Toyohashi & Omihachiman: The Japan Tour No One Is Talking About

Derek and I took a train from Yaizu to Toyohashi, a mid sized city known for its industry and logistics. Charming. It was actually charming though. Also, importantly, our hotel had an onsen. Major bonus.

When we stepped off the train we saw this defunct USA-themed arcade. Good omen.

We wandered to find some food and a kind Japanese bouncer (they are much less intense than the bouncers I've encountered in America) told us his favorite ramen spot. He even escorted us into the building. If this were Morocco I would have expected him to ask us for 30 dirhams for this service. But this was not Morocco. This was Toyohashi. And the ramen was great.

We went to a shopping center.

For dessert we each ordered a cream, custard, chocolate, strawberry, and banana crepe. And then we onsen'd to counteract any harm the crepe did to our bodies.

The next morning we decided to reset our circadian rhythms. Derek and I have been sleeping in and getting to our next destinations at night. It was time to change that. So we went on a morning run.

We swung by this 16th century castle. Pretty cool. Post-run we hit another onsen before checking out. Gotta get our money's worth.

We explored the city and found so many charming temples and shrines. It turns out they have a lot of well maintained temples and shrines throughout all of Japan. It is not just for tourists.

The front desk staff directed us to an udon shop about 200 feet down the street from our hotel. We decided to use the provided paper map and our best Japanese pattern matching skills to navigate there. It took us 35 minutes and two full loops but we felt very accomplished. The waitress took one look at me and handed me this bib. I hope it's not for children. None of the restaurant's elderly clientele seemed to be wearing one ...

Shoutout to the front desk staff at the Dormy Inn Toyohashi because this food was delicious. The tempura, pickles, udon - it was all great.

We did some more wandering, taking in Toyohashi's vibe. We went into a watch store and the woman asked why we were in Toyohashi. They never see foreigners. We're shaking up the scene. At this point in the trip Derek and I were pretty sure that no tourist in the history of Japan has constructed the itinerary we've formed.

More temples!

Another selling point for Toyohashi was its street car. There is something so fun about being in a bus / train hybrid on ground level. Derek and I were big fans. This was one of the highlights mentioned in ChatGPT's Toyohashi summary that convinced us to visit. Well done artificial intelligence.

We took at the aforementioned streetcar and then our tenth train (not including subways) of Japan to get over to Omihachiman. The station sold chocolate dipped Hokkaido milk cream puffs. I mean come on. There's no way we're not eating that.

Omihachiman is an old canal town known for its temples and scenery. We achieved our goal of getting to Omihachiman in the daytime, so we took advantage of the remaining light.

Omihachiman reminded me of Nanxun back in China except with 1/20th the LED lighting and thus, roughly, ten times the charm.

We ended our ancient town exploration at this gorgeous compound of temples that was entirely empty. Kyoto has some big shoes to fill because we've been seeing some pretty sweet temples.

We helped ourselves to a steak dinner which ended up being more of an appetizer.

And then we went straight into the double order at McDonald's. Fortunately our hotel had yet another onsen so we could purify ourselves after four beef patties each.

We got up early the next morning to seize the day. We hopped on the bus to head back into the old town area.

The canal looked lovely as always.

We hopped in a cable car (devoted readers of the China portion of this blog will know my newfound affection for cable cars).

We explored the shrine at the peak and then set out to hike / wander to various scenic points.

Hiking with Derek through the woods was reminiscent of the AT back home.

The hike was lovely, but it did stretch a little longer than either of us anticipated. We grew hungry.

Eventually, we popped out on a road and Derek hunted down the nearest restaurant for us. It was cash only. My laziness trumped my appetite, so I was willing to split one entree between the two of us with our pooled remaining bills and coins. Derek would have none of it. In a heroic effort, he ran (yes he literally ran) to the nearby town, tried one ATM, failed, ran to a second ATM, withdrew cash, and phoned in his order. I should create a blog hall of fame. That's right up there with Jake going into the Thailand rain to get me chicken noodle soup while I was on my deathbed in Chiangmai.

I enjoyed some soup and held down the table while he toiled.

We celebrated by ordering three entrees. The food was great. The warm bread with ample butter stole the show. Wonderful post hike meal.

We took another bus back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and hopped on the train to Kyoto (after eating one more Hokkaido milk cream puff each).

Our time in random Japan was over. What a ride it was. Four spots in four nights. Food poisoning, one ryokan, three onsens, one warehouse, countless stares, the list goes on. This truly was a highlight of not only Japan but my entire five months (ish) of traveling. We took the Fuling energy and kicked it up a notch. Derek was not only a willing, but active participant. He suggested Toyohashi and Omihachiman. And he found us hotels in most places. We had so much fun exploring outside of the Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka highway.

From the vault:

I keep getting ads in Chinese that link to CIA videos on YouTube? I may need a new phone...