五能線を行く - Heading North on Gonoh Line

僕らは11時のリゾート白神号に乗るので秋田駅に行ってみたら、その朝秋田新幹線は雨で運休になっていて、みどりの窓口は長蛇の列が出来ていた。五能線を行く快速リゾート白神号は4両編成でボックス･コンパートメント形式の車両もある。列車はガラガラでこんな天気の平日とは言えちょっと寂しい。それでも白神山地に入るポイントのひとつ、十二湖駅では多くの乗客が下車していった。我々は雨のハイキングをする気はないので、そのままもう少し先のウェスパ椿山まで行って不老不死温泉に入ることにした。この温泉は茶褐色の濁り湯で、浜辺に露天風呂を構えて野趣に溢れている。全体的には滞在より立ち寄り向きという感じだ。僕は露天に入った後だったが、ここでも土砂降りが襲ってきた。
我々のその日の最終目的地は鰺ヶ沢のナクア白神ホテルで、駅に戻って列車を待つ間、幸い雨は小休止だった。

Our 11 o'clock train Resort Shirakami was from Akita station, and we found that Shinkansen was not operating due to the heavy rain in the morning, and there was a long queue of passengers at the ticket office. Ours was on schedule, the train consisted of 4 carts, some of them are box compartments, and it was pretty much empty due to the weather and/or the weekday, a slightly depressing thing... 
Many passengers actually got off at Juniko Station which was one of popular gateways to Shirakami Mountains. We were not interested in the hike in the rain and stayed further in the train to Wespa Tsubakiyama to try Furo-fushi (never-aging and eternal) hotsprings. The water was brown and they had an outdoor bath on the seashore in addition to the indoor tub. This facility was good, I thought, for stopping by for a couple of hours than staying. There came again a pouring rain here, too, but I already finished the outdoor bath at that time! Our destination on the day was Naqua Shirakami Hotel & Resort at Ajigasawa Station, and fortunately the rain stopped while we waited for the train to take.