Japan 3.2: A lake, up a mountain, and making our own chopsticks

Unfortunately, I had a rough night last night, not being able to sleep much past 2:00, due to muscle problems.  Noticing Stephanie's restlessness, I asked her at 5:30 am if she had interest in going into one of the onsen baths.  We let Miles know, and headed down to one of the semi outdoor baths.



We got to watch the daylight emerge as we soothed our muscles.  We left promptly at 7 for Shidaka lake.  The drive led us up a mountain, which allowed a stop at an observation area.



At the lake, Awe walked around its entirety, enjoying the quiet and peacefulness.  There were many people camping around it, with only a few actually awake at this time in the morning.  Miles talked about how he had interest in trying camping some time.



I picked Shidaka because of its location, five minutes away from a ropeway up a local mountain, Tsurumi.



We took the first ride up of the day.  There were only a handful of us on it.  We had the top of the mountain to ourselves.  It was a fifteen minute walk up to the top, and we took the opportunity to try out the numerous small trails giving us views of the different sides.



As we were coming back to the ropeway platform, dozens upon dozens of tourists had come up.  Additionally, a very heavy fog had come up the mountain and obscured all vision in front of us.



We headed back to town and Miles request udon soup for lunch.  I had reserved a 12:00 appointment to make chopsticks, so we took a long walk through the nontouristy part of town, to a shop that handmade chopsticks.



We were given supplies, picked out what design of chopsticks we had interest in making, and were shown through a combination of gestures and google translate, how to make our own chopsticks.  Miles picked chopsticks that looked like a dog or cat's paws.  We had to briefly use a knife, followed by a ton of time with sandpaper, to create the shapes we had chosen.  Then, we used a tool to burn in our names(Miles had to also color in paw prints on his).  The instructor wrote out Miles' name in Japanese, which Miles copied onto his chopsticks.  He was extremely patient and Miles was in awe of what he was able to do.



We took back roads all the way to the local train station.



I had been looking up an incredible looking valley to explore.  The information online, in English, was sparse.  The information that I had found had indicated that a typhoon in September, 2017, had damaged the stairs leading down into the valley, that gave the best views.  The train station had a tourist information desk that I thought would be my best bet to ask someone before driving all the way there for nothing.

Luckily, someone spoke English, and explained that there currently was no way down to the valley, and it really wasn't worth going to right now.  This was disappointing, as it was said to be one of the most beautiful views in Japan.  Oh well.

From there, we walked back to our room and are resting until dinner.  Tomorrow will be our last day in Yufuin, and it is scheduled to rain.