Day 269: Naruko Canyon

Woke up and enjoyed our hotel breakfast of miso soup, seafood curry, and small dishes. Our plan for the day is visiting Naruko Canyon and trekking the Miyagi Olle Trail hot spring course. The scenic route passes old roads surrounded by beautiful gorges and lush greenery / autumn foliage.

The train to the gorge was a scenic train and the station staff waved goodbye to the train as it left Furukawa 🤣 we get to the town and we are the only Westerners…everyone we pass on the street greets us with Hello and Konnichiwa very excitably (it was very cute).

We appreciated the quietness of the town and the mountains surroundings us. We didn’t appreciate the huge fucking yellow spiders that looked deadly but apparently are reluctant to bite humans and aren’t venomous. The gorge was awesome and we enjoyed udon noodles and local rice/grape beer from the area. In the hikes we also saw snakes and preying mantises.

The most hilarious part is we walked from one station to another and planned to take the 3:08pm bus back (train is down). We see a man with a white van and assume it’s an onsen shuttle bus. He keeps staring at us and us staring at him. Mary is taking pictures of the bus schedule and looking at maps. Dude gets in the van and starts to slowly pull out at 3:07pm…Kieran waves at him and he waves back…..and continues to leave. That white van was the 3:08pm shuttle bus lol

So we make the 1.5 hour trek back to the first train station. The van man sees us on his way back and we both wave at each other again. We count it as free exercises and rewarded with a onsen food bath they built outside the station. Overall we hiked 12 km that day 🤣 Got home, took a big nap, and went to a One Piece Themed Bar. The bartenders and chef were awesome.

Food:
Udon
Edamame
Roast Beef Bowl
Chicken Skin Dumplings
Spring rolls

Spots:
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