RECAP: Trip 1 Day 4

4.45am: Time to get up and watch the sunrise over Kamikochi. Shower, breakfast, packing up. My fourth day on the Japanese road started early and painful. The 25kg on my back started to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I was determined to make it to Hiranoyu, a famous spa resort in the Japanese Alps. The early morning air was fresh and almost humidity free, which allowed me to take better pictures than the day before. The mountains surrounding me looked even more impressive and the sky showed off its best blue. I wasted far more time photographing the scenery than I had thought and was a bit late when I finally headed my way.



When I arrived in Hiranoyu, it became immediately apparent this was not the spot I wanted to see. Albeit a small village, it resembled the typical Japanese concrete wasteland. I will never understand why they love to carve into their beautiful nature with such ugly buildings. The nice smell of sulphur was hanging in the air, typical of many natural Japanese spa resorts. After consulting my Lonely Planet, I set off to Shinhotaka, which has natural hot springs as well as a cableway up the mountains.



Yet again, I arrived later than I had hoped - here the sulphuric stench was hanging even more heavily in the air. I made my way to the cableway and forked out far too much money to go up. On top of that, it was one of the bumpiest rides of my life. It was an extremely windy day and the double decker gondola kept swinging back and forth. Since I am terrified of heights, the dangling did not make me feel very happy. Luckily for me, the gondola was packed and I was sure I would be able to land safely on top of another person, if we were to fall down. I waited anxiously to finally arrive at the top.



The view from the top was fantastic. I could see all of the surrounding mountains and the valley below me. A strong wind blew in my face, but the scenery made me completely forget about the freezing cold and the weight on my back. I went to a small well on top of the mountain and drank the tastiest water I had ever tried. I wished I had had a tent to stay up there and not only see the view during the day, but the starry skies at night, too. Sadly, I had to head down the mountains far too early to go to a hot spring and catch a bus.



Back at the base of the mountain, I found a small kiosk that sold real onsen tamago. These are eggs that are boiled in natural hot spring water. Two for 100 yen? I could not resist. In the end of course, even the most pompous onsen tamago are nothing but normal eggs, but it just feels like you are eating something very special when mother nature herself has boiled an egg for you. I grabbed some salt off the counter, sat on the edge of the kiosk that overlooked the river running through the valley and munched down on what felt like the most delicious eggs of my life.



After that I headed off to a spa. I decided to choose one with an outside bath so I could enjoy all the greenery around me. The water was milky white which made it beautiful, but odd looking. It was so nice to dip myself into the hot water. I decided to lie on the edge of the bath with only one leg in the water and immediately fell asleep only to wake up just in time to get dressed and on to the bus to Takayama.



Takayama itself is nothing special. Just your average traditional Japanese culture city. It is, however, famous for ramen. I decided to go to a very well-known ramen restaurant. The noodles were indeed very, very good, but what made the visit worth it was the Shimanto chestnut spirit that I had yuwari - with hot water - to bring out its taste. It was delicious to say the least. If it hadn't cost a fortune, I could've stayed in that restaurant all night, drinking kuri shochu...

All photos from Kamikochi can be found here.

RECAP: Trip 1 Day 3

Day 3 started very, very early to get to Kamikochi in the Japanese Alps as quickly as possible. I was in a hiking mood and felt a strong urge to breathe the clear and clean mountain air. Sadly, this also meant I had to say goodbye to Yuka. Because we won't see each other for a considerable amount of time, it was indeed very upsetting.



As luck would have it, I was able to experience something very rare in Japan: late trains. I only had a two minute window at Nagoya central station, but due to the rush hour induced delay, I had to wait around for roughly one hour before being able to get on the next train.



My destination was Matsumoto, which functions as a hub to the Japanese Alps. The trip to the little town was beautiful. Deep blue rivers running through deep ravines far below the train tracks and gorgeous forest valleys, some small bits of civilization wedged in between. Very popular in this part of Japan are blue, shiny rooftops that seemed somewhat out of place and gave the small villages a toy-ish look. After about six hours and several changes to smaller and smaller trains, I arrived in Matsumoto.



Although still quite far away, the view of the mountains in the distance was impressive and magnificent. The planes stretched on forever and then, suddenly, in the distance the Japanese Alps' mountain range. They are renowned for their beauty and I couldn't wait to finally see them up close for myself. I got on an old, rusty local train. Waiting for the train to depart, I had a short, but very interesting chat with an old Japanese guy, who addressed me in both fluent English and impeccable German. He had just come back from a town near Kamikochi and couldn't stop praising the beauty that awaited me. At some point he jumped up, thanked me in very formal German and ran out of the train which, with an unbelievably loud rattle, slowly left the station.



The train slowly wound its way across the planes. The sound of railroad crossings was our constant companion. The tracks' sides were lined with flower beds, which are maintained by local neighbourhood associations as several signs told me. In Shinshimashima the train line ended and we were brought to our busses. It is hard to convey how beautiful the bus ride was. It etched its way to Kamikochi through serpentine roads. The higher we came, the more beautiful the view became. At times massive dams deep down in the gorges marred the sight, but their massive, cobalt-blue reservoirs made up for this. The last bit led through a small forest where I saw a monkey stuffing his face busily, sitting on a branch bending across the road. And then I arrived at Kamikochi...



I went to the tourist office, booked some accommodation, prepared my tripod and camera and set off for a 5 hour hike. It was far more beautiful than I had imagined. The rivers are incredibly clear and slightly turquoise. The larger rivers' beds are covered in massive white boulders that form a stark contrast to the colour of the water. The mountains rise up left and right of the river and one cannot but stand in awe of them. I knew right there and then, that Kamikochi would be the highlight of my first trip. More than once, I stopped just to look up at the mountains. This is what I had come to see! I breathed in the fresh mountain air and felt incredibly happy. I had escaped the concrete hell that is Japanese cities. No mobiles, no cars, no worries - only natural beauty.

All photos from Kamikochi can be found here.

RECAP: Trip 1 Day 2

As Simon can tell you, Nagoya is a damn boring place. There's just nothing there! Honestly. It's like Birmingham. Last time I visited it, Yuka and I barely found enough places to keep us entertained and so we would not have to stare at the same spot the entire time. This time we decided to go somewhere different: Asuke. Neither of us had been there and we had no idea what to expect. It turned out we didn't need to expect anything...



A quick look at the map and we realized Asuke was ages away and we wouldn't have been able to go with my ticket, i.e. we would have had to pay extra and the Flying Spaghetti Monster knows we don't like forking out craploads of cash. So we decided to go to Ise. Let me start off by saying that Ise is very disappointing. Very disappointing if you want to see the famous shrines. Why? Because they are closed! You can throw the god or goddess some money so they will listen to your prayers (for some reason gods always love cash), but you will not see the insides of any shrine. The doors are shut and you are not even allowed to take pictures of the closed doors.



However, there are a couple of very beautiful things worth seeing in Ise. The shrine surrounding greenery is fantastic. Sure, it is ridiculously crowded in some places, but this should not stop you from looking up to see all those tall trees and down to see all those chickens. Yes, Ise sports a small free roaming chicken farm on the way to its main shrine. How I would love to feast on a holy chicken! Holy animals are usually fed better than average and treated more nicely, thus probably tasting better a lot better than your average barn yard animal. There is a lovely river running right through the shrine area and some people, although mostly kids, were bathing in it. Idiot that I am I had, of course, not brought my swimming trunks, which I dearly regretted. Being more than 30 degrees centigrade and very humid, you can probably imagine how much I wanted to bathe in a refreshing river.



Ise is also famous for its traditional old town district Okage Yoko-cho just before the main shrine grounds. It should be pointed out that by famous and traditional, I mean that there probably were traditional aspects to it once, but it is so overrun by tourists nowadays that it is hard to appreciate the beauty of the old wooden buildings. It is still worth going because of what in my opinion Japan excels at: local dishes. Yuka and I treated ourselves to a bowl of cold Ise noodles (Hiyashi Ise Udon) and for dessert Matcha snow cones (Macha Kake Aisu) with red bean paste covered rice cakes (Akafuku Mochi). The noodles are far sweeter than in most other places and a bit chewier, in a word: delicious. The snow cones did not look like they would taste of Macha very much, but Boy!, were we wrong. The snow cones were fantastically rich in slightly bitter Matcha flavor. Better even than any Matcha ice cream I have had. The rice cakes were also great. They were rather small, but covered in a thick layer of red bean paste which was outstandingly smooth and tasty. Definitely worth every single yen. It is said that quite a considerably number of people choke to death on rice cakes each year. While I haven't personally had the pleasure of death by rice cake, given their consistency and the way they stick to the back of your throat, it could very well be true.



It was around the time we finished our desserts that we decided we had seen enough tourists with parasols pass us by. We headed for Toba to see the sea. Upon arrival we found we had no time left, so could only gaze at that day's rather boring looking sea and headed back to Nagoya. On the way I recorded a time lapse video from the train.



Then we had to do something in Nagoya to prove it is not a complete waste of space on Japan's main island. So we went up some tower to see the pretty lights from above. Pretty they were, but Nagoya is flat as a pancake. Surprising given its population, but then again not really, because it is a complete waste of space. Since I get vertigo very easily, the ride in the glass elevator and the observation platform from which you can almost look completely straight down really made me feel like I was in heaven or at least on the way there. I pretended to be happy and smiled, but was really happiest when left.



For our final stop we headed to a small restaurant to eat Misokatsu, a Nagoya specialty. Basically speaking, katsu is fried pork meat wrapped in bread crumbs. Comparable to the German Schnitzel, but slightly different in taste and the meat is thicker. Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. We ate at a place called Yabaton. The Misokatsu was delicous, but at 1150 yen I found it slightly overpriced. However, it came with some of the best rice I have had anywhere. After that it was back to Yuka's place to prepare for an early take off the next day.

All photos from Ise and Toba can be found here.

RECAP: Trip 1 Day 1

Naturally I woke up far too late and so I decided to settle for Maibara rather than Makino for the trip's first destination for various reasons. First of all it was closer to Nagoya and so I could make up some time. Secondly - just like Makino - it lies on the shore of Japan's biggest lake, Biwako which is located not too far north from Kyoto. I had been there a few times before about three years ago, but only near a town named Otsu and had been itching to see some more of the lake from another angle for quite a while. Thirdly, both places start with M. I could always go to Makino on my way back anyway...



The weather was splendid; a few clouds here and there, but mostly blue skies. This was a problem, because I wanted to make a time lapse video at Biwako, which was supposed to show the movement of the clouds over the lake with a mountain range barely visible on the far side of the lake. I did make that time lapse video, but it turned out very, very boring. So boring in fact that I could not convince myeself to upload it. A couple of stops before Maibara I decided it wasn't worth it, because I had heard it is mainly a public transportation hub and thought about getting off at Hakone, one stop before Maibara. Seeing Hakone station though, I soon realized that this was not the kind of place I wanted to visit, I wanted something smaller - I wanted the Japanese countryside. I went past Maibara and got off one stop further north at a tiny place called Sakata.



Now, in order to imagine how small this place is, you have to know that, when you exit the station, there are only rice fields as far as the eye can see and far across the planes - about a twenty minute walk away - is Sakata itself. At least that is what you see when you get out the station through the same exit as I did. I later noticed the other side of the station does in fact have some buildings right next to it and even a couple of shrines and temples which according to the local tourist board's information maps are worth seeing, but I highly doubt that. Seeing those rice fields move like waves in the wind, I decided to head to the main village and Lake Biwa. The lake seemed angry. The waves were surprisingly large - and roared fiercely as the came closer to the shore. Some Japanese families were camping on the shore and we had a small chat. One family had brought a jetski, but sadly they would not allow me to ride it. I took pictures of the lake, its surroundings and headed back. The whole time I was wishing for a 200mm lens - so many birds, so many small animals to snap, but alas my 50mm lens could not get up close enough.



Back at the station I headed for Nagoya. Of course, because of rush hour, I found myself standing for the next two hours. At least Japanese trains are well airconditioned. A somewhat dirty looking Japanese salaryman stood next to me, giving me the evil eye. I am sure it was him that kept on releasing horribly foul smelling gases. I was greeted in Nagoya by Yuka, an old friend of mine from those lovely Doshisha days and Simon, a fellow University of Sheffield student. We headed to an Japanese bar, got mildly drunk, went home and to sleep.

All photos from Sakata can be found here.

RECAP: Trip 1 Day 0

I packed and packed and packed like there was no tomorrow. This is the first of my last few trips through Japan and I wanted to make sure I can capture every moment of it. I packed both of my cameras, my netbook as a data storage device, my webcam for time lapse video trials, a small notebook as a small makeshift diary, a gourmet guide to tell me which region is famous for what food, my German Lonely Planet Japan (thanks Marlene), maps, my tripod and my iPod for long travels. All in all it turned out heavier than I had hoped. I checked that I had my JR train tickets and set my alarm. I was ready to go...

Trip 1 Day 4

DSC_4350, originally uploaded by Moe's Tavern.

Today I went to Shinhotaka and some other places. The view from the mountain top was fantastic. Not a very successful day photo-wise tho. In Takayama right now and will go to Kanazawa and Tojinbo tomorrow as well as maybe already return to Kobe. Will post a big blog entry about every single day when I am back.

Trip 1 Day 3

DSC_4044, originally uploaded by Moe's Tavern.

Today I headed for Kamikochi, a beautiful area in the so-called Japanese alps. Click on the picture to see todays photos.

Trip 1 Day 2

DSC_3874, originally uploaded by Moe's Tavern.

Alright then. I have to admit that today I did not have time to write the a post as promised yesterday. However, please feel free to take a look at the pictures. All of those pictures were taken at Ise, where I was visiting the shrines there. Although they were rather disappointing, the nature surrounding it was great.

All the best. Tomorrow I will head off to Kamikochi

Trip 1 Day 1 - Quick Info

DSC_3762, originally uploaded by Moe's Tavern.

Still Alive. Bigger post tomorrow

Trip 1 Day 1

Alright then, I deleted all content that was 'in the way'. Now I can start over again with a clean slate. In a couple of minutes I will set off for my first of a series of trips. Today: Makino, Maibara and Nagoya.

Here is me packing up (not very exciting):