And a very snowy new year to all!

Ice over the gutter on our cabin.

It's evening here in Japan, with just over four hours left for 2013 in Japan. You find me in Yokohama with the inlaws, having taken the Shinkansen down last night. It was around 12 degrees here today and lovely sunshine. It's a far cry from Ichinoseki, which got a sizable dump of snow on Friday night last week. I woke up on Saturday morning heading to Hachimantai.

Hachimantai, where as you may recall I have already visited this year, is home to some creepy apartments and the Lava Flow. The Lava Flow, set lava from an old eruption of Mount Iwate, is known locally as Yakehashiri. And not too far from it is an onsen and a group of cabins. In fact there are something like 48 4 or 8-person cabins in the woods next to the lava flow. The place has an English translation which is somewhat baffling to say the least - Iwate grilled run international exchange Village.

Inside the cabin.

Yes, not only is it a mouthful and a half, it makes no rightly sense at all! But the cabins were WARM! You have to pay an extra fee to use the heater incidentally, but you wouldn't in your right mind not. Despite it being something like minus 7 outside, we were toasty and warm inside. We were there basically to shoot a short little film as I am want to do from time to time, but if I thought we had had a lot of snow in Ichinoseki, I was to see more than double that at Yakehashiri. Never the less, a very beautiful place indeed, and as we had a lot of fun. It wasn't so cold whilst we were active.

The Onsen turned out to be cooler than the last one I visited. I enjoyed it much more as I could bear much longer in the water in one go. The only issue was the driving - three hours each way on the snowy roads. In fact it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it might be. Snow does not pose the same issues (slipping, sliding and crashing) as ice on the roads does. There's far more traction. I hope you enjoy the photos. 

And the curtain sets on 2013, and 2014 dawns. Please watch this space for more blogs and of course, the top five of my top destinations. Wherever you are this New Years' Eve, stay safe and all the best for 2014!

Hachimantai dreaming

Just north of Morioka is a place called Hachimantai. Whilst I can't comment much on the town, I didn't really go in there, I did get a chance to look at two places in the area and both were spectacular in their own ways.

The lava flow is an amazing area at the foot of Mount Iwate. 

For those who are interested, the volcano that is the mountain last erupted in 1919, where ash was sent into the air. The lava flow, known as Yakehashiri,  is from the previous eruption in 1732. 

http://www.thr.mlit.go.jp/iwate/kodomo/english/iwatesan_e/CON5/index.html

This is where I got my information from. Amazing - they have the internet on computers now! Anyways today it's a rather large area covered with rocks formed from the molten lava which obviously cooled in the years after the eruption, and today have a nice path marked out through them that people can wander at their leisure. It's a truly remarkable place I had no idea existed! I would put it right up there with any tourist site in Iwate.

Mount Iwate in the background behind the Yakehashiri Lava flow.

Also in the Hachimentai region is an old sulphur mining town. It's part of the town of Matsuo, and was known as the Matsuo Gouzan mine. The drive up was beautiful, on a beautiful clear day. Unlike the lava flow, there was not a lot of people there to visit it, although the odd interested passerby did pop in.

In fact, the mine closed way back in 1969. The mine itself you can't visit, but the small accompanying town is still there of sorts represented as a collection of old concrete apartment buildings. It is said to be one of the creepiest places on Earth. I was there on a cool but sunny Autumn day, so it wasn't so creepy, but never the less it is an amazing place.

Not the sort of place tourists normally frequent, the old concrete buildings have most of the innards ripped out today, as you can see in the picture. I'm not sure how safe the buildings are, but I was with a few people and we all made it out alive! It's certainly eerie, and beautiful in its own way.

So it goes to show, I've been here a year and half now but still discovering new and unusual places to visit. Both of these are free of course - although you're going to need a car to get to either of them! Viva Iwate!