passing through koriyama station during one of the many transfers required on my tohoku main line local train odyssey from ueno to sendai, my eye was caught by a sun-stained advertisement for a regional attraction, abukuma cave. if it isn't yet abundantly clear, i'm something of a stimulation-seeker when it comes to my nature excursions, i'm not satisfied doing peaceful little nature walks, i need there to be something exciting like cliffs, waterfalls, volcanic activity... so far on my trip i'd checked off all of the above, but what i hadn't gotten in yet was a cave. there's no shortage of caves in japan, the problem is that they tend to be quite far from civilization, difficult to access without some sort of wheeled vehicle. this cave seemed promising, however, there was a little map showing how to access it by rail in a bottom corner of the advertisement, so i took a picture of the poster and made a mental note of the cave as something to do if i ever ended up in the area again, in a year or in a week...

as it turns out, it was the latter... on my way back down from sendai after all the scooter excitement, i broke my ~25 day streak and stayed a luxurious two consecutive nights at the same place in fukushima, taking a "day off" there to recover. the day after that, i planned on heading out to the cave, which at some point i'd misremembered as being accessed by a train line that terminated at fukushima rather than koriyama. it didn't end up making much of a difference, i got a nice early start and hopped on a convenient local train to koriyama with no transfers. in koriyama i dumped my bag in a coin lockerwhat i've discovered is that you can't always rely on them because many major stations have a woefully inadequate supply, if you don't get to them early enough many easily get to 100% capacity. in this case i got really lucky because while i was loitering around, a gentlemen came by and emptied one out, which i immediately pounced on, bought a round-trip ticketprotip: using the green shinkansen/reserved seat ticket machines that accept credit card, you can actually purchase local train tickets too using the "route search" option and looking up your destination station. one time in tokyo i had no cash or IC card on me so like an absolute psycho i used my credit card in one of those machines to buy a 200 yen ticket to go like 4 stops on the yamanote line, and headed off in the opposite direction of all the other tourists. they were all taking the ban-etsu west line, presumably off to aizu-wakamatsu (incidentally, the destination of the very first trip in zatsu tabi), meanwhile my ride was going to be the ban-etsu EAST line. it was your typical one-man two-car rural train, running through a shallow valley filled with sleepy towns and rice paddies, and after about an hour i got off at one of said towns. the only other person besides me getting off there was a local schoolboy, evidently no other spelunkers had opted to take the train. that was understandable considering that there wasn't a bus or anything, google's "public transit" routing option just said to walk the rest, the thing is that most people probably wouldn't consider the cave to be within walking distance of the station, it was about 2 miles and roughly half of it is going uphill on the side of a road.

⊕it wasn't hard to find the road to the caves because it was signposted with these whimsical streetlightsof course all that was nothing to me, having already walked double that distance up the usui pass road, so i walked right past the two taxis lurking outside the station and headed for the hills. what's more, THE HUMIDITY HAD FINALLY GONE AWAY! it had happened sometime in the third week of september, disappearing nationwide overnight as though somebody had flicked a switch, but thankfully leaving the summer weather intact. i understand EXACTLY what people were talking about now when they said that late september through november is one of the best times to visit japan. with the weight of the oppressive humidity lifted at last, i was practically frolicking as i made my way up that hill on the side of the road, making a show of holding out an abukuma cave brochure i'd picked up at the station to look like less of a suspicious figure. although japan is generally extremely walkable, they're still not nuts enough to equip random mountain roads with sidewalks. at the very least, those curvy little japanese roads are not exactly conducive to fast driving (requiring japanese street racers to invent "drifting"), and i feel like if i had solid footing and time to brace myself, i could withstand a collision with an oncoming kei car.

⊕without getting even a little sweaty, i found myself near the base of the cliffs outside the cave entrance, leaving the road to take a shortcut up a steep hill to get there faster. sure enough, up there was the visitor's center and cave entrance, plus another overly-large japanese parking lot that managed to feel cavernous despite there being a decent amount of visitors that day. i rehydrated with a barley tea and headed to the ticket office, where they eagerly offered me their very last english brochure, who knows how long they had been waiting to give that one out, there wasn't a single other foreigner in sight. even the ubiquitous chinese tourists were nowhere to be found, though i've noticed in the past that they seem to have something against caves. some faint j-pop played me off as i walked down the breezeway to the cave entrance.

the interior of the cave was cool and refreshing, even though it wasn't absurdly humid outside anymore it was still nice to get a break from the late summer sun. the cave floor had been converted into a safe walking surface by covering it in concrete and the inside was wired up pretty extensively, not any more egregious than the setups in show caves i've been to elsewhere however. there didn't seem to be anyone else in my vicinity, though i clearly wasn't alone down there because i could hear the excited shrieking from some japanese kids bouncing throughout the caves. after walking a decent distance through unremarkable passages, i stumbled upon a little ticket booth manned by an unenthused old guy plopped down in the middle of the cave, offering admission to the "exploration course" for an additional 300 yen. i figured i might as well, and it certainly did not disappoint, the caverns didn't get any more impressive but navigating them got a lot more fun, ducking and squeezing and maneuvering up steep narrow stairs. eventually, the adventure course concluded with a long staircase and at the top i emerged in the cave's largest chamber, which really was a showstopper. i couldn't decide what was most impressive: the size of the chamber, the formations, or the elaborate network of metal walkways that had been constructed within it.

at the cave exit, there was your usual gift shop with character goods of the cave mascot and giftboxes of regional delicacies, and also an advertisement from the city tourism council for other attractions in the area, including ANOTHER cave. despite all i'd done already, it was still surprisingly early in the afternoon (those 10:00am checkout times get me going a lot earlier than usual) and the other cave didn't look too far away, definitely walkable for me, so i decided that was going to be my next destination. but first, i HAD to go check out what was going on at the other end of the cave parking lot, where they had an insanely overwrought pedestrian bridge leading to a building i swear could have come right out of myst.⊕it took me way too long to realize that the myst building is what was being depicted on all the manholes in the area. they could have chosen a better angle, though

i always think i'm the first person in history to trudge to some of these dubiously-walkable places i visit, but apparently i wasn't even the only one that day to walk up to the cave because as i got prepared to leave, way down on the road i saw a japanese ⊕you see this logo a lot in the inaka... NOBODY is ready to hear their lore yet though...guy with a little backpack walking down the shoulder ahead of me. i didn't end up following him because i wasn't going back to the station quite yet, instead i took a shortcut to the other cave down a road i'd spotted on the map, an easily-missed turnoff so questionable that i had to double check. as i continued down it, it became clear that it was not a road that saw much use, maybe a single car a week that had been misled by google maps (this happened to us in noto)... though the pavement was intact and completely serviceable, the sides were so overgrown that you'd be bushwhacking unless you drove in the center of the road. the lack of traffic did make it a lot more pleasant to walk down than the main road, it was basically a pedestrian path. as i walked down it, it was no surprise that the road didn't see much use, there wasn't a single building on it and it was otherwise completely redundant, connecting two roads that were already connected in a slightly shorter distance. you have to wonder why it was even constructed in the first place, maybe it was some kind of service road that in any other country would be a gravel road if it existed at all, but since it was in japan it was of course paved to completion...

⊕the road came out back down in the valley, with its idyllic inaka rice fields and rail line running down the middle, the road through it even had a sidewalk on one side for me to walk on. then, to get to the other cave i had to turn and go back up the hills, fortunately it wasn't nearly as far up in them as abukuma cave because my legs were close to giving out. i was a bit concerned i wasn't in the right place since the parking lot wasn't gigantic and there weren't many cars in it, it was close to closing time and they may have already called it quits, but when i walked up the access path to the admission counter sure enough, they were still open for business. the cave was called "irimizu入水 limestone cave", which even novice japanese learners can guess probably means "entering water". you might think they're trying to be poetic with that name but in fact it is just a literal description of the cave's gimmick, you walk up a stream that's flowing through the cave, most of the time it's only foot-deep but there's a few pools where it can get up to knee-deep. for cave admission, there were three options: the short "A" course where you don't even get wet, the respectable "B" course where you walk over half a kilometer up the cave/stream, and then the expensive and exclusive guided "C" course that requires advanced reservations... the "B" course it was for me. naturally, i had no change of socks or shoes or towel or anything, since it was japan after all i was hoping they'd taken that into consideration and had all that stuff available for rent. indeed, they had all sorts of spelunking gear available for rent, including some sandals for cave-walking which i requested with my ticket. then the clerk asked if i had a light... i pulled out my phone and asked if this was okinadvisable but i've done it once before on an impromptu lava tube visit, to which he responded "ちょっと…" so i also threw a rental headlamp into my order. the grand total came out to 1600 yen (about ten bucks), so yes, i really did try and shave like two bucks off that by going into a water-filled cave with only my phone light.

before i left for the locker room, the clerk handed me a numbered tag to be returned upon exiting the cave, to keep track of who's in the cave... things were getting a little serious. he also stressed that the B course ends at a feature called "the pumpkin stone", i must make sure to turn back when i encounter it, then asked if i would be fine with the safety briefing video being available only in japanese. 絶対大丈夫, i said, and sat down to watch it in the locker room antechamber. luckily, it was subtitled so i was more than fine understanding it, plus most of it could safely be ignored because it was your typical overly-cautious japanese briefing video saying stuff like "In order to walk through the cave safely, take one step forward at a time, alternating between your left and right feet" (to be fair, we have these kinds of videos in the US too). there was one amusing bit: "The water flowing through the cave is very cold and may be a shock if you're not accustomed to it. When you first enter, stand still and immerse your feet in the water until they go numb 😊". the video ended by once again emphasizing the importance of turning back when you reach the pumpkin stone, unfortunately they failed to provide a good clear shot of what the dang thing even looked like.

in the locker room, i locked up my socks and shoes, and out of an abundance of caution emptied my pockets too, leaving everything except (perhaps foolishly) my phone. i pride myself on my ability to resist photo ops but this opportunity was way too juicy for me to pass up, even with the significant risk of completely destroying my phone somewhere underground in the middle of nowhere japan, and the fact that i wasn't even sure if my phone could handle the lack of light. then, i slipped on the "spelunking sandals", which upon closer inspection... were literally just a pair of those japanese indoor/bathroom slippers they'd had, for example, at every hostel i'd stayed at. on my way in to the cave, i dropped my locker key off at the admission counter as instructed, and when i did the clerk insisted on handing me an additional handheld light, saying he was worried about me going in alone.

⊕it was very loud right inside the entrance of the cave, at first i thought it was some kind of loud ventilation unit pushing out stale cave air, but then i looked down and realized it was actually rushing water, the cave's stream culminating in a miniature waterfall. from the outset it was a lot more cramped than abukuma cave, and instead of pavement the first "A course" part was mostly on metal grating. then, i reached a gate that signalled the start of the real "irimizu": the metal grates and lights disappeared, beyond that it was just me, my two lights, and my feet in those indoor slippers splashing through ice-cold crystal clear cave water (they weren't on very tight and i almost lost them multiple times). the cave's single twisting passage following the course of the stream was for most of its length no larger than the perfect size for one person to comfortably walk through it, almost as though it had been deliberately carved out as a one-person tunnel. the shallow flow of water constantly flowing underfoot made it feel like walking up a long, flat, and twisty waterslide, the striking light blue color of the streambed even seemed reminiscent of the colorful plastic they make them from. sloshing through the cave, i was ecstatic, i completely forgot about how tired i'd been right before arriving at the admissions counter, this was the coolest thing i'd ever done in japan, i couldn't believe that for ten bucks they had really just let me loose in a cave.

⊕as i got deeper into the caves, things started to get more extreme, i was startled several times by bats flying out at me and there were some squeezes that looked so tight that i was surprised how easily i made it through them (probably helped i lost a couple pounds in japan). i had some trouble seeing properly, then i realized it was because like an idiot i had forgotten to take off my hat and put it in the locker, so i stashed it behind a sign posted in the cave for retrieval on my way out. i was also growing concerned about missing the pumpkin stone and going too far, it felt like i'd gone quite a distance in the cave already, i nervously examined every notable rock formation for any signs of pumpkin resemblance. at some point i encountered the only other people i passed in the cave, a japanese couple, i commented that the next part looked tough and they said "gambatte! it's the home stretch!" indeed, the briefing video had warned about the next section, the cave's equivalent to the "guaranteed soaking" portion of a wet ride at a theme park. it was a long pool with the deepest water in the cave, about knee-deep, and a low ceiling that meant you had to risk further water exposure by crouching, crawling, or limboing through. i'd already gotten plenty of footage inside the cave by that point, so to be safe i stashed my phone too behind a sign nearby, shedding the final weight in my pockets and purifying myself before approaching the mythical pumpkin stone.

sure enough, despite some impressive acrobatics i wasn't able to avoid getting the extremities of my clothes a little wet, though nothing the sun outside couldn't dry out on my walk down to the train station. past the pool the "home stretch" stretched on and on with no signs of any vegetal rocks, i began to wonder if i should just turn back at some point to be safe, lest i wander down into the unknown depths of the earth. then, i turned around yet another corner in the cave barely distinguishable from all the others, and found that the path forward was blocked by a locked gate with a sign that said "END OF THE B COURSE - TURN BACK HERE". just in front of the gate on the right, there was a bulbous outgrowth from the cave wall clearly labelled "PUMPKIN STONE"... i should have known from the start that the turnback point was going to be hard to miss...