OH DEAR!
Somehow I/we have got very (very) behind with the blog. We are now nearly three weeks out of sync – exemplified by writing what is about to be a post about being cold in the Japanese Alps from a very hot campsite in a very un-mountainous part of the South of Australia! I’m not sure how it’s happened. Maybe we were too busy enjoying our last weeks in Japan. Plus, Matt has taken way too many beautiful photos so trying to select a few to publish has felt too intimidating. Either way. I’m sorry everyone (Mum) for the delay.
The last post left us raring to leave Hirayu after a few days waiting out bad weather whilst soaking in the local onsen. The day we left, the sun was shining for our departure so we were pretty excited to head up the Abo Pass and down (with some more up it turns out) into Kamikochi, Japan’s most famous hiking destination due to its location nestled in the Alps. The pass was challenging, with some crazy switchbacks to bring us down to the other side.
The fun really started though when we realised that at the bottom we needed to cycle up a 2.4km tunnel with an incline of 11%.
Tunnels have generally not been as bad as I expected in Japan with our usual approach (when there isn’t a pavement or big hard shoulder to ride on) being to just cycle as fast as possible with all of our lights flashing (fun when it’s downhill). Unfortunately, cycling as fast as I can up an 11% incline isn’t very fast. So I took the alternative option of wheeling my bike along the half pavement to get to the other side. Matt gave his knees some more strength training and smashed it up, ahead of the coaches! Needless to say this wasn’t a lot of fun for either of us, but boy was it worth it when we reached the other side…
We’d already had some fantastic mountain views by this point but the view from Kamikochi beat them all, hands down. As it was a short ride there, we were lucky to have a whole afternoon free which meant we could do a (short) hike (novelty!!) to really admire our surroundings.
After a cold night’s sleep on our slowly deflating sleeping mats we were up and off in the chill with the aiming of tackling Japan’s highest paved pass, Mount Norikura. Matt was excited, I was… not really feeling it, especially when the first (warm-up) climb turned out to be pretty spicy!
Push on we did though until a car pulled up shortly after the village at the bottom of the main climb and told us that the road was closed due to snow. Undeterred, we carried on (you never know…) until we hit a road block and two guys holding the now familiar red sticks which mean ‘you can’t come this way unless I let you’.
After much discussion the red sticks were put down (to my amazement), as Matt had managed to persuade them in his most formal and sincere Japanese to break their own rules, letting us go up ‘a bit’ further – but only if we promised to not go past a certain switchback. Not all the way to the top at nearly 3,000m but not far off at about 2,347m. This was worth it, despite it involving a silly number of switchbacks before our ‘final’ one, as the views were again spectactular.
We kept our promise, and didn’t venture any further up the mountain despite there being no sign of the snow (the reason for the closure). We rewarded our very non-Japanese rule-breaking-red-stick-wielders with some biscuits to say thank you before we carried on down and then more down, and some more to, our destination for the night, Matsumoto.
Ahhh, a few degrees warmer at night and we were MUCH happier.
After a better night’s sleep we were ready to tackle a slightly gentler, more rolling day up and over the ridge between Matsumoto and Nagano (with a stop at Matsumoto’s famous wooden castle en route).
After several nights of camping we enjoyed sleeping in a hiker’s hostel (the only guests so we had the run of the place, including the washing machine – excellent news, as always) and eating at a local father and son run izakaya (or tavern) – eating far too much in preparation for the next day’s plan.
Yes, the plan involved going up another mountain and this really was the motherload of climbing. Ascending 2,200m over the course of the 76km day, and up to nearly 2,200m – this was Japan’s highest through-road and it really really tested both of us. When the Wahoo (handlebar mounted GPS navigation device) tells you that the ‘climb’ you are about to start is going to go on for 41km you know you’re in for a ‘treat’ but this one was filled with some very steep and long sections which were tough with our bags and already slightly tired legs/aerobic systems.
We made it though (always do somehow) and the descent was brilliant, dropping us into Kusatsu, one of Japan’s most famous onsen towns. This was a real treat – fantastic people watching (lots of Japanese tourists taking the opportunity to walk around town between onsen visits in yukata, or Japanese pyjamas/robes), a lovely onsen visit ourselves and cook-your-own okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes).
At this point we were definitely getting the ‘we’ve done the mountains’ feels – which it turns out were a bit premature…
P.S. Thanks again for everyone’s patience awaiting this post, the next one will come sooner (PROMISE!)
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