The Japanese Alps

From Tokyo, I continued my journey to Matsumoto by train. This is a small town at the foot of the Japanese Alps. I stayed here for three nights and surfed with Couchsurfing again. This time it was a woman who moved here a year ago. After my arrival in the evening, I went to the tourist information the next morning to find out where to go for day hikes. In hindsight, I have to say that the people there could speak English, were nice, and very helpful. However, the information they provided was pretty useless. Only the professionals can hike here. But they spend five days in the mountains. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to just go hiking for a day in the beautiful mountains. I only saw them from a distance and climbed small hills.

From Saori, my host, I got a bike. With that, I rode to a lake on the plateau of a larger hill. The tourist information told me it would be okay. And it was. Although I don't think anyone from there has done it before. It was all fine until the foothills of the mountain. It was a bit uphill for about four kilometers, but that was okay. BUT THEN... In the next four kilometers, I climbed about 530 meters in elevation. That's more than 100 meters of elevation gain per kilometer. Yeah, can't really recommend that. It quickly became clear how tough it would be. But I really wanted to get to that lake since I couldn't go hiking. I struggled through and was so proud when I reached the top. Of course, I couldn't ride my bike up there. I'm not that good. While I was pushing it, motorcyclists kept zooming past me, waving. But I had more feelings of happiness than they did when I reached the top. :D The view was definitely worth it. At over 1000 meters, you had a cool view of the almost 3000-meter peaks that still had snow caps. After enjoying the view and taking some photos, I took a little nap. The weather was beautiful and there was a bench practically begging me to sleep on it. After that, I walked around the lake for a bit before racing down the almost 500 meters of elevation. Oh, one more thing I should mention: the bike didn't have gears. Has anyone ridden a bike without gears since they got rid of training wheels? Even the minor hills were challenging.

That's why I stuck to the flat plains of Matsumoto for the rest of the day. I recovered from my mountain climbing trip with buckwheat noodles and soup and then visited the city's castle. It is the oldest wooden castle in Japan and has such a beautiful park that you can sleep there. :D After visiting the park and the castle, I went back to Saori's apartment, had dinner, and fell into bed tired. Bicycles without gears are tiring even on flat ground.

On my second day, being so close to the mountains, I wanted to make another attempt to get into the mountains. About 40 kilometers from Matsumoto is the Kamikochi National Park. It is beautiful, located in the mountains, and attracts many day-trippers. So, I wanted to hitchhike there. Yes, I had a rail pass but it didn't cover this particular route from Matsumoto. In total, I would have had to pay almost 50 euros for the round trip. It wasn't worth it to me, and that's when hitchhiking crossed my mind again. It probably would have worked well if I had started earlier, maybe around 8 o'clock. Unfortunately, nobody arrives in the mountains around 11 o'clock to go hiking. Plus, I set myself a time limit of one hour. That way, I would avoid spending the day with a sign in hand by the side of the road. As I said, it didn't work. But it was still really cool and a lot of fun. I talked with an elderly Japanese man using my three Japanese words, hello and thank you. And he nodded, turned around, and went, okay... And then he came back with an ice cream and a small folding chair. How nice is that?! I was invited to sit on the terrace and even got a glass of tea. We had a nice conversation, him in Japanese, and me in English, accompanied by gestures and facial expressions. We talked about the mountains and their names. I think we also talked about altitude. Eventually, the second man from lunchtime joined in. Now I know he is his son. Three generations live on the property. The old man, his two sons with their wives, and their children. Two of them even jumped around me. It was all so warm and nice. Once again, I realized: people, go travel and approach travelers openly! You can have so many heartwarming moments and at the same time give them as well. :)

After thanking them a hundred times, I took my bike and cycled the good ten kilometers back to the train station and then back to Matsumoto. There, I treated myself to a Japanese curry to end the evening, and the next morning, I continued to Kyoto by train.

Those were my two days in the Japanese Alps. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of my host. Saori had night shifts from my first day to the second. As a result, I was alone in the apartment for the second night and the morning of the second day. But she was also very nice and has a lot of travel experience herself. You probably need that when you leave your apartment and bike with a stranger.