Scenic Ride to the 5 Mystical Ponds of Japan 🇯🇵 | Ep 3: FIVE PONDS

Scenic Ride to the 5 Mystical Ponds of Japan 🇯🇵 | Ep 3: FIVE PONDS

Welcome to episode 3 of our Japan road trip. On this 4,500 km motorcycle trip, I had reached Fukushima province from Tokyo to Nikko. I camped here, rode a motorcycle on the best roads and took shelter near Lake Inawashiro. In today’s episode, we will finally reach our first day’s destination Goshi Kinuma Ponds. On this journey, a friend from Norway will also accompany me who will get lost in the end and I will reach alone in some unknown city. We are near Lake Inawashiro I think that’s the name of the place. The mountain you see behind me is Mount Bindai, a very beautiful mountain. Apparently, people go there to ski. I don’t know how they go so high to ski. But I can see the grass slope in the middle, so I think people go there to ski. There’s a very good hostel here, it’s a little expensive, it’s for around $25 All the hostels here are around $25 And the minimum hotel room you get is for around $50-$60 Forget about that in Tokyo, like in Outskirts. So our plan for today is to go to Goshi Kinuma Ponds. Let me check the name, I always forget the name. What’s the name? This is Goshi Kinuma Ponds. So this was our first day’s destination, Goshi Kinuma Ponds. It’s not too far from here, we can reach there in an hour. But we found out that it’s a 4 km walk to reach there. 4 km to go and 4 km to come. It’s a 3 hour activity. So we think we’ll stay near Goshi Kinuma Ponds today as well So our first day’s destination, eventually it will take us 5 days to reach there. This was the hostel, there’s a nice fireplace here. We sat here in the evening, there was a Norwegian guy here, we chilled a bit. There are only 2 rooms here, one here and one there. And I think there’s a private room here. I don’t know what’s upstairs. And this is the tatami area, let me show you from inside. Tatami area is where you sit on the floor. It’s a dining area, but you sit on the floor. The thing is, the restaurants here don’t even close at 8, they close at 5.30-5.00. And if you go to a city, you’ll find restaurants open till 8 But forget about it after 8.00. You’ll only find 7/11. It’s been 6 days in Japan, and I understood that it’s difficult to find food outside Tokyo in morning & evening The restaurants are either open from 11.30-2.30 or 11.00-5.00. No one is opening more than this. It might sound weird, but in a small city of a country known for its food if you go out after 7:30, it’d be very difficult to find food And I don’t think you’ll find breakfast anywhere outside 7/11 in Japan 7/11 is here Why isn’t there a place with a shadow? Oh, man. This is curry bread. It has curry inside. Very tasty, actually. This is pork bun. The best. I’ll eat this a lot in the future. I don’t understand how to open this I’ll have to tear it. In the initial days, I liked the food at the convenience store But when I had to eat here every day, I’ll give you its honest opinion in the last few episodes. This is supposed to be a very beautiful road. Let’s go ahead and see. As per the board, this road leads to Urabandai Plateau. The mountain you saw is called Bandai. And everything here is named after Bandai. Viewpoint, restaurant, dhaba, market, everything is named after Bandai. This road will be full of enjoyment. But it’s not a very long road. I think it’s about 15-15 km. It’s getting cold as soon as I climbed the mountain Hair bend, Hair band Biker boys. There are a lot of cars parked here. What is this? Oh, it’s a ski resort. Tourgun is here. He was with us in the hostel Yoohoo, Tourgun. How are you? Sweaty. It’s a lot of work. You need help? Is that possible even? Lets try What should I grab on to? Anything you can. This is Tourgun. He was riding a cycle alone in this region. I don’t even go to buy milk on a cycle. He is from Norway and his name is pronounced as Tourgun. But his spelling is Torbjorn. I don’t know why the spelling of Scandinavian countries is like they are holding the tongue while talking This is the first viewpoint. But it’s a very strange viewpoint. This is all I can see. But I can see the lake. Which we have left. Struggling sweaty man. It’s a strange viewpoint. There is a car coming. There is a car coming. There is a car coming. A small break. We are going to see the waterfall. And we have come. It’s less than 5 minutes. Although there was a sign here that aggressive bears are here So we are risking our lives We are coming to show you the waterfall. Ayush Sharma had sent me a video yesterday. From Hokkaido, where we have to go There was a bear on a dirt road. The bear hit it. There is less water now. As it was in the photo, there is less water now. But there is a very good fragrance of the forest. Bear. Look at this. Olympic speed breaker. Come on. Maboroshi no Taki. That was the name of the waterfall. It looks like an Indonesian road. Not like Bali. Bali also you can say. But Java. There are many mountains in Indonesia. And there are many volcanoes. So there are roads like this in the scenic areas. So this road will go down. And it will go to Gushu Kinuma Ponds. It will go near it. After that there is a walk. The rest of the road was fine. There was nothing like this. It was one of the favorite roads. Because there were no viewpoints. There is less traffic here. And because we came slowly, we could not enjoy the corners. You pass through some rail. He went so fast downhill I come like a bridge. There are parking spots, but there is no viewpoint. What will a person do after crossing here? I don’t understand. I am riding at 60-80 kmph. And he left just one minute before me Not even a minute. And he is missing. He is riding so fast. I mean he is cruising But he is missing. He is here He is coming very fast. He is riding at 60-70 kmph. Crazy. Even if you don’t have to pedal But I can’t imagine at 60-70 kmph on a cycle It is time to slow down. The car is in front of us. We can’t have so much fun. It is raining. This is not required in life. New thing. This is a hotel. It is raining. The sky is clear above. The lake is beautiful. It is sunny and raining. What is this? Apparently, there are multiple Gushikunima ponds I think we will just go to the first pond. Because it is raining now. There are different shades of blue. But today is a cloudy day. So we will only have one shade of blue. Which is a regular shade of blue. But the sky is very clear on that side. Children seem happy. About something. Excitement. Oh my god! Yes! Have you seen the film Battle Royale? Yes! It’s a Japanese film in which 11th or 9th class kids go to an island and it’s like Royal Rumble basically the last man standing will survive but the thing is you have to kill the other people There are so many Picnic is going on There are a lot of people We have to wear riding boots It’s 3 km not 4 km So you can go from one side see the ponds and you can come from the other side Then it’s fine 1 way 3 km it’s fine Probably we can hitchhike I think this is the main Goshi Kinuma pond which we had marked on our map Oh! Mount Bandai in the background Nice! Very similar to Siberia Have you seen the colour of the water? Water! Very nice! It’s like a natural water slide I think this is the biggest one Wow! Look at the blue through the trees We have DJ This is the audience Already their hands are up This is the biggest pond The name of the pond is Bishamon Numa pond And where are we? We’ll take the more scenic route You can’t see anything from here This is the second viewpoint Very similar to the lakes in Kazakhstan It’s a big lake We have walked from there And we have come to this side Which seems beautiful It’s even bigger Goshi Kinuma ponds But here you can’t see the blue colour so much But wow! It’s transparent Hello! We have done the entire trail Almost 3 km, a little more than that And we are at the last pond of Goshi Kinuma pond And what you can see behind It’s a beautiful volcano Mount Bandai And it was a volcano in 1888 As Bro told us And then it exploded like crazy And this lake was also formed because of that When it explored, there was a river beneath And the land that collapsed, it blocked the river and these ponds were formed The literal translation of Goshi Kinuma is 5 coloured ponds But in reality there are more than 5 ponds And more than that shades of blue Now because this lake is formed by a volcanic eruption So there are different types of minerals in the water Which give mystical blue colour to these ponds You can take a boat from here The boat is 1000 Yen for 30 minutes And 1800 Yen for 60 minutes It’s a little expensive Because 6$ for half hour & 12$ for one And because you have to drive it yourself Self-drive doesn’t seem right This is like Horse riding thing in Kyrgyzstan You want a horse, they will give it to you You figure out Generally, people visit Goshikinuma ponds on a tour And the tour bus drops them on one side of the trail And picks them from the other side Now because we were on our motorcycle and cycle So we had to take a bus or taxi And go back on our motorcycle and cycle But when we reached outside We found out that there is nothing here So this is the visitor centre And from here We found out that we have to go 3.5 km It’s showing 52 minutes And here you can see There is nothing We won’t be able to walk for an hour On the road After 5 km I can say You should not walk in riding boots more than this No matter what riding boots No one is ready to give us a lift We are going on the highway Saying life is enjoy And it is 4.30 pm Everything is closed At 4.30 pm the world ends here in Japan Sunset will be at 7.15 pm But the world will end here Now in my 4 continent travel experiences Generally, in every country side You get a lift easily No one is giving us a lift in Japan And we had to go only 3.5 km But after a lot of efforts We understood that Japan’s culture is very closed And it is impossible to get a lift here randomly It took us 4 hours to complete And last 1 hour was quite unnecessary We could have hitchhiked And later a bus came which reached before us But at that time the bus had to come after half an hour So we thought what will we do for half an hour Let’s go And the bus will not stop on the way It will only stop at the bus stop Because this is the way to live in the first world There has been an attack by the monkeys And How much did you buy the banana for? Oh shit man 100 yen for one plastic bag One banana for 55 rupees One banana for 55 rupees Very crazy Maybe see you on the way It’s been nice Yeah Maybe if I take the same road I will carry you too Yes You are taking that road right? Not this one I am taking the scenic one Yeah Okay enjoy, see you on the way We don’t know where we are going We will see They have closed the toilet They take so much pride in the toilet They have closed it First let’s show you the lake It looks beautiful from here There is another lake ahead We are going to take a scenic drive on that lake We have come to take a scenic drive We have come till here so let’s see that road Oh shit, what happened? What was that? We are saved Okay The lake is indeed beautiful The scenery around Mount Bandai was so beautiful that it felt like a gift from God to Japan There are many lakes here apart from Goshi Kinuma ponds and you can spend a whole week here But we didn’t have much time and we had to reach the northernmost point of Japan So I left Fukushima before it got dark and headed towards Yamagata prefecture In Japan, prefectures are used instead of states or province and there are a total of 47 prefectures in the country So this is supposed to be a very beautiful route and indeed, oh my god Wow, what a beautiful lake It’s a beautiful route, with lake on one side but there is so much greenery There are very few spaces in between where you can see the lake This is bear territory There are boards everywhere saying that bears will come since I saw that video yesterday, I am scared that if bears come, what will you do? Bears have come, bears have come Bears have come, bears have come We have come quite high I think this is some mountain pass I thought I would find that guy but I think he got lost on the way But yoohoo It’s good that we came I thought we’d stop at the lake until sunset, but glad I came This is very similar to Bariloche in Argentina We are going up the mountain I think this is kind of a mountain pass There is a viewpoint from here Why is it on a blind turn Oh my god This is the crazy viewpoint We were standing there, and there is a lake It looks like it is a little above the mountain And that is the volcano which exploded in 1888 There is a lake and we went around it As soon as I entered Yamagata prefecture, the first city I visited was Yonezawa I booked a fancy hotel with buffet breakfast so that I don’t have to eat at the convenience store again the next day I got a message from Turgen that he rode a 50 km cycle and reached Yonezawa at 10 pm We were very tired, so we couldn’t meet again But we did collect some memories In the next episode, we will finally take the expensive expressways of Japan and will travel a little faster from Yamagata to Akita prefecture So, let’s meet soon Life is Enjoy

Welcome to Episode 3 of my Japan Road Trip on Royal Enfield Interceptor 650.
I started from Tokyo, spent some time in Nikko National Park & reached Lake Inawashiro in Fukushima Prefecture.
In today’s episode, I go around Mount Bandai, among the hundred greatest mountains of Japan, and finally reach my first day’s destination – Goshikinuma Ponds.
On the way, I meet a boy from Norway whom I tow to the top of the mountain pass and we visit the ponds together. The ponds are absolutely stunning, and with a magical stratovolcano besides it, this entire regions seems like a gift of God to Japan.
On our way back we struggle to find any kind of transport that can take us to the parking spot, and we have to walk another 4 kms. We part ways and I take another scenic route to reach Yamagata Prefecture.

Life is enjoy 🙂

Intro Music: ‘Congo’ by Macaroom (licensed through Artlist.io)

Follow me here – https://www.instagram.com/wander.da/

Japan Road Trip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByTQjz294o8&list=PL2iAWPjjTfGH452GfxeSDpkbxR9_BwNU7

00:00 Intro
00:42 Inawashiro
03:39 Ride Begins
04:32 Towing Torbjørn
06:29 Waterfall & Bears
07:20 Scenic Route
09:35 Goshikinuma Ponds
14:33 Hitchiking Fail
17:03 What is Love?
18:10 Beautiful Landscape
20:47 Outro