Snow, Onsen and Crab!

[rbjhan]

Dinner time!

Menu




The soup was delicious!


Deep fried fish, well at least it's not the good old Iwana Yaki...


Salmon




Main dish, Shinshu beef.


Rice with bamboo shoots.


Dessert


They also prepared onigiri for you to take back to the room...you can ask as many as you like...



Must say the dinner was much better than I expected....yeah I had low expectations after last year spending a week in this area

End of Day 5.

 

[Justinf]

What camera are you using?
I find myself scrolling through the onsen pics very quickly as it’s something I am unlikely to experience. Jealous.
Does the Blue Lagoon in Iceland count?

 

[rbjhan]

What camera are you using?
I find myself scrolling through the onsen pics very quickly as it’s something I am unlikely to experience. Jealous.
Does the Blue Lagoon in Iceland count?

It's a mixture of Pixel 8pro and an Olympus M43....

Sigh onsen is probably my favourite thing in Japan.....

 

[Justinf]

It's a mixture of Pixel 8pro and an Olympus M43....

They/you take great pics.

 

[rbjhan]

They/you take great pics.

Thank you！
I'd like to think I'm a semi-decent photographer.. btw the Pixel 8 pro camera is really good, a fair bit better than my previous one.

 

[rbjhan]

The reason I booked 2 nights in this ryokan, was that I had an all-day activity planned during the stay: Kamikochi snow shoe tour!

Introduction of Kamikochi in my previous TR:

Post in thread 'Return to the Japan Alps May 2024'

Jun 1, 2024

In the morning Nakanoyu runs two shuttle buses to Kamikochi at 8am & 9am.
Then there's the bus back to Matsumoto from Kamikochi bus terminal at 12:30 I think?
So in theory you can have about 4 hours in Kamikochi and back to Matsumoto with zero transport costs!

I have however booked 2 nights in Kamikochi, so took the 9am bus and got off at Taisho Ike (Ike = Pond).

Kamikochi 上高地, if you want to know more...

Japan Alps Kamikochi Official Website

Chubu Sangaku National Park

www.kamikochi.org

In short, Kamikochi is a 15km long valley along the Azusa River, about 1500m above sea level. Surrounded by mountains such as Nishi Hotaka Dake, Oku...

• rbjhan

• 

You see, the 2.5 days in Kamikochi last May was so good, I decided to come back!
But in winter this time!!

Winter is VERY different since the season officially finishes mid Nov every year and won't open again till mid April - which means, no shops/restaurants, hotels, buses, nothing inisde Kamikochi.
But hiking is permitted. More info here:

上高地へ冬季入山される方へ【上高地冬季入山のルール】 – 上高地公式ウェブサイト

上高地へ冬季入山される方へ【上高地冬季入山のルール】 – 上高地公式ウェブサイト | 2024年11月16日より2025年4月中旬まで、上高地は冬季閉山となります。冬季入山をされる方は【上高地冬季入山のルール】をご覧いただき、冬山であることをご理解の上十分注意し、自己…

www.kamikochi.or.jp

I saw some Japanese people doing the winter hiking by themselves...however considering the risks I decided to book a tour. There are a few operators in the area, I picked this one based on feels

乗鞍高原・上高地でアウトドア！｜リトルピークス

長野県松本市乗鞍高原・上高地を中心に、春夏秋冬アウトドアツアーを開催中！登山・トレッキング・シャワークライミング・スノーシュー・ネイチャースキー・バックカントリーなどなど、自然の中に旅に出よう！

www.littlepeaks.jp

Wrote to them back in September to book the tour, and confirmed right before I left.

Cost of the tour:
10,000 Yen for the snow shoe tour, 2200 equipment rental (snow shoes, poles, gaiters), 600 bento, 400 insurance, 13,200 total, cash only.

 

[rbjhan]

When I got up the weather was not bad, even some sun!


Little Peaks came to pick me up from my ryokan at 8.45am.

There were 3 participants that day: me, a Taiwanese guy who can't speak Japanese or English pretty much, a Taiwanese girl who lives in Toyama (WHV I think), she's fluent in Japanese/English/Chinese and did the translation for the guy this whole day.

Our guide was Gen, his English is quite good - and later I learned that he WHV for 2 years in Australia! Including one year in Melbourne

We arrived at Kama Tunnel about 9.15am.
Note that you can't park here. So self-driving to Kamikochi even in winter is not possible. Relying on bus is tricky - as I mentioned only 4 buses a day each direction between Matsumoto and Takayama in winter.

Nearest parking is in either Sawando or Hirayu onsen. During the season there are frequent buses take you to Kamikochi ofc. I wouldn't recommend walking though, it's not exactly close and you certainly don't want to add to an already long day.

Kama Tunnel is about 1.3km, 11% degree incline.
On the bus it was a flash, but walking in it...hmmm....at least the lighting was adequate insdie!

Looking back at Kama Tunnel.


But not too quick! There's another one!
Kamikochi Tunnel, thank god it was only 600 metres...


Took us a good 40 mins to get inside Kamikochi proper.


Almost Taisho Ike!


Just before the last picture, there was an apparent danger spot for avalanches...
We had to take it one by one....luckily nothing happened!

 

[rbjhan]

There's a winter toilet near Taisho Ike - very important as only a few open in winter!

And here we changed to snow shoes.


Walked around a bit and took some pictures of the pond.

Duck!


Ah it's pretty


But where was the sunshine earlier in the morning?!
Gen told us the weather was gonna get worse...."if you want to take pictures now it's the time!"

 

[rbjhan]

I am still not quite sure how we went from Taisho Ike to the Kamikochi bus terminal, after coming back and studied everything in details

We just followed Gen around in the woods!
Damn you can so easily get lost here...everything was covered in deep snow...


And it was DEEP.


Trust me when I tell you the mask saved my life face!


So we got to the bus terminal at about 12pm?
Anyways Gen was like we need to find shelter to have lunch....I didn't realise what he meant until he literally took out the shovel and started digging...



My digging skills were not up to standard sadly this one was no good, Gen had to come and help...

Forgot to take a picture of the bento, it was 2 onigiri rice balls and some other things. Not too bad if they weren't so cold! We all agreed 600 Yen was more than fair.

 

[rbjhan]

After lunch we moved towards Kappabashi.
Oh boy, it was so COLD.
By then the snow had developed into a blizzard. Snow getting blown by wind and come right at your face... we had to stop constantly to turn our backs to the wind...

It didn't help that we stopped for lunch obviously.
My hands were especially numb and cold....started questioning my life choices
From the bus terminal to Kappabashi was less than 1k but the hardest walk the whole day.

But finally here!!
Kappabashi is the symbol of Kamikochi.
During the season this place is always a hive of activity, seeing it like this was quite unreal.


Well there were two other people





Gen was like, try this water!
Me: nah I'm good




In a good day you can see Hotaka Peaks from here, but on this day obviously not!

 

[rbjhan]

Remember I posted screenshots of the live camera?

Well I had a friend sitting in front of computer and took this


According to her it was definitely the worst period of weather we caught here...

 

[rbjhan]

On the way back we took a different route (it might be the actual road, not sure though)
Near Imperial Hotel we saw a family of monkeys


Back to the Taisho Ike winter toilet - which meant we were close to the tunnels!


One last shot afterwards.


We got out around 3.30pm, so roughly 6 hours of walking...my ring told me I walked 25K steps
Damn I was TIRED, but satisfied.

Next time I want to come in autumn.

 

[rbjhan]

The whole reason I decided to stay 2 nights here was that I didn't want to do anything else other than onsen and dinner after the snow shoe thingy

Quickly jump into onsen!

See those bamboo hats? That's so you can still use the outdoor onsen when it's snowing..




The indoor part is a man-made cave, don't ask....I am not quite sure what's the design idea here!


Outdoor onsen!

 

[rbjhan]

Dinner was exactly the same as the night before (they told me about this at time of booking), only change was the main.


So yeah, generally you are not supposed to stay in a ryokan for multiple nights. They are not set up for it.

Overall, I think I like this place. It's on the expensive side in this area, but food is good.
And because there's only 8 rooms (4 with private bath), the public bath was never busy.
Onsen water quality was just okay though....having been to Kusatsu I think my standards are higher now

 

[rbjhan]

As mentioned multiples times before....buses between Matsumoto and Takayama run 4 times per day in winter. So I really could not afford to miss the 8.46am one!
After breakfast I quickly pack and started the long journey.


First, 10 mins walk to the main road, across that bridge.


The bus ride was okay, apart from the fact aircon was set to 28C or something! Even by Japanese standards it's crazy
Damn what's wrong with the driver?!


The bus stopped for about 20 mins in Hirayu onsen, I quickly got off to have some cold air!


Hirayu onsen. The transport hub of Okuhida onsen.

 

[rbjhan]

Arrived at Takayama about 10.30am, next Limited Express Wide View Hida to Toyama was 11.15am or something.
So I had some time...checked a few live cams while on the bus and decided to go to Nakabashi.

Takayama at that time was like this.
So walking fast was out of the question!


When I first arrived at the bridge next to Nakabashi.


A few minutes later...where is that gif when you need it


Oh boy, I gave up going to Nakabashi itself! I'm good with the photos.

 

[elanshin]

The bus ride was okay, apart from the fact aircon was set to 28C or something! Even by Japanese standards it's crazy
Damn what's wrong with the drive?!

Maybe they were a south east Asian secretly. My Filipino friend always sets the aircon to 26-28 when we're not around. The Canadians banned him from going near the aircon remote.

 

[rbjhan]

Back to Takayama Station, didn't even have time to get a coffee from a nice looking coffee shop next to the station...

I bought a non reserve ticket so need to line up for seats!


The train was about 10 mins late though, caused by snow, obviously.

Oooh the Wide View Hida has new train now! Fancy
No more raised platforms! Always thought that thing was a tripping hazard...




The entire journey looks like this




Onboard speaker actually said that because of heavy snow we were going slower so expect delays.
They also called for people with Shinkansen connections to talk to the conductor.

 

[rbjhan]

Arrived at Toyama about 20 mins late, all things considered it was not bad.

First thing first, lunch!
Shiroebi The famous Toyama Bay white shrimp.
This bowl was 6000 Yen but totally worth it!

 

[rbjhan]

Next I need to get my JR West Pass.

Initially I was planning to buy the JR West Wide Area 5 Day Pass for 12000 Yen.
But after multiple changes to the plan, Kansai Hokuriku 7 Day Pass for 19000 represented better value.
I bought the pass on JR West website and made reservations for some trains already. Note that only passes bought directly from JR West website can make online reservations before physical exchange in Japan happens.

Nowadays you can exchange the pass from special machines (with a passport scanner). Err, problem was that I got rejected by the machine! Asked me to to visit Midori no Madoguchi.
Damn the queue was looooong!
Well, nothing else I could do....waited for at least 40 mins....finally my turn!

Hmmm, how do I put it? That guy behind the counter was, not very smart?
First he insisted for a QR code, oh boy, that's only for the KLOOK(or similar) bookings! You should know this...JR West certainly doesn't give out any codes, and he works for JR West!

Then he didn't know about this Kansai Hokuriku Pass, needed to consult his handbook....okay not employee of the month confirmed

Next problem, I didn't know exactly what it was. Since he asked me to wait and disappeared....presumably to consult his boss....

After a long wait he reappeared, finally was able to print my pass and all six reservations I made already. (Six is the max number you can make online, from 7th onwards neither the website nor machine would work, need to visit staff)


Sigh, not the end of my problems...
As you can see from picture above, pass start date was 20th.
This was the 19th, I need to buy a separate ticket to Kurobe Unatsukionsen.
And our guy got confused again, surprise surprise...

Eventually I was able to give him money(!) and buy this ticket.
Normally I don't take pictures of random tickets but this one needed to be in the collections!



* Needed to exchange the pass there and then because you can't do it in Kurobe Unatsukionsen Station.