Last weekend I took a trip north to Gunma prefecture to visit Takasaki and Kusatsu Onsen. I took the Nagano Shinkansen to Takasaki from Tokyo. It was fun to take the Shinkansen in the daytime and see how fast it really goes!
I think that Gunma prefecture is all together less busy than the Yokohama/Tokyo area, and buses and trains don't run nearly as often. I had to choose between the two things I wanted to see in Takasaki because the bus schedule just didn't allow me to do both.
I chose to see the Byakui-Dai-Kannon, a very tall image of Buddha - mostly because it was the first bus to come along and I was anxious to do some sight seeing! Even from far away it was pretty impressive!
Buddha + koyo - very nice! This might have been the last koyo I will see in Japan.
Gnomes love giant Buddha feet!
I paid 300 yen to climb to the top of the Kannon inside. The view of Takasaki was pretty good. The shadow is from the head of the statue!
The sign at the top says "tsuita! otsukaredesu" which I think means something like "you made it! good job/you might be tired"
The main temple building from the top of the kannon.
Inside there were many carvings of people/things. This one was pretty scary.
A view of the stairs inside. There were only a few small portholes to look out on the way up and at the top.
From the back of the statue you can see where all the portholes are. The ones at the top are in the front by the shoulders.
Here are some facts about the kannon! I love facts!
After seeing the kannon and having some lunch near the Takasaki train station I got on the local Agatsuma line train bound for Kusatsu. In this area of Japan I was not expecting English signs or announcements, so I wrote all of the names of the stops we would pass in my notebook. I also wrote down some important Kanji I might need to know. This was not the clipboard of fun, this was the clipboard of anxiety!
I made it to Kusatsu onsen though, and it was a nice little town! After getting to the train station I took a bus up to the town, and as we went up into the mountain there was snow - yay!
My first stop in the town was the town center. This is called the yubatake and it is where the hot spring water comes out of the ground. It is very hot, so they run it through many wooden troughs to cool it down a little before sending it off to all of the hotels and spas around town. They even use it to heat the schools and a tropical dome that I visited on Sunday!
At the end of the yubatake is a wooden waterfall. The water in this spring has a sulfur scent, and you can see that it leaves yellow sulfur deposits behind on things. Once or twice a year they divert the water from the yubatake and scrape the deposits up and then they sell them so you can have "hot spring" baths at home.
After visiting the yubatake it was starting to get dark, so I figured I should find my ryokan for the night. It was easy to find from the maps from their website and the good signs on the road! My room was very nice, with big windows so I could watch it snow!
I had reserved dinner at the ryokan - it is so much easier than trying to find my own dinner, and it was delicious! There was so much food and it just kept coming! There was a pot of beef and vegetables cooking, a whole shrimp, some sashimi, pickles, tofu and some other foods.
Then came this little dish which was almost like a savory eggy custard - it was really good!
Next came some lettuce wrap things with pork and other vegetables inside - they were a little spicy. Also, there was some rice to eat with the cooked beef.
Finally, there was a little soup and then some strawberries for desert. It was so much food I couldn't eat it all!
While I was eating dinner the staff put out my futon. I relaxed for a little bit and then went to the outdoor bath that the ryokan had. It was late, so I had it all to myself while the snow fell down! It was so nice and relaxing, just what I needed before my next day of sightseeing!
No comments:
Post a Comment