191031 Oirase Stream and Lake Towada, Autumn Leaves Viewing

Water were flowing at a high speed from the mountain. 

A nice place to hike up the mountain. With beautiful streams and fresh air.

Water current is strong. So we can see the bubbles in the stream. Look so beautiful. Hiking up the stream, breathe in fresh air. So nice.

Due to my toe fracture, we only stopped at the last stop, then hike up the stream. Supposed to take 30 minutes to reach but we took longer than that. Realised my disability made me take it slow and appreciate nature slowly.

This is the last stop and we alighted from the bus to hike up the mountain.

The water gate that control the amount of water flowing down the stream.

The starting point of Oirase stream. Where water from Lake Towada flows down the Oirase stream.

The end (or begining) of Oirase stream?

Ferry station meets us when we reach the end of Oirase Stream. The Nenokuchi. Ferry Point. From here, we can catch a ferry and sail to Yasumiya Ferry point.

Lake is huge. I have forgotten that we are not in the sea when I saw a passing by ferry. This is so beautiful.

We paid ¥1430 per person for the 30mins ferry ride in Lake Towada. If we want the seat on the 3rd level  we  will need to pay another ¥500 yen each. During our trip, no body take this upgrade.

Ferry approaching Yasumiya Ferry point.

There are cafe and restaurant at Yasumiya Ferry point.

Autum leaves and mountains form the back drop of the JR bus station at Yasumiya Ferry point of Lake Towada. Neat and beautiful.

This is one of the toilet stop place while ascending the mountain.

The same bus will pass by Hokkada Ropeway. We actually wanted to take the Hokkada Ropeway on the next day after this trip but decided not to do it as we can see, the trees were already bald. We will not be able to view autumn leaves via the ropeway.

Another toilet break stop while ascending the mountain.

Got excited when we sighted the 1st waters of Oirase Stream while ascending the mountain. This picture was taken from the bus.

HOW TO GET THERE - By JR bus

Tips - Always check out with information counter a day before and get the time table. Do your homework a day before so that you have all your information clear in your mind. (The research done before our trip will end up as a guide for us normally. The real help is always from these tourist information people). The bus timing will change based on weather condition.
We also check out the map on the location of the stream. So we know that since the bus travels on the left side of the stream, we make sure we choose the seat that is on the right while ascending the mountain.
Do note that it takes 3 hours to reach the last station in Lake Towada, though the route for this bus is really for tourist to the tourist destinations. This is so because we have about 3 toilet breaks, really waste of time. And there are many stops on the way ascending the mountains.
If you self drive, it may only take 1.5 to 2 hours.
However, I would recommend that we take the JR tourist bus as you can just hop off and hop on anytime while exploring this mountain. No need to think of where to park your car and need to walk back to get your car.

This route is covered by JR pass. However, we did not get the JR pass as we do not plan to travel too many places. It cost ¥3090 for one way and we cannot hop on or hop off. If we pay for 2 way, it will cost us ¥6180. So the next best pass is to get the 2 days unlimited pass at ¥5000. With this pass, we can hop off and on any bus-stop while hiking up the stream. Bear in mind that this is the same bus that travel to Hakkoda Ropeway station, where you can visit the Hakkoda Mountains. So we can visit in 2 days with the same pass. 
We chose to leave Aomori Station at 8.15am. If the bus captain is sharp with his timing (usually do) we will reach the last station at 11am. However, after much planing, we decided to alight at Choshi Ohtaki (the last stop at Oirase stream). So, we will reach by 8.59am. 
There are different bus timing that leave Aomori Station. 1st bus from Aomori station is 7.30am, then 7.45am followed by 8.15am. If you missed the 8.15am bus, the next bus will be 9.55am. This may not be the best timing because you will reach the mountain at 1pm. Not much time to venture around. Best to take the earlier buses because we will spend 3 hours to travel to the mountain and 3 hours to travel back. That is a total of 6 hours in the bus. 

I am actually very impressed with Japanese Buses. They can commit in printing out this time table and follow to it. So we must make sure we are early to wait for the bus. They will not wait for you. While planing for our trip up, we also need to plan for the time to come back. Again, Autumn sunset at Aomori is 4.30pm. So we need to make sure we leave the mountain before this time. Unless you like to travel in the dark. I prefer not too. I like to enjoy the scenery while traveling in the bus while I am overseas.
There are different timing to go back to Aomori. We made a mistake for not spending another hour around Lake Towada because seeing that the next bus to depart is 14.05 and the bus at 14.40 do not goes to Aomori, we got worried and spent only 30mins taking a light snack at rush off to get the 14.05pm bus. Ended up I was so hungry in the bus until wanted to faint. We could have enjoyed a good lunch in a restaurant just above the JR station building and take the 3.00 pm bus. Nevermind, another learning experience and share with everyone.

In real situation based on my experience

We reached the Aomori bus station at 7.50am, 5 mins pass the 7.45am bus for Lake Towada. Long queue already formed. Lucky the customer service knows how to do crowd control. Everyone queue up properly for the next bus at 8.15am. 

We were quite concern if one bus can take in so many tourist as another tourist tour group joined us. Lucky, the JR bus company is very good. Another bus was deployed for this huge demand at 8.15am. Otherwise, the next batch of spill over passengers will have to wait for the next bus at 9.55am.
The bus captain will check your ticket and ask you where are you alighting before you abroad the bus. So, it is very important to plan ahead.