Northward Bound

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So I met a rather jet lagged Martin at Niigata station in order to start our trip up the west coast and towards the North of Japan.
Our first stop was Mount Haguro and to a temple lodging at the base of the mountain. It was a very bleak journey due to the extremely miserable weather which I am sure made it feel colder than it actually was.
We arrived at Haguro centre and with some time to kill before check in we decided to explore the nearby Zuishi-mon temple.
On descending the steps we were met with a eerie misty atmosphere and quite substantial snow on the ground, not what we were expecting at the top of the steps where it was just raining.
Following the woodland trail we stumbled across a beautiful 600 year old wooden five story pagoda nestled amongst the snow, it was quite a magical sight with the mist swirling around it's base and the tranquil surroundings.
In front of us was a steep flight of stone steps which we began to climb, it then dawned on me that this was the start of 2,446 steps that would take us to the summit, realising this we did not carry on mostly due to the fact that Martin still had all his bags with him.
Due to this we headed back to our accommodation and played guess which door is the correct entrance with the use of my (less than adequate) reading skills and pure guess work. Finally in the dry we settled down for a night of vegetarian cuisine huddled round the heater listening to the rain batter down on the tin roof.
The next morning it was on with our journey- next stop Tazawako....
After two buses and two trains we made it to the lake to be welcomed by ,yep you guessed it, more rain and mist. The accommodation was just a 10 minute walk from the bus stop so off we set on our way. We gave it 20 minutes under the rationale that we were walking slowly due to the inclement weather but still no accommodation appeared..So we carried on...
After an hour we realised that maybe we had gone too far, given that the only accommodation we had seen in the last 15 minutes had been a run down caravan in the woods ,and that the map couldn't be that wrong.
We headed back the way we came and asked at the local herb centre where we found that we were only 1km away and we were left wondering how on earth we had missed the place the first time round.
The accommodation was run by an elderly lady who spoke very little English at all so it was a testing couple of nights for all concerned...somehow I managed to get the gist of what she was saying but the finer points were lost in translation somewhat.
Our room was comfortable and warm but still plagued by insects which we spent the night evicting in between conversations about what the two of us had been up to on our respective trips. Just as a side point Martin also has grown fond of my previously mentioned televisual picks and has also enjoyed watching VS. Arashi but only because the names of the games amuse him somewhat. We have also decided that the Japanese way of making a decision via the means of Janken is definitely the way forward (especially the version where you have to hit the other person on the head) after watching a programme with at least 15 minutes dedicated to round after round of it!
She did cook us some rather fine meals while we were there and also gave martin his first (and last judging by his reaction) taste of Natto (fermented soy beans).
When we were leaving not only did she give us a lift to the station but sent us on our way with a bottle each of barley tea (again Martin's first and last try of this) and an umbrella.
We decided on a day trip to Kakundate which was buzzing with crowds of people given that it was Golden week and Hanami (cherry blossom viewing). It was a stunning sight to observe 2km of cherry blossoms in bloom,the surrounding samurai mansions and the various festivities going on.
Escaping the crowds we decided to head on to Aomori in preparation for the next leg of our journey up to Hokkaido.

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