The photo below was made in the early morning at Gassan Shizu Hot Springs at Nishikawa in the Yamagata Prefecture. We had just spent the last week or so on a Basho walking tour in the Tohoku region in Honshu, Japan. The tour had started in Sendai and Gassan Shizu was the last morning of the fascinating l Basho walk
Mt. Gassan, one of the three sacred mountains of Dewa Sanzan is in the background. The other two sacred mountains are Mt Yudono and Mt Haguro, which had visited prior to our overnight stay at Gassan Shizu.
Shortly after I'd made the above photo the tour was taken by the hotel bus to Yamagata Station where we went our separate ways. We travelled by Shinkansen to Tokyo then on to Osaka to begin walking the Kumano Kodo pilgrim trail, self-guided.