Don't you think that soaking in a hot spring in Winter and eating something delicious comfort us if you are a Japanese. So I went to
Misasa- hot spring in
Tottori prefecture in this heavy snow season, of all things.
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| monkeies likes a hot spring,too. |
We went there by a tour bus but its passenger were only four people. So I could sit down just behind a driver to see the scenes better. Our bus run on the Tottori-freeway. I heard they call it Ishiba-Rode. Previous minister Mr.Ishiba comes from Tottori district. Between Kansai and Tottori was linked by this fine road.
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| After a tunnel, snow country was there |
After that, we run on
the route 9 along the Sea of Japan. The bus driver said that 1000 vehicles were traped by heavy snow at a point on the Route 9 on the New Year holiday and they could not get out of that for a long time. One of them was his tour bus so he came back to Osaka by going through Hiroshima district. It's an unusually snowing heavy in the district along the Sea of Japan this year.
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Hakuto-white rabit-coast line along the Sea of Japan in winter
This point is famous for the myth "a white rabbit in Inaba" |
The village of Misasa hot spring was covered with white snow in the mountain. It's very calm and there were few people walking on the icy snow road also there were few shops to have lunch or buy something. Most of shops were closed. Some big hotels and small retro inns for visitor of therapy harmonized with snow soundlessly. Public hot spring baths, some place to drink hot spa's water or to soak feet beckoned us mildly. Here is a hot spring village with a good old Japanese sight.
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| Japanese style inn |
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| a row of inns |
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| Misasa bridge and Misasa river in the snow |
According to a handout, this hot spring has a little radiation and is good for our health and some disease. So many visitors for therapy may come. I didn't know about hot spa including radiation. Its hot water was no taste , scent, color.The Ningyo-Pass is famous for uranium mining is near here so I'm wondering if they link under the ground about radiation.
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| We can drink this hot spa's water |
When I was walking on the bridge over Misasa-River, I found one woman and two men were bathing or washing their body in a open-air bath in the river among white snow landscape. Steps from the bridge reaches to the open-air bath. What a brave people they are!
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| an open-air bath under the bridge |
Snow disturbed our way so I hopped spas in town enough. Misasa hot spa was discovered more than eight hundred years ago and it has continued to spring.
