The Alps

​Did you get confused reading the title of this blog? Don’t worry, I haven’t changed continents. Do you remember I told you I wanted to get off the beaten path? Well that, we did. The Japanese Alps are a collection of mountains in the western central part of Japan. There are multiple national parks here all clustered together. Jessica and I absolutely love being outside. We love the natural beauty of things, we love, hiking, and we love seeing animals in their natural habitats. So much of Japan that you hear about are the big cities. That’s not typically what we love, and so I knew that we needed to see other parts of Japan on our trip. I had considered going up to the northern island that is all national parks, but when I did some exploring, it didn’t seem like the perfect fit for our trip, so we ended up here. Now, our hotel, Ryokan Gizan is absolutely lovely. Our room is very Japanese style and is huge! The breakfast is lovely (including our own little flames to cook our own Hida beef), but what really sets it apart, are the private natural hot springs. Oddly enough, since these hot baths are private, we could wear our bathing suits in them. In the evenings, they even offer free sake and little tubs to help it float around while you are enjoying the onsen. 

However, the area that we are in is very strange. Most of the things in this little village are closed, and even some of the hotels are abandoned and overrun with weeds. On our first night, we went to four different restaurants before we finally found one that was open. However, if you Google this area, it’s very popular. I’m not sure we did it correctly, but I am so glad we came!

When we left Kanazawa to head to this area, I looked at Atlas Obscura, one of my favorite websites that guides me to interesting places. I saw that not too far off of our route there was an abandoned village of statues. It was truly just the thing that horror films are made about. In fact, local lore says the statues come alive at night. So, from what we can understand, a wealthy businessman in the area decided he wanted to create this giant park (we later learned we only saw half of it!) in the late 1980s. He wanted to create a peaceful place that families could visit. He had hundreds of statues built in China and shipped over. (The second half of the park are statues of his friends and family.) He passed away in 2012, and it has slowly fallen into disrepair since then. Weeds and vines grow heavily, while most statues remain in great condition. If you know someone in the horror film industry, I think this would make a great start to a storyline! 

While we hit the jackpot with our hotel in this ghost town, we did not, however get as lucky with weather. We came here to hike and see the gorgeous mountain peaks. But, Mother Nature decided seeing the mountains in the rain with looming clouds was better for us. Jessica and I love hiking and often find hikes that are seven to ten miles long, and sure, we’ve climbed some mountains, but our favorite hikes are ones with beauty, and some challenges, but nothing too hard with rock scrambles or anything, particularly in a place where weren’t packed and fully prepared for difficult hiking. However, the choices of trails here has been extreme. Most were labeled as hard, sometimes twenty miles long, and up steep mountain sides. Oh, and did I mention it was raining? And that the ropeway that gets you partway up to some of these trails was closed?

We weren’t going to let the weather stop us, it just adjusted our plans. We did find a hike that looked more like a stroll along the river’s edge for about five miles that looked lovely, so we chose that one. Just how do you get to the trailhead? Oh, you ride a FULL bus (keeping in mind it is the low season) thirty minutes. From there, we were at the heart of the Kamikochi, a beautiful valley in the heart of the Chubu-Sangaku National Park. Here there were several lodges and camp grounds, but the further we wandered, the fewer people we encountered, and Jess and I got to enjoy the outdoors like we enjoy doing.

The path was mostly flat, wide and graveled. The lands were a lush green, often with ferns several feet tall and moss growing high on trees. Most people we encountered on the paths were, what we believe were retired Japanese hikers (granted it was a Thursday, and the kids are not on holiday here). We heard new bird calls and came across many turtle doves. There were warning signs for bears and the bell salesman hit it big here! In fact every fifty meters or so on the trail, there was a bear bell for us to ring, even though most hikers had them. Jessica and I just laughed every time we passed one. Not because we have no fear of bears, but because we learned an important lesson last year (albeit, it may just apply to grizzlies). We had worn our bear bells on hikes in Waterton, Banff, Jasper, and throughout Glacier. On our last night in Glacier, we went to a ranger program where the ranger told us, “Whatever you do, don’t wear bear bells. One of grizzly bear’s favorite food is a small dying animal. Ringing a bell sounds an awful lot like a whimpering animal. So, just know when your bell rings, you’re telling the bear, ‘Dinner time!’” 

That being said, while it was not crowded, there were enough people that we never felt unsafe, and aside from the birds, we saw nothing. Not a frog nor a deer nor a squirrel (which are apparently very rare here). UNTIL the last half mile of what ended up being about a ten mile hike. Then, we saw them: the Japanese monkeys! I am not calling them this because they are in Japan, but really that is what they are known as. They are the only native species in Japan, and they live more north than any other primate in the world (aside from us!). You’ve probably seen famous photos of them bathing in the natural hot springs. They’ve found ways to stay warm! We spotted one little guy just off the path, enjoying, munching his way through the bamboo. After a few minutes, we noticed lots of movement high up in the trees and realized there were probably six or eight all around us. We did not bother them at all, they seemed to be used to hikers. Oddly, the other hikers were not at all impressed with them either. I guess these guys are more common here, but to this Alabama girl, seeing a monkey in the wild is always thrilling. 

Our walk started out in drizzly clouds but finished in full-fledged rain. We were soaked, but thrilled to have gotten outside and enjoyed some of this area, no matter what. It also meant I got to enjoy Japanese hot chocolate for the first time! 

On our second day in the mountains, we woke up to pretty heavy rain and the possibility of thunderstorms later on. As this did not appear to be good hiking weather, we decided to drive to the nearest large town that we had yet to explore about an hour away, called Takayama. When we did a little bit of searching online ahead of time, we really couldn’t find very much to do, but we decided it would occupy some of our time and certainly be safer than trying to climb a rocky mountain peak, and a thunderstorm. What we discovered was more than we could have hoped for! The little town was beautiful with a large river, running through the middle of it and tiny, narrow streets of old wooden buildings that still held so much of their charm. There were great gift shops that were not nearly as crowded nor as expensive as some of the ones we had been in in previous places. We found some adorable unique things, and each walked away with a new bag, knowing that we will probably need it on our way home! 

We also discovered a long line of people at a small food stand. We decided this meant that we should obviously join it and see what all the fuss was about. I want to remind you that we have eaten A LOT here and have eaten some incredibly delicious food. But today, I believe I can safely say, I’ve found the most delicious food I’ve eaten in the entire trip: hida (heeda) beef sushi. The local beef is sliced thinly and cooked in a flame for the briefest of moments then put over a bed of rice. I started with a ginger and soy sauce one, but it didn’t take long until I went back to try the trio of different flavors: ginger and soy, wasabi and soy, and ponzu sauce (a sort of citrus jam). Honestly, this little adorable town is worth it, even if just for the beef, and even if it is a trek to get here. 

We also stumbled upon another crafting store and decided to take advantage of some time indoors on this rainy day. All over this part of Japan, we’ve seen odd little colorful dolls. These sarubobo dolls (which translates to happy monkey baby) were first created by women to give as gifts to their youngsters in hopes of bringing joy and good health. They purposely have no faces so that their expressions can sort of mirror how you are feeling. We chose our favorite colors, but each color does have particular wishes attached to it. 

Before boarding the train into Tokyo, we made a quick stop at one of Japan’s most well known and best preserved castles: Matsumoto Castle. As girls who have spent a lot of time in the UK, it is hard for castles to impress us, so we didn’t bother to go inside the castle from the 1500s, but instead enjoyed a stroll around the impressive moat!

We left the car behind, and while I didn’t really mind driving here, I must admit that I’m eager to hand the driving over! Our next few days in Tokyo will mostly rely on public transportation and then Jessica will take over driving in the countries that drive on the right side of the road. We know that we’re a bit spoiled by renting cars, but it does offer us that freedom and independence that we are so accustomed to! But don’t get me wrong, I LOVE trains and subways!

While our time in the Alps was not exactly as we had hoped and imagined, we made the most of it and had a fabulous time!