1 Month In Japan – Hanamaki （花巻市）
Part 3 of the journey was a goodbye to Aomori area and a trip down to Hanamaki. This was actually an unintentional stop on my part but was also an incredible stop, I say unintentional as I had initially planned to stay in Morioka however due to the time of year many places were already booked, so I ended up looking at Hanamaki just a short journey south.
Arriving at Shin-Hanamaki Station, there are 2 options (only 1 sensible if you have luggage) you can either walk the almost 7km into the town, or get a taxi. At the time I was feeling confident in myself, and decided since it was a beautifully sunny day that I was going to walk – I ended up giving up part way, though there was good reason.
A while into my walk I came across a couple of small shops, and some stairs that seemingly climbed the side of a hill, it looked kind of interesting so I read what it said and was then curious to see that was up the top, it was some kind of museum and the stairs had a step counter (literally).
Stairs to Miyazawa Kenji Museum 
Counters on every step
Honestly, climbing these stairs was something I don’t think I will ever forget, as I had already been walking an hour or so with my luggage, and then I hauled it all the way up these to look around the museum. Great choice though as it was a really nice place, and had a small gift shop / restaurant across from it so I could grab some lunch.
From here I really gave up the walking plan and got a cab (JapanTaxi app saving my life), and headed straight to my hotel which was a very long drive as I was staying out of the town a way in the Yuukaen Ryokan, which by the way, beautiful place and incredible food and baths.
Yuukaen Room
The room itself was pretty sizable, though it was a little cold due to the time of year, plus its out in a mountainous region so I can’t really complain about that. I was only in Hanamaki as a stop over to check out this Ryokan as it looked so incredible when I was planning the trip. It certainly didn’t disappoint and some of the food here will feature in a food post.
After my short stay it was jumping in a taxi to the station (which btw was 5000 yen, I liked this taxi way more as the one from the museum to here was 7000 :o) and the head out to my next stop, one I was really looking forward to, Sendai.
