We hopped the Super Hakucho in Hakodate and rode it through the Seikan Tunnel into Aomori. I looked for Kanita but didn't see much as I was thinking about its ferry to Wakinosawa. In Aomori, we had a C-Store lunch while we waited for the bus. It was raining lightly so we didn't wander far. As the bus climbed into the Hakkoda-san area, I noticed that there wasn't as much snow as the last couple of times up here. Since it still wasn't spring on high the lack of snow made it brown and not as interesting. Sarah got car sick on the windy roads and passed out by the time we went through the Oirase Gorge, where the bus stopped or slowed at each waterfall and a recorded voice gave its height, weight, and place of employment.

In Yasumiya, I checked in the tourist office to see if the Kuriyama Minshuku was the same as the Sansou Kuriyama and it was just a name change, so I knew right where it was. Checked in and relaxed a bit in the nice Nihonma. Afterwards, we headed down the main street to the Oasis Restaurant on the second floor that served expensive blue beer and gyudon. Afterwards, I tried a stick of kiritampo since the area is famous for it and found that it wasn't that famous for me.

On Monday, we got breakfast out of Kimura Store, about the only place to buy food in town, walked down to a picnic table by the lake and ate. Sarah was freezing. I thought it was nice. Afterwards, they went off to map the small town as to the types of business. It didn't take too long but both had major problems with scale.

At 10:45 we caught the "A Course" cruise ferry for Nenoguchi. The price had just increased to Y1400 and the price printed on the tickets hadn't caught up yet. There didn't seem to be many people at Nenoguchi, but I wasn't going to take a chance at having 5 school groups show up and leave along side us so we crossed the bridge and headed down the trail into the Oirase Gorge. There were lots of waterfalls and lots of mud from yesterday's rain, but we made it to Ishigedo, where we had some noodle lunch while waiting for the JR bus back to Yasumiya.

At the Kuriyama, I took a movie of the "saluting toilet seat" and learned that the women's onsen bath was tiny compared to the men's. But women are supposed to be petite. We borrowed some towels from the ryokan as apparently this one doesn't supply them.