Hirayu Onsen, the gurgling city

We have now spent two days in the gurgling village of Hirayu Onsen in the Japanese Alps. When I planned the trip I wanted to spend some time away from the large metropolitan masses of Japan and experience rural Japan so this is why I chose the Japanese Alps. Hirayu Onsen is also very close to Kamikochi Ntl Park. Initially I had tried to book accommodation in the Ntl park but it was pretty booked up and very expensive so we settled on Hirayu.

The Japanese have an excellent transportation system so we took a bus up here from Matsumoto. We arrived early afternoon and as we couldn't check into our accommodation until 3 pm we stored our luggage at the bus station and wandered around the small village.

It is a tourist village with many hotels, a very large modern bus terminal, a smattering of restaurants and two public onsens. An onsen is the Japanese word for a hot spring. Hirayu is sitting in the mountainous area of Japan known for it's geothermal activity which combined with all the rain they receive here makes it one of the most onsened areas in Japan. In addition to the public onsens, all of the hotels have onsens. A good onsen is known for having a high flow through rate of water for cleanliness. I checked online and it said that low flow onsens are predisposed to Legionnaires disease from an aerosolized bacteria. I certainly didn't want that. Once the water passes through the onsens it is carried out into the gutter system around town before being carried away to the river. There is a constant stream of hot water gurgling through the village associated with steam rising from the gutters. At night and in the morning, the steam has a really neat visual effect rising from the gutters. Many of the hotels and restaurants have troughs collecting hot water at the front of their establishments which some use for boiling eggs or tomatoes. All of this water flowing through town has a very auditory effect as the village is constantly gurgling. The other unique thing about Hirayu is that if one looks past the modern hotels up into the mountains, it has the appearance of an ancient Japanese scroll painting as there appear to be low lying clouds hugging the mountains.

After wandering around town and taking in the Buddhist temple, a small outdoor museum, the various culinary delights being boiled in the hot water, we headed out for an early traditional Japanese supper of pizza. Our sleep wake cycles are still a little off so we have been going to bed at 830 and awaking at 5 am. Kind of crazy. We returned to our hotel and had a private onsen at the hotel which really knocked us out leading to even an earlier bedtime.

Of course it goes without saying that we were up very bright and early the next morning, maybe 4:30. This was our only non rainy day here in Hirayu so after stocking up with some food we took a bus into Kamikochi Ntl park and did about a 12 km hike along the valley floor with spectacular views of the mountains. It was very busy but not as busy as the Ntl parks in Croatia. Maybe like Lake Louise in the summer. It was fun looking at the Japanese hikers. We were even passed by a woman wearing dress shoes which was a little humbling.

We chatted with a female ranger who tried to give us a leaflet about bear safety. We told her we were from Canada and were familiar with bears. She told us that she had just returned from a year and a half in Banff where she had worked in hotels and the hospital. What a small world. The Japanese are obsessed with bear encounters. There are bears in the area but there are so many people on the trails that no self respecting bear would be found anywhere near them. All of the Japanese hikers are wearing these small high pitched bear bells. It sounds like a sleigh ride. They even have stationary bells along the route which everyone rings as they walk by and there are a lot of people walking by. The bears are probably habitualized to the bell sound otherwise they would go crazy. The one animal that we did want to see was a Japanese monkey who lives in the forests around here but we didn't have any monkey sightings.

We stopped at a cafe at the end of our hike and treated ourselves to some tea and cheesecake before hiking back to the Kamikochi bus terminal and a drive back to Hirayu. Despite the level walking, we were both very tired on our return to Hirayu. I afforded myself the luxury of a brief afternoon nap. We chose a more traditional restaurant for supper and I had a curry udon bowl and Cheryl had a hot tempura shrimp udon bowl.

Our last two accommodations have had traditional Japanese futon beds and bamboo flooring. It's like sleeping on a deflated thermorest. It looks good in the photos but not as comfortable as a Western bed.

We however do love the Japanese toilets. They are electronic and have heated seats, self flushing features and bidets. The Japanese must be the cleanest people on the planet.Read more