Ryusendo Caves, "Is this a good or bad time for an earthquake?"

In July we escaped the heat with some friends and went underground to explore a cave! Ryusendo Cave in Iwaizumi Town (a little over two hours northwest of Misawa) is huge limestone cave, which was discovered in 1967. The explored area of the cave expands almost 2 miles and including the unexplored area, the cave is estimated to be over 3 miles in length. Huge, deep, crystal-clear, emerald colored lakes are formed underground by fresh spring water. The deepest lake that tourists get to see is over 300 feet. Apparently there is one lake that visitors do not get to see that is nearly 400 feet deep making it the deepest underground lake in Japan.

It takes 30 minutes (to an hour depending on how many kids you have with you and how much you meander) to walk through the cave. In true Japan fashion, the portion through which visitors walk is paved and has stairs with handrails. This does not mean that the stairs were not challenging. They were more like ladders than staircases and were very narrow. They felt quite crowded with a large baby dangling in front. As we walked through the narrow rock tunnels, we debated whether we were in the right or wrong spot for an earthquake. I think we came to consensus that we were in the right spot, but luckily we did not have to test that theory that day...

The lakes, stalagmites, and stalactites were also illuminated by colored lights. And above our heads (in many places), canopies were constructed from thick plastic to prevent visitors from being subjected to poop rain from the (apparently rare) long-eared bats who dwell within.

A stream ran by the outside of the cave and the stream bed was covered with hydrangea- a dream world for me! We had lunch in a nice restaurant and enjoyed some ice cream before heading back toward Misawa.

Stick. 

Hand.

And mouth...

The day took a much longer turn when we diverted on the way home to visit the Kitayamazaki Cliffs. Since I had been to the cliffs before, I stayed in the car with the sleeping babies and Eric and the rest of the crew (who were there for the first time), descended the gazillions of steps (or some portion of them) to check the place out! You can read about about my previous visit to Ktayamazaki and see pictures of it here.