preserved village. You may find it familiar as a Japanese animation movie  千與千尋 is using this place as a reference. We stayed in Notoya ryoken 能登屋旅館. This one is amongst the oldest one here. We booked it 5 month in advance by email. Although they are open for online reservation 2 months in advance but the room supply is very limited. We felt lucky to write an email to ask 5 months in advance and got their confirmation. As Japan started their long holiday, a lot of Japanese traveled around and I found that we were the only foreigner stayed in this ryoken.

The ryoken is tidy and traditional.

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Room is spacious. Maybe we booked it so early, we thought our room was the best room they can offer. Our room at the top floor, facing the stream with the best view to the valley.

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The Ginzan Onsen buildings are built along the stream. Its style attracts a lot of tourists, both local and foreigners. It is also an Onsen area, you can see a foot onsen at the lower left corner of the third picture.

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The end of the stream is a waterfall so we decided to walk up and had a look.

It turned out that there is another waterfall.........

We walked up a bit further and found a notice saying that the ice is still melting and we are not allowed to go further........so......we had to return

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Our ryoken is close to the end of the stream. Most of the buildings were built in Taisho era 大正年代. Sometimes a rather modern hotel was built to replace the old but the neighbour would oppose the architecture. They strives to preserve the tradition building style. Hence there we have this nice onsen village.

This series of pictures were taken from the beginning of the village to my ryoken, which is located close to the end of the onsen street.

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In the evening, day trip tourists were all gone so less people on the street. But I think this is the best moment to feel the atmosphere of the street. It looks more romantic with street lighting.