Hiraizumi

After another excellent breakfast at the hotel, we took taxis to Nikko JR Station, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and took a local train to Utsonomiya and then a Shinkansen to Ichinoeski. A minibus took us to the Hotel Musashibo in Hiraizumi.
Lunch was at a local restaurant, the only one open in this very quiet town, and I ordered buckwheat soba noodles with wild mountain vegetables.
We walked to the Chusongi Buddhist temple with the wonderful 900-year-old Golden Hall inside a building for protection. No photos were permitted.
We hiked back to the hotel through a forest.
I went to the public onsen at the hotel before dressing in a yukata gown for the Japanese set dinner. The bedroom had a tatami floor and futon bedding, the first I'd had for about 10 days.
Hiraizumi was the furthest north in Honshu and Japan which I visited on this trip. The town was in the Tohoku region, the Chusongi temples being an important part of its heritage.Read more