秋山郷　Akiyamago

Takahashi-sensei took Patrick and I on a road trip to Akiyamago. It is a very, very, very ulu village deep in the mountain valleys between Niigata and Nagano prefectures. There was so much snow last winter that the road leading to the town (yes, only 1 road!) was closed for a few days and the Japanese self-defence force had to use helicopters to airlift food supplies to the villagers. No supermarket in the village...only some small shops. Most of the people living in the village are very old.

Surprise picnic on the way there! Takahashi-sensei pulled up along the road with a nice view of the valley from an altitude of 760m and set up a table (complete with table cloth!), chairs, cakes and drinks.

Each of us had a cheese bun, fruit tart and a cup of iced coffee.

We arrived at Akiyamago and stopped at one of the big woodcraft shops. Woodcraft is the local speciality of the village. Large and heavy log tables, chairs, bowls, decorative stuff for the house...very expensive!

Then, we went to this really old house for soba lunch. It's a really old house that an old couple live in that functions as a small restaurant, museum (old Japanese things e.g. straw slippers, wooden skis, etc.) and art gallery on the second floor (cos the couple's son is an artist).

We had our meal around the irori, which is very useful in winter cos you can build a fire in it to warm yourself by it and boil water over it. This is basically the old couple's living room. It felt a little dirty and was too dark for my liking. The soba with mountain vegetables was delicious though.

Great view of the valley town from their house/restaurant/museum/art gallery.

After lunch, we went to Akaionsen (赤い温泉), which is very near Akiyamago. Very old, traditional wooden onsen building.

The water at the onsen is from a geyser. Smelt of sulphur and rust...check out the rusty colour of the onsen! Really dirty-looking...can't even see the bottom of the bath even though it's very shallow. Did not really enjoy the onsen cos I felt as if I was getting dirtier instead of cleaner, although it seems to have gotten rid of my backache.

There is a nice view of the mountains from the onsen even though it's an indoor bath.

The day trip was a really scenic and a very good experience, but I'm happy to be back in civilisation! :) (The toilets there were really quite backward! No flush so it smells really bad and there's stuff sticking to the toilet bowl...puke puke!)