On the final day of my family trip to the Tohoku District, we visited the Hachimantai Plateau again. Renting snow shoes at the rest house on the mountain pass, we enjoyed strolling on the plateau. The mountain trail was still covered by the thick snow layers, but we could reach a pond, named Gamanuma (Frog's Pond), without getting lost following the red ribbon marks on the tree branches. Gamanuma was still covered by the snow, but the blue-colored water surface was just starting to appear. It was very beautiful backed by magnificent Mt. Iwate.
On our way back home, I observed a coupling scene of the JR East Tohoku and Akita Shinkansen trains. The green-colored Tohoku Shinkansen train, named "Hayabusa", E5 series, is coupled with the red-colored Akita Shinkansen train, named "Komachi", E6 series, at Morioka station. The E5 series is a standard shinkansen train consisting of ten 25-meter-long cars; meanwhile the E6 series is a so-called "mini-shinkansen" train consisting of seven 20-meter-long cars. Thus, a total of 390-meter-long train is operated as one train, and heads to Tokyo terminal from Morioka station with a maximum speed of 320 kilometers per hour. For your information, "Hayabusa" means falcon; meanwhile, "Komachi" comes from a lady, Ms. Ono-no-Komachi (825 - 900), who was born in Akita Prefecture. She was a famous poet, and noted as a rare beauty, so, Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan.
We fully enjoyed a spring trip to the Tohoku District for three days
