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…
One of my last big trips of the summer was to the Japanese Alps in Tateyama Kurobe. Altogether we would be spending three days up north, then heading back down to Tokyo towards the end of our vacation. On the first day of our trip, we took the train out to Hida Furukawa. Hida Furukawa is a small carpentry town a little north of Takayama. Both towns have preserved the look from the Edo period, so it was really interesting…
Day two of my trip I visited Miyajima Island. The island is known as one of the Three Views of Japan. One of the highlights of the island is the floating torii gate at Itsukushima Shrine. Many people enjoy taking the ferry out to the island and spending the day there. From Hiroshima Station I took JR out towards the ferry terminal, then I took a 10 minute ferry ride out to the island. One of the things I was…