At around one-thirty in the morning, the bus arrived in Matsumoto town, which took around three hours from Shinjuku using the Yakou 1 highway bus service. The journey was smooth, with plenty of time to rest after a tiring workweek - blankets and earphones were provided by the transportation company to ensure a pleasant ride for its passengers. Matsumoto town looks modern, but it does not share the same characteristics as big cities like Tokyo. Saturday nights in Tokyo are alcoholic and loud. There were a few bored young people hanging around the station and the nearby Izakayas 2, but the vibe was nothing close to the big cities. It was calming in a way, but I felt pity for these young kids.
Over here, the temperature is much colder. On October nights, the temperature can drop down to six degrees. There was plenty of time to spend around town tonight while waiting for the first bus to Kamikochi which departs at around seven in the morning. No hikers were observed while strolling around - probably they were resting somewhere in small hotels in the area. The cold night breeze was so refreshing. It is no secret that Nagano has a reputation for having the best water across Japan. Taps were seen everywhere, one could simply fill their empty bottle with ready-to-drink water. It was tempting, but I would rather have my first sip from the mountain valley tomorrow.
The morning bus was suddenly filled with hikers, most of them were Japanese. At this point, Japan had still closed its borders to the world to be precautious against the Corona virus pandemic. People were still wearing face masks at this point knowing that there were still many pneumonia-related deaths due to the virus. Many of them were heading to the same trail head, but each of them had a different peak to conquer in the next few days. Myself was aiming to see Karasawa Cirque, a 2300 meter mountain with a bowl-shaped valley and steep walls, formed by glacial erosion. Despite Japan was known as a mountainous country with more than twelve thousand peaks, only two of them are cirques 3.
Just like any other mountain trail head in Japan, it is common for hikers to be welcomed with a big notice board with a poster saying “A Tsukinowaguma 4 was sighted on this trail ◯◯ days ago”. In my case, ◯◯ was twenty-four days ago. As informative as it sounds, I have never seen any hikers turn back their way after seeing this sign. The weather was great, I got ready with my gear beside Hotakabashi Bridge, put on my gloves, took a sip of the Nagano’s majestic fresh water, and got ready to begin my journey. Just within a few minutes, I had started my Konnichiwa mantra 5.
Yakou bus is the Japanese term for a overnight sleeper bus. ↩︎
Izakaya is the Japanese term for Japanese-style pub. ↩︎
There are only two cirques in Japan - one is in the Northern Alps, called Karasawa Cirque, and the other is in the Central Alps, called Senjojiki Cirque. Link ↩︎
Tsukinowaguma is the Japanese term for the Japanese black bear. This type of bear can be found across all major islands of Japan except Hokkaido and Kyushu. Link ↩︎
It is common among hikers and mountaineers in Japan to greet each other with Konnichiwa (a.k.a. “Hello”) when they walk past each other. ↩︎
