After we finished the Kumano Kodo trail with Jan, we picked up a rental car at the Osaka airport and spent a little over three weeks in the Japanese alps - the goal was to do a lot of hiking but since many of the 'hard' hikes are also quite technical, we ended up doing more easy/moderate hikes in addition to seeing some sites. Since we were in the alps in October the leaves were starting to change to beautiful yellows and reds, though we left the alps about 2 weeks short of peak season.
Nagano
We stayed five nights in Nakano (just north of Nagano which was the home to the 1998 Winter Olympics). We chose this location as it is closer to the national parks. The area is surrounded by lush mountains and when we were there, there were tons of apple orchards growing.
Accommodation:
Route Inn Grand Nakano Obuse - We had a small but comfortable room with two twin beds (called "modest twins", vs "Hollywood twins" which are pushed together!), a mini-sofa and desk and mini-fridge. The place was super clean and had laundry facilities in the lobby. We had all breakfasts in the room - yogurt and granola that we bought at the supermarket. And one evening we got sushi from the store and had it for dinner in our room.
Activities:
We tried to go to the snow monkey park (Jigokudani Yaen-Koen) but the sign at the entrance said that the monkeys had not yet come down from the mountains. So, we went Shiga Kogen which is a major ski area in the Joshin-etsukogen National Park. We stopped in the visitor center and got some helpful hiking ideas from a guide who spoke English. In this park, we hiked the following:
Biwa-ike Lake and Mt Asahi - We hiked for 2 hours - 5 miles and 1.1K elevation gain - around Biwa Lake and up a small hill called Mt Asahi. We saw nice views of the lake from the top. The leaves are starting to turn but it's not quite peak season yet.
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| Biwa-ike Lake |
Big Scenic Circuit - We hiked several of the more popular trails in the park that connect in one big loop. The hike was 10.5 miles and 2.6K elevation gain and took 6.5 hours. We hiked by several ponds/lakes including the largest lake in the area called Onuma. We also hiked up Mt Shiga which stands at 6.5K feet high and was volcanic over 250K years ago. Parts of the trail were very nice and parts were quite steep and muddy. The scenery changed from jungle/moss, to wetlands, to forests and to mountains.
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| Onuma Lake |
Okushiga Valley Walk - This was a 2 miles walk along a river with beautiful waterfalls. It was mostly flat with an undulating trail. The leaves were starting to change so it was quite pretty.
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| Okushiga Valley Walk |
Nagano Walking Tour - On our final morning, we did this three hour walking tour of Nagano. The tour took us to Ogawanoshodaimonten where we had freshly made oyaki which is the traditional dish of Nagano and is a wheat dumpling stuffed with vegetables and cooked over a fire. We tried the nozawana (which is pickled greens) and eggplant - both very tasty. We then went to Zenkoji Temple, passing along the Main Street leading up to it with traditional style buildings that are shops and restaurants - very cute area. The temple was very nice but in particular the grounds were beautiful. The temple was founded in the 7th century and is known to house the oldest statue of a god in Japan - although no one has seen said statue in over 1300 years! We then walked over to the Nishinomiya Shrine which is a cute small shrine in a traditional neighborhood. Our last stops were to do a sake tasting at Nishinomon Yoshinoya, a brewery that was founded in 1637 and then we stopped for ice cream at one more place before ending the tour.
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| Oyaki at Ogawanoshodaimonten |
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| Zenkoji Temple |
Restaurants:
Tam Curry - A cute and very clean Japanese curry place near our hotel - we had dinner here our first night each getting a combo of the keema and butter chicken curries - delicious!
Togakushi Iseya - We had not had soba noodles yet so we had dinner at this soba restaurant near our hotel. We ordered two types of soba - one that came in the broth and one where you have to dip into a broth. They tasted pretty similar to us! They spoke no English so we resorted to pointing to order.
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| Soba noodles at Togakushi Iseya |
Nepalese Restaurant - We don't know the name of this place as it was in kanji - it was located near our hotel and we had dinner here one night. We got samosas, chicken tikka, mutton curry, rice and cheese naan. Everything was delicious!
Tamuro - An Izakaya restaurant near our hotel, we had dinner here and it was our worst meal of the trip. We ordered some sushi but the fish was cut way too thick so we didn't finish it. We also had some skewers which were pretty good and fried chicken.
Matsumoto
We stayed in Matsumoto for four nights.
Accommodation:
Tabino Hotel - This hotel that is centrally located downtown was new and clean and the room was on the smaller side but it was nice. We had a king sized bed with sofa, table, and washing machine. Breakfast was included so we had that each morning which consisted of a buffet of mostly Japanese foods - it was pretty good.
Activities:
Utsukushigahara Open Air Museum - On our drive to Matsumoto, we stopped at this open air museum that is the sister museum to the one we saw in Hakone. This one was on top of a mountain ridge so the scenery was beautiful. The sculptures were all very modern and the grounds looked like they needed a bit more up keeping.
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| Utsukushigahara Open Air Museum - We called this one "Barbie" |
Ishii Miso Brewery - This miso brewery was founded in 1868 and is one of the few that still make miso with traditional processes. They use all local soybeans, ferment the miso in wooden barrels and age their miso for three years. We got a brief tour by the 6th generation President and then got a taste of their miso soup which was rich and tasty. We wanted to have lunch there but we couldn't find anyone to order so we left.
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| One of the barrels at Ishii Miso Brewery |
Daio Wasabi Farm - This is the largest wasabi farm in Japan and while they do not provide tours, we walked around the grounds to see the wasabi fields growing in very clear streams of water that is provided by the nearby rivers. We then had a wasabi croquette and wasabi ice cream - both very good.
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| Wasabi Field at Daio |
Matsumoto Castle - This is one of the few castles that has not been damaged by war/fires. It was built in the late 1500s and was used as a fort to protect the surrounding areas. The building itself is beautiful as are the grounds and gardens. When we arrived, we saw that there were free English guides available so we got one who told us a bit of the history and showed us a few good spots on the grounds to take photos. He also waited in line with us for a while, telling us more about the castle, while we waited to enter inside. There are some artifacts inside but the better part is just seeing the construction inside and climbing to the top to see the views - the steps to the top were quite steep!
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| Matsumoto Castle |
Nawate and Nakamachi Shopping Streets - We walked up these two shopping streets with shops in traditional houses/buildings. Nawate had more souvenir type shops whereas Nakamachi had more boutique stores.
Nakasendo Trail (Magome to Tsumago) - We walked this 8km section of the famous Nakasendo trail used by samuarais and merchants to go between Tokyo and Kyoto in the Edo period. There were over 60 post towns (Magome and Tsumago are two of them) along that route where travelers would stop to eat and/or sleep. The towns themselves were very cute with traditional buildings throughout and the trail was nice - weaving through forests, towns and waterfalls. Some of the trail was old stones while other parts were dirt. We got there by driving first to Tsumago, taking a bus to Magome and then hiking from Magome back to Tsumago.
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| Tsumago |
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| Nakasendo Trail |
Restaurants:
Beans - We had dinner at this Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It was better than we expected - we had pasta with meat sauce and a pizza with bacon, sausage and pepporoni. The owners were very nice.
Thai Lotus - We clearly have been missing spicy food because we could not stop raving how good this was. We had a red and green curry. As usual, the people serving us were super nice as well.
Cohiludo - We had lunch in this modern cafe near the castle - we tried three different types of oyaki - pork, mushroom and apple. Apple was the best!
Wachinoya Pastry - Located in Tsumago, we had oyaki for lunch from here. We tried three different types - meat, eggplant and walnut. The meat and walnut were quite good.
Vieni Vieni - Our final dinner in Matsumoto and this was the best by far. It's a cute, small Italian restaurant. We sat at the bar where we could watch the chef do his work in a tiny kitchen. We shared a cacio e pepe pasta and a seared pork with veggies - so delicious!
Kamikochi
We stayed in Kamikochi for five nights - it is known to be one of the prettiest valleys in the Alps. There are mountains that surround the area with a beautiful winding river. And while it was not peak leaf changes yet, it was the beginning so we were able to see some color changes.
There are no cars allowed so you have to park in one of two parking lots and take a bus to get here - takes about 30 min via bus from the lots. The valley is dotted with a few hotels and a few cafes but it's not really a town.
Accommodation:
Lemeiesta Hotel - The splurge of our trip and well worth it! The hotel itself is very nice and our room was amazing - very large bed (two double thick mattresses on the floor that were super comfortable), a huge bathroom and a sofa with fantastic views of the mountains. Breakfast and dinner was included in our rate (see below).
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| Lemeiesta Hotel |
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| Our room |
Activities:
Hike to Myojin Pond - We walked along the river to one of the two picturesque ponds in the valley. This pond has a shrine that is for the mountain deities. The route was 7 miles round trip and took us just under 3 hours with a few stops. We also crossed the famous Kappa Bridge where there were a ton of tourists snapping pictures. We had a few oyakis for lunch at one of the cafe stands at the bridge. We did this walk again a second day but this time skipping the stop at the pond.
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| Myojin Pond |
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| Kappa Bridge |
Hike to Tashiro and Taisho Ike Ponds - It was a rainy day but we decided to still get a bit of exercise in so we walked 4 miles in 1.5 hours to these two ponds. It was not as picturesque - mainly because of the clouds and rain. We did get to see the monkeys which were adorable. We walked back to the Kappa Bridge for more oyakis for lunch.
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| Monkeys along our walk |
Dakesawa Hike - This is the only 'harder' hike in the area we could do that was not technical. It was a beautiful hike up to a hut where you could get snacks and drinks. The views were spectacular. The hike was 7 miles, 2.6K in elevation gain and took us close to 5 hours (with breaks).
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| Dakesawa Hike |
Restaurants:
Lemeiesta Hotel - Breakfast was a fantastic buffet with mostly Japanese fare but definitely the best we have had so far. Dinner included a multi-course meal (alternating each night between French and Japenese/French) and most of the dishes were very tasty. Our favorite dishes were the beef ones but also had some nice fish dishes.
Toyama
We stayed three nights in this port town that is on the western side of the Alps. Being a port town, it's not very attractive but the downtown area was nice. If we were to stay again, we would choose Kanazawa instead.
Accommodation:
Hotel Jal City - This hotel is located downtown near the train station. It's a large, very clean hotel and while the room was small, it was very comfortable. We had two twin beds pushed together that were quite comfortable with a sofa, mini-fridge and nice bathroom with a rain shower.
Activities:
Kurobe Gorge Trolley Train - We did this on our drive in from Kamikochi. The weather was a bit cloudy but we could still see views. The train ride is 50 minutes each way with a 20 minute stop at the end before returning. There were nice views of the rive and gorge but the stop at the end was not the greatest. The train itself was open air with cushioned bench seats and all of the explanation was in Japanese.
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| Kurobe Gorge Trolley Train |
Takaoke - We drove 30 minutes to Takaoke to see the Great Buddha, one of the three great ones is Japan (the other two are in Nara and Kamakura). This one was no where near as impressive as the other two. We then walked around the Takaoke Castle Park which was small but nice with green lawns and statues and the Yamachosuji Historical District which had a few nice, older buildings but there were mixed in with new ones so not very impressive.
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| Takaoke Great Buddha |
Iwase District - We walked around this historic port area of Toyama which had some nice old warehouses that have been refurbished into restaurants, brewers and shops. Unfortunately the area was a bit dead when we were there. We walked to the top of the Toyota Port Observation deck where we could see more of the surrounding ports.
Murodo - Definitely the best part of this leg of the trip! This is a mountain top location with the largest caldera in Japan surrounding by several mountains, including one of the holy mountains of Japan, Mt Tateyama. To get here, we drove to the parking lot at Tateyama station and then took a cable car and a bus to the top (cars are not allowed to drive themselves to the top). We hiked around for about two hours, hiking up to a saddle and then back down and around Midorika and Mikurige-ike Ponds. There was an area with an overlook that we could see steam coming up as part of the volcano is still active. There is an option to continue on the journey to do the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route all the way to Nagano (via more buses, ropeways) but that would have taken 7-8 hours one way so we opted not to do that. There are a few hotels at the top at Murodo and if we come back, we would stay there for a night to do more exploring.
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| Murodo |
Shomyo Falls - After Murodo, we drove over and then walked to this waterfall which is the tallest in Japan at 35 meters high. Unfortunately, it was cloudy so we could not see the full waterfall but it was still impressive.
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| Shomyo Falls |
Day in Kanazawa:
On our way to Takayama, we spend a half day in Kanazawa, known to be a "little Kyoto". After we saw the town (which is very cute), we wished we would have stayed here instead. We first walked around the gardens, Kenroku-en, which had been recommended by Kerstin. The grounds were very nice with typical Japanese trees and a few nice ponds.
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| Kenroku-en Gardens |
We then saw the Myouryuji (Ninja Temple) which is known to have a lot of secret alleyways and compartments to ward off enemies. There are tours available but unfortunately we did not have a reservation. We walked around the Nagamachi Samurai District which has beautiful homes along a cobble stone street and went inside the Nomura-ke Samurai Heritage Residence which showcased what a typical samurai home looked like - it had lovely gardens.
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| Nagamachi Samurai District |
We also went to see the Oyama Shrine which had a tower with European design, a very nice building and nice gardens. We then walked around the Kazue-machi Chaya district which is where they have old teahouses and Higashi Chaya district which is the Geisha district filled with traditional houses (now shows and restaurants) along cobble stone streets. Both of the district were adorable. We ended our time in Kanazawa by walking around the Omicho Market which felt more like a market than others we had been to. While they had restaurants, they also had plenty of fish and vegetable stalls. Because were were in a time crunch, we got a few take-away items from the basement level stalls in the Kohrinbo mall.
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| Kazue-machi Chaya District |
Restaurants:
Kuromoji - Really cute izakaya near our hotel. We had dinner here sharing a honey cheese dip, curry snack, eggplant bruschetta, a very yummy salad and some beef. We had to each order a drink so we got NA beer.
Kobo Brew Pub - Located in the Iwase port warehouse district, we had lunch here. Sadly, we did not have any beer since we were trying to be good but we had some sausages with mustard and bread. The sausages were tasty but a bit too greasy. The location was great in an old warehouse.
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| Kobo Brew Pub |
Santoshi - An Indian restaurant across the street from our hotel. We had dinner here and shared veggie samosas, pappad, chicken curry and rice - all delicious and spicy!
Bibbi de BAL de SAN - A cute Italian restaurant near our hotel. We had dinner here and shared a salad, pasta and pizza. Everything was delicious.
Takayama
We wrapped up our time in the Alps with four nights in this town, also known to be another 'little Kyoto'. We were going to visit Kiso after Takayama but had decided earlier in the trip to cut that part and instead go to the Oki Islands - thus Takayama became our last stop in the Alps. The town is very nice surrounded by hills and mountains.
Accommodation:
Fav Hidatakayama - This hotel is more of an 'apart' hotel with limited amenities (e.g. no restaurant, limited front desk hours). Our room was large with two double beds with twin bunks above us. We also had a nice sized sofa and coffee table with a kitchenette and washer/drier. The bathroom was also large. In additional to having breakfast each morning in the room, we also had dinner a few nights by picking up items from the grocery store - sushi and ramen.
Activities:
Shirakawa-go - On our drive to Takayama, we stopped to walk around this very cute, old farm village with traditional homes with thatched roofs. Many of the buildings are now shops and restaurants and there are tons of tourists who go here but worth it - very cute. We both thought it was the "Kandersteg" of Japan.
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| Shirakawa-go |
Tour around Takayama::
It was a beautiful sunny day so we did a self-guided walking tour around town. We stopped by the Miyagawa Morning Market which consists of several stores and stalls along the river selling souvenirs and food. We of course had to get Hida beef on a stick!
We the walked the ~2 mile Higashiyama Promenade which is a route that takes you by many temples and shrines. We saw most of them - the most impressive being Hida Kokubun-ji Temple (famous for its pagoda, a 1200 year old ginkgo tree and the main building being the older structure in town), Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine (dating back to the 5th century and nestled in lush surroundings), Takayama Betsuin Shoren-ji Temple (the temple itself is not that impressive but it has a beautiful entry gate), and Unryu-ji (nice grounds and views).
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| Sights along our walk |
While at Sakurayama Shrine, we also went inside the Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan which is a hall showcasing some of the hand carved floats that are used in the bi-annual Takayama Matsuri festival, one of the three most beautiful festivals in Japan. There are 23 floats in total with a few of them on display at the museum.
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| Floats in Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan |
The path took us up the old castle ruins hill but there was not much to see. We did get more steps in! We then walked around the very cute Hidatakayama Sanmachi Historic District that highlights Edo period architecture - now turned into shops and restaurants. We stopped at ABCDEFG to have one of their cookies but found it to be too dry. We also stopped at the Onoya Brewery which is over 200 years old and makes miso and soy sauce. Unfortunately, there were not tours so we got a sample of miso and left. We also tried to go to one of the old sake breweries but they also were not running tours and the tasting process seemed to impersonal so we bagged that idea as well.
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| Hidatakayama Sanmachi Historic District |
Hida no Sato Open Air Museum - This is an open air museum showcasing farmer's homes and equipment. And while not as charming as the town of Shirakwa-go, it was informative with great signs and ability to go inside the homes to see how they lived.
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| Hida no Sato Open Air Museum |
Utsue Forty-eight Waterfalls - We are not sure what is up with the name as there are only 13 waterfalls! It was still pretty - it took us an hour to walk by all of them.
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| Utsue Forty-eight Waterfalls |
Walk around Hida Furukawa - This town is about 15 north of Takayama and it's a mini version of Takayama - very cute with nice canals and far less tourists. We walked around the old district, popping in Honkoji (has the largest wooden building in the Hida area) and Shinshuji Temples. Both were very nice with pretty grounds.
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| Honkoji Temple |
Hida Great Limestone Cave - Known to be the highest elevation caves in Japan, this was not worth it. There are three caves totaling 800 meters in length with the first one being decent but pales in comparison to many of the other caves we have been to.
Restaurants:
Butchers - We had dinner at this Hida beef focused restaurant, sharing a salad, a sizzling shrimp appetizer and Hida beef filet with a few veggies. The beef was really tasty but not quite Wagyu!
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| Butchers Restaurant |
Hida Croquette - Located in the town of Hida, we grabbed a quick lunch here each getting the Hida beef croquette burger - very tasty!
Entaku - We had dinner at this Izakaya near our hotel. We had a salad, fried chicken with ponzu and Hida beef stew. The stew was a bit disappointing but the salad and chicken were great.
