We started our long travel day at Nyuto Onsen in Akita prefecture. We woke up in our super comfy futon on the tatami floors of our lovely Ryokan at 7 am. We had to quickly get dressed and head down to have a specially arranged early breakfast in the dinning area, which was just what we needed as fuel to keep us going for the long day ahead…

After one of the most incredible breakfasts, (we write all about it in the last post/ video) packed up our bags and headed to checkout. We paid for the beer we had the night before and the cute cleansing man got us our boots from the cupboard. We could stand inside to wait for the bus he motioned, as it was -17C outside, but we didn’t want to miss the bus. The super cute cleaning man waited with us outside until our bus arrived and then waved as the bus drove off. We took a ticket as we got on the bus and then paid the corresponding fare as we got off, 840 Yen. The bus took about an hour and we arrived at the train station (Tazawako) at 10am. We got tickets on the Shinkansen to Omagri and then took the Ou line for 100 minutes through the super crazy snowy countryside. We then arrived at Shinjo, which is where we figured out that our plan was not going to work.

We were supposed to take one last train to Oishida but while waiting we realised that the bus to Ginzan Onsen town was not going to work out, and that we were likely to get trapped in Ginzan overnight as our JR passes expired at midnight. We had taken five hours worth of trains already to discover this, so it was not a happy time to say the least. We went to the Kombini and got some sandwiches to eat as we decided what our next step was. We decided to just take a Shinkansen to Tokyo directly, arriving at 6pm. It was upsetting to lose out on an entire day trying to get to something that would have been very cool, but we would get into Tokyo just as the sun was setting. The train ride was a bit over three hours.We enjoyed a range of strawberry treats on the train. Strawberries are a winter fruit in Japan, so there are strawberry flavoured things everywhere. 

Once back in Tokyo we took the Yamanote line (my favourite train EVER) to Shibuya station where our Airbnb was. It took about 20 minutes to arrive in Shibuya. It was Friday night so Shibuya was crazy and busier than usual. We had a bit of trouble getting the touch pad to our Airbnb to work, but eventually we got in. The place was nice, very central with traditional tatami and screens, but also concrete. The ceilings in the airbnb were low, so Jives hit his head quite a few times. 

We then headed out on a walk to have sushi at Genki sushi nearby. We walked by the new Shibuya Miyashita Park. The park is a three level complex with a huge park on the roof with excellent views of Shibuya. There was also a rock climbing wall, a volleyball court and a skateboard park. We each order quite a few dishes at the sushi place from the touchpad, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! My sushi dinner came to 1400 Yen total and Jives paid 2300 Yen for his dinner. We then headed back to our airbnb and went to sleep after a very long day.