Kamikochi Part 1: The Park
Since yesterday was 敬老の日(keirou no hi or Respect for the Aged) day, this past weekend was a long weekend for me. So my friend and I made plans to go to a Japanese national park called Kamikochi. Kamikochi is famous for its view of the Hotaka mountain range, and the several bridges that cross the river flowing between them. It is a very beautiful area.
To get there, my friend Mariela and I took a special train from Matsumoto to Shinshimashima station. From there, we took a bus to Kamikochi. The trip from my house took us about 2 hours total. We left early Sunday morning and were in Kamikochi by 11.
The first thing we did was eat. We were both very hungry since we had skipped breakfast that morning. We ate at a little restaurant near the bus terminal that was in our travel magazine. The magazine said their soba was very good, so I had cold soba and she had hot. It was excellent. I had never had soba cold before, so I was glad I liked it. Then, after eating, we made our way to the park area.
The park was, of course, very crowded, because of the holiday weekend. But we were still able to see many parts of the park. The first place we saw was called Kappa Bridge. I think it is the most famous area at Kamikochi. The bridge is nice, and offers great views of the mountains when you stand on it. Because it is called Kappa Bridge, many stores in the area sell things with Kappas^ on them. I bought a Kappa cookie and a Kappa plushie.
From the bridge, we took the longer path since we had all day to explore. We walked about 4km to the Hotaka Shrine, Myojin Pond, and Myojin Bridge. We went to the shrine first. There is a very nice story about the shrine that was displayed on a sign in English.
In the Shrine, we paid 300 yen to gain access to Myojin Pond. The pond was very clear and quiet. A lovely place! We hiked deep into the area and found all kinds of lovely views!
Then we left the Shrine and sat on the bank of the river near Myojin Bridge to rest a bit. I ate my first real Nagano apple—they are very famous, and for good reason! The apple was twice the size of a normal apple and super juicy. Then we ventured onward across the bridge and back toward Kappa Bridge on the opposite side of the river. This side was more forested, and was lovely. We were on the lookout for monkeys the whole time, but we did not see any. I think it was too loud with all the people around for them to come near the path. It was still a nice hike, though, and slightly shorter in distance at about 3.5km.
When we got back to the Bridge area we did a bit more shopping, but almost everything was closing. So we went back to the bus terminal and stood in line for an hour to get a taxi that would take us to our hotel. The ride was very expensive, but nice. We stayed in a small area called Hirayu which has many hot springs. Our hotel was a very nice Japanese-style ryokan, and we were happy to find that most of the staff spoke decent English. The room was much better than expected for what we paid, and it came with the onsen (open-air hot spring) included! We quickly went out for dinner and ate Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) at a very good but surprisingly cheap restaurant. Then we returned to the hotel for our bath. We were lucky to get the bath to ourselves until right before we planned to leave. The hot water felt wonderful and refreshing! When we returned to our room we both went to bed even though it was still early. We were tired, and we had another big day planned for Monday.
^Kappa- A mythological demon in Japanese folklore. They are said to be tricksters that sometimes also drown people, usually small children. The Kappas at Kappa Bridge stores are very cute, though.
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