Category Archives: Japan 2015

Japan 2015

Iwaki-San (E)

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From Hirosaki we decided to hike Mt. Iwaki-San. To get there we took the bus to Hyakuzawa Onsen, where the Shintō-shrine Iwaki-San is located. A little uphill, we put up camp in a large cherry-tree park with nice facilities. There I found my favourite car so far, typically for Japan they are much smaller than in Switzerland. Even the ATVs remind a little of toy cars. A pity I’m not driving…

The next morning was foggy when we set off to climb Iwaki-San at 1625 m. After 4 h of ascent in the mist we reached summit pretty much soaked where the view remained obstructed in white.
We decided to skip most of the descent with a bus-ride, driving down the 69 turns of the Tsugaru Iwaki Skyline road. After taking a much required bath at Dake-Onsen we returned back to Aomori by bus.

Japan 2015

Hirosaki (E)

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In Hirosaki our friend Cédi joined us on July 17th, travelling with us for 2 weeks through Tohokū region. In Hirosaki we luckily stayed at Ishiba Ryokan. The first evening the owner, Sochiro, took us to a restaurant. Just a hand full of seats, everyone sitting at the bar and smoking, no menu card and all japanese guys of course. We had tasty sashimi, eel, clams, octopus and ramen. This was already awesome – then a friend of the ryokan owner, Eiji, joined us! What a coincidence that he spoke german, and even lived in Basel for almost a year. The evening was a blast, awesome food, drinks (Sake of course), chats and laughter. The next morning we visited Hirosaki castle and the surrounding park. In the afternoon we met with Eiji to visit the temple where he learned german initially. From there we continued to the Neputa museum. Neputa is a summer festival, in some ways similiar to Fasnacht in Switzerland, where huge lanterns are pulled through the city. There are drums and flutes as well. In the museum we listened to a short Shamisen concert, before we enjoyed dinner.

Japan 2015

Hakodate (E)

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Our last visit in Hokkaido is Hakodate. A city in the very south of Hokkaido with a ferry connection to Aomori. We stayed in Hakodate for 3 days and visited the star-shaped fortress Goryōkaku, the morning market and enjoyed the great view from Hakodate-Yama by night. The latter was 3-star rated by “Michelin Green Guide Japan” and belongs apperently to the greatest night views of japan. (These rankings are very popular in japan)

Japan 2015

Yōtei-Zan (E)

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The georgeous Yōtei-zan is quite remarkable and we looked at it all the time in Tōya-ko-Onsen. The hiking route is also found in our Hiking Japan guide and therefore we couldn’t resist to climb it. By local trains we got to Hirufa, were we put up our tent late night. The early next morning we set out to climb the approx. 1500m elevation to the summit at 1893m. After 4 hours of ascent, the view was absolutely terrific!