Dakigaeri

To continue our weekend “short walks in Tohoku” theme we headed back to Akita to try out Dakigaeri Gorge. We’d picked up a brochure for their Fall Foliage festival in a train station a few weeks ago and it looked awesome, so we caught an early shinkansen to Kakunodake on Saturday morning. From there, we took the free Fall Foliage Festival shuttle bus out to the gorge. 

 

The day was perfect, but the foliage continues to allude us! We joined hundreds of other somewhat disappointed leaf peepers on the trail up the narrow valley. After passing a lovely Shito shrine, we crossed a large red suspension bridge over the Tamagawa River (I know that says “river, river”, but I’m not sure how to translate a name like that), before entering the gorge. 

 

The most striking thing is the color of the water. It is an almost unreal aqua color and looks glacial milk. I’ve tried to find out what causes the freakishly beautiful color given that there are no glaciers nearby, but have not found a satisfactory answer yet. Most websites attribute the color to volcanic springs and high acidity of the water. Whatever the cause, it is certainly remarkable.

The trail skirts the steep valley wall, with many bridges and tunnels. Apparently the trail is a former logging railroad grade, which explains the serious infrastructure along it!

'Mommy, I am NOT going in here by myself!'

 

We walked along a couple of kilometers to a beautiful waterfall. Soon after the waterfall there was a small Budda in the woods and then the trail abruptly ended. Apparently the entire trail/railroad used to extend 20 kilometers up to a reservoir, but several landslides and time have forced it to be closed until they can rebuild it. I would like to come back once it is rebuilt, because the valley just kept getting narrower and more impressive the higher we walked! 

the end of the trail

 

All the maples were still GREEN!!!

When we reached the mouth of the gorge, the festival was in full swing with a very energetic Taiko group performing. We ate festival food for lunch and then went back to Kakunodake. It is a lovely old town with samuri residences that you can tour or shop in. We would have liked to do a bit of shopping ourselves, but Catie was really tired and started coughing, so we headed home. If we get another beautiful day later in November, maybe we’ll head back up to Dakigaeri to see the fall colors against that aqua blue water.

the guy in white was wild- dancing around channeling Mick Jagger!