Yamagata Bus Tour 3 (Ginzan Onsen)

Day 2 of the bus tour

We were back in the same hall where we had dinner for breakfast.

Grilled saba was served for breakfast.

Once again, the food was really good. We ate everything except the natto which we offered to the guests next to us.

The first stop of the day was Ginzan Onsen.

The bus stopped somewhere further up and we had to walk down.

With not much snow that winter, the place looked different from the pictures that were posted in stations in Tokyo.

Onsen here must be good. As you can see, the heat from the onsen is causing all the smoke in these pictures.

There is also an area where you can enjoy foot onsen for free.

The area is pretty small. There are several bridges that connects the buildings on both sides.

And this row of shops that you can see in this picture is basically it.

I guess if you really want to enjoy this area. You need to come and stay at the ryokan here to enjoy the onsen in the middle of winter. As in all the pictures that I have seen, this place looks amazing covered in snow.

Once you pass the row of shops in the picture above, you will read this waterfall.

There is also a public toilet nearby and this tunnel.

We had 1 hour of free time here and that was seriously too much as there is nothing much to see in this area. 

It was slightly underwhelming for me as I have always wanted to visit, but to see it in person and then realizing that this is all there is to it. It sort of makes sense why most pictures that you see of Ginzan Onsen used in promoting the area looks the same. This is because the pictures all show the same view.

One of the reason why I picked this tour was also because it had Ginzan Onsen on it and this was one of the places that I really wanted to visit!

On the way back to the bus, we spotted this interesting looking vending machine that was covered in this wooden box. I guess it was made this way to blend in with the area that it was in. 

Made it back up to the top f the hill where the bus was parked.

The view from here is really nice. I saw some pictures of people taking their pre-wedding pictures during winter and the pictures looked amazing!