Good morning! Breakfast is served.
We decided to take the day easy as it was raining and the rain doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
According to weather forecast, it will be rain the entire day!
From our hotel after check out, we took a short 30 minutes drive up north towards Kitakata.
The location is actually slightly out of the way but since the drive is manageable, we wanted to do the side trip. For two main reasons: 1, there is a cherry blossom spot where the weeping cherry blossom trees line up the entire street and 2, kitakata is famous for their ramen.
It was really trying our luck as we already knew the weather is bad that day. The rain made the cherry blossom trees visit untenable so we went to have ramen instead.
If you are to do a search on tablelog, you should be able to easily identify a handful of ramen shops that are highly rated by locals.
There was a bit of a wait (about 30 minutes) before our turn.
This shop’s name is Ajian Shokudo (あじ庵食堂).
They use clams as one of the key ingredients, though the soup is lighter than the usual pork or miso broth but the umami is strong.
The noodles also come with grated wasabi and onions (as shown in the picture).
The taste balances well and I feel like I have no problem downing the entire bowl of thick chewy noodles.
Before checking into our next hotel (we didn’t want to check in too late as we want to enjoy the onsen), we headed to another ‘tourist’ attraction nearby.
The Sazebo temple.
You need to purchase tickets to visit.
I wasn’t sure if it was the off season or the fact that it was raining, there wasn’t too many visitors.
This is an ancient buddhist temple completed in 1796. And what is so unique about this architecure is that Sazaedo has a double-helix structure, meaning that those who enter Sazaedo will leave the temple without encountering anybody traveling in the opposite direction. The one-way route of Sazaedo was introduced to avoid worshippers being disturbed during prayer.
The building is only about 3-4 storey tall so the entire trip up and down only took us awhile.
By the way, to enter, you need to buy another ticket.
Little did we know that Sazaedo is incredibly close to Mt. Iimoriyama, a place known throughout Japan for its tragic and moving history. This is the spot where the Byakkotai group of teenage boys that took part in the Boshin War committed suicide in 1868 upon seeing Tsurugajo Castle burning.
We did got spooked a bit after learning about this…
On a lighter note, right next to the temple is a newly opened cafe with a nice view. You can chill out here and enjoy the expansive view.
This is our hotel room for the night at Ashinomaki Onsen Ookawaso. Took a bit of effort to get to the hotel but it seems fully booked by locals.
The hotel is made famous on youtube because of this stage. To all demon slayer’s fans, you will know what I am talking about.
Another highlight is their private onsen. You have to go down several flight of stairs but it was quite a nice experience.
For dinner, it was kiseki style. We felt that the food was average.
But I totally get why the locals like this place. It is a perfect short getaway for the weekends.
There’s also a nice lounge with fire place for you to hang out and have some wine.
Yeah so that’s all I have to share from Day 5. See you in the next one!
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Read about the rest of my trip here!
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