Ryusendo Caves

Time for another trip with ITT!

This time we visited the Ryusendo Cave near Morioka. Our trip also took us to the Kuji Amber museum on our back to Misawa.

The caves were amazing. This trip definitely ranks high on our list of trips that we have taken through ITT. As a bonus, we had friends along with us on this tour.

Ryusendo cave is known as one of the three largest limestone caves in Japan. What makes Ryusendo particularly interesting are the three underground pools found in the cave. These pools are estimated to be about 35, 38, and 98 meters deep. The water in these pools is crystal clear. With lights suspended in the pools, and it seems like you can see all the way to the bottom.

We bundled up warm, packed up our lunch and Baby Caleb, and headed out for our adventure.

The grounds outside the cave are beautiful. That's probably true of just about any site we could visit. The atmosphere of the buildings, bridges, statues, and decor is definitely one of my favorite things about touring Japan.

Natural Spring water. Bonus: communal drinking cups. The excess water flows down the decorative gutter below, which runs across a bridge. The gutter exits off the bridge and drops into the river below. Amazing and beautiful!

 Grilled fish on a stick! It was delicious! Bonus: it was skewered right through the eye!

 Pool #1 Pictures don't do it justice, but can you appreciate how clear that water is!?

The "rainbow cave". The lights change colors.

Do you know what the problem is with climbing down all these stairs?

This might actually be pool #3 I had some pictures that didn't turn out. 

I'm pretty sure this is the same pool but I took this picture at the top of the stairs. You can see the walkway below. 

Remember all those stairs we went down?

 Climbing back up was not the fun part. 

Some of the ceilings were really low. It was interesting watching our men folk try to navigate through with babies on their backs :D 

After our underground explorations, we still had time before we had to be back on the bus. We decided to enjoy some more exploration above ground. We followed a beautiful nature trail along the river.

 The kids loved climbing all over these rocks.

 Red bridge. Of course. Love it.

 A tree growing right out of that rock. Cool!

 Something about a Symphony? and Trees? 

This path was actually quite frightening for a mom of a 2-year-old. He wanted to charge ahead on his own, but there were a lot of scary drop-offs. He never noticed that is life was significantly in danger.

I'm going to split the amber museum into another post. Onward!