Tarto in Japan

First, I am sorry for the lack of updates for the last 3 weeks. Not only have I have been quite busy, but I also lost my Japanese grandmother and broke up with my girlfriend recently. I'm fine now, but I didn't really feel like updating my site.

Right after Sapporo, I decided to head towards the east, as all weather forecasts were mentioning a typhoon coming from the opposite direction. My destination was Akan lake. After a couple hours, I finally arrived and chose a ryokan that seemed quite nice. I love the low season, there is no need to make any reservation anywhere. The ryokan was really spacious, but the ceiling was a little tacky:

Anyway, the room was super clean and offered a wonderful view from the balcony:

And of course, any good ryokan has an onsen!...The baths were on the last floor, with a nice view over the surroundings:

But the best was the small staircase leading to the roof...and another awesome bath!

I didn't chose Akan lake randomly. Indeed, it is the closest point to Meakan dake, an active volcano which can actually be hiked. And I definitely wanted to do it!

I woke up super early the next day, once again because of the rain that was expected to fall early in the afternoon.

When I arrived, the weather was a bit cloudy but it would have just been stupid to go back:

The message is clear:

After a couple hundred meters in the forest, I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery despite of the grey sky:

Reaching the summit was fantastic. The fumes, and especially the noise, were really impressive!

That only was worth waking up so early!!! Especially since the clouds came back as soon as I started to go down. And ten minutes later it started to rain, but it was light enough so I could reach the ending point, the lake on the following picture (which is not Akan lake), without being completely soaked:

This lake is famous for its color, but I couldn't appreciate that as I was in the middle of the fog upon arriving...

So what can you do outside when it is raining?...Well the answer is pretty simple: bathing in a natural onsen! Right next to the lake is Yunotaki, an exceptional hot spring which is reached by following a trail in the forest for about 20 minutes. Here it is, an incredibly peaceful place:

And the water is, of course, naturally hot...

The way back to the ryokan, a long walk along the road under the rain, was not the nicest experience I had, but it allowed me to enjoy so much the bath I took when I arrived...