3 September 08

Emily woke us at 4.15. I could see that she wasn't going to settle back in her travel cot/tent, so took her into bed with me. Not very comfortable, but I did manage a bit more shuteye.

This was a travel day, as we were moving on to our next destination in Bandai Kogen further north. We would not be fortified by another huge breakfast, sadly; perhaps there weren't enough guests to justify a buffet this time, so we had a fairly meagre meal. After some grizzling Emily thankfully dropped off as Nick navigated the many bends back down to Nikko (the road up to Chuzenji and back down has 48 hairpins, which is the same as the number of Japanese syllables, so it is called the Iroha slope after the name of the alphabet).

The drive northwards was along valleys through endless wooded hills. Emily had woken and was quite upset to be pinned to her chair, so we opted for a very early lunch stop. We struck lucky and enjoyed our meal. I had some great tempura and the others had a salt-encrusted skewered river fish.

It was the sort of place that doesn't see many (if any) foreigners, with a Japanese only menu. They were delighted to see us and Nick interpreted. The place filled up really quickly with regulars and I imagined the owner calling round to tell them to get down there and see the gaijin. They brought out their pet dachshund, a very cute little long-haired one, which Emily got excited about. It was so hot by now that the lady offered to hose us down in the car park as we left.

We made a pitstop an hour later

then I took over the wheel. Almost as soon as I set off the heavens opened and I had a bit of a difficult drive navigating through spray-obscured Aizu Wakamatsu to the accompaniment of flashes and thunderclaps. A pity we didn't see Lake Inawashiro at its best as we passed along the shore. Emily began to get very upset and I found it impossible to drive with her yelling, so we had to make an unscheduled stop for Nick to take over. We found ourselves parked at a little kindergarten strangely located in the middle of nowhere, and I wondered what the helpers made of this gaggle of foreigners loitering where the children were playing inside, though hopefully Emily's presence helped ease their concern. We spotted a cute little tree frog on the sapling by the front door.

It wasn't too much further to the mountain resort of Goshikinuma, nestling below Mount Bandai, though as it was raining and dusky we didn't see much of it. The place seemed to entirely consist of hotels and hostels. We checked into the inn and settled into our spacious tatami rooms. Emily soon went off on her futon and we trooped downstairs for dinner, the only guests eating, it seemed. It was quite a banquet, with a real treat: raw horse. Nick enjoyed his beef dipped in raw egg but only Graham followed suit. We were all done by 8pm, and sat for a while before retiring at 9.30 for an early night.