Musical Matsumoto

Tokyo to Matsumoto is a massive change of pace.  You get a little giggle straight off the train by virtue of the station attendant who sings the word Matsumoto twice on the arrival of every train to let you know you’re there.  It’s so catchy we found ourselves humming it every time we’ve been in a train station since. 

As we walked up the street from the station to our hotel there was music playing as we strolled along.  We first thought it was from a shop but as it kept playing a little investigation revealed speakers (Bose speakers no less) in the flower pots.  On arrival at the hotel we discovered it had an onsen (a Japanese bath).  This was to come in very handy after our Alpine climb.

The Japanese Alps were first walked/opened up by a westerner (called Weston) only about 100 years ago.  Since then the Japanese have developed a love of climbing (and buying all of the best Columbia etc. gear related to climbing) and the mountains were full of mainly multi-day hikers that were staying in mountain huts along their route.  The mountains proper are only open from April to November so we were arriving at a perfect time to give one a go.

To say we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for was a bit of an understatement.  I mean how hard could it be to go from about 1,500 to about 3,000 metres without any preparation or training.  Also, how expensive could it be to get the 30 minute train, 1 hour bus from the nearest city to the beautiful alpine valley of Kamikochi; actually about 50 euro each. 

Off to the mountains

Pretty train stations

It was all worth it in the end though when we got to the top of Mount Nishi Hotaka.  The little video clip below will hopefully give an idea of how beautiful it was (Warning; there’s a moment of comedy gold at the start of it).

Base Camp - Kamicochi Valley

To push for the summit or not?

Summit Marker - we made it!

On getting back after 9 hours of walking we were in pieces but we decided to give the Onsen a go.  A 40 degree bath from a hot mountain spring – delightful.  Not that it was miracle water, we still had to crawl out of bed the next morning but we both felt a lot better for it.  The following day we spent checking out the Matsumoto Jo castle which is stunning.  We got a tour from a lovely old fellow who was Japanese ethnic but started out life in Manchuria.  Amongst other things the castle has a hidden floor and a shrine in its roof.  We still can’t believe how photogenic it is.

Matsumoto Jo - main keep

After trying our next type of Japanese food (Soba noodles – made from buckwheat) we sang goodbye to Matsumoto and got our next train bound for Kyoto

Soba Special