Hiking Oirase Gorge

First, I forgot to post about our dinner out on July 5 after the Big Buddha. We went to Phada's Padthai and Authentic Thai food. I had Pad Kee Mao with beef, mushroom, bell pepper, basil leaves stir fried with chili-garlic sauce and noodles. Keenan had Stir fried vegetable with beef, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, bean sprout, mushroom, onion, bell pepper, Chinese cabbage stir fried with oyster and soy sauce. Both dishes were very good, I liked mine better because it had a spicy sauce and noodles.

My meal.

Keenan's meal.

Outside of restaurant.

Ok, now on to our hike in Oirase Gorge! You may recognize the name Oirase Gorge from a previous post, we briefly checked it out when we went for a drive around Lake Towada. This time we went to go for a hike and see it more closely. Some of the pictures may look familiar. From base to the start of the hike is about 53km (33 mi). It takes about 45 minutes-1 hour to get there. The hike itself is about 9km (5.6 mi) each way, we only hiked one way and got picked up at the lake. We went with 2 of Keenan's co-workers. Weather was ok, chance of rain and it sprinkled during the hike and started pouring right when we got to the end at the lake. This place is absolutely beautiful, I can't wait to go back in the fall and see the leaves and in the winter when the waterfalls freeze!

The points near the lake are the start and finish of the trail and the shrine

Mushrooms?

Petting the moss.

Really big fish in the deeper water by the dam.

 After the hike we went to see a shrine on the edge of Lake Towada. We actually tried to find it last weekend, but the map we had been following was misleading...

there's a tiny little shrine out on the island

Where's #4??!

had dinner at Cheese Roll House

I hope I'm covering things that interest people...if there's something else you'd like to know about/see pics of, let me know! And if you have questions be sure to ask! :)