To me the best part of spending summer in Japan was all the matsuris I was able to attend. In all my previous travels, I had generally avoided visiting during the summer months to steer clear of the heat. However, this time I didn’t have much of a choice but to spend my summer here. At least this gave me a chance to pull out my yukata and enjoy all the summer festivities in Japan. =) One of the first…
For one of our day trips outside of Nagoya, I took my sister to visit Inuyama. I was in Inuyama the previous month, but only managed to visit the castle. This time we had a few places on our list, including Meiji Mura and a tour of the Kiso River. We made the mistake of leaving too late in the morning and didn’t arrive at Meiji Mura till close to lunch. From Nagoya it’s a 30 minute train ride, then…
The day after our trip to Kamikochi we took a bus early in the morning from Matsumoto to Tokyo. There’s actually quite a few buses leaving out of the bus terminal in Matsumoto, so it’s really convenient to travel from there. It took a little over three hours before we finally arrived in Shinjuku. I had forgotten how insanely busy it was in Tokyo. It had been a long time since I last stepped foot in Shinjuku and I was…
Starting in Matsumoto on our third day of the trip, we took the Highland Rail over to Shin-Shimashima station then transferred to the Highland Bus to take us directly to Kamikochi. It took us almost two hours before we finally reached the bus terminal inside the park. We were already surrounded by nature once we got off the bus, but it was even more amazing being enclosed by mountains as we started our hike inside the park. All the scenery…
The day after arriving in Toyama was our long trek on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. This is a really popular mountain sightseeing route which spans across two Prefectures – from Tateyama in Toyama to Omachi in Nagano. While the route itself is only 37km in length, it reaches elevations of 2,500m at the highest point. There’s also seven different forms of public transportation you need to take to get across the route. It was definitely the most transfers I’ve…