Oirase Stream Hiking - where to leave luggage

We're traveling to Lake Towada during the first part of Golden Week, and spending a night and then going on to Aomori by bus the next day. My plan is to leave Lake Towada in the morning, leave our luggage and hike a little bit along the Oirase Stream, before getting our luggage again and catching a later bus up to Aomori-shi. I am travelling with my aunty, in her 60s, and two young teen daughters. Being four women traveling for three nights around the Aomori region, we will have a reasonable amount of luggage. Where is the best place to leave it while hiking? (We won't want to hike along the whole stream--an hour or so will be enough for the others--just to get a taste of it.) I called the bus company and they suggested leaving it at Nenokuchi, since this is a manned stop. But other people seem to start their Oirase hiking at Yakeyama. Any suggestions for how we can safely leave our luggage and enjoy a nice portion of the Stream?

hi. i am visiting akita, aomori and iwate during the golden week too, but no Oirase this time.
i found this link. (see the bottom of this site)
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/towada-hachimantainationalpark/29...
i am not sure if it's new, but i also googled in japanese, and some sites said there was service to transfer your luggage to Yakeyama to Nenokuchi (or vice versa). or, i think you can leave them at Oirase Keiryu tourist center. (cannot guarantee 100% though...)
hope someone can answer your question better..! enjoy your trip!

Thanks so much! That's very useful info. The person I spoke to at the bus company didn't mention the Oirase Keiryu Tourist Centre. I'll call them and check out the situation. With so many people coming to hike along the Stream, there must surely be some way and somewhere to leave your luggage safely along the way�c Hopefully, this forwarding service is still available. I searched quite a bit online and didn't come over the info.

Why not just leave your luggage at your hotel and pick it up later?

You can leave your luggage at your hotel after you check out and not worry about it. This would require that you return to Yasumiya (Towada-ko) after your Oirase walk but you wouldn't have to bother with the luggage for the half day excursion.

There aren't a lot of buses, but enough that you can schedule out a trip and have a couple of buses to spare if things take longer. You can take a ferry to Nenoguchi following the shoreline of the crater lake, walk down Oirase as long as you wish, and at one of the bus stops along the Oirase path, catch it back to Towada-ko to have lunch, pick up your luggage, and catch the next bus to Aomori-shi. You could also start off by bus to a point on the Oirase path and walk back to Nenoguchi to take the ferry back to Towada-ko.

The bus schedules can be found at:
http://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/route/detail/?PID=9&RID=14&BID=205

The stops in the gorge are everything below Yakeyama to Nenoguchi on the bus route linked below:
http://www.jrbustohoku.co.jp/towada/

I think you could leave luggage at the bus building in Nenoguchi, but I haven't tried.

Thanks Anaguma and ChrystalDonuts for your help.
I was finally able to call the Oirase Keiryukan Tourist Centre near the Yakeyama Bus Stop today. The helpful man said the luggage forwarding service is no longer available. The options for leaving luggage are either the lockers at the Keiryukan Tourist Centre, or back at Nenokuchi by the Tourist Boat boarding area. So I guess we'll use the latter, and start and finish our little hiking excursion from Nenokuchi. If worst comes to worst, we could leave our stuff at our hotel, but it would just take extra time to go back and forth. Since we are hoping to take in the Hakkoda Ropeway before arriving in Aomori the same day, a little time saved is a bonus. Thanks again!
And here is the contact info for the Keiryukan just in case anyone else might need it:
�¡ Facility information
Location:183 tochikubo ooaza okuseaza, Towada-shi, Aomori
Phone number:0176-74-1233