I've always wanted to explore Tohoku and I could finally do that this winter season. After Aomori and Miyagi, now it's the time to visit IWATE Prefecture. And a reader informed me about Geibikei Gorge, which I googled after, and mindblown by it! It's featured in one of top 100 landscapes of japan, and being the slave of beautiful sceneries, I can't not go here

So I packed my camera, arranged the itinerary, and off to explore what Iwate offers!

HOW TO GET HERE

The closest station to Geibikei Gorge is JR Geibikei Station. It is all covered with JR Tohoku Pass or JR PASS

First, you can depart from either Tokyo or Ueno Station using Tohoku Shinkansen, stopping at ICHINOSEKI Station. One way journey will take 2 hours. And from Ichinoseki, ride JR Local Train to Geibikei Station (30 mins), and from that, simply walk another 5 minutes to the boat area

Price from Tokyo or Ueno Station to Geibikei can reach around 13.500 yen one way, so if you're a tourist and using a pass, it's really worth to maximize your pass by visiting this place

THE BOAT

You have to ride the boat if you want to visit Geibikei Gorge because there's no other way to reach it. The boat cruise ride lasts for 90 mins, but it's around 30 mins to reach the gorge one way, another 30 mins to explore the area, and 30 mins to return back to the port. The cruise is 1600 yen per person and in fact, you can also order a meal set to dine while cruising, but honestly, I don't think it's worth the money because of the limited time

The boat only runs once every hour, to know the timetable, you can check their website HERE

Reservation for the kotatsu boat is not required, I called to make sure that I would get a slot but they said I could just come

During winter, you will get kotatsu boat instead but honestly, it's not warm at all lol But I guess it's a good experience

There were tons of ducks following our boat, and we could feed the duck with the food provided by the cruise! 

I came around the second week of January 2019 and the peak winter's not there yet. I think it's better to come during February where the snow's heavier. From the website, during peak season it looks like this

Mandatory selfie with this place

Geibikei Gorge is listed under One of the 100 Landscapes of Japan in Scenic Beauty, and it's all for a good reason. I really feel it's worth to come all the way from Tokyo! It's so serene with just the sound of water flowing, and ducks' voices. And there weren't many tourists because there's only one boat per hour, which makes the whole area empty and exclusively for your boat group. I guess there were only around 20 people in the boat

It was freezing and I saw a small restaurant selling Oden and Miso Konjac, popular foods from Iwate Prefecture during Winter

I got myself a miso konjac and it tasted good!

So that's all for my visit to Geibikei Gorge, hopefully, it's informative enough for you!

Talk to you again on my next post