Nasu Revisited

Today Tomo, Rin, Gary, Yuu, and I went to Nasu to visit hots prings (onsen) and go to Nasu-dake (or Mt. Nasu). I previously had been to Nasu once before with Prof. Takahashi and such for Golden Week, but that was a while ago previously.

We stopped along the way to see some Kofun in the natural fields along the road to Nasu. I was surprised because I thought that kofun (or ancient burial mounds) only were in the kofun period in Japan, but this one kofun we went to housed one of the Tokugawa clan members.



(This sign points out the 8th spot found of a kofun)



(This sign explains the largest of the kofuns and the history behind this particular one)



(Tomo pointing out kofuns on the map that lists all the ones in the area)

Next, we went to Ashino Hot Spring (onsen) to take a relaxing bath. Onsen (hot spring in Japanese) are public baths in Japan where men and women (usually seperate, though co-ed springs do exist) get undressed and enjoy several natural cold/warm/hot springs. This particular spring had a sauna too, as I tried it because I previously never been in one, and it was suffocating to the point I couldn't spend more than a few minutes in the sauna at a time.



(Tomo pulling a nana (another friend of ours) in this picture showcasing Ashino onsen)



(This is a picture of the sign of Ashino Onsen).



(This is the guardian spring of Ashino Onsen)

After that, we went to Nasu Kougen. We realized small patches of snow were lying around, so we realized that it must have snowed. Sure enough when got to Nasu-dake, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. It got harder to climb the path near the top of the pathways because of the ice that was on all the paths. Gary and Yuu never have seen snow before so it was very amusing to watch them and we had tons of fun having a snowball fight on the mountain and sliding down the paths.



(A picture of the big Jinzo statues again. People put hats and or clothes on the statues to be respectful. In other places Jinzo represent dead babies/children or aborted fetuses and women whom lost children in childbirth/abortion come and put clothes on the statues.)



(Tomo, Rin, and Gary with snow)



(Each Jinzo statue has a hat)



(It's Gary's first time seeing snow up close)

We later went to a good Italian restaurant for pasta for dinner, another place to sample wine, and then on the way back through Utsunomiya we stopped at Penny Lane and got some bread. Overall it was much more funner this time around as we weren't on some real schedule to go do things on.