31 May
7.30am breakkie, of all sorts of things; Fish, Miso, Rice, egg roll, pork soup over burner, Japanese picked vege etc etc etc....
Caught the 8:56 train to Yabuhara, a lovely looking new-build post town, and then wound our way up the hill with lots of other hiking groups, who had been on same train, to the Turiltoge Pass. After we had left the town the trail wound up through trees. A 2-3 hour walk ending in the town of Nari. This was a post town of original buildings, which have been lovingly preserved and/or restored, including many laquerware shops. Unfortunately most were still closed as we walked through at around 11am... not sure if it was time of the day or because it was a Monday (post their weekend tourist rush).
Continued walking a couple more km's on to the township of Kiso-Hirasawa where we caught the train through to Matsumoto. The train trip went through horticultural valleys, as well as some large manufacturing plants (although not sure of what exactly).
Matsumoto is a very lovely city, it had lots of shops with English signage so obviously popular with tourists. Also a university town as well as giving us our first glimpse of snowey alps. There is a castle area, the gate-house still original, that we were able to walk around. The castle was built in 1504 by Shimadashi Sadanaga and is a stunning structure. Commonly known as the crowds castle due to its black colour.
We took a bus to our accommodation, located in the foot of the hills bordering the city. Lots of fish for dinner: whole fish (little and big), salmon (raw and fried), fish eggs (maybe?).. a lovely inn.. and we think only one other couple as guests. A town of Azelia's, Wisteria growing wild on the walk today, the area we stayed in being Asama Onsen.
1 June
Left Asama Onsen and travelled by bus back to the Matsumoto central station. Got a train to Shin-shimashima station... transfer to bus for Teisho-Ike. We are definitely on the tourist trail here, the bus wound up the Azura River and over a hydro-dam crossing to the Azura Lake... through numerous tunnels to arrive at Kamikochi which is located in the Chubu-Sangaku National Park. A very busy place, the bus park reminded us of Milford Sound.... busy, busy.
Mostly Japanese tourists, but lots of western folk too.
We walked a 3-4 km loop of the Kamikochi wetlands. Away from the visitor centre the crowds thinned out a bit. We walked up a river, could easily have been a West Coast NZ river by it's setting, and back past clear spring fed wetlands. The highlight was seeing/encountering Japanese Monkeys on and beside the path in one area. They were not at all worried by people, but were not interacting either. Some had very cute babies clinging to their stomachs or backs!
Back to the bus terminal, and 2 very short bus rides later we arrived at Fujuki Onsen for the night. The lady there could speak some English and advised us of a Typhoon due to hit tomorrow!! There is a 3 hour hill walk recommended for tomorrow morning but not with a typhoon we think! So instead we did around 30min's of it today... a climb up with not much of a view due to the trees but gave us a taste of what it would have been like.
A meal with fish (surprise!!):
raw fish, skewered fish, plus beef over the burner… very impressive with a fire pit
in the table and soup cooking over it (as well as fish on sticks!!). It is
already raining heavily tonight.
June 2
Today turned into a rush… we
breakfasted at 7:30am, still raining (heavy), and then our host advised we
needed to leave early to get to Matsumoto as the roads are likely to shut in
the very heavy typhoon rain predicted. She had worked out how we could leave
earlier than expected, and took us to a more convenient bus stop in order to
meet connections. The other 2 westerners that stayed last night were being
given similar care. Excellent staff service on the hotels part!
So after breakfast we were back
in our room by 8:02, quick pack in order to catch 8:16 bus to get us to main
bus station of Hirayu Onsen then on an express bus back to Matsumoto. After a
reviving coffee and croissant, we changed our pre-booked train tickets for an
earlier train… but the ticket office was still printing off at tickets at 11:02
for an 11:06 train, then we both had issues getting through the automatic gates
with our tickets… so unsurprisingly we missed that one.
We were directed then onto an
11:30 slow (local) train to Nagano, which was quite full when we got on and by
the time we got off over an hour later… very full. Then a wait in a very slow
line to get our next ticket times changed for the bullet train to Karuizawa. At
1:22 we were still queued, and the ticket lady was giving us a refund for the
slow train bit we had ended up on… but by 1:25 we were on the 1:26 bullet train
(and when they say departure at 1:26… they mean departure at 1:26!!!, the train
system is all the same, amazingly efficient). This turned out to be very lucky
as we heard later that the trains stopped about an hour later due to the wet conditions.
Once at Karuizawa station it was
still pouring rain, walked very quickly from the station for lunch at a nearby café
and to buy some lunch supplies for tomorrow. Then back to the station to grab a
taxi to Onsen Tsuruya ryokan. Karuizawa appears a very touristy town, the taxi
drove through the main old part of this post town which was full of tourist shops…
however far too wet for us to investigate. Caught up on a bit of admin before Onsen's.
Had my most populated one to date with 4 or 5 others there, Noel had some in
his too including an American chap that went in with his swimming shorts on… a
real no-no and a few disapproving looks from the Japanese.
During the 1970's John Lennon and Yoko Ono apparently spent a lot of time in this area. A point the locals proudly reiterate.
A lovely meal, more production
line (waiter was wired for sound to the kitchen), brought out in stages rather
than table laden and English menu and English speaking waiter explaining. Lots
of fish, no bones, very used to westerners. Main dish a pork hot pot.
Tomorrow is meant to be clear, we
are to be ready for a pre-booked taxi by 8:15am. Hopefully the leeches won’t be
out in full force.
