Oirase Stream, Tohoku Japan

When I was researching my autumn trip to Japan, one of the places that was really popular was Oirase Stream in Tohoku. So I decided to head over to take a look.

Autumn foliage over pretty mountain stream

Oirase Stream is a mountain stream in Aomori prefecture, with water flowing from Lake Towada. There is a hiking trail running almost parallel to the stream, but unfortunately, a vehicular road also runs almost beside the hiking trail!! This is also the access road where the major cities of Hachinohe and Aomori connects to Lake Towada, so it can get busy. However, it is still well worth an outing, especially if you are a photographer who loves "flowing water among foliage" photos!

As it turns out, the foliage in most parts are actually quite thick, such that when you look at the pictures, it's hard to imagine that a road is just 5 metres behind you! Moreover, with the thick foliage, you could get beautiful sunlight streaming through the trees, and in most cases, provide enough cover so that you could slow down your shutter speed to achieve the silky smooth flowing water effect of the streams and waterfalls.

Some parts of the hiking trail unfortunately "spill" over to the road

Hard to tell that these scenes are just beside a busy road!

Besides hikers, there are many artists as well!

My main gripe as a solo backpacker is the access. Unless you have a vehicle, you will be at the mercy of the public bus schedules. There are buses from Aomori and Hachinohe that goes to Yasumiya (the access town of Lake Towada) that passes through the road beside the trail. There are a number of bus-stops along the way, and hence you can opt to only do partial parts of the trail or all (the whole trail is 9km long). Unfortunately, the last bus back to the city was like 4pm which I felt was way too early. Also, the bus fare is ridiculously expensive - a 1-way fare from Hachinohe to the extreme end of the trail (Nenokuchi) is 2000yen (~us$25)!

Nevertheless, the place is very pictureque! (hopefully evident in the photos :p) The best parts of the trail (with flowing water over rocks and foliage) is probably at Ishigedo. For those with enough budget, there is also a hotel at Yakeyama, which is the other end of the hiking trail, so you could have the hiking trail for yourself at later parts in the day (yes, it gets really crowded!). If you drive, you also also base yourself at Lake Towada (Yasumiya).

All in all, well worth a trip!

Beautiful light, beautiful waterfall

WuYi Shan

WuYi Shan (武夷山) lies in China's Fujian province, and is a popular Chinese tourist destination. It offers scenic views of "mountains and waters", which seems to exemplify the Chinese notion of tourism beauty. And it seems to be exactly the 2 main things to do in the area.


The scenic area provides lots of trekking opportunities as well as many climbs up the various peaks of the WuYiShan mountain range. However, as would be expected in China, many of these paths up the peaks come with entrance fees, and it have become a stairwell climbing exercise. But the views are indeed nice. The number one peak in Wuyi is Tian You Feng (天游峰) or Heavenly Tour Peak and there is a saying that "If you have not climbed Tian You Feng, you have not been to WuYi mountain!"

The more relaxing activity in WuYi Shan would be to take the bamboo raft trip down the river. The river/stream is known as Jiu Qu Xi (九曲溪) or Nine Bend Stream, which not surprisingly, meanders through the mountain range with nine major bends. In fact, at some of the mountain peaks, you can see some of the bends (as in the first picture).

The bamboo rafts are pretty much how it was like in the olden days, but they've added chairs atop the raft for us tourist. As the rafts are basically bamboo poles lashed together, your feet are bound to get wet. So for those unprepared, the locals around the area would be selling you plastic bags for you to keep your feet dry!! So do keep 2 NTUC plastic bags handy when you go there.... ;)

So basically, the boat is steered by 2 boatsmen, who are of course the owners of the rafts (each raft actually has a license plate of sorts). Each trip takes 6 passengers at 100yuan per person (2005). The boatsman each take 150yuan and 300yuan goes to the company that operates this business (government-linked I'm sure). On a low season day, each boatsman can make at least 6 trips... I was there during low season, and the queue was still super long!!

Although I spent 4 days there, the weather was terrible, and it rained everyday! I had to trek in the rain, and 1 of the day, I had to spend the whole day in the hotel room! Nevertheless, I can see why many tourists come here every year. The scenery is really like Chinese paintings. Moreover, if you're a chinese tea lover, WuYi Shan is also home to acres of oolong tea plantations!