The next day was a long haul, more than a hundred kilometers, over a thousand-meter pass, and over to the next lake, Towada, past some of the trademark sky-blue water that I remembered from a trip to the southern part of the Tohoku area years ago. Minerals in the water give it the blue cast; from that, you might expect to see many hot springs resorts in the area - and you wouldn't be disappointed. Note the rainbow in this photo.

The people at the youth hostel that I asked about the weather report said "cloudy, but mostly fair - definitely no chance of rain." Six hours later I was hiding under a tunnel overhang, with myself and everything in the top of my pack soaking wet, in the final stages of trying to master the aforementioned thousand-meter pass. Oh, well, it wouldn't be a journey if everything went right. Luckily, just over the pass was one of the best hot springs I've ever been to: hot sulfury water, huge old wooden building and - surprisingly - mixed bathing, or konyoku in Japanese. In practice, that translates to a few elderly women mixed in with the men.