Japan. Onsen Explorer Day 5

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Onsen Explorer Day 5. 5th June 2019

Awake at 4am and could not sleep so up at 5 to see the waterfall 100 metres above our Ryokan. Quite impressive. The owner is up tending to his animals hens, ducks and dogs etc. At 7 his wife is up sweeping the floor. Heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for lunchtime until well through the night. I need to pack my cape and overshoes plus goose grease instead of sun cream. I can’t wait.
Great breakfast at hotel 300m away with usual Japanese fare plus scrambled egg,bacon, sausage and buns with jam. After setting off at 8am the sun came out and it was soon 25 degrees as we travelled along the valley for ever through big rice country. A rice planting machine was in action plus some people with curved spines planting the edges and corners of the field. Nearer to the coast the rice growing was accompanied by various vegetable and onion crops. On a rise on the coast, overlooking the sea, there was a large statue of a lady in white, which is a monument to all those killed in an earthquake in1988. Masses of Giant knotweed were again seen on the roadside throughout the day. The first wind turbines seen today were pretty large, so tall that they had flashing lights to warn aircraft of their presence, with a monster one outside our hotel. Tsunami escape towers were visible by the coast with spiral staircases and sliding gates in the sea wall to keep out the waves and then rows of odd shaped concrete blocks to break up the strong currents. Determined not to run out of energy today I had curry and rice for lunch, which made a nice change and at brew-time a can of iced coffee out of s roadside machine. The small village we called at for the break was very quiet and run down, as is much of this coast, and we asked an old lady (my age apparently) why this was so. She said all the young ones had fled to the city for work and 20% of the houses were empty. The Hirosaki Grande Hotel where we are staying is very nice and has a great Onsen again, rather hot and brown with iron oxide I presume. The outside onsen on the beach was just as hot with really hot water bubbling out of the spring and a hose pipe on full bore to take the temperature down.

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