Japan 2010

If you’d like to see the photos from this fantastic trip, please move down to the bottom of this page.

March 27, 2010, Tokyo:

After a long flight we arrived safe and sound in Japan. Two amazingly fast train rides delivered us to Kyoto, where we arrived yesterday in the afternoon. A bit of sightseeing around the Imperial Palace and its gardens, and our first Japanese dinner was all we did. Today we got up late (after 16 hours of sleeping we should have come over the jetlag finally). We spent the day with visiting interesting temples and peaceful shrines. Zen gardens are so fascinating and having a tea somewhere is something we can recommend too. This evening we visited the Gion district and even saw a few Geishas, and beautiful cheery blossoms. It’s a pity I can’t place photos on the website at the moment, we took already at least 100.

March 29, 2010, Kyoto:

Kyoto is said to host more than 1000 temples and shrines. There is a vast amount of amazing things to visit, from gardens of all kinds over bamboo forests to historical neighbourhoods in town or one of the tallest wooden buildings on earth. So often we just crossed another interesting sight we just visited on our way. It’s surprisingly calm, we hardly ran into crowds yet, almost no tourists are around. Just at spots where cherries are under full bloom people gather, and sometimes at the railway or metro. One surprise was the weather, which was colder than expected. This morning the mountain peaks were slightly covered with snow. Sometimes during the day there was some more snowfall, but never much. We did some hikes close to town. The philosophical meander was followed by countless red toris (gates). Now we’re a bit tired. 🙂

April 2, 2010, Kyushu:

Our time in Kyoto was amazing. There would have been things to see for weeks. The last morning we took some time to visit the botanical garden there. It had a nice mood because during the night some snow fell, with the tulips and cherries under blossom located nicely in a park. Also the bonsai exhibition was worth the visit. We then took a Shinkansen bullet train (The precise timing of the train, the speed and the quality of travelling is just a joy.) to Osaka, from where we had a night ferry to Beppu. We continued by bus to a trailhead near Kuju-san. The first day of hiking went by smoothly, with fine conditions, a rocky path and good weather. We reached a peaceful campsite near the highest Onsen of Kyushu (1303 m). Later in the afternoon it started to rain, and it continued for more than 24 hours. Navigation to the highest peak of Kyushu (Naka-dake 1791 m) was a challenge. Sometimes wind was very strong (I’d estimate more than 50 km/h.) and visibility was around 20 m most of the time. The mood was not that good at that time. We still made it back to civilisation and were lucky enough that a bus took us back to a town. In Aso we found a great Backpackers (just right next to the railway station) where we dried all our equipment finally. Today we took a nice hike up to Aso-san. It didn’t rain, but visibility was poor again unfortunately. Now we’ll head to our first Onsen experience.

April 6, 2010, Aso and Yakushima:

The Onsen in Aso was very relaxing, and it was not the last we visited. It’s the best thing after a hiking day, and before dinner. From Aso station we took the train to Kagoshima, where we stayed just one night. We had a great dinner and watched an ash cloud getting out of the local volcano. The next day we took a jetfoil-ride to Yakushima where we continued to a very nice youth hostal in Hirauchi. We spent the last two days hiking in the surrounding mountains. Yesterday we started at the youth hostal because we missed a bus. Getting up late during the holidays has disadvantages too. Then we went to see a great waterfall called Janokuchi-taki. After 20 km of hiking we arrived back home quite exhausted.

Therefore we rent bikes to get to the famous Onsen in Hirauchi, which is located close to the youth hostel directly at the sea-shore. During low tide it’s just great to soak in the hot waters, outside and watching the sea from only little higher.

Today we climbed up to Mocchonu-dake which is an impressive peak with several very old cedar trees.  If the trails were steep in New Zealand here they’re even steeper. Sometimes it feels more like climbing up a hill using the roots of trees. Otherwise it might be impossible to get up or down. We were lucky with the weather on both days. Tomorrow we’ll take the bus back to Miyanoura. There we’ll stay for another two days before we’ll get back to Kyushu mainland.

And by the way: People in Japan are very used to volcanos, the ash cloud and its movement is predicted in the weather forecast.

April 9, 2010, Yakushima:

Yakushima was very worth the stay. Yesterday we climbed Aiko-dake, with a start at sea level and an altitude of 1235 m a nice hike. In the meantime we’re used to do around 20 km as day trips. But carrying only the small backpack is easy and makes you lazy. Maybe we should continue that way for the rest of our holidays. We stayed in a nice minshuko in Miyanoura called Yaedake, and had a lovely traditional dinner at Toshi with sashimi and tempura. Today we’ll head north crossing Kyushu towards Shikoku.

April 12, 2010, Honshu:

We arrived in Takamatsu on Honshu and stayed a night there. In the morning we took a lazy time to visit another beautiful garden. In the afternoon we moved to Tokushima, finally on Shikoku. We spent two nights at a minshuku, enjoyed two perfect dinners in Tokushima. A sightseeing day (of course with some hiking kilometers) brought us to the gorge at Oboke. Today we had to discuss first with a Taxi driver to get to the trailhead. He didn’t want to give us the ride because he was afraid to drive on snow without snow tires. So we had to take a bus for the first 30 km and 400 meters of altitude. Then we had a steep day hike to the original trail head. Here we’re now, very happy to have found an open minshuku (family run pension usually with dinner and breakfast) at a ten-house-village where we’ll stay the night. It’s just perfect to dry all our equipment, needless to add that it was raining all day long once more. Tomorrow we’ll continue with our intented hike. Dependent on the weather we’ll be three days on the run. By the way, there was no sight of snow around here. 🙂 And fair enough that the bear shown on a picture on the first few meters of the trail didn’t show up. Maybe the weather was even too bad for him to bother two foreigners.

April 14, 2010, Honshu:

The hike started fine and successful with quite nice weather then. So we could do an extra distance while enjoying the scenic views along the way yesterday. We found a peaceful camping space for our tent, which turned out to be not the best pick as the night turned to be very stormy. We both could hardly sleep because of the noise of the howling winds and the rattling tent. Today the morning was clear and cold, frost turned bushes into beautiful structures and let us move rapidly to the second main peak of the trail, Miune. We had a nice lunch break there and headed down for the valley afterwards. The targeted Onsen had holidays, like the campsite. We were just lucky that three gentlemen showed up and offered us a hitchhike back to Awa-Ikeda. That’s just one more example how helpful and generous people are here. Who would take you to the next train station more than an hour away if you were in Austria? From Awa-Ikeda we’re currently taking the train to Matsuyama where we’ll stay for two nights, to visit the famous castle and to let the rain front pass. Then the weather forecast for the next peak ought to be fine enough, and we’have filled up our batteries and equipment once more.

April 19, 2010, Matsuyama, Ishizuchi:

Matsuyama Castle was interesting, and there were hardly any visitors on the cold and rainy morning. We left by train and bus to the Ishizuchi ropeway on the following day. Arriving there in pouring rain and the ropeway out of service left no choices other than to return to the closest town, rent a room, take a hot bath, have a good dinner and try it again on the next day. Then on Saturday we were lucky, blue sky, good temperatures and not too many poeple on the track to the highest peak of western Japan, Ishizuchi-san. Hiking was fine, little snow and some icy parts didn’t hinder us from progressing. We also climbed the first and longest set of chains with 78 m on our way to the summit. The scenery with the old trees in the bamboo fields was wonderful. We continued for some more hours crossing beautiful edges, bamboo fields and old beech forests before we set up our tent in a quiet location. After a frosty night we continued at good weather over two more peaks before we descented 1500 m (a real steep winding path, sometimes over quite old ladders) to meet the road again, where a coke and the bus were waiting for us. A good connection delivered us to Okayama where we’ll spend the day today.

The picture with the green shoes may seem strange, but it will reminds that you often take off you shoes at the entrance of a house, a restaurant or a temple prior to your visit.

Three weeks of impressing holidays are over already, the time passed so quickly, and more than 1200 photographs have been taken meanwhile. Country and culture are so amazing different in comparison to Europe, and very recommendable to visit.

April 22, 2010, Takayama:

In Takayama we stayed two nights at a quiet temple, which was yet another special experience. Yesterday we visited many shrines and temples on a morning walk. During the afternoon we had a short look at the local folk museum, where many old farmhouses from different regions were relocated in a peaceful surrounding. The day had brought us warm and sunny weather and we tried the famous Hida-beef in different variations. A part of the town consists of old merchant’s buildings. Needless to add that we took plenty of photographs again.

Today we’re moving to Tokyo to dive into a big, maybe even the biggest, city and its bustling life. It will be a contrast to what we have seen during our holidays so far. After mostly staying in quiet rural and remote areas it wll get another fascinating experience.

April 25, 2010, Tokyo:

After almost twelve hours on the airplane and severals movies we’ll soon start our descent to Zürich. We’re a bit tired but very happy about coming home soon. Spring should have arrived meanwhile, climbing gear and mountain bikes will be waiting for their season start. 🙂

Three nice days in Tokyo concluded our great holidays. We spent one day with Japanese friends who were very kind on showing us many different places in town and also give s further highlights about Japanese eating. We enjoyed the days and even the crowds in business suits at Shinagawa station (which is said to be the busiest station in Japan) were great to see. Somehow we managed to get at least a glimpse to many parts of the town and its lifestyle.

Very impressing and exciting was an early morning at the Tsukiji fish market. It was difficult to follow the busy business, and to see all the countless different kinds of fish, some still alive. A visit to the Leica and Nikon galleries (with credit cards locked away safely) in Ginza was interesting, and the Tokyo Edo Museum gave us an introduction to the culture of that time.