Hiking attempts

Toyama/Murodo/Kurobe/Matsumoto

We didn’t get to see much of the sights on Mt. Koya, as we had a longish train trip up toToyama, on the Japan Sea, and at the foot of the Japan Alps. We headed down from Mt. Koyaand back to Osaka station where we dropped some excess luggage.

For those (backpackers especially) who are frustrated with Japanese coin lockers that have a three day limit before they remove your stuff, we did manage to talk to the information counter and baggage office, and by telling them the locker numbers and leaving an estimated return date, they told us that leaving stuff for longer was no problem. You just pay for the extra days when you get your stuff out. I think we also put a note in with our stuff saying when we’d be back. We were planning to be gone roughly six days, backpacking in the alps, but as I’ll explain, we didn’t need that long.

We got to Toyama around 8 at night, looked at the morning train schedule and checked into the Toyoko Inn, which is a chain of business hotels located all over Japan. Woke up around 4 am, and caught the train around 5. We were headed up to Murodo, which is one of the main starting points for hiking in the Japanese Alps. L really wanted to do a longish hike through the Alps. Getting up to Murodo involved the train, a cablecar (gondola), and finally a bus, over the first part of what’s known as the Kurobe Alpine Route. Beautiful scenery, though it was really foggy, and as we got higher, it turned into really heavy rain, accompanied by wind. 

We waited for a few hours, hoping that the weather would clear up a little, so we could at least dash in to the first of the mountain huts, but no such luck. After talking with the S & R guys, who very politely did not recommend hiking, and said that a hurricane was blowing our way, we reluctantly decided to try a different plan. We crossed over the Alps by finishing the Kurobe Alpine route, which consisted of a couple of trolley buses through tunnels, another cable car, and walking across Kurobe dam. 

We eventually made it down, and then took the train down toward Matsumoto.

We found another cheap business hotel by the station to crash at, and wandered out to see Matsumoto. Matsumoto’s most famous site is its castle. I neglected to grab my camera, which is unfortunate, as Matsumoto castle is another of Japan’s famous extant castles. Known as the Black Crow Castle, because of its color, it’s quite the opposite of Himeji. Significantly smaller, and built in a low area, but still very dramatic-looking. The castle itself was closed, but we wandered the grounds around the moat. 

We also stopped at an outdoor store just to browse and ask about the huts around the Kamikochi side of the Alps. Which was a good chance to practice my Japanese. Everything sounded good, with respect to the huts, but again, the weather in the morning was less than ideal. Actually, it was pretty much a torrential downpour. We didn’t really feel like taking the time to get up to the mountains, just to have to turn away again, so we headed back to Osaka.

We mostly travelled on local trains (the cheapest), but we did take the fastest Shinkansen (bullet train) from Nagoya back to Osaka. The ride was really smooth, and fast. I watched the scenery flash past for a bit, and then fell asleep.