Goshiki-numa and Irimizu cave

Goshiki-numa walk and Irimizu cave expedition on Mar 3rd and 4th.

The registration is closed now.

-Participant list
Nobu (car )
Valeriya (car)
Margarita
Thierry (car)
Andrej
Vit
Mehrnaz
Martin
Karel
Amin

(*car): We still need to discus

-Disclaimer
http://www.twmc.club/about-twmc/disclaimer
I consider that all the participants read our disclaimer to join this hike.

-Expenses

• Accommodation: 5,400 yen with two meals
  Urabandai Youth Hostel (http://urabandai.travel.coocan.jp/indexe.html)
• Bus fee:
• Onsen (hot spring): 1,000 yen*2
• Transportation (car): around 7,000-8,000 yen/person
• Irimizu cave: 700 yen/900 yen
• Club fee: 500 yen
• Others

-What to bring

• Hiking shoes
• Rain gear
• Onsen kit (Towels)
• Clothes for changing (please bring warm clothes)
• Tooth brush
• Gloves
• Drink
• Breakfast/lunch for the 3rd (we can buy it on the way as well). I ordered dinner and breakfast to the youth hostel. If you have any reasonable request, please let me know.

Difficulty: **

Goshiki-numa means five colored ponds. There are variety of colorful ponds in this area, Bandai-Asahi national Park, Fukushima. They were made when Mt. Bandai erupted in 1887. We will walk along Hibarako lake and Goshiki-numa ponds on the 3rd. It will be around 12km and takes about 4-5 hours.

On the way back to Tsukuba on the 4th, we will stop by Irimizu Shonyudo which is my favorite cave in Japan. We crawl along a pass with water in the cave. Rain gear would be helpful for you to be dried. However you will be definitely wet ;-) And water is amazingly cold! Please bring additional clothes and shoes. Otherwise you will catch a cold easily. And it would be good idea to bring your headlight since inside of the cave is dark. Probably it would be more fun to use a candle. Actually you can buy it at the entrance of the cave.

-Schedule
Mar 3: Departing from Tsukuba station car parking at 6:30am
Park our car at Ura-bandai visitor center and take bus to Site Station around 10:00 am
Walk Hibarako Nature Trail (桧原湖探勝路) via Renge-numa and Nakase-numa, then Goshiki- numa Nature Trail（五色沼探勝路).

Mar 4: Irimizu Shonyudo cave
Back to Tsukuba around 19:00.

Hike report of Goshiki-numa walk and Irimizu cave expedition on May 3-4, 2017.
We left Tsukuba around 7:00 am, took a bit long break on the way and arrived at Goshikinuma car parking around 10:45. There was a small traffic jams but it was okay.
Then we took a bus to Site station from the visitor center at 11:11. It was about 15min ride and the cost was 250 yen.
We started walking from the Renge-numa about 11:40. There were a lot of snow remained there. It was nice to walk on the snow. We saw beautiful views of Bandai-san from its back on Nakase-numa nature trail. After that we walked along Hibara lake for about 1.5 hours. When we got to the Goshiki-numa, we had nice ice cream. All the ponds of Goshiki-numa were beautiful. We enjoyed taking photos a lot and it took about 1.5 hours to finish the trail. And finally we got back to the car parking around 17:20.
Our accommodation, the youth hostel was located just near by the Goshiki-numa. After dinner we went to Ko-no-yu onsen. They only have outside onsen and price was 800 yen.

The second day, we enjoyed rowing boats at one of the Goshiki-numa in the morning and headed to the Irimizu cave. We arrived there around noon. It was lots of fun exploring the cave. However it seems like it was a kind of punishment for some people. Anyway we
survived the expedition and got back home. There was traffic jams from Tomobe on the highway. One group left high way at Tomobe SA. The other group continued driving on the highway. We arrived at Tsukuba around 19:30. Hope the other group also arrived around same time.