Toyama

Day 47

So we’ve been trying desperately hard to plan a day trip into the Japanese alps as it feels like it would be SUCH a mistake to miss them. The only problem is that without a car they are almost completely inaccessible. We even looked into staying in the alps and just taking the hit with having to cancel a different booking but the prices were outrageous and the lodges completely inaccessible. We were feeling at our wits end a little as it seemed that our dreams of visiting the alps were becoming more and more impossible to fulfil. Until I found the alpine route. This is a route through the mountains that starts in Nagano in ogizawa and ends in Tateyama in Toyama prefecture. It’s a popular route by car and also for hiking but we still had the problem of no transport until I found a website entirely in Japanese that offered a day ticket through a pathway in the alpine route using only public transport. Absolutely thrilled and seriously surprised that it wasn’t more advertised as it took quite a lot of hunting to find to it we booked it!

When the alarm blared at 6.30am I groggily got up and got dressed before we grabbed a quiet bite before taking a bus all the way to ogizawa. Luckily the lady at the bus terminal was a saint as we were struggling to find tickets and where the bus went from and she recommended to go to the stop before the station and just as well as we wouldn’t have got a seat on the bus otherwise and then we would have been screwed!

After 1 1/2 we started winding up through the alps with blinding snow on either side the bus pulled into this tiny little bus station literally on the mountainside with nothing around it. Getting off we managed to get a physical copy of our ticket from a vending machine and then began to look for our tour guide. After a while of looking around we couldn’t find one, just the other passengers there. Slightly confused we went back onto the website and translated it all and managed to work out that we didn’t actually have a guide, it’s basically a ticket that secures you a spot on the public transport route but the rest you have to work out yourself! Managing to find a map I felt a little more confident that we knew what we were doing but in truth we made it up as we went along quite a lot!

We started by taking a cable car through a tunnel in one of the mountains. Climbing out we climbed the 220 steps to the view point which was absolutely spectacular and actually probably the best view of the whole day! A gorgeous frozen dam winding in between the snowy mountains it was just breathtaking, the pictures don’t do it justice we literally stood there in awe it was incredible. Seriously a view of a lifetime. What’s also special is that apart from when your on the public transport it didn’t feel as though there were many people there as everyone dispersed at the viewing points so it didn’t feel really touristy or over crowded. Once again, we were the only western people there, everyone else was Japanese which would explain the Japanese only website but it just seems bizarre that it wasn’t really advertised to the western tourists!

After this we took a long Ropeway even higher into the mountain range and the highest we went was 3000 metres! It honestly felt like we were in a different world, with no real civilisation in sight just wilderness it was really really special.

We took a few more buses through the alps before reaching our last stop- the snow wall. Now this isn’t the famous one in Aomori prefecture but it’s just as impressive and I’m sure less busy. The snow wall accumulates in drifts and creates 20 metre high walls of snow. For most of the year the route is inaccessible but from mid March-June they bulldozer a route through the snow creating the snow walls! Wondering through glancing up in awe it’s hard to imagine this level of snowfall it’s just insane. You definitely wouldn’t want to be any where near these mountains in a snow storm! It’s so compact that it’s almost ice now it really is quite the sight and this was probably one of my favourite parts of the day trip!

The last public transport was an hour bus that slowly made its way down through the mountains with amazing views before ending up at a train station. We took two trains to get home and had a quick dinner before crashing and going to sleep as we had been out of 13 hours and I was shattered but completely and utterly worth it! Amazing day and definitely one to remember.

Day 48

Today is our last day in Nagano so we decided to have a relaxed day just exploring the city as we haven’t actually done this yet! Having a yummy breakfast we walked through the city for about 30 minutes before arriving at Zenkōji temple which is a massive temple with a few very large gate entrances and lovely grounds. Sitting in the sun we enjoyed the birds chirping away and took a few photos of them. Jacob got very excited taking photos so I found a nice cherry blossom tree to sit under whilst he wondered around taking photos. After a while we slowly weaved our way through the streets of the city and browsing in shops and stopping for a quick lunch. We explored the city for a few more hours before walking back and having a relaxed evening getting all our things in order for the move tomorrow.Read more