Waterlogged in Hiruya Onsen

We were so lucky to have had a rain free day in Kamikochi Ntl park on Sunday. It started pouring rain Sunday night and continued pouring rain all day Monday and it was still raining Tuesday when we left for Takayama. On the advice of Gemini we decided to take the bus to a nearby village which supposedly had an outdoor museum, an open air market and a public onsen. It was only 15 minutes away. When we arrived the rain had eased up a little and we got off the bus and walked through town. The place was deserted. There was no one around and many of the hotels seemed closed. We walked through the town and back and found the open market which was closed as was much of the open air museum. There was a pretty shrine and graveyard behind the museum that we checked out but otherwise the town seemed closed until next summer. I checked when the next bus was coming and fortunately we didn't have to wait too long.

I had noticed another tourist attraction that was on our way back to Hiruya . The Okuhida Bear Ranch. I presumed it was a zoo with bears so we got off at the bus stop by the ranch. We walked up an access road and entered the park. The park was a bit of a surprise. It looked like what zoos looked like in the 60s. Large concrete areas void of any trees filled with Asiatic bears. All of the bears looked healthy but still having to live in a concrete bunker seemed a little grim. They looked a little smaller than North American black bears and have a white crest on their chest. One could buy food to feed them. It was like hard dog food. They would stand on their hind feed and beg for the food. We met a Swiss family and they also thought the place looked a little stark and they also felt sorry for the beard. We left a little saddened and took the bus back to Hiruya.

The last adventure I had planned for the day was a hike to a nearby waterfall. It was a 30 minute hike from town but when we got off the bus it was raining so hard we changed our minds and headed to Cafe Mustach for a warm drink and a piece of chestnut cake. The very last adventure I had for the day was a visit to this historic public outdoor onsen associated with a collection of old houses- a mini outdoor museum. It had a traditional men's and women's divided onsen. There were only 2 local Japanese men onsening when I went and Cheryl said there was no one on her side. It was very pleasant sitting in the hot water and the rain. Of course I can only handle 10 minutes in a hot tub or onsen so I didn't soak for as long as the locals. We went out for an early supper before an early bedtime lulled to sleep by the poring rain.

The next morning when we woke up, it was still pouring rain. What with the rain and all the onsening, I felt I was getting pretty waterlogged. I had one more Onsen at our hotel before we caught the 8:30 bus to Takayama, an hour bus ride away. It afforded us one more opportunity to take in the beautiful Misty mountains and then a farming area with rice fields and drying rice.

It was still raining lightly when we got to Takayama. The Air BnB owner said we could leave our luggage inside the door of the apartment building and he would move the luggage into our unit when it had been cleaned. We were to Tokoyama by 930 which seemed a little early to drop off our luggage so we chilled at a nearby Starbucks for a while before dropping off our luggage. Given the persistence of the rain, I thought our best bet was an outdoor museum a short bus ride away. The museum consisted of 200 to 300 year old houses, workshops and some shrines many of which had been moved to Takayama when they had built hydroelectric dams in the 80s. It was very well laid out and the signage was in English and Japanese so it was very good. The roofs of all of the houses were thatched and the beams and supports were all made from beautiful wood. They also had some small fields for rice cultivation. Takayama and the outdoor museum had the most number of Caucasian tourists that we have seen so far on the trip. I had noticed on Google maps on the way to the open air museum, a branch of the Takayama art gallery only a 5 minute bus ride away. It was only 2 and we weren't allowed into our Air BnB until 3 so we decided it was worth a visit. After getting off the bus stop and walking towards the art gallery, something seems a little off. I thought we had taken a wrong turn as the building looked more like a hotel. Cheryl insisted that we were heading in the right direction. We both ended up being correct as the museum consisted of an art nouveau and art deco glass collection which was located in a very high end hotel. A local collector of this glass collection had donated to Takayama and they had decided to house it in this high end hotel. The glass collection was exquisite with beautiful glass works many from France. We were the only ones visiting and when we were finished we got the hotel shuttle bus back into town.Read more