Trip 3 Day 6 - Kamakochi Wetlands

This morning we rose with the birds and followed our now well entrenched routine - a quick morning soak before a huge breakfast served by our lovely hostess. My god there was a lot of food, and the dishes just kept on coming.

First course of a huge breakfast

But like all good things, it was time to say goodbye to Higashi Ishikawa Ryokan and our effusive hostess and head for up to the Kamikochi Wetlands in the Hida Alps.

This involed a 2 hour bus ride starting just up the road in Asama Onsen and travelling through some absolutely amazing scenery - deep wooded valleys whose trees were already turning amazing shades of autumn colours.

The view from the bus as we climbed into the Hida alps.

In no time we had arrived at Kamakochi and found ourtselves in a deep river valley surrounded by misty mountains. The temperature was distinctly chillier and we threw on our puffers for the first time this trip. The plan was to walk a course along the river valley as far as we could before it was time to turn around to make our bus ride out.

There's not too much to say about the walk, except that a) the scenery was absolutely stuuning despite the surrounding mountain peaks being shrouded in cloud most of the time, and b) that 30 minutes in, a light rain began to fall that was to continue for the rest of the day. I can only imagine how amazing this place looks with the peaks visibled in all their splendour!

The many faces of Kamikochi Wetlands

As you can see, it is really gorgeous place, and the walking was just amazing. But all too soon it was time to leave. We boarded our bus for Fukuji Onsen, (with a change at Hirayu Onsen) and soon we had arrived. The small village of Fukuji Onsen is itself nestled in the Hida Alps and consists of basically one whole street of ryokan. Jumping off the bus there was just time for a twilight walk through the village (magic).

We soon found ours - Motoyu Magokuro - and it was the nicest ryokan of the lot. And do I mean nice - oh my god. I've stayed in a few great onsen over the years, but this one was right up there at the top.

Seaweed tea!

Motoyu Magokuro at Fukuji Onsen

Our hostess Naomi welcomed us with seaweed tea which was a first for me - and wierd to drink. We were served a spectacular meal and whiled away some time in the beautiful outdoor onsen before bed. Pure unadulterated heaven.

The dinner was the best yet

The magnificent outdoor onsen at Motoyu Magokuro

Here is the relive video of our walk through Kamikochi. Get a load of those mountains!

Trip 3 Day 5: Nakasendo from Yubuhara to Kisohiragawa

After a long, hot soak and another amazing breakfast in our ryokan Onyado Tsutaya, it was time to say goodbye to Kiso-Fukushima. At 8:45am we caught the shuttle bus (lazy) back to the train station for our 9am train to Yubuhara and the start of today's section of the Nakasendo. Greeting us at the station was a seething mob of goretex-wrapped, mostly western hikers ready to join us on the trail. I feared some kind of everest-style queue was in danger of forming sometime during the day..

Some of the many hikers ready to board the train.

Anyway, we all piled on the train and in no time we were loitering outside the train station at Yubuhara. While the mob adjusted their walking poles and argued about rugby scores, we quickly set off through the town towards the forest, leaving them in our wake. Our goal for the day was to climb the Toriitoge Pass at 1000m - reportedly the most challenging part of the Nakasend Trail back in Edo times. From there we would descend to the picturesque postal town of Narai (which avid readers may remember from Trip 1 😉).

The town of Yubahara was quite nice - not a patch on the postal town it would have been in its heyday - but still there were a number of quaint rustic buildings to admire. We were soon at its outskirts however, and started to ascend into the forest - first on old Nakasendo cobblestones and later on a dirt path, up and up on numerous switchbacks towards the pass. It was fairly taxing, but nothing compared to the climb we had done to the Gongentaki two days before. Like on previous days, as soon as we left the town behind, we were enveloped in the quiet of the forest - with only birdsong and the constant sound of running water to calm us.

The path out of Yubuhara towards Toriitoge Pass.

About two thirds of the way up, we were treated to a spectacular view back down the valley towards Yubuhara.

Looking back at Yubuhara 

Five minutes later we had reached the shrine that is perched at the top of the pass. The now picnic area that sits beside it was the scene of the very famous wood block painting  "Yabuhara Torii-toge Suzuri-shimizu" from the series 59 stations of the Kisokaido.

How amazing is that? Gotta get me a reproduction of that block print now. 15 minutes later and we reached the pass and started on our descent.

The torii that gives the pass its name.

Now, it may have been the fact that we were now walking downhill and not up, but the forest on the Narai side of the pass was even more beautiful than the uphill side. The sun-dappled leaves were changing colour to a golden yellow and the constant sound of running water was in our ears. It was heaven. Apart from running into one other Aussie couple every now and then we didn't see another living soul on the trail - how good is that?

The trees on the Narai side were starting to turn

We reached Narai in good time, having by then formed a group with the other Aussie couple and a couple of Colombians. I mean how often do you hear that story? Being ahead of schedule, we decided to grab a coffee at the first cafe that we found. The barista took forever to painstakingly produce each cup, but damn man, that coffee was sooo good!

Coffee lovingly crafted.

Caffiene levels restored, we then continued our leisurely stroll around town with an eye to finding some lunch. Narai really is the most amazing and well preserved of the postal towns I've visited and it is a joy to wander around. It's just like being on the set of a samurai epic, with a load of Chinese tourists and parked cars thrown in.

The long street through downtown Narai

After avoiding a few obvious lunch choices because they were full of other hikers, we settled on a tiny Udon place run by a nice old lady. We were just settling in with our complimentary oolong tea, when a tour group of five old germans blustered in and sat at the very next table. So much for the ambience!

Tonkutsu and Udon

Anyway, ignoring the Germans (we tried), lunch was amazing - tonkatsu with udon. Once replete, we continued on our walk to Kisohirakawa a lot rounder and a lot happier.

Turns out there wasn't much else to see. While Kisohirakawa is a centre for lacquerware production, most of its wares is sold in Narai shops so no one ever stops there. It's undergoing a facelift - the street has been newly paved, there's new fire hydrants everywhere - but as we walked down the main street it was like a ghost town. Nobody was there, and none of the shops were open. There wasn't even a kombini to explore.

Kisohirakawa: ghost town.

Bored and tired, we jumped on our train, and in 45 minutes had reached the city of Matsumoto. From here we found our bus to Asama onsen - our bed for the night - with a little help from the friendly staff at the bus station. Soon we were being welcomed at Higashi Ishikawa Ryokan by our enthusiastic new hostess and a few minutes later found ourselves soaking in a quick, pre-dinner onsen. Speaking of dinner, it was absolutely superb and so much food we almost burst.

The appetiser for tonight's dinner. There were many, many courses to come.

With this journal entry now finally complete, I'm thinking it's time for a post-dinner onsen. They have a nice rotenburo here set in a nice little garden..

Heaven.

Here is the relive video of today's walk:

Trip 3 - Day 4: Kiso-Fukushima & Gongentaki

Today we had a rest day just staying in the town of Kiso-Fukushima, or Fukushima-juku as it was known during its days as a Nakasendo postal town. After yesterday's long walk it was great to take it easy and explore the town. The day started with a long soak in the onsen followed by an amazing breakfast in the ryokan. Yes, we slyly avoided the proffered natto!

Japanese breakfast (sans Natto) is really amazing.

After breakfast we decided to climb the 0.9kms up the side of the valley to the Gogentaki (Gogen Waterfall). En-route, we took a stroll along the banks of the Kiso river and marvelled at the way the old houses perch precipitously on the raised river bank above.

A morning stroll along the Kiso river

From the river, it was straight to the ascent! It was a very hard-won 900 metres to the falls, and at times it felt like we were climbing a dirt ladder rather than walking, but the effort was well rewarded with a view, the relaxing splash of water on stone, and a picnic of mandarin jubes and tap water.

The trip back down was much easier - as you might expect - and we congratulated ourselves with a relaxing foot-bath beside the river.

A warm bath for the feet

By the time our feet were dry, it was getting on towards noon and our minds turned to food. We cut a circuitous route back through the old part of town in search of sustenance, finding a really nice restaurant smack dab in the middle of the nicest (oldest?) part of old town. Here we feasted on our first Tonkatsu of the trip. The food and the service was nothing short of superb.

Lunch of champions

Having eaten, and eaten well, I needed coffee to forestall the post-lunch malaise. And so the search for a coffee shop that was open began. It took us up hill and down dale, through some of the less salubrious parts of town. Finally we found a tiny bar / restaurant / cafe run by an ancient, hump backed old lady and her husband. The coffee wasn't the best, but the charm of the room and our hosts was.

With coffee procured, we walked up to the old Nakasendo checkpoint museum and had a look at reconstructed fences and gates (we were too tight to go into the museum proper).

Soon it was time to head back to the ryokan for more onsen and to do some laundry before our bags move on with the takyyubin tomorrow.

Here is the relive video of our brief climb up to the falls: