just to pass the time: Golden Week 2012 - The Wonder of Nature Kamikochi 上高地

2nd May 2012

Woke up to have a good fulfilling breakfast. After, we went to Matsumoto Station to buy ticket for Kamikochi, it costs 4400 yen. The ride includes train for "Matsumoto 松本- Shinshimashima 新島々" and bus for "Shinshimashima 新島々- Kamikochi 上高地". Then, we waited for the train. Since it was still early morning, there were not many people on the shinshimashima bound train, we claimed one car for ourselves. Reached the Shinshimashima bus terminal on 8.32am, then we quickly board the bus to Kamikochi.

One interesting thing for Kamikochi was that one cannot drives there. One have to park the car way before reaching Kamikochi and take a bus or going with bicycle. From a blog I read, the blogger suggested that it was better not to ride on bicycle because it was terrifying when passing all the tunnels. The buses will zooming though the cyclist and the tunnels were narrow. So, the best method is to take bus.

Matsumoto 松本- Shinshimashima 新島々 train

bus passing though the tunnel

a hydroelectric dam belonged to Tokyo Electric Co.

We reached Kamikochi on a bad weather, it rains. We braced though the rain and toured Kamikochi. It was reputed to have the highest density of Alpine flora in Japan. Since this was early May, the snow just melted. There were still not many thriving plants. However, the view was nice to look at too.

mountain range in Kamikochi

the snow haven't finish melting, it was beautiful!

what a big contract with all the foliages in the board (summer time) and the spring view

a river in Kamikochi

interesting plant! with all the fluffy looking "flower?"

beautiful river!

Weston Monument

We visited Weston Monument, he was the one who pioneered the mountaineering activity in Japan. Interestingly, on the first Sunday of June, to celebrate the opening of Mountain Climbing Season, the day was named Weston Festival!

a trail in Kamikochi

While we were trekking, my friend was just inches away when he successfully avoided stepping on frogs. So lucky! We would certainly feel bad if that happen.

saw a toad/frog having an intimate relationship in broad day light

toad/frog chirping in a pond

another animal found, a "mandarin duck?"

interesting fungus and plant

something about volcano eruption

Then, we passed by Tashiro pond 田代池, it was beautiful! According to the explanation, the water of the pond passed through and filtered by nearby mountain's soils and rocks. Then, the dead water plants became sendiment on the bottom of the pond. As time goes by, it becomes a marshland. (roughly translated, this was what I understood from the explanation board)

Tashiro pond 田代池

Tashiro pond 田代池 (the contrast was so amazing!)

Then, we continued our journey.

near Taisho pond 大正池

Our next destination was Taisho pond. It was formed due to eruption of nearby volcano. Some felt that the decaying tree stumps were quite a view.

Taisho pond 大正池

Then, we walked back to the bus terminal through another trail. All the way was filled with "wooh! wah! Oh!". Really interesting trekking.

beautiful small stream

another mountain range

this is a hotel in Kamikochi

cute horse shaped road stopper

Then, we took the same route to back to Matsumoto. Since the hotel we stayed, Ace Inn was under the Alpico Group. We were entitled to a free entry to use the open air onsen in Hotel Shoho ホテル翔峰. A free shuttle bus was provided too. The Hotel Shoho was very grand and their onsen was superb. Plus, for the bathing service, many toiletries were provided, I bathed for one hour, tried all the face scrub, hand scrub, feet scrub, green tea shampoo, charcoal shampoo, etc. It was so good!!!!!!!!!!

On that day itself, we managed to go to watch the spherical musical clock in action. So cute! First was figurines of girls in Kimono, then followed by boys in suits.