Day 10: Kurokawa
Today, I turned 50 (an entire decade since we went here), and to mark the occasion, the weather was cold, wet, and miserable, but I was determined not to let it make a difference. We would stick to the plan for the day, which involved motoring north to the Daikanbō lookout first for some moody views over the monstrous 350 square kilometer caldera that formed when the supervolcano exploded 90,000 years ago in a global climate-changing event.
From here, we ventured east to the Yamanami Highway lookout and the Makinoto Pass trailhead for Mt. Kutsukake; however, hiking in the 1,790-meter elevation Mt. Kuju range was out of the question in this weather, though there were others taking on the challenge. After a few photos at the viewpoint, we headed back west to the Kurokawa Onsen Town.
This very touristy hotspot is a collection of swanky Ryokans, which are expensive hotels with onsite hot springs, restaurants that were not open, and ice cream and snack shops. The small streets and riverside setting were very photogenic, but we were around the tiny village in an hour or so and had no intention of spending upward of 50,000 yen to stay in one of these places … we had a van.
From here, we carried on to what would have been our road station for the evening at Oguni, where Da found a local eatery that was actually open, serving homemade udon noodle dishes, which I had with curry.
We still wanted an onsen after several days in the van, so we decided to venture north again to one that I’d found near a riverside road station. The twisty route took us through the Oyama River valley, which was spectacular despite the weather.
We also passed the site of the annual Tsuetate Onsen Carp Streamer Festival, which was currently going on. The festival in this onsen town had hundreds of carp kites hanging across the river between what looked like more rundown versions of the hotels at Kurokawa.
The place was deserted due to the weather, and it was quite surreal walking around the area amid this kaleidoscope of multicolored flying fish. What was nice was getting photos that didn’t have a bunch of other people trying to selfie in them!
After the bizarre carp kite experience, we drove to the Mizube-no-sato Oyama Road Station for a quick suitability inspection at this Sakura tree-lined overnight spot before heading to Umenoyu, an old-style onsen that offered private bathing rooms for 2,500 yen for 80 minutes – just what the doctor ordered after a long day on the road and half a century on the planet.
I’d ticked a lot of boxes today: Aso caldera views, Yamanami Highway, Kurokawa, udon noodle curry, flying carp kites, stout in an onsen, and Sakura at the road station.
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