Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima-ken

Three years ago, most people probably hadn't heard of Fukushima. Today everybody has heard of it, but very few people are visiting. This is a great shame, for many reasons.

The name itself is something of a problem. Fukushima is the prefecture, a city within it, and also the namesake of the nuclear power station that suffered a level-7 disaster after the earthquake. Both the city and the majority of the prefecture (pretty much everything west of the city, in fact) are located outside the exclusion zone, and considered safe for travel by the FCO. So off I went.

Getting into Fukushima-ken isn't hard, but you can't rely on the quickest trains: Hayate services on the Tohoku shinkansen bypass both Fukushima and Kouriyama. Instead you'll need a stopping service; these have some unreserved cars making them easy to catch.

I jumped off the main line at Kouriyama (tip: exit station, straight across main road, tiny katsu restaurant, fantastic food) and changed onto the Ban'etsu West line, which is a tiny one-track service into the countryside. After a long, dozey ride, I arrived in Aizuwakamatsu.

Aizuwakamatsu

Aizuwakamatsu is an old city nestled in the mountains. It's obviously put some real effort into tourism: there are tourist offices not just at the station, but also in other locations around town, with a bike rental scheme and a decent map of the town in English. There are, however, not many tourists. If you can, grab a bike: the city plan looks small, but it's actually a good day's walk to get around.

There are several interesting things to see. At one end of the town, a huge seven-tiered castle keep: this is a fake, rebuilt in the 60s, but it's still impressive to see and there's a good view from the top. There's also a site commemorating the Byakkotai (a group of very young soldiers who committed ritual suicide) – strangely this includes a huge and hideous memorial sent by Mussolini.

Nearby, there's the Sazaedo, a curious wooden temple that conceals two spiraling staircases, each hidden from the other – it dates to around 1790, and you can walk up and down it. The whole temple area is really rather pretty.

Finally, there's a small cluster of onsen ryokan just outside the town – you'll need a bus or bike to get there, I think, and sadly I didn't have the time.

Staying and Eating

Aizu has several hotels; I stopped at the Toyoko Inn next to the station which cost next to nothing. There are some cheap restaurants near the station, plus a few convenience stores and izekaya.

Unfortunately, Fukushima marked the end of the line for me on this trip. Out of time, out of money and out of clean clothes, I headed back to Tokyo the next morning, from Tokyo to Narita and Narita to home. Given a few more days, I'd like to have explored a bit further into the backwoods around Aizuwakamatsu: the local train line runs on, through dozens of smaller towns, for anyone with the time to travel it.

Next time, then.

This post is a part of my 'Japan on a Budget' collection – you can browse the rest here.

Inside the Hakkoda-Maru

Aomori-ken sits at the very top of Honshu. Getting there on the train is as easy as you could hope: Shin-Aomori is the current terminus of the Tohoku Shinkansen, so you can leap on a Hayate service from Tokyo or, like me, catch it from Morioka, where the Akita mini-shinkansen line meets the Tohoku service (Morioka, incidentally, seems like a rather pretty little city with some nice gardens and the remains of a castle). The train covers quite a distance from Morioka to Aomori, but with very few stops it's quick.

Like many towns that get linked to the Shinkansen, Aomori has an older station (called, well, Aomori) and the new Shinkansen one (Shin Aomori) outside the town. At Shin Aomori you will find every conceivable type of car rental depot and just about nothing else, so your best bet is to jump on the Ou Main Line service to Aomori (a couple of minutes) or Hirosaki (quite a long way – be sure to get an express, or it'll take forever).

Hirosaki

Hirosaki lies to the south-west of Aomori, closer to the volcano Iwaki-san. It's notable for its castle, which also features on the head of the town's wonderfully bonkers mascot, Takamaru-kun, as seen here cheering on the Tohoku region:

The castle is indeed rather beautiful, with a big moat, a number of gates, and a white keep perched up above: it would probably look stupendous in cherry-blossom season.

Castle aside, the town has a large temple complex (Choso-Ji) that's worth seeing, and like most of Aomori is big on apples. So much so, in fact, that you can visit the Hirosaki Ringo-Koen (apple park) – just outside the town this has a small museum, a lot of apples, and a hell of a view over to the mountain:

The town's a very walkable size, but to get to the apple park you'll need wheels of some kind: there's (apple-branded) bike rental available from the tourism office at the station. And if you do go there, don't miss the restaurant where every possible dish is available in some kind of apple-themed or apple-based variant. I had apple curry with apple something on an apple plate. And apple salad with apple dressing.

And an apple. It was delicious.

Aomori

From Hirosaki I doubled back to Aomori. Up on the coast, it's not the prettiest city you'll see: the most striking bit of architecture is the ASPAM building, which looks rather like a giant alien tortilla chip. You can pay a few quid to see the city from the second-from-top floor, though, which is worth it for orientation purposes.

There are two things in Aomori that are absolutely worth seeing, though. First, and near the station in a rather splendid modern building, is the Nebuta museum, host to some of the giant illuminated floats that parade through the city during this annual festival (Hirosaki has one, too):

They are huge and absolutely stunning. Secondly, Aomori is the major link on Honshu with Hokkaido to the north, and the traffic back and forth used to travel on huge rail-ferries such as the Hakkoda-Maru:

Now the ships have been replaced by a tunnel, and soon the Shinkansen will go through directly, further relegating Aomori's importance. The Hakkoda-Maru, though, has been preserved as a museum: inside you can wander through the bridge and accommodation, and boggle at the deck that held three complete trains per journey. The atmosphere is actually quite overwhelming, especially when you see the ship's crew filmed before its final voyage – there's a real sense of an important part of the community ending up out of time and passing on.

Staying and Eating

In Hirosaki I stayed in the Super Hotel. It's cheap – very cheap – but note that the hotel does not open until 3pm, so you can't even dump luggage there. Also, if you're googling to find out why the INCREDIBLY LOUD FAN in the bathroom is keeping you awake at 3am, there's a strange switch labeled in Kanji outside the door – once translated, that will tell you to flip the switch and wait five minutes to silence the fan. Sigh.

Hirosaki isn't exactly packed with restaurants, especially if like me you show up too late, but I did eat possibly the single largest bowl of ramen  I've ever had (size chuu, or medium, no less) in the basement of the retro department store (check out the paintings on the front) in the shopping district.

Aomori has dozens of business hotels. I used the JAL City, which is right in front of the ASPAM building – maybe £50 per night, with nice modern rooms and a good view. Restaurants of every type abound, including a great basement sushi place near the station.

Aomori marked the furthest north I could visit on this trip. The next day I jumped back on the main line to Fukushima-ken.

Tazawa is a beautiful, almost circular, lake in Akita-ken. Getting near the lake is easy: use the Akita mini-shinkansen, which if you're coming from the south runs together with the main Tohoku line and forks off at Morioka (from the north, change there). Getting to the lake itself is harder.

Having failed to find a free room at Nyuto onsen (more later), I found one by phoning the Rose Park Hotel, which is on the opposite side of the rather large lake. But not to worry: the internet said that there are Orix and JR car rental places by the station. I tried to book a car, but without a Japanese address the online system failed. So I just showed up.

Do not just show up at Tazawako shinkansen station and hope to rent a car.

Car Hire

The JR rental office at Tazawako station is a small shed-like building, and the Orix branch is a nearby shop. Neither had any cars, and this was on a weekday in October, so I doubt there had been a sudden rush – they're obviously there for people collecting pre-arranged rentals. And, as I mentioned, you can't pre-book either without a Japanese address. So I'm stuck at the Shinkansen station, which is nowhere near the lake, with no transport. Buses run, in October, a couple of times a day at best.

I was contemplating a good few hours of hiking with an 80 litre backpack, but the Orix lady saved me: she had the number of another rental shop. Toyota rental isn't by the station, but is a proper car rental lot: call them on (0187) 43 2100. The guy there had one car left; renting it required my 1949 international driving permit, my license, 7000Y, and a lot of fairly broken Japanese and hand gestures.

My vehicle was a Toyota Vitz (a Yaris in the UK). From it I learned the following:

1) Japanese auto-boxes have lots of settings. You need only P(ark), D(rive) and R(everse).
2) This particular one is all too easy to drop into S(creaming noise).
3) The car will beep. This could be because you're reversing, or because you've failed to drop the handbrake completely, or for any other number of reasons. Beep. Beep.
4) Japanese car computers are amazing. The one in this tiny, cheap car had maps, spoke English (well, mostly), and knew where everything is.
5) A one litre automatic Yaris-thing is not at all suitable for driving up a 10 degree incline on a dirt track into the mountains. But it managed, somehow.

Nyuto Onsen

This is not a road. It's not much worse than the road was, though.

About that hill. I wanted to visit Tsuru-no-Yu onsen, which is one of the most famous, and up in the hills behind Tawaza-ko. It's not easily accessible without a car. To get to it you go up a main road, down a small road, which becomes a narrow road with blind U-bends, which becomes a gravel track with huge rocks and potholes. All of the time, you're climbing up the mountain. And at the end: half of Japan's cars are in the car park. Amazing.

The onsen, though, is worth it. It's incredibly old, and has several baths. Unusually, the largest one – an outdoor bath under the mountain, with white water – is not gender segregated. Nor is it in any way private: the changing rooms have glass, and people walk right past the bath edge. Nonetheless, if you can get past that, it's wonderful: huge, comfortable, with a range of temperatures from bubbling out of the earth scorching hot to cool at the other end. I spent a good hour or more floating like a sedated hippo.

If you're male and don't fancy the rather open bath, though, I'm not sure Tsuru-no-Yu is worth the trip: the two indoor male baths are fine, but rather small. For women there's a separate outdoor bath around the back – no idea if it's any good, obviously, but at least there's another option.

Staying and Eating

Noodles just out of shot

From Tsuru-no-Yu I headed for the Rose Park hotel. This is on the west shore, near the golden statue, and seems to have at least three names: it's also the El Mirador and Prince hotel. Whatever it's called, though, it's nice: rather old-fashioned rooms, but large, clean and cheap (7500Y or so including breakfast). Rooms do not have internet access or water heaters but do have a vacuum flask of hot water for tea and, amazingly, a 'background music' knob. For, you know, lift music.

It's worth noting that there is nowhere around to eat in the evening – and the nearest store that opens even vaguely normal hours is a 30min drive on the other side of the lake – so it might be worth booking food at the hotel. During the day, there's a fantastic noodle stall next to the Goza no Ishi temple on the lake shore a 15 or so minute drive away. Or if you head away from the lake via the road that leaves from its eastern side (near the shops), you'll see a pizza restaurant and a small shop selling coffee and honey roll cake. I didn't try the pizza (closes early), but the coffee and cake were nice. You can't miss it – look for the London Bus.

Lake Tazawa might sound like a bit more trouble than it's worth, but it's hard to explain quite how beautiful the place is – tough by public transport, but well worth the effort if you can rent a car. The next day I drove back around the lake to the station, and headed north towards Hirosaki.

Dancers, Sendai

Getting to Sendai is easy: grab a Shinkansen train from Tokyo Eki. The Hayate services are best: you'll need a reserved seat, but these fly past all but the biggest stations. Step out of the huge Sendai JR station and you're within walking distance of just about everything, although there's also a subway system if you need it. The city centre seems almost entirely unscathed by the disaster of 2011, although out towards the coast whole communities were destroyed.

There's not a huge amount to see in Sendai's city centre, although it is worth hiking up the hill to the castle – not for the castle itself (there's nothing left of it) but for a good view out over the town and surroundings. Other than that. grab a hotel and some food and head out for Yama-dera, Matsushima and Hiraizumi.

Yamadera

The view from the top

Yamadera is exactly what the name says – a temple in the mountains. You get to it on a slow local train (Senzan line) from Sendai JR, and then hike up across the river and up to the temple. It's a relatively modest temple by Japanese standards, but the setting and the view from near the top make it well worth the trip, especially in autumn as the leaves are turning. There are omiyage shops and a few simple restaurants in the town.

Matsushima

This cluster of islands off the Sendai coast is one of the famous views of Japan (along with the floating Torii at Miyajima, which I visited last year). Amazingly, it's even more gobsmackingly beautiful.

Like Yamadera, it's a 45-50 minute ride out on a local train from Sendai (Senseki line – there are some slightly quicker red express trains), this time to Matsushima-kaigan. Thanks to jetlag, I showed up around 7am – getting there early is good, as by the time I was thinking about leaving a horde of tour groups had descended. This was on a weekday in October; I wouldn't even try on the weekend.

The view out to the islands is beautiful enough, but you can also cross a red bridge (200Y if the ticket office is open) to Fukuuru Jima of them and walk around its various viewpoints over the bay. Up into the town is the Zuigan-Ji, a large Zen Buddhist temple complex, with a beautifully restored shrine inside – as I wandered in, sutras were being chanted in one of the private halls.

Hiraizumi

Somewhere in the Chuson-Ji

Hiraizumi, whose temples are designated a UNESCO world heritage site, is between Sendai and Morioka – get the stopping Shinkansen (some carriages are non-reserved) to Ichinoseki and change to the Tohoku local line. It's a pretty town with several amazing temple complexes, one of which (Chuson-Ji) is absolutely enormous and houses the biggest golden shrine I've seen outside of, well, the golden temple itself.

There's a guy by the station who rents bikes for two hours (500Y) or the day (1000Y) – two hours might just about cover the Chuson Ji alone, but I'd stay for longer if possible. Renting bikes in Japan is generally easy (cheap, no deposit required, locks built into the back wheel), but if like me you stand on the tall side the frames will be far, far too small.

Staying and Eating

Staying in Sendai is easy, as there are loads of business hotels. The one nearest to the station, though, is the JAL City Hotel – turn right out of the station, past Parco, through the next building (past Starbucks) and the stairs go right down in front of it. This one's actually a bit posher than most business hotels, so you get the chance to buy Yebisu from a minibar rather than Suntory from a vending machine and you check out properly on departure, but it's cheap – around £50-60 per night.

The local specialty of barbequed cow tongue (gyutan) is really pretty good, and there are loads of cheap restaurants if you head away from the station and into the city, then right. Just about every kind of shop you might need can be found on the main covered shopping arcade that runs away from the station entrance.

From Sendai I traveled north and west to Tazawako.

Matsushima, near Sendai, Miyagi-ken

I came back from last year's trip around southern Honshu determined to work on my kanji and head back the next year. One year, one hundred and twenty kanji and three more terms of general  study later, I was on a plane to Narita again. And this time, with something approaching a plan.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

My intention for this year was originally to visit Kyushu, but on reflection decided on Tohoku: it's a huge chunk of the country that I'd never seen, and is suffering from a lack of tourism in the aftermath of last year's earthquake. Tohoku hasn't ever been a huge tourist hotspot compared to, say, Tokyo or Kyoto, but it's a beautiful place well worth visiting, and needs visitors more than ever. And so, armed with a notepad full of tips – thanks in particular to Clay Harris and Bethan Hutton – I headed north for Sendai.

As before, I'll run through all the key places I visited in separate posts, noting any information that might be handy to future visitors. But first, general travel stuff.

Trains and Car rental

Last year I used a seven day JR Japan Rail Pass, which is fantastic but expensive: the 14 day version would have blown my £100-ish-per-day budget. This time I could stick to JR East, which is even easier: you can buy a 10 day JR East Pass online for Y32,000 (around £250). This covers you on every train journey from Narita, around Tokyo on the Yamanote line, up to the north, and back to Narita again. Versions that cover five days and four-non-sequential days are also available.

I also tried something new: renting a car in Japan. To do this requires a bit of preparation, as you'll need a  International Driving Permit based on the 1949 Treaty – a truly comical bit of paperwork available either from the AA or major branches of the Post Office. Renting also requires a pretty decent grasp of Japanese, but more of that later. The cost was around £70 for a day, with reductions on subsequent days, for a tiny Toyota.

Shimbashi, Tokyo

Cheap Hotels

For accommodation, I mostly stuck to the same plan as last time: cheap business hotels that run to £50-60 per night. This time I tried as many chains as possible, and found the following:

Sunroute – I used a load of these in 2011 and 2009, too. Classic business hotel service, with prices between £45 in the sticks and £110 in Tokyo. The price is always representative of what you get: the Plaza Shinjuku, for example, is expensive but flashy, while Higashi-Shinkuki is older and less smart but cheaper, and Nara costs almost nothing but is a bit knackered. You can reserve online via the website without putting any payment down in advance – in English, if you wish.

JAL City – These aren't quite normal business hotels – you pay on checkout and there are minibars in the rooms, although in practice that just means you pay more for a beer or bottle of water. They are, however, really nice for the money – usually £50 or so if you book in advance. The website is a disaster that's pretty hard to understand (a million and one options), so reserve on the phone or through a third party site.

Toyoko Inn – You cannot miss the Toyoko inn in any town: it'll be right by the JR train station, or have a giant blue light on the top, or usually both. And it'll be cheap: £35-50. I've only stayed in one, which was a little worn, but fine for the money. I'd recommend if you can't find a JAL or inexpensive Sunroute.

Super Hotel – Ah, the Super Hotel. I've stayed in only one, which was pretty new, but not super. On the plus side, these are ultra cheap: £30-40 or so, and you get a small room with a capsule bathroom. On the downside, my experience was a tiny room that stank of smoke (not the only smoking room I stayed in, but the only one I regretted), and about four hours of sleep. You get what you pay for.

I tried to reserve as many as possible on the phone – I need to work on my speaking – but JAL, Toyoko Inn and Super Hotel are all listed on the English-language reservation service Japanican.com. Sunroute's own website is better.

Internet Access

Travel guides can be pretty useless when it comes to Tohoku. In the latest Lonely Planet, published just after the quake, it's a black hole – presumably ninety percent of the chapter was pulled at the eleventh hour. This makes internet access particularly handy for checking trains, sizing up hotels and so on.

Every business hotel I stayed in had free, fast, working internet access – but only the Toyoko Inn had WiFi. This makes having a cheap netbook computer invaluable. This will just plug in, and you can use the free tool Connectify to create a local hotspot for your mobile phone.

I also used 3G on my iPhone. To do this, buy a B-Mobile temporary visitor SIM card online – a 14 day one costs around £35 if purchased from outside Japan, and you can simply request delivery to your first location in Japan. It connects to 3G only – no voice or SMS services, but iMessage works – on the NTT DoCoMo network, which has good coverage. The service speed is limited, but good enough for email, web and occasional Google Maps when utterly lost.

A warning, though: on switching SIM cards my iPhone 4S reset and required re-registration via WiFi. Fortunately I could hook it up through my laptop (see above), but if that option isn't available you could be left with a useless, bricked phone. Thanks, Apple.

Anyhow, I paused one night in Tokyo to collect the SIM card, eat some noodles and indulge in a jetlag-busting onsen. With that done, on to Sendai.